The creation of the Economic and Business Engagement Center at Southeast Missouri State University to benefit the Southeast Missouri area was announced on Dec. 1.

The Engagement Center will reorganize the original Institute for Regional Innovation and Entrepreneurship’s original primary focus of small business development and entrepreneurship, while adding a priority of economic development for the regional area as well as including continuing education as a workforce development area.

The four major areas the Engagement Center plans to focus on are workforce and professional development, small business development, community development and entrepreneurship training.

According to Crystal Jones, director of the EBEC, the center adds a more well-rounded economic development resource for the region.

“Our focus is externally (outside the university) to help the region grow and prosper to elevate the quality of life for the region, which, in turn, creates opportunities for students,” Jones said.

One of the major goals for the EBEC is to serve as a conduit for the university and region to better both sides and keep graduates of the university in the Southeast Missouri area to help continue to improve both, according to Jones.

According to Christy Mershon, assistant director of continuing education, the idea for the EBEC is to continue the university’s role in preserving its regional designation, whereas other regional universities in the state changed their name (such as Northeast Missouri State University renaming itself Truman State University).

“We have a commitment to the region … in order to be committed to Southeast Missouri State, we have to give back and help and give benefit to the southeast region,” Mershon said.

Due to this idea, the workforce development side of the EBEC allows for local businesses to give input on what they need, in turn allowing Southeast to teach those needs to students to give them a better advantage after graduating.

The hope is for the EBEC to create an environment that improves the quality of life in the region, to attract businesses and keep those with the skills from Southeast in the area to get to work quickly to grow Southeast Missouri.

Due to ever-changing demands and needs in business, the EBEC is set up to be ready to change and re-evaluate what it needs to do on a year-by-year basis to be as up to date as it can be.

With multiple departments that were once separate now coming together as one solid unit, the EBEC is set up to further the goals of the university to be a part of the region, as well as give students an advantage in putting their education to use at a faster pace.

The EBEC will be located at the Douglas C. Greene Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at 920 Broadway.

For more information on the Economic and Business Engagement Center, call (573) 651-2929 or email at engage@semo.edu.