University to host Agriculture Research Center Field Day

GORDONVILLE, MO (KRCU) - Southeast Missouri State University’s Department of Agriculture will host an Agriculture Research Center Field Day on Wednesday at the university’s Barton Agriculture Research Center in Gordonville.

Guest speakers will present their applied research findings.

Dr. Julie Weathers is an animal scientist, and she spearheaded the event. She says there’s a lot for non-farmers to see at the research center.

"We are a community center. We want people to come out and learn about what we are doing. We do research here and we do student hands-on learning," Weathers said. "So we want you to see what your students are learning here at Southeast Missouri State University. And we want you to come out and see what research we’re learning. We try to do practical research that will actually help you on your own farm or in your small garden. Whatever interest you have."

The Department of Agriculture has expanded its academic offerings. They added an agribusiness plant and soil science degree at Southeast’s regional campuses and an agriculture education major.

Jacob McCleland, KRCU

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Over 300 students visit Southeast Ag Center

GORDONVILLE, MO (KRCU) - Over 300 high school juniors and seniors from 14 high schools visited Southeast Missouri State University’s agricultural facilities Wednesday for an Educational Field Day.

Many of the students are members of Future Farmers of America.

David Mauk instructs agricultural business and agricultural education at Southeast. He says the field day is different because many high schoolers only see the university’s main campus.

"Not all of the students get to see the ag research center. So it’s an opportunity for them to see something from what they normally see, as well as the greenhouse complex that we have," Mauk said.

Students visited the Barton Agricultural Research Center and the Hutson Horticulture Greenhouse.

Jacob McCleland, KRCU

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Southeast professor's animated film returns to Cape Girardeau

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO (KRCU) - A Southeast Missouri State University professor’s 3D animated film traveled around the globe. Now it is returning to Cape Girardeau.

Peter Chanthanakone’s 9 minute short entitled "Death to the Different" is an uplifting coming-of-age story about a boy who must complete a difficult task at the urging of this father.

Chanthanakone says the film gives audiences the rare chance to see a drama in 3D animation.

"Typically 3D animation is designed to be more strictly entertainment-based and for children, and just taking out of that context makes it kind of more unique and you can really relate to it in a different way than if it were to be a live action short film," Chanthanakone said.

Nine Southeast students assisted with the film’s animation and voicework.

"Death to the Different" was screened at film festivals in Germany, France, Pakistan, China and New York.

The film will be shown publicly for this first time in Cape Girardeau this Friday at the Black Door Gallery.

"Death to the Different"'s travelling days are not over. It will be shown at a festival in South Korea next month.

Jacob McCleland, KRCU

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Southeast hires director for Center of Innovation and Entrepreneurship

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO (KRCU) Southeast Missouri State University’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship has hired David Mosby as its director.

Mosby will be responsible for working with the Small Business Technology and Development Center.

He is also working on a portability grant for Dexter, where the local economy has been hurt by layoffs at the Faurecia manufacturing plant.

"What we’ll try to do is train the businesses to be more efficient so that they’ll be able to survive through this economic downturn. And besides being more efficient, maybe getting them to look outside of their community to see how they can sell their goods outside of Dexter to bring more hard money into the community," Mosby said.

Mosby will work under James Stapleton, who now serves as the Center’s executive director.

David Mosby started on September 12.

Jacob McCleland, KRCU

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Southeast gears up for family weekend

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO (KRCU) - Family weekend at Southeast Missouri kicks off today with a showing of “Grease” at the Academic Terrace at 8:30.

Family weekend has many events both on and off campus to keep students and their families entertained.

Allie Wisker, Hall Director of Towers East is helping with the Resident Life wing of the the festivities. She is excited about what this year’s Family Weekend has to offer.

"I think it really shows parents and siblings and aunts and uncles and whoever else comes the kind of atmosphere that their student is a part of and the really great things they can get involved in on campus," Walker said.

