Presidential Updates

Clif’s Notes for Nov. 16, 2021

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The Board of Governors Executive Committee will meet Wednesday afternoon.

The committee will vote on a resolution to award a $2.7 million contract to John Adams Construction Company for the welding lab renovation at the Broadway Building on the West Plains campus. In addition to submitting the lowest and best bid, John Adams Construction Company is a local general contractor based out of West Plains.

We are excited to partner with a local company to complete this transformative project for the university and the West Plains community.

The committee will also vote on two resolutions for projects on the Springfield campus. The first resolution awards a contract to MTS Contracting, Inc. for repairs to the exterior of Woods House and Wells House on the Springfield campus.

The second resolution hires Clark Huesemann LC as the consultant for infill work at the Roy Blunt Jordan Valley Innovation Center Brewer Science Innovation Annex.

Finally, the committee will vote on two critical procurement contracts.

The first is a contract for reinsurance — or stop loss coverage — for the university’s employee group medical plan.

The second is a contract to purchase $2.3 million in equipment needed to expand capacity of the district chilled water system to more reliably serve the campus and allow for the connection of Kampeter Hall to the system.

Open enrollment: Select the right benefit options for you

We are over halfway through November. That means you only have two weeks left to complete open enrollment for your employee benefits.

Open enrollment is the annual period during which you can elect, decline or make changes to your medical, dental, vision and cafeteria/flexible spending plans for the coming calendar year.

The open enrollment deadline is Dec. 1.

You can find more information about open enrollment, including instructions for how to complete open enrollment online or over the phone, on the open enrollment webpage.

Save $360 on health insurance premiums

You also only have two weeks left to save up to $360 on your annual health insurance premiums.

This year’s wellness incentive includes the following vaccination combination:

  • COVID-19 vaccination qualifies for $20 per month discount.
  • Flu vaccination qualifies for $10 per month discount.

Both vaccinations must be completed prior to Dec. 1 to qualify.

Employees who did not complete their vaccination at Magers Health and Wellness Center must contact Magers to submit their vaccination information before Dec. 1 to qualify for the discount.

Thanksgiving break next week

We will not publish Inside Missouri State next week due to the Thanksgiving holiday.

I hope you take a well-deserved break and find time to relax and recharge before we march forward to the end of the fall semester.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State!

Clif’s Notes for Oct. 26, 2021

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The Board of Governors met two weeks ago. Last week I told you about their approval of a $4.1 million contract to design the renovation of and addition to Temple Hall.

The board took several other important actions during their committee and regular meetings.

Natalie McNish named internal auditor

The Risk Management and Audit Committee interviewed finalists for the position of internal auditor. I am pleased to report that after those interviews the board hired Natalie McNish.

Natalie began working for the State of Missouri in the State Auditor’s office in 2006. She has worked in the university’s office of internal audit and risk management since 2017, serving as the interim director since December of last year.

The board and I look forward to continuing to work with Natalie, and I hope you will join me in congratulating her.

Update on graduate programs

In the Programs and Planning Committee, the board received a presentation about graduate education at MSU.

The presentation focused on our dramatic growth of graduate degree programs, enrollment and awards.

The board discussed next steps in MSU’s Graduate College, including efforts to emerge as a state leader in professional doctoral programs.

Welcoming an emerging news organization

The board approved an agreement with the Springfield Daily Citizen. The Springfield Daily Citizen is a nonprofit news organization emerging in our community.

The Daily Citizen will provide consistent in-depth public affairs journalism published online.

Under the agreement, the Daily Citizen will be located on campus in Freudenberger House at no cost.

Naming Bronze Bear and Government Excellence awards

The board approved a resolution to award the Bronze Bear Award to Tim and Judy Reynolds and the Government Excellence Award to Clay Goddard.

Tim and Judy Reynolds attended MSU, and Judy worked for the university for many years. They have financially supported numerous programs and initiatives at Missouri State.

Most recently, they were responsible for a significant gift to support scholarships for students in the College of Arts and Letters, resulting in the board naming the college the Judith Enyeart Reynolds College of Arts and Letters.

Clay Goddard, a two-time alumnus of Missouri State University, invested his entire career in public service with the City of Springfield and the Springfield-Greene County Health Department.

As the director of health during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, he provided extraordinary leadership to protect our community, mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and save lives.

The Bronze Bear Award and the Government Excellence Award will be presented at our commencement ceremonies this December.

Showcasing points of pride for MSU

I provided updates to the board on COVID-19 and enrollment and showed them the new What’s New At MSU Video.

Frank Einhellig presented the new Mind’s Eye publication and highlights from the fall 2021 Bears Care survey.

Elizabeth Walker, this year’s public affairs fellow, presented a report on the Public Affairs Conference.

The board also received presentations on the student emergency fund and on MarCom’s award-winning success in supporting university advancement with video, writing, design and events.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State!

Clif’s Notes for Sept. 21, 2021

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The Board of Governors Executive Committee met last week.

David Hall and I provided an update on the status of COVID-19 on campus and in our community. We are in a much better position this semester than we were last fall and last spring in terms of case counts, positivity rate and all other relevant metrics.

The board applauded all of our efforts to advocate for vaccination and adhere to the masking policy.

Helping our students

The board approved our plan to distribute federal stimulus funds to our students.

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) allocated $20.8 million to the Springfield campus and $1.8 million to the West Plains campus for distribution to our students. These funds are separate from the funds allocated to the university to offset lost revenue and certain COVID-related expenditures.

