Vandiver Hall

Southeast Missouri State University's newest residence hall finally has a real name. The Henderson Avenue building has unofficially gone by the name New Hall during the five years since its construction. The students now live at Vandiver Hall.

The name is an instant history lesson.

From 1893 to 1897 Willard Duncan Vandiver was president of the Third District Normal School, the institution that became Southeast. He resigned the presidency the year after he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. He is credited with giving Missouri its nickname, the Show Me State. During a political speech he said, "I am from a state that raises corn and cotton and cockleburs and Democrats, and frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I am from Missouri," he said. "You have got to show me."

Fortunately we didn't become the Cocklebur State.