SEMO cast entertains at Cape chamber event

The Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce's monthly First Friday Coffee featured a band of singing pirates after a presentation by Southeast Missouri State University president Kenneth Dobbins.

The cast of "Peter Pan the Musical" performed a sneak peek of a few of the musical's scenes, which will be performed from Feb. 26 through March 2 in the Bedell Performance Hall on Southeast's River Campus.

Dobbins presented an update on the campus' ever-changing academics and demographics.

The 2013 fall semester was the 13th year the university broke an enrollment record, and the university is working on ways to maintain those numbers, Dobbins said.

Ways to do so include offering majors employers are demanding, such as cybersecurity, as well as meeting needs of the 1,000-plus students earning degrees online without stepping foot on campus, he said.

More than 40 percent of Southeast students take at least one online course, Dobbins said, and the university has begun offering high school students the same convenience of earning college credit online.

Southeast's Online Dual Credit Initiative offers dual-credit courses to high school students regardless of the school's size or the qualifications of the instructor. Previously, dual-credit courses offered in high schools were taught by instructors who held a master's degree and earned 18 hours in the major. High school students now can take dual-credit courses online, and the facilitator for the course does not need such qualifications.

When high school students take dual-credit courses, it allows them to earn college credit before graduation and graduate from Southeast "on time," or within four to five years, Dobbins said.

Dobbins spoke of the university's Associate's PLUS program, a reverse transfer partnership with Missouri State University-West Plains that allows students at Southeast's regional campuses in Sikeston, Mo., Malden, Mo., and Kennett, Mo., to earn an associate's degree in two years and continue to earn a bachelor's degree without having to transfer.

Mark Alnutt, Southeast's athletic director, spoke on behalf of Southeast Athletics, a sponsor of February's First Friday Coffee. He touted a recent jump from 40 percent to 68 percent of athletes who have a 3.0 grade-point average.

He also spoke of a newer obligation of student athletes to each acquire 10 hours of community service per semester. Student athletes logged more than 1,500 hours of community service during the fall semester, he said. The new goal is 3,000 hours of community service.

Alnutt and the Redhawks football coaching staff are working on a program that would keep players in Cape Girardeau over the summer so they can attend school and train year-round.

ashedd@semissourian.com

388-3632

Pertinent address:

1333 N. Sprigg St., Cape Girardeau, MO