Articles Feed

What's New on Missouri Campuses

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 17:23:04 GMT

By Aja J. Junior

THE FRESHMAN FIT
Getting off on the right foot is important for
students at colleges and universities. Now,
several schools are giving students a boost in
the right direction.

The Policy Center on the First Year of
College, established in 1999 with a grant
from the Pew Charitable Trusts, assists colleges
in developing a first-year program for
their students. The center’s key project, the
Foundations of Excellence, provides a set of
guidelines that schools use to look at their
programs and goals for first-year students
and how they can improve.

The nine guidelines for new students
include serving them according to their needs,
making them a priority to faculty and staff,
developing learning atmospheres for them,
and ensuring that they explore diverse ideas,
world views, and cultures among others.

Missouri Western University, Missouri
Southern State University, and Central
Missouri State University participate in the
four-year programs under the Foundations
of Excellence project.

Metropolitan Community College-
Longview at Lee’s Summit is the only twoyear
community college in Missouri participating
in the program and is one of ten
pilot community colleges in the country
developing a program.

Dr. Beth Lindquist, dean of institutional
success at Longview, predicts that next year
will focus on making sure the changes are
working for students, faculty, and staff.

ALPHA STEPS
Drury University was one of thirteen institutions
recognized by the Policy Center on
the First Year of College and the American
Association of Colleges and Universities
for its Alpha Semester course, Global
Perspectives 21. The course examines
the major questions of American culture
and helps students develop the communication,
critical thinking, and leadership
skills they need to become leaders on campus,
in their careers, and in the communities.

The collegiate experience begins in June
with registration for classes. During this
time, first-year students interact with classmates
and the professor of Alpha Seminar.
Alpha Seminar is a yearlong class in which
students study the American experience
through democracy, ethics, and capitalism.

The Alpha Seminar professor acts as an
advisor and a mentor for students during
their first year of college. Dr. Richard Schur,
director of interdisciplinary studies, says that
this course is a great way to get to know fellow
students and faculty.

Visit www.drury.edu or mcckc.edu/home
for more information.

ONE FOR ALL
This fall, the spotlight shines on the new visual
and performing arts school on Southeast
Missouri State University’s River Campus.

The Earl and Margie Holland School of
Visual and Performing Arts, home to the
only Missouri campus dedicated to music,
art, dance, and theatre, opens its doors
during Homecoming in October at Cape
Girardeau. River Campus brings the theatre,
dance, music, and art departments together
in a new home.

The Cultural Arts Center houses the new
John and Betty Glenn Convocation Center,
where banquets, pre- and post-performance
receptions, and school meetings will take
place. The Donald C. Bedell Performance
Hall, named for a member of the Southeast
Missouri State University Foundation Board
of Directors, will be the site of plays, symphonies,
dance and music concerts, musicals,
and other shows.

State-of-the-art scenery and costume
shops also find a home in the center. Three
performance stages sit adjacent to the shops,
including the Wendy Kruka Rust’s Flexible
Theatre, which can convert its two hundred
seats and stage to a variety of arrangements.

Near the theatre, a new dance studio
features a high-quality, “sprung” floor, which
protects dancers’ legs and feet from injury
with a slightly elastic surface.

Beside the Bedell Performance Hall, the
Rosemary Berkel and Harry L. Crisp II
Southeast Missouri Regional Museum finds
a new home after being located in Memorial
Hall for more than thirty years.

The second part of the school resides
in the 150-year-old newly renovated St.
Vincent’s Seminary. The seminary holds the
Robert and Gertrude Shuck Music Recital
Hall, which offers music students opportunities
not possible in other classrooms. The
Art Gallery and Arts Resource Center on the
lower floor complete the artistic facility.

Visit www.semo.edu/svpa.index.htm for
more information.

A MEDICAL LIFELINE
Central Methodist University’s health professions
program propels pre-medical students
into graduate institutions and medical
schools with a 95 percent acceptance
rate, while 100 percent of nursing students
are passing the National Council Licensure
Examinations.

Dr. James Gordon, chemistry professor
and chair of the science division, credits
the high statistics to resources that undergird
classroom learning. “Support that goes
beyond the classroom helps make our students
successful,” Dr. Gordon says.

