Presidential Updates

Clif’s Notes for Dec. 14, 2021

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Last week the Coordinating Board for Higher Education (CBHE) met. I attended the meeting and advocated for Missouri State University on important issues impacting our operations.

Plan removes barriers

The board approved the Missouri Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development (MDHEWD) strategic plan.

This plan will guide initiatives and priorities in Missouri for the next three to five years. It outlines a comprehensive plan for education, training, and the public workforce system to encourage economic growth and personal success among Missourians.

The plan lays out strategies for access, success and affordability of higher education. It highlights objectives designed to remove barriers to enrollment and employment, holistically support learners and workers, identify resources and create opportunities.

We have already communicated with MDHEWD staff about how we can partner on various initiatives set forth in the plan.

I would encourage all of our faculty and staff to review the strategic plan and email me any thoughts or ideas you have for ways we can do our part to propel the State of Missouri forward on the pathway laid out in the plan.

Review the strategic plan

Adding a new doctoral program

The board also unanimously approved MSU’s proposal for a Doctor of Occupational Therapy degree program.

We have had a graduate program in occupational therapy since 2015. By approving our proposal, the coordinating board has authorized us to add a doctoral degree program to supplement our current master’s degree program in occupational therapy.

Mission change will speed up review processes

Finally, the coordinating board unanimously approved a change to MSU’s CBHE-approved mission description.

MDHEWD’s academic program approval process sorts program proposals based on a university’s mission description. Programs that fall within a university’s CBHE-approved mission description undergo a shorter, less intensive “routine review” process.

Programs that fall outside a university’s CBHE-approved mission description undergo a much longer, more onerous “comprehensive review” process.

MSU’s CBHE-approved mission description did not include professional doctorates. Rather, the mission description listed specific professional doctorates that MSU could offer. The result was that each time MSU offered a new professional doctoral program, it had to undergo a “comprehensive review” process, delaying the start of the program and creating a substantial administrative burden.

MSU requested that the CBHE change the university’s mission description to include professional doctorates generally. By approving this change, the CBHE has authorized MSU’s future professional doctorate programs to undergo a “routine review.” This will be a much quicker, less burdensome process.

This was a controversial decision that some higher education stakeholders in the state opposed. I greatly appreciate the leadership of Commissioner Zora Mulligan and the Coordinating Board of Higher Education in approving our proposal.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State!

Clif’s Notes for Sept. 17, 2019

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The Coordinating Board for Higher Education met last week and began developing its budget recommendations for fiscal year 2021.

Advocating for renovating the Professional Building

The coordinating board recently revamped the capital appropriation request process. The new process competitively ranks proposals to assist lawmakers in making appropriations decisions.

As part of the new capital process, I made a presentation to the coordinating board advocating for matching state funds to complete $9.8 million in renovations to the Professional Building. I am pleased to report that, out of the 112 projects submitted by universities and community colleges throughout the state, the Missouri Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development (MDHEWD) ranked our Professional Building proposal as the number one priority capital appropriation request for fiscal year 2021.

MoExcels proposal

The coordinating board also took the first step to vet MoExcels grant proposals for fiscal year 2021. Last year, we submitted a MoExcels proposal seeking $3 million to expand our nursing program. The coordinating board voted that proposal as the number three ranked proposal in the state, and the state funded our proposal in the fiscal year 2020 budget.

Our MoExcels proposal for this year seeks $2.8 million to fund a collaborative cybersecurity program and to expand Missouri State’s entrepreneurship and professional science master’s programs. These programs will be developed in coordination with the JVIC and Plaster Center construction projects in IDEA Commons.

The MDHEWD received 27 MoExcels proposals this year. The department selected our proposal as one of the top 10, meaning our proposal advances to the next stage of the selection process. As part of that process, I will make a presentation to the coordinating board in October to advocate that they include our proposal in their appropriation recommendations for fiscal year 2021.

Equity funding discussion

The coordinating board also recommended that the state appropriate additional ongoing operating funds as follows:

  • A 1.9% performance funding increase to core operating budgets
  • A 2% across-the-board increase to be designated for facility maintenance and repair

MDHEWD worked with public universities and community colleges over the past several months to develop a “true up” package (aka equity funding and per-student funding). This funding would include a series of core funding increases to resolve disparities in per-student funding between institutions.

Due to a lack of consensus among key stakeholders, the coordinating board tabled this item for further discussion with key policy and budget decision makers.

Moving toward another doctoral program

The coordinating board also took up program proposals under its comprehensive review framework. One of these programs was Missouri State’s Doctorate of Defense and Strategic Studies (DDSS) program. The coordinating board voted unanimously to move our DDSS proposal to the next stage in its comprehensive review process. This brings us one critical step closer to offering a fifth doctoral program.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State!

