Rust Center for Media holds dedication, open house

The Rust family and Southeast Missouri State University celebrated the dedication and open house Friday for the Rust Center for Media.

The Rust Center for Media at 325 Broadway in Cape Girardeau, in what has been described as “media row,” is 13,000 square feet spread over two stories.

The first floor houses class space and video production studios. The bottom floor contains the offices for Southeast’s student newspaper The Arrow, student advertising firm SECreative and student public-relations firm Riverfront PR.

“It’s a powerful motivator,” Southeast president Carlos Vargas-Aburto said. “Having a facility like this has an influence in the energy that it creates, energy between faculty and students.”

The center is named for Gary W. Rust, who bought a weekly newspaper in Cape Girardeau County 49 years ago and built that into a company that includes 44 newspapers, 12 printing plants and minority ownership in 17 radio stations. The Rust family owns and publishes the Southeast Missourian.

The Rust family owns the building at 325 Broadway and Gary Rust’s sons — Rex, Jon and Gary II — made a seven-figure donation to the university to make the media center possible. Southeast made an investment and provided equipment for the center.

Gary Rust laughs during the dedication and open house of Southeast Missouri State University's new Rust Center for Media on Friday in downtown Cape Girardeau. Southeast president Carlos Vargas-Aburto, pictured, emceed the dedication ceremony.LAURA SIMON ~ lsimon@semissourian.com

“We talk a lot about our students and their will to do,” Vargas said in a speech at the dedication. “When we talk about the will to do, there are no greater role models than Gary Rust and the Rust family.”

Students started working in the Rust Center of Media this fall.

Karie Hollerbach, chairwoman of Southeast’s Department of Mass Media, spoke about the facilities the department was using in the 49-year-old Grauel building, specifically how different areas of the department became divided. Hollerbach believes now there will be more collaboration among SECreative, The Arrow and Riverfront, and all three may work with television students on video projects.

“We’ve always been storytellers, but we want to graduate students who come with a wealth of multimedia skills,” Hollerbach said.

Hollerbach and Tamara Zellars Buck, multimedia journalism coordinator and faculty advocate for The Arrow, described this philosophy as dreaming without walls.

“We were able to think about what it means to be a center for excellence,” Zellars Buck said of the design process for the media center. “They allowed us to play around and dream.”

The media center dedication also was a celebration of Gary Rust’s career accomplishments and his lifelong contributions to Southeast.

“My brothers and sisters and I are proud of our mother (Wendy) and father and what they have achieved,” Jon K. Rust, publisher of the Southeast Missourian and co-president of Rust Communications, said in his speech at the dedication. “We are in awe of who they are and how they treat other people. Both are heroes to us: wise, kind, principled, generous and loving. And we’re proud that they will be associated with media innovation, student learning and this great university long into the future.”

bkleine@semissourian.com

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Pertinent address:

325 Broadway, Cape Girardeau, Mo.