UNIVERSITY TO ADDRESS PARKING PROBLEMS, DOBBINS SAYS

Southeast Missouri State University hopes to address campus parking problems, the school's president said Wednesday.

Inadequate parking space remains a problem on the 126-year-old campus in Cape Girardeau, faculty say.

The issue surfaced during a strategic planning forum at Dempster Hall that attracted about 100 faculty, staff and students.

Four members of the Board of Regents attended the session.

University President Dr. Ken Dobbins said Southeast hopes to secure federal and state money to build a parking garage on the site of the practice band field.

But the project can't move forward until synthetic turf is installed at Houck Stadium, providing the band with a place to practice.

Dobbins also said the university will be able to expand its parking lots when the Henderson Street tennis courts are removed and the crime lab is relocated.

That could occur within a year, Dobbins said.

In recent years, Southeast has sought to bring courses to outlying areas through development of higher education centers and classes delivered through interactive television.

Southeast's service region covers 25 counties, including St. Louis County and the city of St. Louis.

The area has a population of 2.1 million, which is larger than the population in 17 states, school officials said.

It covers over 15,000 square miles, making it larger geographically than Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Vermont, Delaware, Maryland, New Hampshire and Rhode Island.

Art Wallhausen, assistant to the president, said there is a need for higher education in the Bootheel where few have college degrees and many families live in poverty.

But some faculty worried that the university is stretching itself thin in terms of personnel in staffing and maintaining outlying education centers in Kennett, Malden, Sikeston and near Perryville.

Even the developing River Campus visual and performing arts school, situated several blocks from the main campus, will mean added maintenance work, faculty said.

Dr. Paula King, who chairs the department of human environmental studies, said students at off-campus sites want teachers in their classrooms, not beamed in on television.

"They want a live body there," she said.

Staffing those distant classrooms requires faculty to spend a lot of time on the road, said King.

Dr. Charles Wiles, a marketing professor, said faculty aren't rewarded sufficiently for their public service efforts.

Rather, faculty are rewarded for "hiding in their offices" and having academic research published in scholarly journals, Wiles said.

More emphasis needs to be placed on public service, he said.

Southeast needs to provide support services to students at the outlying centers so they can succeed, said Loren Rullman, director of student auxiliary services and the University Center.

Don Dickerson, president of the Board of Regents, said Southeast has established area higher education centers because there are few community colleges in the region.

"We do what we have to do as a regional service university," said Dickerson. "We are all feeling our way."