Organizations, seminars, and sources are
available to students as early as their freshman
year. For example, the Pre-Health
Advisory Council, a council of physicians,
mentors pre-medical students. It allows students
to build professional relationships.
Students may be able to intern with physicians
on the council and procure recommendations
for medical school.

Professional student organizations also
contribute to students’ success. A Pre-Medical
Honor Society, Alpha Epsilon Delta, hosts
mock Medical College Admission Tests for
students as early as their freshman year to
aid in understanding the test. The Pre-
Health Advisory Committee conducts mock
interviews with students for graduate school,
Dr. Gordon says. Students often regard the
mock interviews as more difficult than the
actual thing.

Nursing students find success with the
help of two key components to their program:
intensity and nurturing.

Megan Hess, chair of the nursing department,
credits the 100 percent pass rate on
the State Board Examinations to the small
school atmosphere, close faculty-student
relationships, and the hard work of students
and staff for success in the program.

The nursing program maintains a high
intensity level to produce good nurses. After
completing a science minor and other general
education courses, students complete
required major courses along with a 225-
hour clinical practicum with professional
nurses.

More importantly, the nurse-filled faculty
ensures that, along with technical proficiency,
prospective nurses have compassion and
respect for humanity. “How would you want
your mother to be treated?” Megan questions
her students. “How would you want your
child to be treated?”

Visit www.centralmethodist.edu for more
information.

BIG SCHOLARSHIPS
Emily Wales knew she wanted to pursue a
career in public service or government. She
never dreamed William Jewell College would
help her get a Harry S. Truman Scholarship.

Emily, a new William Jewell alumni,
received the thirty-thousand-dollar Harry
S. Truman scholarship to attend graduate
school in pursuit of a government or public
service career.

Prestigious awards, such as the Truman
and Fulbright scholarships, have become
associated with William Jewell’s students
over the years due to the college’s Prestigious
Fellowships and Scholarships Program.

“I would never have applied for the
Truman scholarships because I thought bignamed
institutions’ students received it,”
Emily says. “I would never have applied for
the scholarship without the program.”

The program helps students find scholarships
and fellowships within their field, then
prepares them for the rigorous application
process that is part of these national competitions.
Emily says it helped her in writing
the essay and preparing for the interview.

She is not the only student benefiting
from the program. Elizabeth Hall, another
member of the class of 2007, received one
of this year’s Fulbright Scholarships. The
Fulbright Scholarship, divided into three
categories, allows students, professionals, or
teachers to engage in teaching or researching
curriculum in and out of the United States.
Elizabeth is a scholar under the Fulbright
English Teaching Assistant Program, which
allows her to advance students’ understanding
of the English language in other countries.
She will teach in Uruguay.

Jenilee Morrison, also a new William
Jewell alumni, earned the Barry M. Goldwater
Scholarship for her achievements in academia
and promise of a career in the fields of science, engineering, or mathematics.

Lois Anne Harris, director of the Prestigious
Fellowships/Scholarships program, serves as a
mentor to many of the students within the
program. She notes that many times students
are able to attend top-tier graduate schools
after engaging in the program.

“Many believe that being a recipient is
about having a high grade-point average,”
Lois says. “That is true, but there is much
more to the process; leadership and service
are two very important criteria.”

Visit www.jewell.edu for more information.

THE FIRST DEDICATION
Fontbonne University has always been committed
to Catholic heritage; now the institution
is introducing what it calls a Dedicated
Semester each fall, which will focus on a
particular theme.

In the inaugural semester, students, faculty,
and administration are sponsoring speakers,
panels, and events to explore the topic
Judaism and its Culture, inspired partly by
the words of Pope John Paul II depicting
Jewish people as “dearly beloved brothers.”

“This will change the way we do the business
of education at Fontbonne,” says Jason
Sommer, English professor and one of the
creators of the dedicated semester.

Courses in a variety of departments were created to address the study of Judaism,
such as Sociology of the Jewish Family and
Benedictions to Broadway: Jewish Musical
Traditions. Current professors of each
department teach the new courses that will
later become part of the permanent curriculum.
Many courses fulfill major and general
education requirements for students.

