Cottonwood to be renovated to house several Southeast departments

Vice President for Finance and Administration Kathy Mangels is excited about the upcoming changes which will be taking place to renovate Cottonwood Treatment Center. These changes will be moving several departments into the available spaces. The single facilities was built back in the late 1980s for the state of Missouri and has been leased as a youth facility. Two years ago, through budget cuts the state turned over the location to a local organization that has since moved to another facility. This is the first time since the facility was built the space is available for other use at the university.

The Cape Girardeau treatment center, Cottonwood shows signs of much needed renovations which are soon to come. Photo by Josh Dodge

“As a part of our master plan we looked at the space and determined that it would make a great new home for our International Services for students,” Mangels said.

“We are in the process of analyzing the recommendations to move the office of International Education Services and the Intensive English Program to this facility, which has a total of six buildings.”

There is a main administration building with office space, a small gymnasium and an attached kitchen area, which is under consideration for moving the classroom kitchen for dietetics and hospitality management from Dearmont.

“Some of the space can be used by Residence Life for actual housing that would provide some unique opportunities when international students who arrive early and they don’t have any housing accommodations worked out, we have temporary space available for them,” Mangels said.

The facility may also be used as temporary housing for visiting international professors.

“We’re in the middle of doing a master plan update for this campus and our regional sites,” Mangels said. “The consultants have been on campus for over a year gathering information.”

“The master plan consultants already knew the needs around campus and when the facility became available they decided what would be the best fit for the location,” Mangel said.

The board approved the renovation back in September and all the buildings will need different accommodations, according to Mangels.

“Our hope is to get some offices moved by the fall semester of 2018,” Mangels said. “The renovation will be open up to bidding on who will be contracted to do the work.”

The space is in good condition structurally, therefore the choice was made to renovate rather than rebuild a new location,according to Mangels.

“The master plan consultants look at all of our buildings, parking lots, residence halls and our athletic facilities, then they make an assessment, which is presented to the board for recommendations based upon the conditions and the needs,” Mangels said.

The MPC gives recommendations in increments of one to three, four to five and six to 10 years to the board for reviewing.

Throughout her 23-year career at the university, Mangels has seen many changes and updates around campus.

“I’ve always like to see progress, we have had a lot of construction since my time here. The orange fencing is a temporary inconvenient but it is progress happening. I try to share that it’s really progress and difficult to think about that at a time when you have budget reductions but you have to continue to invest and take care of what we have,” Mangels said.