There will be games and prizes at the University center and students and their parents will have a chance to meet the University President from 9-10 a.m. in the Beanery cafe.

Bluegrass bands will play at the Fall Festival from 9 a.m. to noon at the Hutson Greenhouse.

Other events on Saturday include The Norman Magic Experience from noon to 1 p.m. in the University Center Ball Room, a Harry Potter Quidditch Tournament at 2 p.m. in the Student Recreation Center, and a Tailgate Party for the football game vs. Eastern Illinois from 4 to 6 p.m. in front of Houck Stadium.

There will be a canned food drive for the victims of the Joplin tornado during both soccer games and the football game occurring over the weekend.

Hannah Parent, KRCU

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Southeast donates two shuttle buses to Joplin

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO (KRCU) - Southeast Missouri State University donated two shuttle buses to Joplin Missouri. As Hannah Parent reports, they replaced buses that were destroyed by last May’s tornado.

The tornado last May devastated Joplin in many ways. One of the consequences was the loss of transportation vehicles.

The Missouri Department of Transportation discovered a surplus of two vehicles at Southeast Missouri State University. The university chose to donate them to the tornado-ravaged town.

Mike Hopen, the university’s Director of Transportation, was excited to be part of this charitable act after he saw the devastation first hand.

"I’ve never seen actually seen a tornado of that magnitude or with those damages," Hopen said. "When they talked about it being a mile wide tornado I was a skeptic. Until I saw the mile wide destruction path...made me a believer."

The buses went to a mental health facility in Joplin that lost three buses during the tornado.

Hannah Parent, KRCU

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Southeast offers student entrepreneurship contest

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO (KRCU) - Southeast Missouri State University’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship is running a competition for Southeast students with a innovative ideas.

The Big Idea Competition offers a thousand dollar prize to the team with the best business plan ... and it's not just for business majors.

There will be twenty finalists from each college that will compete for the grand prize. In addition, each college will have a winner that will receive $200.

The competition administrator, Dr. Joel Bolton, says the competition is centered around the search for students with a great idea, not just business savvy.

"We’ve never done this before. But hopefully it will work out. It will catch on. And we will be doing this years from now," Dr. Bolton said. "Ideally some of these ideas that the students think of might become firms, they might become ventures, they might get funded. They might grow and become household names. It could happen."

The deadline for the contest is Oct. 7 at 3:00 PM. Bolton hopes the contest promotes a zeal for business entrepreneurship amon

Hannah Parent, KRCU

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River Campus holds open house

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO (KRCU) - The Southeast Missouri State University River Campus hosted an open house previewing some upcoming season events.

A steady stream of people flowed into the River Campus on Saturday for the open house.

Kids could get there faces painted, make origami, and try their hand at various instruments.

The kids weren’t the only ones with entertainment. For the adults, performances ran all day.

Rhonda Weller-Stilson, the Director of the Holland School of Visual and Performing Arts, says all of the areas of the River Campus, from the museum to the art, music, theater, and dance departments, were represented during the day.

"In all of our performance venues we have something going on," Weller-Stilson said. "As well as locations that don’t normally have performances, so in the museum we have cello ensemble, we have jazz ensemble in the convocation center, we have steel drums on the patio. So there’s something happening all over."

Weller-Stilson says said the River Campus has several first-rate shows lined up for this year.

"We open with Into the Woods, and that will be at the end of September. And then we’re doing the Cab Calloway Orchestra, will be one of the touring events. And then we have the symphony opener that will be happening. And in addition to the big events we have small ensembles and recitals, informal dance concerts and things like that, and those are normally free," she said.

The River Campus’ season officially begins with a production of Into the Woods, which runs from September 28 through October 2.

Drew Yount, KRCU

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Southeast's Special Collections and Archives Center digitilizes Civil War artifacts

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO (KRCU) - Southeast Missouri State University’s Special Collections and Archives Center wants to document and digitilize the whereabouts of letters, journals, diaries, photos, and other original documents from the Civil War.

