UNIVERSITY SAYS IT CAN'T PUT WHITENER HOME TO USE

A brick home on Whitener Street won't become the home of Southeast Missouri State University presidents.

The Board of Regents has rejected the idea. The regents said little publicly about the proposal during Wednesday's board meeting.

But Don Dickerson, board president, said Thursday that the regents don't want to turn the former doctor's home at 1626 Whitener into a residence for the university president.

"Basically, we see it as a very nice house, but we don't see it as a president's house," he said.

The former home of Dr. Yong Kim is next to Longview, one of Cape Girardeau's historic homes. It is some distance from the campus.

Dickerson said it is too removed from the campus and offers little room for parking.

A university maintenance crew inspected the Whitener house with an eye toward the possible purchase of the property.

But the university didn't make any repairs or improvements to the home, said Dr. Ken Dobbins, Southeast's new president.

Dobbins said the inspection was standard procedure.

Officials with the university's fund-raising foundation had suggested in early May that the foundation could purchase the Whitener home in conjunction with a plan to develop the on-campus Wildwood home into an alumni center.

Wildwood has been the official residence of Southeast presidents since 1924.

But Dobbins, who took over as Southeast's president on Thursday, already has an off-campus home.

As a result, there isn't an immediate need for a new official residence, the regents have said.

Dickerson said it is possible in the future that a home could be found near the campus that would be better suited to serve as an official residence.

Meanwhile, the regents are considering a plan to renovate and expand Wildwood into an alumni center and office for the university foundation.

The foundation and the alumni association are pushing the idea.

Dickerson said it is clear that Wildwood isn't suitable for a president's home, both in terms of living space and entertaining university guests.

Shelton E. Smith, president of the university's National Alumni Council, said the campus master plan envisioned using the Wildwood property on the north end of the campus for future housing needs.

Smith said one idea was to build a group of residence halls on the property and use Wildwood as a social center.

The idea was never pursued. Southeast currently is renovating housing for fraternities and sororities, eliminating the need for residence halls on the Wildwood property, Smith said.

Smith, who also serves on the foundation's board of directors, said the proposal to buy the Whitener home was only a suggestion.

The foundation board never made a decision to buy the home, he said.

The owner had offered to sell the house for less than market price with the difference being counted as a charitable gift to the foundation.

"It was a great deal," said Smith of the purchase price.

Smith said a larger issue is whether the university even needs an official residence for its president.

"There are administrators who would prefer to have the option of buying their own home and building equity," he said.