With only one tentative event left, the Cuba Semester is winding down.

“I thought it was really a wonderful semester,” said Dr. Gwen Murdock, professor and head of psychology.

Murdock is also a member of the Cuba Semester planning committee.

“I thought it (the Cuba Semester) was the best yet,” she said.

The semester boasted the most events of any theme semester with around 40 events. The attendance for the events was also up. One event, the Gockel International Symposium, had a record attendance.

“We utilized several different class periods,” said Dr. Chad Stebbins, director of the Institute of International Studies.

Stebbins said the schedule of events was planned out to allow students more time to see the events.

Murdock said, however, she would like to see the events of future themed semesters spread out more during the semester.

She also said she would like to see a closing event for the semester to allow students and faculty to come together and discuss the whole semester. The semester events were planned based on previous theme semesters.

“[This semester is] just another example of how we learn to improve the theme semesters each year,” said Rod Surber, director of public information and member of the planning committee.

Some students agreed with Surber.

“I think they’ve (the committee) done a pretty good job,” said Leigh Babbit, senior history and political science major.

Babbit said she enjoyed the wide variety of lectures and videos presented during the semester. She said the Cuba Film Festival was the most enjoyable event for her, but she is looking forward to U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson’s (R-Mo.) tentative speech Dec. 10.

The committee had a budget of $35,000 to spend on the event, but Stebbins said money was still left in the budget and that no exact amount could be given as to how much was spent because the committee is still receiving bills for some events.

The members of the committee are responsible for hosting and helping the individuals who come to Missouri Southern to speak at events.

Stebbins said he would like to see other departments involved in future themed semesters.

Some students would like to see other changes made to the themed semesters.

“If people just go to one building, they might not know about the semester events,” said Katie Lee, sophomore art education major.

Lee said she would like to see more décor in each building dedicated to the themed semesters.

Other students would like to see different changes in the themed semesters.

“I think we need to do something more exotic,” said Alan Anderson, sophomore undecided major.

Anderson would like to see the themed semesters focus on countries few people at Southern would know about.

He said the themed semesters would then add more to educate the students.

“That way, when they (students) learn something, they learn something new,” he said. “We might as well learn something we didn’t already know before.”

Suggestions and decisions are still being made for the theme of the fall 2004.