Members of the Cape Girardeau Partnership for Higher Education advisory board want to change the name of their organization to the Great River College Center.

The 16-member advisory board met Thursday at the Cape Girardeau Career and Technology Center and unanimously approved the new name recommended by its marketing committee, headed by Mike Smythe.

The name Great River College Center must now be approved by the educational institutions cooperating to offer courses through the partnership: Southeast Missouri State University, Mineral Area College and Three Rivers Community College.

Advisory committee member Earl Norman said he'd like to see the words "community college" in the name, but Dr. Ken Dobbins, president of Southeast Missouri State University, warned against that.

"A community college is a taxing district. We don't have any funding from the state," Dobbins said.

Smythe said the name could be modified in the future after enrollment grew and local residents had voted to approve a community college district.

Since classes began at the Partnership on Monday, 18 more students have enrolled, for a total of 183 students this semester. Of those, 125 students are seeking associate of arts degrees and 58 are seeking associate of applied sciences degrees. More than half are full-time students, said Dr. Randy Shaw, assistant provost of extended learning at Southeast Missouri State University in a report to the advisory board.

Dobbins said he'd initially feared the Partnership would take students away from Southeast, but after reviewing the student data discovered that of the 58 seeking applied science degrees, only six were admitted by Southeast and would have been eligible to attend classes at its main campus.

"There's a good possibility the large majority would not be in higher education without this option," he said. "The Partnership has done what the committee had wished and hoped."

Students in the associate of applied science program are more vocational and technology oriented than other college students.

Dobbins also reported Southeast's own full-time student equivalent enrollment has increased 9 percent compared to last fall.

A total of 29 classes are offered by the Partnership at the Cape Girardeau Career and Technology Center, with an average enrollment of 20 students per class, Shaw said.

Of those enrolled, 72 percent are 2010 high school graduates. The majority of the students attending live in Cape Girardeau, Scott, Stoddard and Bollinger counties.

As it looks to plan future course offerings, the advisory committee is in the process of reviewing the need for additional health care education programs in Southeast Missouri. A report was given by needs assessment task force chairman Gary Rust, which included a presentation by Mary Becker, senior vice president of the Missouri Hospital Association. Committee member Jason Crowell pointed out that Becker's presentation did not include information on staffing at nursing homes, rural health clinics and private doctors' offices. Several committee members suggested the needs assessment task force contact other state health care organizations to obtain more information and report back to the advisory committee at its next meeting. A meeting date has not yet been set.

mmiller@semissourian.com

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Pertinent address:

1080 S. Silver Springs Road, Cape Girardeau, MO