As part of the co-curricular activities
associated with the semester, immersion
courses in Hebrew have been scheduled and
filled with students and faculty. Events ranging
from a visit from the authors of Jews and
Baseball to activities focusing on the ethnic
identity of Judaism will also take place.

The entire semester culminates with
the commencement ceremonies when
David Marwell, director of the Museum of
Jewish Heritage: A Living Memorial to the
Holocaust at New York City, speaks to the
graduating class of 2007.

At the heart of the matter is learning
more about Judaism and its connections to
Christianity on the campus and community
wide, Sommer says.

The planned theme for the 2008 dedicated
semester is U.N. Millenial Goals. The
United Nations set forth eight ten-year goals
in 2003; the semester will look at how the
university and students can understand and
support those goals.

Visit www.fontbonne.edu/dedicated for
more information.

HARD-WORKING FACULTY
Out with the old and in with the new
describes the goals of some graduate school
deans and faculty departments regarding
rankings in productivity. A new survey
for research universities’ faculties evaluates
schools objectively, compared to other subjective
surveys’ standards.

The Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index,
produced by Academic Analytics, serves as a
fresh and impartial outlook on how colleges
and universities are ranked in faculty productivity.
Among those to make the index
were Washington University at St. Louis and
University of Missouri at St. Louis.

While the University of Missouri at St.
Louis ranked eleventh in small research universities,
Washington University placed fourth
overall for the Faculty Scholarly Productivity
Index and topped the political science, ecology,
and evolutionary biology fields.

Academic Analytics works in conjunction
with State University of New York at
Stony Brook to collect and analyze scholarly
outputs by university departments and their
faculty. What sets their index apart from
other surveys, such as U.S. News & World
Report, is the lack of opinion-based or other
subjective methodology.

Academic Analytics uses journal publications,
citations, awards and honors, and
grant data on doctoral programs from federal
agencies to compile the index.

Visit www.umsl.edu for more information.

GREEN AMBITION
Green is in. It may not appear on the Paris
runways, but it’s springing up around Missouri campuses for one cause: eliminate
global warming.

Washington University has devoted more
than fifty-five million dollars for a renewable
energy and sustainability program known as
International Center for Advanced Renewable
Energy and Sustainability. The program will
allow research and collaboration with other
schools and organizations to examine renewable
energy and sustainability.

Park University at Parkville pledged along
with more than two hundred other colleges
and universities to diminish greenhouse
gases, eventually abolishing all emissions on
their campuses. This commitment allows
Park to create an action plan that will create
a “climate neutral” campus as well as to
incorporate environmental education in the
curriculum to produce more climate responsible
citizens.

One college flying under the radar is
making leaps and bounds with its studies
on renewable energy. Crowder College’s
Alternative Energy Program bleeds green
with their innovative projects and ideas.

Crowder stood out in past Solar Decathlon
competitions, not only as the sole community
college entrant, but also as a high-place
finisher in each. The biggest undertaking by
the small community college currently is the
construction of the Missouri Alternative and
Renewable Energy Technology Center. Set to
open next fall, the center will be Missouri’s
first educational building powered entirely by
solar and renewable energy.

Visit wustl.edu or www.park.edu or www.
crowder.edu, for more information.

AUCTIONEER HARVARD
One of the best auctioneering schools in
North America, Missouri Auction School produces
top auctioneers in all fields around the
world. Newsweek proclaims it the “Harvard
of Auctioneering.”

ROLL FILM!
Script supervisors, gaffers, and assistant directors
are positions unnoticed by many, but
students at Stephens College at Columbia
know these positions well.

After three years, the only women’s college
with a digital film major has left its
star on various films and festivals, including
Columbia’s True/False Film Festival. This year,
the program offers a new filmmaking minor.

Kerri Yost, assistant professor of filmmaking,
believes that the hands-on experience
students get while studying filmmaking at
Stephens separates it from other undergraduate
film programs.

Students learn the tricks of the trade,
while creating student reels and focusing
on obtaining internships and jobs following
graduation. Visiting Hollywood professionals
and filmmakers offer students connections
to the film industry and potential for landing
internships with such powerhouses as
Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon.

Visit www.stephens.edu/academics/programs/
digitalfilm/ for more information.

