Presidential Updates

Clif’s Notes for March 22, 2022

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Last week President Biden signed legislation that funds the federal budget for the current fiscal year. It includes more than $56 million for Missouri State University.

  • $50 million for the renovation of and addition to Temple Hall.
  • $3 million for a faculty endowment in health and life sciences on the Springfield campus.
  • $2.5 million for a hospital simulation lab on the West Plains campus.
  • $525,000 for equipment and technology upgrades to support STEM research and teaching on the West Plains campus.

The budget also includes more than $28 million for projects with university partners at the Roy D. Blunt Jordan Valley Innovation Center.

Transforming our STEM facilities

The funding included in this budget will provide substantial support for the first phase of the Center for Transformational Education for Life, Physical, and Health Sciences. We will construct an addition to Temple Hall and renovate existing space in the building, transforming it into the Ozarks Health and Life Science Center.

The university is currently working with Gov. Mike Parson, Sen. Lincoln Hough, and other lawmakers to obtain state funding for the remaining costs to renovate and construct an addition to Temple Hall. Parson included these funds in his budget recommendations.

The General Assembly will complete its work on the state budget in early May.

An incredible advocate for MSU

U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt led the effort to secure the federal appropriations for MSU. He was the driving force behind getting this done for Missouri State.

Blunt has been a leading advocate for MSU and for southwest Missouri. This campus would look a lot different without his work. We owe him a huge debt of gratitude, and I hope you will join me in thanking him for his work this year and throughout his career.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State!

Clif’s Notes for March 1, 2022

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We hosted our federal government relations team for meetings on campus last week.

They updated us on the status of the budget for the current fiscal year. We anticipate the federal budget to be passed before the current continuing resolution expires March 11.

We continue to advocate that the budget include funding for life, physical, and health science facilities and equipment on our Springfield and West Plains campuses.

We also conducted several meetings to discuss a variety of campus plans and projects with an eye toward developing priorities for next fiscal year.

Our team met with leadership at IDEA Commons and the office of research administration. They also met with Tom Peters to discuss our coordination of the 2023 Smithsonian Folklife Festival.

They met with academic leadership in the Darr College of Agriculture and the College of Education.

Finally, they met with academic leadership in the College of Natural and Applied Sciences and the McQueary College of Health and Human Services to discuss the next phase of opportunities in life, physical and health sciences at Missouri State University.

Thanking a long-time MSU supporter

Sen. Roy Blunt has been our lead advocate in Washington, D.C., for many years. I had the opportunity last week to publicly express my and the university’s gratitude for his work.

The Missouri Times honored Sen. Blunt with the Statesman of the Year recognition. Because of my relationship with Sen. Blunt, I was one of only five individuals selected to speak at the awards banquet.

I focused on Sen. Blunt’s work to secure funding for projects that have enhanced MSU and the State of Missouri. I also discussed Sen. Blunt’s leadership in putting MSU on an international stage by selecting our Chorale to perform at the 2017 Presidential Inauguration.

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 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!

Clif’s Notes for Feb. 2, 2021

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Last week Gov. Mike Parson delivered his State of the State Address and budget recommendations.

Gov. Parson’s proposed budget includes:

  • Full restoration of MSU’s $94 million operating appropriation and sources of funding.
  • Full funding for state scholarship programs.
  • $1.8 million in one-time funding through the MoExcels program to establish the Missouri Cybersecurity Center of Excellence at the Jordan Valley Innovation Center.
  • $50,000 in one-time start-up funding for an associate degree program in behavioral health support on our West Plains campus.

Legislative priorities

Gov. Parson’s proposed budget provides us with a great starting point in this year’s appropriations process.

Our top legislative priority this year is restoration of our core operating appropriation, and Gov. Parson’s recommendations include that priority. His budget also funds important student support, capital and academic needs on both of our campuses.

I hope you will join me in once again thanking Gov. Parson for his extraordinary support.

House begins work on budget

The House will now begin its work on the state’s budget. Our team has testified to the House appropriations subcommittee to advocate for the university’s priorities, and we have met with critical legislators who will form the state’s budget. We will continue to interact with lawmakers in the coming weeks and months.

COVID-19 updates

I am pleased to report that the university has administered 1,294 doses of COVID-19 vaccine.

You can find updates on who is eligible to be vaccinated and information on whether the university currently has vaccine available on our COVID-19 vaccinations webpage. At present it does not appear we will receive additional vaccine from the state this week.

We have also updated our COVID-19 Information Center and dashboard. I would encourage you to take some time to review the information on those webpages, including the most up-to-date data about COVID-19 on our campus and the university’s response.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State!