The project’s manager is Ellen Ryan. She says documents, artifacts and photos will be digitized and placed onto a website so that educators, the general public, researchers and students have access to these resources.

"A lot of it is to kinda take the information that is out there put it in to one location so it is accessible to people," Ryan says.

Partners include the Cape Girardeau County Archive Center and the Special Collections Research Center at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale.

The project will be similar to a similar endeavor that is already completed in Springfield, Missouri.

The process started three weeks ago and will continue until mid July of next year.

Lauren Campbell, KRCU

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Dance professor pens two new books

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO (KRCU) - Southeast Theater and Dance Professor Marc Strauss has two new books coming out this Spring. Strauss’ books will be integrated into the dance program at the River Campus.

Strauss’ book Looking at Compensatory Dance: A Guide to the Internet Age examines the role the Internet plays in critiquing and understanding modern dance. Strauss was taken with how much the computer age has influenced contemporary dance. In his book he hopes to create a guide on how to utilize these sources in a practical way.

"There are innumerable dance videos available for anyone to watch now. So It made a lot of sense to me to actually use you tube videos and analyze them," Strauss says.

In addition, Strauss collaborated with esteemed dance professor Myron Howard Nadel on the third edition of The Dance Epxerience. Nadel is the author of the first two editions.

Hannah Parent, KRCU

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Southeast student darts rhinos for internship

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO (KRCU) - Southeast Missouri State University student Hollie Lybarger traveled to South Africa this summer as an intern for Madikwe Game Reserve.

The internship consists of things such as learning methods of protecting vulnerable species, helping with predator work, tracking jackals and clearing invasive bush species.

Lybarger says she also worked as part of a rhino tagging team.

"We actually tracked down both black and white rhino and darted them and we took blood samples, hair samples, tissue samples, we also drilled a tracking device in side the horn and then notched their ears for identification and awareness purposes," Lybarger said.

The tracking devices are used to prevent poaching.

Lybarger says this internship has taught her about land preservation and wildlife management as well as educating the public about such issues.

She is considering graduate school and plans to use her degree in land management.

Lauren Campbell, KRCU

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Southeast student discovers shipwreck

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO (KRCU) - Southeast Missouri State University student Jennifer Rickard made the discovery of a lifetime during a summer program in Spain: the remains of a shipwreck deep in the Mediterranean waters.

Rickard was studying at the Cavalleria Ecomuseum when she and six other divers made the discovery.

The ship dates to the sixteenth or seventeenth century and was badly charred by fire.

Rickard says she was not expecting to find a shipwreck that day.

'They had told us to due magnitronomy and also some other indications that there possibly was one in that area, we did end up discovering it through a mass amount of dead seaweed that had been underneath us," Rickard said.

Jennifer was granted a scholarship from the Harryette Campbell Foundation to help fund the program.

Rickard's says she hopes to continue studying maritime archaeology for her masters and PhD.

Lauren Campbell, KRCU

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Nixon calls for performance-based higher education funding

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO (KRCU) - Governor Jay Nixon announced a shift in Missouri’s higher education formula at last week’s Higher Education Summit.

Nixon wants to change to a performance-based model instead of an across-the-board approach when higher education allocations increase.

Mineral Area College president Steve Kurtz is strongly in favor of basing funding by meeting key performance indicators. He says his college already keeps track of many of the indicators the state will likely use.

"For us, we already have that culture at the institution," Kurtz said. "It’s just, how do we move with the implementation of a performance-funding model?"

Southeast Missouri State University president Ken Dobbins also favors a performance model and Southeast already tracks its own performance as a whole and within departments. He hopes the governor looks at a rolling average instead of basing funding on individual years because one cannot predict when budget increases will appear and an off year on benchmarks is always possible.

