Students and families meet the president over breakfast

Southeast Missouri State University hosted a meet the president breakfast Saturday morning in the south dining room of the University Center for students and their families.

The university holds this event at the beginning of Family Weekend every year to give parents and students chance to meet the university president and his staff.

"It's really nice to talk to parents and find out what's on their minds," Dr. Kenneth W. Dobbins said. "I really just talk about what they want to talk about."

Dobbins likes to meet the students and the parents on an individual basis. This allows him to develop relationships with them, and he was comfortable discussing the occasional issue that a student or parent may have with the school, Dobbins said.

The meet the president breakfast has been organized by Campus Life for the last few years.

The event was more successful this year than the organizers initially planned for, and some people had to find seating arrangements in different rooms of the UC as the main room filled up, said Michelle Irby, director of campus life and event services.

"We held this event in the Beanery last year, and it turned out to be too small," Irby said. "So we decided to move into here, but it may be too small again. We might have to move to a bigger room next year."

This event was originally held on the Sunday morning of Family Weekend when it was introduced. Eventually, it was pushed back to Saturday morning, and the attendance began to improve. This year has had the best turnout so far, Dobbins said.

Tim Weatherly, district manager of Chartwells, said that the south dining room was recently renovated, and he was delighted to have it finished in time for this event. The goal was to have the new addition in the back of the room ready for this event, but it was not finished.

Food was supplied and set out by Chartwells and its employees.