GP Podcast

On Monday, Southeast Missouri State University released its “Protect the Nest” plan in preparation for students’ return to campus. To get more information about the plan and the context around it, KRCU’s Clayton Hester spoke to Southeast President Carlos Vargas. 

“This plan is the result of a number of conversations we’ve had across the campus from the beginning of the spring when we actually had the pandemic hit us,” Vargas said. 

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has rescinded a policy it announced on July 6 that international students would not be allowed back into the country if their college or university is doing only online classes.

Executive Director of International Education and Services Kevin Timlin says Southeast was likely not going to be affected when the order was moving forward because of its hybridized courses. 

The Southeast Missouri Food Bank has been busy working to meet the needs of many individuals and families in the region because of the pandemic. We spoke with Lisa Church who serves as the Chief Advancement Officer.

Lisa told us that the food bank serves 16 counties in southeast Missouri which equates to around 370,000 people. "And this is an area of Missouri that has some of the highest rates of hunger in the entire state." 

COVID-19 remains top of mind among the leadership at Southeast Missouri State University. Southeast recently announced its plans for late summer and the fall 2020 semester with the goal of mitigating the risk of COVID-19 on the campus.

To learn more about the plan and how it was developed, we spoke with Dr. Carlos Vargas, President of Southeast Missouri State University and Kathy Mangels, Vice President for Finance and Administration.

Cape Girardeau has been talking lately about its Confederate monument in Ivers Square, located on the lawn of the Common Pleas Courthouse, which is being renovated into the new city hall.