We distributed a small portion of the funds to students during the summer. The board approved a plan to distribute almost all of the remaining funds.

  • Currently enrolled domestic students will receive at least $1,000.
  • Pell-eligible students will receive additional funds.
  • International students may also apply to receive funds.

We plan to disperse these funds over the next six weeks.

Movement on the underpass project

The Executive Committee also hired Nabholz Construction Corporation, a construction management at risk firm, to perform professional management services for the Grand Street Underpass project.

The board set a $3.8 million budget for the project. The board can expand that budget to include a second phase if additional funding comes available through Congressionally directed spending.

We continue to work with Rep. Billy Long to advocate for this funding.

Advocating for MSU

The Missouri Coordinating Board of Higher Education (CBHE) also met last week.

The CBHE voted to advance our proposal to offer a Doctor of Occupational Therapy program to Phase II of the comprehensive review process. I want to give a special thanks to Drs. Frank Einhellig, Julie Masterson, Mark Smith, Letitia White-Minnis, Sapna Chakraborty and everyone else who have worked tirelessly on this proposal.

The CBHE approved a rule implementing changes to the Higher Education Student Funding Act (HESFA). Public universities will no longer be limited by law to inflation on tuition increases. The revised rule goes into effect and limits a university’s ability to charge course fees in certain situations. Based on the language in the rule and our conversations with staff at MDHEWD, we do not believe the new rule will impact our tuition and fee model.

The CBHE also approved budget recommendations that will be advanced to Gov. Mike Parson.

These recommendations include:

  • An inflationary increase for public university operating appropriations.
  • A deferred maintenance allocation for each university (calculated at 3% of each university’s core operating appropriation).
  • A $9 million appropriation increase for the Access Missouri financial assistance program and an $18 million appropriation increase for the A+ dual credit scholarship program.
  • Renewal of the Fast Track enabling legislation and removal of the clawback/forgivable loan provisions in the program.

We support these recommendations and will work with Gov. Parson’s office to advocate that they be included in his budget recommendations and policy priorities when legislative session begins in January.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State!

Clif’s Notes for June 22, 2021

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Last week the Board of Governors approved our 2021-2026 long-range plan for the Springfield campus.

As I discussed in a prior note, our new plan is built on aspirational stories and examples of big ideas that will guide our decisions and reality over the next five years.

Those stories and ideas fall under four topical headings:

I would encourage you to take some time to review the plan and see yourself and your unit or department in the stories. Respond to the stories and engage with the ideas. Talk about them with friends, family and colleagues — on and off campus.

You will like some of the ideas and dislike others. Most of all, I hope you will be inspired. I hope you will come up with your own big ideas to propel the university to success over the next five years.

Making the Action Plan

Each unit or division should develop a list of action items that align with the themes of the plan.

We will continue to do that centrally by developing an annual action plan and reporting on that plan at the end of each academic year. The administrative and academic leadership teams will begin to develop the Action Plan for 2021-2022 at a planning retreat this week.

We will also continue to track metrics and establish measurable goals. The board discussed metrics under the new plan at their meeting last week.

In addition to many of the metrics tracked under prior plans, the board would like to track metrics in three additional areas:

  • Number of global partnerships.
  • Number of professional doctorates and masters of fine art.
  • External funding received.

Administration will present draft metrics and measurable goals to the board at their retreat in August.

Thankful for a hard-working team

Developing the 2021-26 Long-Range Plan was an arduous process.

I would like to thank Suzanne Shaw and Shawn Wahl for their hard work to co-chair the steering committee and lead this process.

I would also like to thank all of the members of the steering committee. They met weekly throughout the year and invested many grueling hours to coordinate the creation of the plan.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State!

Clif’s Notes for May 11, 2021

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At this week’s Board of Governors meeting, I will present the Executive Budget Committee’s FY2022 budget recommendations to the board.

These recommendations include $7.5 million in benefit and compensation increases.

Among these increases is a 3% across-the-board compensation increase.

If approved by the board, this increase will go into effect:

  • On July 1 for all full-time, 12-month employees.
  • On Aug. 1 for all full-time, 9-month employees.

Only employees who are full-time on or before May 31, 2021 will receive the increase.

Cost-of-living increases

Compensation is important. With this in mind, the board and I have worked to provide cost-of-living salary increases throughout my presidency.

Unfortunately, the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic made it impossible to provide a cost-of-living pay increase last July.

The 3% pay increase recommended by the Executive Budget Committee, combined with the $600 across-the-board increase that went into effect earlier this year, recognizes the increased living costs our employees have faced since we were last able to budget a cost-of-living pay increase in July 2019.

Funding priorities for the committee

The Executive Budget Committee’s recommendations also include:

  • Enhanced dental plan benefits for employees (a Faculty Senate and Staff Senate priority for this year).
  • Salary range adjustments.
  • A minimum wage increase.
  • Salary increases under the professor salary incentive program.
  • Faculty promotions.

At the request of many members of the Executive Budget Committee, the recommendations will also restore a substantial portion of travel budgets throughout the university and unfreeze many of the currently frozen faculty and staff positions.

The Executive Budget Committee also recommended increases for several university programs, services and initiatives, including:

  • $65,000 for LinkedIn Learning.
  • More than $300,000 in technology upgrades.
  • $120,000 in additional student recruitment travel costs.
  • $300,000 in diversity and inclusion initiatives.

Board will vote in June

I will present these recommendations for discussion at the Board of Governors Finance and Facilities Committee meeting May 12.

The Board will vote on the FY2022 budget at its June meeting.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State!