The Southeast Missouri State University Golden Eagles Marching Band is currently in a transition of having a new field built at the River Campus for it's 2017 season.

The new field will be on the corner of Morgan Oak and South Fountain streets, across the street from the Dobbin's River Campus Center Residence Hall parking lot.

"We had hoped it would be ready for this year, but with all of the rain we had, it unfortunately turned into a big mud pit before the grass could properly grow," Jacob May, Golden Eagles Marching band president, said.

This will be the last semester the band will be at Brandt.

The band eventually will transition to it's new rehearsal space at the Dobbins Center. They also are renovating a small warehouse building that's right next to the field. The warehouse will be used to house all of the marching band's equipment, heavy instruments and hold offices for the staff.

"I am extremely excited about our new location for next year," Courtney Maples, member of Golden Eagles Marching Band, said.

There was nothing wrong with the field the Golden Eagles used at Brandt, however at times it caused issues regarding practices. One being the location of the field. It is at the bottom of a large hill, so all the water that drains around campus settles in it.

"This creates what we lovingly refer to as Swamp Golden Eagle because of the tall grass and sitting water that settle there," May said.

Another issue is every time the marching band members needed to change gears during rehearsal, they would have to carry their instruments down two stories at Brandt and then go down another staircase to make it to the field. People struggled with this due to the heavy equipment being carried.

"It will be refreshing to rehearse on a new space that is up to date and designed specifically for us," May said.

The new location will all be on the same level, so members of the band will no longer have to go such a far distance.

Parking was not very accessible by Brandt either. The new field's location is by a large parking lot that is much more accessible for the band members to park.

The music department has relocated from Brandt to the River Campus Seminary building, and slowly all music classes and ensembles are relocating there too. The marching band have been the only ones utilizing Brandt. It was the only place where they had enough room for storage, equipment and a field. Now that these renovations are taking place, they will be able to join the rest of the music department at the River Campus.

The rest of the music department is located at the river campus, so the whole department will now be in one place rather than split up. This is a big reason the Southeast marching band is moving is because they are Primarily a Music Organization.

"We may be a marching band, but the music we play takes precedent to us, as does how we sound," May said.

The music department currently has three buildings on Southeast's campus, including are the Cultural Arts Center, The Seminary Building and the Dobbins Center. The first holds the Donald C. Bedell Performance Hall and art resources. The second is where most offices, classrooms and practice rooms are. The last building is where all of the dorms and students live and is also used for additional rehearsal spaces.