If voters approve funding for the River Campus project, Southeast Missouri State University will be able to expand its arts and academic programs, university officials say.

Only a handful of people turned out Thursday night for a town hall meeting at St. Vincent's Seminary on the River Campus proposal. The meeting was sponsored by Vision 2000.

A second town hall meeting on the proposal will be held from 3 to 5 p.m. Oct. 10 on the seminary grounds. University and city officials will be on hand to answer questions about the project.

The university and city are working to renovate the old St. Vincent's Seminary property into a campus to house the university's theater, dance, music and fine arts programs.

As part of the joint project, voters are being asked to approve an increase in the city's hotel-motel tax from 3 percent to 4 percent and to extend it from 2004 to 2030. Voters are also being asked to extend but not increase the 1 percent restaurant tax until 2030.

The tax measures on the Nov. 3 ballot would raise $8.9 million. The 10-cent debt service levy included in the city's real estate tax will expire in 2004, so residents would achieve savings, say university and city officials.

The university is raising $8.9 million, and university officials will ask the Missouri Legislature to appropriate $17.8 million for the project.

The River Campus would allow the programs to expand and make more room for programs on the main campus, said Dr. Ken Dobbins, the university's executive vice president.

The university needs another 150,000 square feet to meet all the needs outlined in its strategic plan, Dobbins said.

The River Campus and the planned polytechnic building on the main campus would bring the university within about 5,000 square feet of what the strategic plan calls for, Dobbins said.

Several buildings on campus are overcrowded, he said, including Grauel, Magill and Rhodes.

With the River Campus, classroom space in the buildings that now house the university's art and music programs could be freed up to make room for classrooms, faculty offices and lab space, Dobbins said.

The university especially needs more room for science research projects, he said.

"We don't have enough space for research projects," Dobbins said.

The university's biology department is getting more research grants, but instructors don't have the facilities to carry out the projects, he said. The health and human services department is also getting more grants, he said. The University Museum, now in Memorial Hall, also needs room to grow, Dobbins said.

"The museum is so small that we can only display 5 percent of our holdings," he said.

Moving it to the River Campus would enable the university to add a strong regional flavor to exhibits, Dobbins said.

The River Campus would also attract more students into the visual and performing arts programs, Dobbins and Dr. Martin Jones, dean of the College of Humanities, said.

The dance, music, art and theater programs have about 40 full- and part-time instructors and about 250 majors in all, Jones said.

But the River Campus would benefit all students, not just those enrolled in the arts majors, he said.

"All of the areas -- dance, music, theater and visual arts -- offer course work in the general education areas," Jones said. "Those disciplines literally touch the lives of all the students in the university at some point."

With additional space, he said, the university might also be able to develop a dance major and add a second full-time instructor.

Marc Strauss, a dance instructor, said the planned performing arts center and theater would give the community much-needed venues for university and community performances and would attract a variety of top-flight performers.

The new facilities would also attract additional students to enroll in those programs, Dobbins said, and would give the community more access to arts and entertainment programming.

City Manager Michael Miller said the River Campus offers a number of benefits to the community, including economic development and increased investment in the downtown and South Cape areas, improved quality of life and increased tourism.

"The only concern that I would have about the election is if people would start looking upon it as a university project, and it's really a community project," Miller said. "I think if they look at the benefit to the community, the project will pass."

COMING UP

A second town hall meeting on the River Campus project will be held from 3 to 5 p.m. Oct. 10 at the seminary.