Southeast Missouri State University
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Southeast Missouri State University |
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| Established | 1873 |
| Type | Public |
| Endowment | $28 million [1] |
| 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 |
| 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.
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[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. Southeast Missouri State College had an enrollment of approximately 1600 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 is being redeveloped as a center for the visual and performing arts, to open in Fall 2007.
[edit] Academics
College of Health and Human Services
College of Science and Mathematics
Academic Information Services/Kent Library
School of Visual and Performing Arts
[edit] Residence Halls
Cheney
Dearmont
Myers
New Hall
Towers East
Towers North
Towers South
Towers West
[edit] Athletic team names and mascot
Southeast has been a member of NCAA Division I (Division I-AA 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 mens' basketball) since moving up, they have had a few successes over the 15 year run in Division I. The mens' 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, 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 State 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."[2] 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 Amerian 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] 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 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. The Arrow is still run by Mass Communication students and publishes a weekly newspaper distributed throughout campus. The current Editor-in-Chief is Michele Metych.
[edit] Notable alumni
- 1960 Dick Hantak, NFL referee
- 1960 Ken Iman, center with NFL's Green Bay Packers and Los Angeles Rams
- 1969 James T. Conway, United States Marine Corps general
- 1974 Linda Godwin, NASA astronaut
- 1976 Peter Kinder, politician
- 1987 Cedric Kyles, aka Cedric the Entertainer
- 1990 Stephen McClard, Band Director, Pianodesk Maker
- 2003 Willie Ponder, wide receiver with NFL's St. Louis Rams
- 2004 Eugene Amano, center with the NFL's Tennessee Titans
[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. [3]
- 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 motto 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." [4]