Oct 2007

2 Score Years

Wed, 03 Oct 2007 17:36:37 GMT

For Branson's Presley family, 40 years is just the beginning

By Ron Marr

For Branson's renowned Presley family, the summer of 2007 witnessed laughter and celebration, tears and grief. Through it all, the four generations who have made Presleys' Country Jubilee an institution did what they do best. And what they do best, contrary to popular belief, would not be their combination of music and comedy, even though that is exceptional and has been profiled on 60 Minutes, Good Morning America, Paul Harvey, Regis and Kathie Lee, and a host of other national broadcasts.

What the Presleys do best is stick together as a tightknit family, relying on their deep-rooted faith in God and a faith in the inseparable family bonds that have seen them through two-score years of good times and bad.

On June 30, the übertalented family of musicians celebrated their fortieth year of performing on Branson’s 76 Country Boulevard. They were the first entertainers to build a theatre on that stretch of highway now filled with bumper-to-bumper traffic. The Presleys were honored not just by friends and fans, but also by Missouri Governor Matt Blunt, the State Legislature, the City of Branson, the Branson/Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce, and the Taney County Commissioners. It was a time of smiles and pride, particularly for the matriarch and patriarch of the clan, Lloyd and Bessie Mae Presley.

Just a month and a half later, on August 12, Bessie Mae passed away at the age of eightyfour, succumbing to the pulmonary fibrosis and diabetes she had battled with nary a complaint for several years. Although each and every Presley was rocked to the core by the profound loss of their loving and seemingly indestructible wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, they found solace in the sources that had served them so well in years past—faith and each other. Eventually, they relied on the knowledge that their beloved Bessie Mae had lived a full and extraordinarily happy life, experiencing countless smiles at the fulfillment of professional dreams and, more important, infinite pride in the people her large family had become—people who care not just about one another but also about friends, strangers, and the community.

The Presley story begins in the 1850s, when the family first set foot in the green and rugged Ozark hills of southwest Missouri. However, the more modern tale starts in 1934, when ten-year-old Lloyd Presley, son of a Pentecostal preacher, watched his older brother, Don, trade a prized hound dog for a guitar. Such would be the impetus for a musical legacy that to this day shows no sign of slowing.

“That’s where the music started,” Lloyd says with a smile. “But that hound dog was a good ol’ dog, and I sure hated to see him go.”

Both Don and Lloyd’s sister, Elva Mae, made token efforts to learn the guitar. However, both were teenagers and had other pursuits on their minds. The instrument was barely in its case and stashed under the bed before young Lloyd pulled it out and began to teach himself music.

“Of course me being just a little kid, I was really watching everything she’d been doing. When she quit going to lessons and quit playing guitar, I jumped right on it,” he says. “I had already learned the chords that she had learned, just by watching her play, and it all kind of went on from there.”

Lloyd had a natural aptitude for guitar and singing, and with another brother, Elwin, joining in with his harmonica and voice, the two began playing in their father’s church, at ice cream suppers and pie socials, and any venue that would allow them to pluck and sing from the back of a flatbed truck.

And then lightning struck … the good kind. At age eighteen, Lloyd happened to be hanging out with friends near the bumper car rides at Springfield’s Doling Park. It was there, for the first time, that he laid eyes upon Bessie Mae Garrison. The two began dating (Lloyd always brought along his guitar), and in 1942, the couple married. They remained devoted and in love for nearly sixty-five years.

And though many of those early years were not easy, they were almost always fun. The couple’s four children would come soon. Deanna was born in 1943. Next came Gary in 1946, Janice in 1952, and Steve in 1956. Lloyd continued to play his music wherever and whenever he could in the 1940s, forming a group known around southwest Missouri as the Ozark Playboys.

However, music didn’t pay the bills. During the day, he operated a trucking business, providing and delivering produce to local grocers. He would continue operating this business until 1967 and, for years after that, earned extra money as a fishing guide on the area lakes and rivers (as well as giving angling reports as The Friendly Fisherman on Springfield’s KY-3 TV) for many years.

