Southeast Missouri State University

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Southeast Missouri State University
Image:Se dome.png
Established: 1873[1]
Type: Public
Endowment: $28 million [2]
President: Dr. Kenneth Dobbins
Faculty: 400
Students: 10,477(Fall 2006)[1]
Undergraduates: 8,977
Postgraduates: 1,500
Location: Cape Girardeau, Missouri, USA
Campus: Urban, 400 acres (1.6 km²)
Nickname: Redhawks
Mascot: Rowdy the Redhawk
Website: http://www.semo.edu

Southeast Missouri State University is a public, accredited university located in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, not far from the banks of the Mississippi River.

Contents

[edit] Student body and diversity

In Fall 2006, the University had over 10,000 students for the first time. 93.1% of students attended full-time, while 6.9% attended part-time. In Fall 2002, 645 male students and 921 female students enrolled as first-time students (freshmen, typically). Female students made up 58.8% of the student body. Minority enrollment included African-American (6%), Hispanic (1%), and Asian (1%).

[edit] History

Southeast Missouri State University was founded in 1873 when a group of prominent businessmen and politicians successfully lobbied the State of Missouri to designate Cape Girardeau as the home of the Third District Normal School. Classes were originally taught at the nearby Lorimier School until April of 1875 when the first normal school building was completed. This building was described by Mark Twain in "Life on the Mississippi":

Old Normal, 1898. Photo courtesy Special Collections and Archives, Southeast Missouri State University.
Old Normal, 1898.
Photo courtesy Special Collections and Archives, Southeast Missouri State University.

"There was another college higher up on an airy summit--a bright new edifice, picturesquely and peculiarly towered and pinnacled--a sort of gigantic casters, with the cruets all complete."[3]

It burned down on April 8, 1902[2].

The original normal school building was replaced in 1906 by Academic Hall, the school's domed landmark building. It was designed by Jerome Bibb Legg, who also designed the St. Louis Exposition and Music Hall, and includes light fixtures from the 1904 World's Fair.

Academic hall, ca. 1906. Photo courtesy Special Collections and Archives, Southeast Missouri State University.
Academic hall, ca. 1906.
Photo courtesy Special Collections and Archives, Southeast Missouri State University.

Southeast Missouri State College had an enrollment of approximately 1,600 students in the 1950s and steadily increased to more than 7,000 students in the 1970s due to low tuition costs, aggressive recruiting, and the construction of Interstate 55 between St. Louis and Cape Girardeau. The College also moved away from its focus on only training teachers and began to offer courses of study in business, nursing, and the liberal arts. Due to this expansion of curriculum and student body population, the college officially became Southeast Missouri State University in 1972. The physical size of the campus also grew in this same period. In 1956, the institution had ten buildings on campus. In 1975, the number had increased to twenty-two buildings. In 1998, the university acquired the former St. Vincent's Seminary on the Mississippi river. This property has been redeveloped as a center for the visual and performing arts, which opened in Fall 2007.

[edit] Academics

Harrison College of Business

College of Education

College of Health and Human Services

College of Liberal Arts

College of Science and Mathematics

Academic Information Services/Kent Library

Extended Learning

School of Graduate Studies

School of Polytechnic Studies

School of University Studies

School of Visual and Performing Arts

[edit] List of Residence Halls

Cheney
Dearmont
Myers
Vandiver Hall
Towers East
Towers North
Towers South
Towers West
Greek Housing

