LETTERS: BEST USES SOUGHT FOR OLD SEMINARY

To the editor:

I am writing in response to a Sept. 29 letter in the Missourian in which Diana Steele-Bryant requests detailed information about plans for the historic seminary redevelopment project.

Ms. Steele-Bryant asks a number of questions about the university's plans for specific features of the former St. Vincent's Seminary and expresses frustration that she has been unable to obtain answers to her questions. She asks about the state champion beech tree, the memorial windows in the 1871 chapel, special bricks with seminary staff names for each academic year, another set of bricks carved with the names of students and a staircase misaligned by the explosion of a steamboat.

All of these are excellent questions, but at present they can be answered only in general terms, because detailed planning for the redevelopment project cannot take place until funding issues have been resolved. At this time, the university's contracted engineering firm has completed only a preliminary feasibility study. Its charge was to determine if the historic seminary buildings are structurally sound (they are) and if the site is large enough (it is) to accommodate all the features needed for a School of Visual and Performing Arts: performance hall, theater, museum, recital hall, dance and art studios, classrooms, practice rooms, parking for 500 vehicles, band field and so forth. The architects and engineers were also asked to estimate the cost of renovating the historic buildings and building new structures. But the feasibility study did not get to the level of detail sought by Ms. Steele-Bryant.

However, the university has pledged to B.W. Harrison, whose gift made possible the acquisition of the seminary property, that the integrity of the present buildings and grounds will be preserved insofar as possible when the property is developed for new uses. The university understands that the features mentioned by Ms. Steele-Bryant and others are what makes the seminary such a treasure from the standpoint of regional history and tourism. We take our responsibility to Mr. Harrison and to the community very seriously.

The university has begun the process of cataloging the seminary features which should be preserved intact, restore and reinstalled or removed for permanent display on the site or elsewhere. I have asked Dr. Frank Nickell, director of the Center for Regional History, to appoint and chair a committee of individuals knowledgeable about the seminary's history, to make this inventory and provide recommendations to the university. These recommendations will be followed if at all possible as we begin work on detailed plans for the redevelopment project. No doubt, the state champion beech tree on the northeast part of the site will be near the top of the list.

As we strive to protect the exterior integrity of one of the region's true historic treasures, we must not lose sight of the fact that our first priority must be to secure funding for the project which will make the seminary buildings usable for the education of new generations of students from this region. Failure to do so would almost certainly result in the eventual loss of the historic buildings, and outcome which no one wants to contemplate.

For that reason, we encourage longtime friends of the seminary, like Ms. Steele-Bryant, to support the public and private funding efforts and to work with Dr. Nickell and his committee in identifying those elements which are of the greatest historical or sentimental significance. We, in turn, will pledge to do everything possible to protect these features as the project is designed.

For those who may want to discuss the project or obtain more information, the Vision 2000 organization headed by Councilman Melvin Gateley has scheduled two opportunities, both on the seminary grounds. The first will be today beginning at 5:30 p.m., and the second will be Oct. 10 beginning at 3:30 p.m.

Answers to specific questions about the seminary redevelopment may also be obtained by calling the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce office at 335-3312, the city's public information office at 335-8556 or the university relations office here at Southeast at 651-5910.

DALE F. NITZSCHKE, President

Southeast Missouri State University

Cape Girardeau