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Each semester, KRCU sits down with Dr. Carlos Vargas, President of Southeast Missouri State University, to discuss happenings at the institution as well as Higher Education broadly.2017-LA-MassMedia-TVProduction-FocusOnSoutheast-MP-1116-013.JPGYou can watch episodes of "Focus on Southeast" by clicking on the links below.September 2016October 2016November 2016December 2016February 2017March 2017Late March 2017May 2017November 2017December 2017February 2018March 2018April 2018July 2018August 2018September 2019October 2019November 2019 - Special Edition

Vargas Speaks - Episode 5

Dan Woods
/
KRCU
Students walking on campus on first day of Fall 2016 classes.

Woods: It's a very busy time as we welcome students back for another semester and we have about a 10% increase in freshman I think you told me?

Vargas: It is exciting, isn't it? I think we're gonna have around 170 more freshman compared to last year. This is about where we would like to be. It's between 1700 and 1800 students...I think that's a good number. So, we're excited that even though the graduation rate in Missouri has not really been going up and as a matter of fact it's actually been going down a little bit, that we are able to actually attract so many more new freshman. That, I think, is a reflection of the fact that the community, the students and the residents of Missouri and other nearby states for the most part are seeing how the university is becoming more of a destination school.

Woods: And one of the things the students will notice if they live in Towers is the new Towers Cafe. I saw some pictures...I was in Towers when I was a student here. This looks a lot different than the cafeteria I remember.

Vargas: I think the students...they are going to be very surprised. They're gonna be excited about being in a place with those kinds of facilities. So, we're actually gonna be giving the Board of Regents a tour of those facilities at our next Board of Regents meeting which is in first days of September. It is so nice that we want them to experience it so we're actually going to invite them to have lunch there with us.

Woods: If you had some advice that you wanted to give to students that are starting this semester what would you tell them?

Vargas: For them to be successful we need their help. So, what they need to do is they need to help us help them. I hope that they will take some time to reflect about what it means for them to be here at the university for the next four years or five years depending on what they wanna do. And so my hope is that they will understand that and concentrate on making sure that when they take classes they don't really think of the class as this isolated amount of information or knowledge that they need to get but really to think about how they can integrate that to make sure that when they graduate from the university they become problem solvers. They need to understand that when they get a job the people who are hiring them want them to add value to the organization. And so they need to study here and keep in mind that they need to, at the end of the day, be an individual that is going to help anybody who hires them to solve problems...to advance the organization and I think that if they feel that way and if they think that way and if they progress here at the university with that mindset that they're gonna be very successful.

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