"A three to five year average I think everyone has agreed that’s good both on the numbers you are looking at so far as the benchmarking and also for the overall percentage that you’re going to get of new funding," Dobbins said.

The model is still under development. Officials from the Department of Higher Education indicate there will be three or four statewide goals for each institution to meet and each college and university will choose an additional goal of its own.

The key performance indicators have not yet been decided, but they could include goals for retention rates, degree attainment, student success and quality of student learning, to give a few examples.

The model will be approved Higher Education Commission in December.

Jacob McCleland, KRCU

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Southeast Missouri State University announces 2011-2012 Speakers Series

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO (KRCU) - Southeast Missouri State University’s Speakers Series will kick off on September 20 with Lisa Ling.

Other speakers on this year’s schedule include Michael J. Fox, Kurt Warner, Douglas Wilder and Bill Ney the Science Guy.

The University’s Vice President of Enrollment Management and Student Success is Dennis Holt. He says students draw up a list of speakers and work with university officials to arrange the final lineup.

"We look for a diversity of topics that relate to the educational mission of the university," Holt says. "We look for a diversity of speakers. And we look at political topics, personal development, science education and a range of goals and objectives."

The Speakers Series is now in its third year.

Holt says students help compile a list of speaker they would like to see.

"The average cost for speakers at this level is between 50 thousand and 80 thousand dollars for one appearance," Holt says. "The cost of these speakers is significant and the funds are there to cover it and we attempt to be very judicious in how we spend those funds."

Funding for the Speakers Series comes from student fees.

In addition to their presentations, speakers must participate in outreach programs to students and the community.

Jacob McCleland, KRCU

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Southeast receives grants from Missouri Arts Council

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO (KRCU) - The Missouri Arts Council awarded nearly $40,000 in grant funding to Southeast Missouri State University.

The money will go towards the Symphony Orchestra concert series, a traveling exhibit at the Crisp Museum and the “Big Muddy” literary journal. The funds will also bring guests artists for the department of Theatre and Dance Production of Hamlet and to fund the residency of a guest choreographer.

Over fifteen thousand dollars will support the symphony. Artistic director Sara Edgerton says the funds will help bring first class talent to the River Campus.

"“This grant we wrote for this symphony series will enable to bring in some really great guest artists not only to perform with the symphony, but also to do master classes and outreach activities in the community," Edgerton says.”

Guest artists for the symphony orchestra include Mark O’Connor and Allen Vizzutti.

Lauren Campbell, KRCU

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International student population continues to grow at Southeast

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO (KRCU) - International student enrollment is continuing to grow at Southeast Missouri State University.

Zahir Ahmed, Executive Director of International Education and Services, says international students are choosing majors throughout the University, but are specifically drawn towards business and polytechnic studies.

The international population has grown about 16% over the last year.

"We now have roughly around 710 students, by the end of the first week probably around 715 to 720 international students from 48 different countries," Ahmed says. "That’s a growth of over 100 students from last fall."

Ahmed says most students are coming from Asian countries, specifically China and India. But he adds that all global regions are represented on campus.

Drew Yount, KRCU

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Southeast biology professor receives NSF grant

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO (KRCU) - A Southeast Missouri State University biology professor was awarded a National Science Foundation grant totalling nearly 500 thousand dollars.

Dr. Margaret Waterman was given the grant dollars to create a collaborative network of faculty from multiple universities who use problem-based learning methods.

Waterman says problem-based learning is teaching that begins with a story.

"The power of it is it creates a real world context. It’s not just in school. It’s not just memorization," Waterman says. "It’s running on the track and having a conversation. It’s sitting over Chinese food and talking about soy sauce. It’s a wide variety of thing like that."

Waterman compares problem-based learning to exercises that are practiced in medical school.

Waterman is the lead researcher in a group of problem-based learning investigators from Southeast Missouri State University, State University of New York Buffalo, Emory University, Spelman College, University of Wisconsin River Falls, University of Delaware, Three Rivers Community College, EMBRLI Consulting and Michigan State University.

