On Friday morning, Feb. 25th, the Board of Governors at Southeast Missouri State University met to vote over many changes for the following school year. Items voted on included changes to the FY23 room and board rates, the addition of majors to Southeast, the renaming of certain academic programs on campus, as well as the naming of John E. Mehner as the Assistant Vice President for the Office of Economic and Workforce Development.
The changes proposed to the room and board rates at the college were met with considerable student pushback after their initial public announcement at Southeast’s Student Government Association’s weekly meeting. A Change.org petition gathered over 1100 signatures resisting the meal plan changes. However, the petition contained false claims about the meal changes. According to Bruce Skinner, Associate Vice President of Student Life, the changes are in line with what other universities are doing.
“This idea of this block concept really emerged front the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville… We are the only school in the Chartwells region, there’s only two, that have a value exchange program like we have… We are catching up with where other places currently are.”
The other changes included the addition of a new BS in Respiratory Therapy, the renaming of BA in Communication Studies to BA in Communication, and the deletion of both the Communication & Rhetoric Option and the Public Communication Option associated with the previous BA in Communication Studies.