Last week Gov. Mike Parson signed the FY2021 budget bills and announced spending restrictions. His restrictions include a $11.9 million withhold for Missouri State University.

The budget that our Board of Governor’s approved in June assumes a $9.25 million appropriation reduction and a 1,500 student enrollment decline. While Gov. Parson’s withhold exceeds the state funding cut assumed in the university’s budget, we do not yet know what our enrollment will be in August or whether federal funds will be available to backfill some of the reduction in state appropriations.

We will wait to make further budget cuts until we have more information on these topics.

Attend the town hall

At 10 a.m. on Thursday, we will host a Virtual Town Hall meeting. You can find information about how to participate online.

We will briefly discuss the university’s budget and I will seek input on options for potential additional budget cuts.

Provide your input

We will also spend a great deal of time at the town hall discussing options for a masking policy in the fall.

After our last town hall meeting, I asked a work group to develop options for a fall masking policy. They have presented me with two options:

• The first option would require masks to be worn during academic classes.
• The second option would require masks to be worn in all academic buildings and classrooms in administrative buildings.

Both options would also require masks in select other locations on campus (e.g., Bear Line, computer labs, testing center, etc.), allow a department to determine whether to require masks in a department office, and allow an individual faculty or staff member to determine whether to require masks in their private office.

I will present more information about these options at the town hall meeting. All faculty and staff will also have an opportunity to vote to support one of these two options. There will also be an option that would recommend face masks on campus without requiring them. You can also let me know you don’t like any of the choices we are considering.

I will present the results from this poll to the Board of Governors before they set our mask policy at their August retreat.

Please plan to attend the town hall meeting on Thursday and come prepared to provide input on budget decisions and our return to campus policies. In case you missed it, we have expanded the Zoom capacity to 3,000 users, so all who wish to participate will be able to join.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State!