Though none of the Presley kids were ever forced into music, they naturally took to it like a duck to water. From the late 1950s until 1967, the Presleys performed in Springfield’s Fantastic Caverns and at the (now defunct) Underground Theatre near Kimberling City. By this time, Lloyd had been joined on stage by Deanna, Janice, and Gary. It was in those damp and leaky caves that Gary, at age fifteen, added his comedy twists to the show, creating his hillbilly character of Herkimer. Herkimer was a hit from day one (he still is and is internationally trademarked). In 1965, a young Steve first took the stage as drummer, a position he occupies to this day.

In 1967, taking a leap of faith, the Presleys purchased ten acres on Branson’s Highway 76. A far cry from the glittering and glitzy thoroughfare it is today, Highway 76 was simply a desolate strip of broken asphalt in open countryside four miles from Branson.

“When we built the theatre in 1967, we built it with a flat floor and big, double doors in the backside. We didn’t know how the business would do, so Dad and Gary had thethought that, ‘Well, if it doesn’t work as a theatre, we can always use it for boat storage,’ ” Steve Presley says. Steve, the youngest member of the group, was initially provided equipment just a tad south of high tech.

“Nobody was playing drums in the family; really, at that time, there weren’t a whole lot of drums in country music. So, they sat me on the stage with just a snare drum. I literally sat on a block of wood with a little piece of plywood nailed to the top,” Steve says.

The grand opening of the Mountain Music Theatre was on June 30, 1967 (the name has evolved to Presleys’ Country Jubilee). Recalling how locals sought to escape the stifling Ozark summers in the naturally cool cave theatres, the words “air-conditioned” figured prominently on the building’s sign. Admission was one dollar for adults and fifty cents for kids.

Every member of the family was involved with the production in one way or another. On stage, Lloyd played guitar and banjo, while Gary continued with his Herkimer character that had proven such a draw at Fantastic Caverns and the Underground Theatre. Sisters Deanna and Janice sang, as did Deanna’s husband Dave Drennon. The entire family continued to work day jobs to support the fledgling enterprise, and then performed six nights a week (in some years, two shows per night). Lloyd would guide fishermen from the wee hours of the morning. For years, Gary and Bessie made a daily drive to Royal Typewriter at Springfield, before finally landing jobs in Branson. By this time, Gary had married Pat Adams, who was working at a Branson bank.

It was a hard row to hoe.

“We enjoyed doing it and were dedicated to making things work. For the first three years, we didn’t make a penny. The only money we made at all was the change we found on the floor that fell out of people’s pockets,” Gary says. Everything else, every cent, it went to pay the entertainers we’d hired, or to pay expenses, or to pay the bank. When we finally made a little money in our fourth year, we were overjoyed.”

Much has changed in those forty years. Today, the theatre is a state-of-the-art facility, packed most every night and holding 1,600 people. More important, the third generation of Presleys have moved to the forefront of the production, and the fourth generation appears to contain a few performers, too.

Gary and Pat’s trio of sons are crowd pleasers. Scott is the lead guitar player, and there are few harmonica players in the United States who can match Greg’s skills and talent. Eric developed his “Cecil” character, which now rivals his Dad’s “Herkimer” in popularity.

In 1976, Steve married Raeanne Miller (now mayor of Branson) and had three children. Nick handles all the video and electronic production of the shows. John is known for his showmanship and virtuosity on the piano, while seventeen-year-old Sarah plays both fiddle and saxophone.

Then there is the up-and-coming fourth generation. Lloyd and Bessie Mae were blessed with eight great-grandchildren from Scott and wife Malinda, Eric and wife Kelli, and Nick and wife Rhianna. Twelve-year-old Lauren Presley, Scott and Malinda’s eldest, is already showing her talent as a vocalist.

It’s a true family endeavor, and every male member of the Presleys attests that none of it would be possible without the wives who were and are behind the scenes.

“On the family side, we always get all the credit because we’re the ones who are on stage. This is still true now, but in the early days, it was the wives behind the scenes that made everything go. They worked during the day and then at the theatre at night. They sold the tickets. They popped the popcorn. They ran the concession stands. Really, everybody just pitched in and was part of it,” Steve says.

Before her passing, Bessie Mae Presley had a standard response to the thousands of fans who would say to her, “You must be very proud.”

“We’ve been very blessed,” she would respond in her quiet and happy manner.

Truer words have never been spoken.

October 2007