UNIVERSITY SCRAPS TOWERS NORTH MOVE IN LIGHT OF STUDENT OPPOSITION

Southeast Missouri State University officials have scrapped plans to close Towers North by Jan. 10 for renovation work after a majority of students in the residence hall voted against it.

Many students had said they opposed moving to other residence halls in the middle of the school year and breaking up what they viewed as their "community."

Questionnaires were distributed to Towers North residents Thursday night, with the "votes" being tabulated Friday.

Of 317 residents eligible to vote, 51 percent voted against the proposal, 10 percent voted for it, and 39 percent did not vote, university officials said.

"We will not proceed with the spring closure. We will go back to our original plan," said Art Wallhausen, assistant to the president at Southeast.

Towers West residence hall closed last May. It is being renovated into student suites.

The original plan, now back in place, calls for Towers West to reopen next May. Towers North will then be closed so yearlong renovation work on it can begin.

"I'm very glad," Johanna Echols, a freshman living on the eighth floor of Towers North, said of the decision to scrap the early closing.

"It would have been a real pain if we would have had to move," Echols said Friday night.

Southeast officials earlier this week said work on Towers North was proceeding at a faster pace than expected. As a result, officials with Sverdrup Corp. of St. Louis, the architectural firm managing the project, had recommended starting renovation work on Towers North on Jan. 10.

Renovation work would then have proceeded in both buildings, with the residence halls ready for occupancy by Aug. 15. But university officials said they recognized the inconvenience it would cause students to move out in the middle of the academic year.

Officials, including President Kala Stroup, promised up front that the move would not be made if students opposed it.

"I think it became a very emotional issue with the students. It was their home that they were talking about," said Wallhausen.

He said the university administration didn't want to proceed with the move in the face of "such strong opposition."

"It impacts the students pretty directly and you want to keep faith with the student body," he said.

Echols said she wasn't surprised the issue was left in the students' hands because "they were asking a lot" for students to make such a move.

Scott Giles, the student representative on the Board of Regents at Southeast, favored the plan for early renovation of Towers North.

"I really think that Towers North students weren't considering the fact that this was going to cost everybody on campus about another $150 next year," said Giles.

Southeast officials have said the early renovation of Towers North would have resulted in some cost savings. Room rates are expected to go up next school year. But without the cost savings, such charges will be even higher -- an estimated $150 a month for every campus resident.

"I think a lot of people are going to feel like Towers North students were being selfish in a sense, I guess," said Giles.

Most of the students living in Towers North are freshmen and sophomores, he said.

"I think the administration was really trying to do everything they could for the students to accommodate their needs, offering them priority on the new Towers or $100 toward their (housing) contract next year," said Giles. "Plus, the university was going to assist them in moving."

The early move would have also meant an early return to Towers North for the students, he pointed out. Now that the university has returned to its original plan, Towers North students will be spending the entire 1994-95 academic year in other campus housing.