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  • An artist’s rendering depicts what the campus oval might look like in the future at Missouri Southern State University, where a new master plan will be presented today. Courtesy | MSSU COURTESY | MSSU

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July 22, 2012

MSSU to unveil new master plan

By Emily Younker Globe Staff Writer

JOPLIN, Mo. — Officials with Missouri Southern State University will release details today about their new master plan, a document designed to guide the campus over the next 15 to 25 years.

The plan focuses primarily on the “look” of the campus — its layout, buildings and other aesthetic aspects, said Rob Yust, vice president for business affairs.

“It’s kind of a guide for us to have for the future,” he said in a telephone interview last week. “It’s hard to envision it now. Hopefully over time, as the financing becomes available, we can implement this thing little by little.”

According to a campus promotional video, the master plan was developed with three goals in mind: to create a campus that is connected, welcoming and inviting; to improve the quality of student-life amenities; and to raise the bar for academic spaces.

Yust said the plan includes several projects that have been designated as priorities, such as the renovation or replacement of Reynolds Hall, one of the university’s original academic buildings, and the renovation or addition of student residential areas.

Also included are several “beautification projects that perhaps will make the campus more appealing to students to want to come to Missouri Southern (and) to make it appealing to potential donors,” Yust said.

Those suggestions include new signs, the conversion of campus roads and parking lots into “pedestrian corridors,” the installation of a trail linking the campus with Northpark Mall, an amphitheater and outdoor classroom, and a May 22, 2011, tornado memorial garden at the oval.

Yust said the proposals in the master plan total roughly $194 million.

“We’ll take all the lists and look at those, saying, ‘Let’s see what we can do budgetarily on an annual basis,’” he said. “Obviously that ($194 million) doesn’t fit anywhere in our budget. We know that there are some major dollar items there that we can’t do unless we receive some external funding to assist us with some of these things.”

The plan was developed with input from faculty and staff members, students, alumni and the public, Yust said. The university also hired RDG Planning & Design, of Des Moines, Iowa, to assist in the procedure.

Unveiling

Missouri Southern State University’s new master plan will be released at 2 p.m. today in Phelps Theater at Billingsly Student Center. Faculty and staff members and other interested parties may attend.

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