UNIVERSITY EMBARKS ON FUND DRIVE

Southeast Missouri State University has embarked on a major fund-raising campaign that university president Dr. Dale Nitzschke says could raise $25 million.

The exact goal hasn't been determined. The money would help fund seven projects and programs ranging from development of the university's River Campus and Polytechnic Institute to scholarships and instructional technology.

The fund drive is titled "125 Years: Prologue to the 21st Century" in keeping with the university marking its 125th anniversary during the 1998-1999 school year.

The drive is only the second such campaign the school has undertaken. School officials said it will be the most extensive ever, tapping into the university's base of alumni in 11 states.

For the first time Southeast also will make a concerted effort to secure donations from corporations and private foundations, school officials said.

"We are in the quiet phase of the campaign," said J. Wayne Davenport, vice president for university advancement and the executive director of the Southeast Missouri University Foundation, the school's fund-raising arm.

The foundation's board of directors launched the campaign in June with a goal of raising $12 million in the private phase of the drive. Davenport said he expects the campaign to exceed that goal. The private phase will help determine the total goal of the campaign, he said.

Major financial gifts typically are secured during the private phase of any fund drive, Davenport said.

The total goal will be announced at the start of the public phase of the campaign, which is expected to start in fall 1999 or early 2000. Davenport said the entire campaign is expected to conclude by December 2000.

The school's previous capital campaign focused largely on securing donations from individuals and businesses in the Cape Girardeau region. Davenport said this campaign will seek donations from the school's 50,000 graduates. It will target areas where there are more than 300 Southeast graduates.

The campaign will have 17 Missouri county divisions covering Southeast Missouri and the St. Louis area. The campaign also will target potential donors in Kansas City, the Jefferson City-Columbia area and southwest Missouri.

Davenport said the campaign will seek out potential contributors in Atlanta, Chicago, Memphis, Nashville and areas as far away as California and Florida. Southeast has alumni in those areas, he explained.

A visit to Florida already has netted a $160,000 gift, Davenport said, and the university is working to secure $350,000 from a major corporate foundation.

The campaign will be run by Davenport, who has experience in that area. He was a fund-raising consultant and director of development at the University of Arkansas-Little Rock. There, he directed a capital campaign that increased annual support for the school by 275 percent in five years.

Davenport came to Southeast in May 1997.

An outside consulting firm won't be hired. Davenport said that will save $500,000.

More importantly, the university's advancement office and foundation staff will become more knowledgeable of alumni and potential donors as a result of the campaign, he said.

No dollar goals have been set regarding the programs and projects that would receive money.

At this point, it is uncertain how much private funding would be needed for the River Campus project, the school's top capital priority. The university has proposed spending an estimated $35.6 million to renovate and expand a former Catholic seminary. The university wants to turn the Cape Girardeau site into a school for the visual and performing arts.

Southeast hopes the state will pay half the cost. The other $17.8 million could come from a local tax measure and private gifts. No decision has been made on the type of local tax measure that might be proposed, but a hike in the motel tax has been suggested. University officials hope to put a tax measure on the November ballot.

Nitzschke said ideally about $10 million would be raised over a few years by a local tax. If that occurs, the school would need $7 million to $8 million in private donations to complete the project, he said.

The university hasn't settled on final cost estimates for the River Campus since the project is still in the planning stages, said Nitzschke.

CAMPAIGN PRIORITIES

1. The River Campus

Future home of the school of visual and performing arts.

2. The Polytechnic Insitute

Expand industrial and engineering technology education.

3. Targeted student scholarships

Expand student financial assistance, experimental learning opportunities and campus diversity.

4. Regional service

Crisp Bootheel Center in Malden, Perryville Higher Education Center, KRCU-FM expansion to Poplar Bluff and Farmington.

5. Intercollegiate athletics

Facility improvements: coaches offices, men's and women's basketball; Houck Stadium renovation, phase I, equipment and student-athlete scholarships.

6. Instructional Technology

Instructional labs, equipment and library technology.

7. Endowed Lectures and Series