Students see changes at Missouri colleges

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Changes are in store for students at southwest Missouri colleges as fall classes get underway. Southwest Missouri State University has a new president and will soon have a new name as well. Michael Nietzel, a former provost at the University of Kentucky, is the new president, and the university's name officially becomes Missouri State University on Sunday. At Drury University, the new president, John Sellars, also plans to focus on students. Sellers was a senior vice president at Syracuse University and has been getting up early to walk the campus. What's new at Evangel University -- which is celebrating its 50th anniversary -- is a 67,000-square-foot classroom building that includes a modern communications center and recording studio.

The building has an estimated cost of more than $6 million and has offices for the departments of behavioral sciences, biblical studies and philosophy, communication, education and humanities.

At Ozarks Technical Community College, president Norm Myers is in his final year, planning to retire at the end of the school year.

The college is adding more wireless Internet areas at the Springfield campus and recently broke ground for a campus in Christian County that is expected to begin operations in 2007.

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Information from: Springfield News-Leader, http://www.springfieldnews-leader.com