[edit] Athletic team names and mascot

Southeast has been a member of NCAA Division I (Division I FCS for football) since moving up from Division II in 1991. As a result of the promotion in classifications, Southeast Missouri State left the Division II Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletic Association and joined the Division I Ohio Valley Conference. Though having struggled in the two major college sports (football and men's basketball) since moving up, they have had a few successes over the 15 year run in Division I. The men's basketball team won a share of the regular season OVC title in 2000, and won the conference's tournament as well that year to earn an automatic bid to the 2000 NCAA Tournament. In the team's only appearance in "The Big Dance" to date, the Indians were seeded #13 in the West Region and set to face off against Louisiana State University in the opening round of the tournament. In an exciting game, 4th Seeded LSU narrowly escaped the upset as they held off the Indians 64-61. The football team has also had its struggles since moving up to Division I-AA (now FCS), having only 2 winning seasons (1994 and 2002) since moving up in 1991. The football program finally had some redemption during the 2002 season as the team made it into the I-AA polls for the first time, finishing the season ranked #23 in the ESPN/USA Today I-AA poll and #24 in the Sports Network I-AA poll. That season also produced the school's only win over a I-A opponent since moving to I-AA, as the Indians topped Middle Tennessee 24-14 in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

Until January of 2005, the athletic team nicknames were the "Indians" (men's teams) and "Otahkians" (women's teams). After a movement by Student Government, the Booster Club and the National Alumni Council, those names were officially retired in a ceremony on October 22, 2004 and replaced with "Redhawks."[4] The current mascot is a stylized hawk known as Rowdy Redhawk. The University's original mascot was known as Chief Sagamore and was represented by a student dressed in Native American regalia. Chief Sagamore was retired as mascot in the mid 1980s due to a growing cultural sensitivity to Native American mascots though the team names lasted for nearly twenty more years. The school's athletic teams compete in the Ohio Valley Conference.

[edit] List of Fraternities and Sororities

The University has many fraternities and sororities in which students can get involved.

Interfraternal Council Fraternities
Delta Chi
Lambda Chi Alpha
Phi Delta Theta
Pi Kappa Alpha
Sigma Chi
Sigma Nu
Sigma Phi Epsilon
Sigma Tau Gamma
Theta Xi

National Panhellenic Conference Sororities
Alpha Chi Omega
Alpha Delta Pi
Alpha Xi Delta
Delta Delta Delta
Gamma Phi Beta
Sigma Sigma Sigma

National Pan-Hellenic Conference Fraternities and Sororities
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity
Delta Sigma Theta Sorority
Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity
Zeta Phi Beta Sorority
Iota Phi Theta Fraternity

[edit] Capaha Arrow

The Capaha Arrow is the University's student newspaper. Established in 1911, it is currently one of the oldest college newspapers still in publication. Notably, the second editor of the Capaha Arrow was Rush Limbaugh, Sr. who became a nationally recognized Missouri attorney and practiced law in Cape Girardeau until just before his passing at the age of 104 in 1996. Rush Limbaugh, Sr. is the grandfather of the media personality Rush Limbaugh. After the university changed its mascot from Indians/Otahkians to Redhawks, the newspaper dropped "Capaha" and is now known as simply The Arrow. It is still run by students in the Department of Mass Communications and publishes a weekly newspaper distributed throughout campus. Sherrie Farabee, instructor of journalism, serves as adviser. The current Editor-in-Chief is Ben Marxer. Co-Managing Editors are Erin Mustain and Cody Snider. Some stories are also put on The Arrow website.

[edit] List of Notable Alumni

[edit] Trivia

  • One of the most widely recognized figures associated with the institution is probably radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh, who is a Cape Girardeau native and attended the university for a year before dropping out.[5]
  • The University's fifth president, Willard Duncan Vandiver, was later elected to the Fifty-fifth United States Congress from the State of Missouri. He is credited with originating Missouri's state slogan by saying in a speech, "I come from a state that raises corn and cotton and cockleburs and Democrats, and frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I am from Missouri. You have got to show me."[6]

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Southeast Missouri State University History and Traditions".
  2. ^ "2005 NACUBO Endowment Study". National Association of College and University Business Officers.
  3. ^ "Life on the Mississippi
  4. ^ seMissourian.com: Story: SEMO to retire Indian, Otahkian nicknames Oct. 22
  5. ^ http://corner.nationalreview.com/05_10_02_corner-archive.asp#078733
  6. ^ SOS, Missouri - State Archives Missouri History FAQ - Origin of"Show-Me"Slogan
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