Jacob McCleland, KRCU

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Record enrollment anticipated at Southeast; university signs contract with Candlewood Suites

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO (KRCU) - Despite admission deferrals Southeast Missouri State University is gearing up for another semester with record enrollment. 

The total will include approximately 1,900 incoming freshmen. Last year the university set a record for incoming freshmen with 1,928.

This year may end up with fewer freshmen due to the university’s decision to defer admissions after July 8.

Nevertheless director of admissions Dr. Debbie Below says the university is still expecting record enrollment.

"Total enrolment at the university should go up about two percent," Below says. "Last year we exceeded 11,100 students as a university for the first time. This year that will probably be around 11,300."

The record enrollment number are pushing on-campus housing to the brink. The university has capacity to house approximately 3,100 students.

Seven students will temporarily call rather unconventional surroundings home.

These seven will live in converted dorm lounges for the next few days. Residence Life Director Dr. Bruce Skinner says he is certain that conditions will improve rather quickly for those students.

"Many schools are uncomfortably full at move-in. "We will have about thirty students that don’t show between a week from Friday and Friday," Skinner says. "So this is really a short term problem. It’s an uncomfortable problem for both students and the university. But it’s not the case where fall break rolls around and there are still people living in lounges and people living with RA’s."

To help alleviate some of the stress the university signed a year-long contract with Candlewood Suites to create housing for some 48 students for the school year.

Tim Filla, KRCU
Photo: Vandiver Hall at Southeast Missouri State University.

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Japanese print exhibition comes to River Campus museum

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO (KRCU) - The Crisp Museum at Southeast Missouri State University’s River Campus is featuring a new exhibition today of Japanese wood panel prints. 

The Floating World: Ukiyo-E Prints date from Japan’s Edo period between 1600 and 1868.

Most of the prints were made for posters and advertisements. Following the opening of Japan to the West, these prints because popular among the Impressionists in Europe, according to museum director Peter Nguyen.

"If you examine a print by Van Gogh and you look at a Japanese print from this period, you can see the similarities, or at the influence from the Japanese prints on our Impressionist artists and post-Impressionists artists," Nguyen says.

The exhibition will run through October 23.

Financial assistance for the exhibition is provided by the Missouri Arts Council.
Jacob McCleland, KRCU

Image: Oji, Taki no Kawa (The Waterfall River at Oji)

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Agriculture production and demand are both down

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO (KRCU) - The United States Department of Agriculture released its August supply and demand estimates Thursday. The report reinforces what many already knew: It’s been a bad year for Missouri’s farmers.

The USDA’s World Agriculture Supply and Demand Estimates report shows projected corn yields are down by nearly 6 bushels per acre from last month’s estimate.

Soy bean projections are also down.

Michael Aide chairs Southeast Missouri State University’s Agriculture Department. Aide says soy beans are flowering and setting pods at the university's David M. Barton Agriculture Research Center. A good yield is still possible if certain conditions are met.

"What we need is favorable weather from this point out to keep the pods on the plant, to continue the flowering, to continue the grainfill of the pods that we have," Aide says. "We should have a respectable yield. But once again, we are irrigated. If you weren’t irrigated, you may have already had some yield reduction."

Aide says only about 45 percent of the Bootheel’s farmland is irrigated.

While supply is down in the U.S., global economic and political uncertainty are driving down demand.

Aide says this week’s downgrade of the U.S.'s AAA credit rating is adding even more uncertainty.

"I think there’s going to be less yields in the Missouri Bootheel and the prices may not be there that we had last year," Aide says. "Simply because if you watch the commodities lately, everybody is fleeing commodities with the stock market issues and so forth. And so prices are down a little bit in some places."

Production is up in Brazil, Ukraine and the European Union, thus driving down demand even further for U.S. corn.

The USDA estimates rice yields will increase slightly.

Jacob McCleland, KRCU

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