UNIVERSITY PLANS

Southeast Missouri State University has fashioned a plan to take the campus into the 21st century. The university has developed measurable standards and a strategy to achieve these goals. The university should be better, more efficiently run institution for this effort.

At the heart of the plan is the effort to more directly tie higher education to jobs. In other words, the university wants to ensure that its graduates are hired.

In a bold move, the university is recommending internships, practical experience and hands-on research project -- known collectively as experiential learning -- for all students in their major fields of study. Nearly 70 percent of graduating seniors at Southeast currently receive some sort of training in their fields, but many of the internships and projects are voluntary. This new requirement should benefit employers by leading to a better-trained work force.

The university also wants to build its enrollment by nearly 2,000 by the year 2,000. That would place total enrollment at 10,300. One way to build enrollment would be through increased night and weekend classes. Another would be by expanding the number the classes taught at off-campus sites.

Undergraduate night classes have been very limited at the university. This push to expand night school makes sense. More people are working during the day to make ends meet, and night school is their only option. To boost enrollment, the university must be more approachable for nontraditional students.

The university wants to offer two levels of night school. Southeast PM will begin this fall, allowing students to obtain four-year degrees in high-demand fields by taking only night and weekend classes. The university is exploring a second level of night school that would offer vocational training and two-year programs through partnerships with community colleges and technical schools.

Southeast also plans to build enrollment by offering a greater number of two-year programs and vocational-technical degrees. Officials hope to accomplish this goal through a partnership with community colleges and vocational-technical schools. Community college faculty could teach these classes.

University officials are striving for a term they call seamless education. The idea is that a student progresses from high school to a two-year program and then to a four-year degree, if they so choose, with a clear view of what courses to take in a building-block pattern. To achieve this, partnerships with community colleges and vocational-technical schools are essential.

The university also wants to ensure that students are computer literate. Faculty will develop high-tech classrooms and more computer labs to achieve this goal. Through networking, institutions of higher education are no longer separate islands of learning. Improvements will help put more Southeast students on the information highway.

Streamlining operations and making the campus more user friendly are other strategies for the coming years. For example, if enrollment climbs to 10,000, it is estimated an additional 1,500 parking spaces would be needed since many of the students would be commuters. Buildings may have to be adapted as popular fields change.

This strategic plan was two years in the making, with input from the public and university community. The final product reflects that the university listened to community input. It appears this five-year strategic plan will make university programs more accessible and relevant to the region.