Clif’s Notes for Sept. 19, 2017

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Dr. Frank Einhellig and I will give the State of the University Address at 12:15 p.m. Sept. 25 in the PSU Theater. This year’s address will:

  • Highlight the university’s accomplishments from the past year
  • Provide an update on the university’s progress on critical benchmarks
  • Discuss our plans for the coming year, including our plans to develop a sustainable financial model in an era of declining appropriations from the state

I hope you will plan to attend the address. If you cannot attend, please consider participating remotely with YouTube livestream. You can also hear the presentation at 7 p.m. Sept. 25 on KSMU or you can see the presentation at 7 p.m. Oct. 2 on Ozarks Public Television. Additional information can be found on the State of the University Address webpage.

Developing a plan

Earlier this year, the Coordinating Board for Higher Education announced its intention to develop a new performance funding model. The Missouri Department of Higher Education established a task force to advise the coordinating board on the new model. I was appointed to this task force.

Over the past several months I have worked with the governor’s office, legislative staff and MDHE to develop task force recommendations.

The coordinating board will approve the new performance funding model at its December meeting. Several items in the new model have yet to be finalized, but other items have been settled.

As with the prior model, the new model will impact the state’s apportionment of new appropriations for public universities. We anticipate that policymakers will also use the new model to make other funding and policy decisions in the coming months and years.

The new model

The new model will include six metrics organized under three headings.

The first heading is “Student Success and Progress.” Two metrics will fall under this heading. Those metrics have been settled upon and I do not anticipate further revisions. They are:

  • Degree, certificate and other credential completions per full-time equivalent student.
  • Percent of students meeting or exceeding an established threshold for general education assessment; major field assessment; or professional/occupational licensure exams.

The second heading is “Efficiency and Affordability.” Two efficiency metrics and one affordability metric will fall under this heading. One efficiency metric and the affordability metric are still under discussion. However, the other efficiency metric will be a continuation of our existing efficiency metric — core expenditures as a percentage of total expenditures.

The final heading is “Graduate Outcomes” and one metric will fall under that heading. That metric will be successful graduate outcomes within six months of graduation as determined by the NACE Final Destination Survey. Specific parameters and thresholds for this metric remain under discussion.

All measures will be used by all institutions, and we will no longer be allowed to select our metrics. Some measures will be weighted to increase institutions’ focus on STEM programs, health care programs and Pell-eligible students.

Significant change

One significant change under the new model will be to replace the six-year graduation rate metric with degree, certificate or other credential completions per full-time equivalent student. This new measure accounts for all students (including transfers, part-time students, etc.), not just first time, full-time freshmen.

It also includes all completions, not just traditional undergraduate and graduate degrees. This underscores the importance of our action items this year to unbundle academic programs, develop micro-credentials, and create boot camps and non-degree training programs.

It will be more challenging to meet the metrics under the new model than it was under the old model. However, I believe the new model offers Missouri State an opportunity to further establish itself as a leader in higher education in the state.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State!

Clif’s Notes for June 20, 2017

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Two weeks ago I traveled to Maryville and attended a meeting of the Council on Public Higher Education in Missouri (COPHE), the coalition of Missouri’s public four-year universities. It has been my privilege to chair COPHE for the past two years, and this was my final meeting as the chair.

Update from Missouri Coordinating Board for Higher Education

Seal by Carrington

Throughout the past two years, the group has focused on important legislative and policy issues that impact higher education, and I believe we have appropriately handled those issues. I am confident that the new chair — Dr. Ambrose, president at University of Central Missouri — will continue the good work of COPHE for the next two years.

Following the COPHE meeting, I attended the regular meeting of the Missouri Coordinating Board for Higher Education. Highlights from that meeting include:

  • The Coordinating Board approved our new MS in computer science and MSED in early childhood special education degree programs. These programs will play an important role in our efforts to increase the number of career-ready graduates.
  • We received a presentation on best practices for student career readiness and graduate tracking. This will be a focus for Missouri State University and others in the coming year.
  • We discussed the 2017 legislative session and fiscal year 2018 budget, including the reductions in appropriations for community colleges, public universities and other higher education projects and priorities.
  • We discussed the work of two groups established by the Missouri Department of Higher Education. The first is an Administrative Cost Work Group that will focus on identifying and developing collaborative opportunities and other tools to reduce administrative costs throughout the public higher education sector. Steve Foucart will be working closely with the members of this work group. The second is a Performance Funding Task Force that will focus on reviewing the state’s current performance funding framework and recommend changes designed to improve the framework and address concerns raised by legislators and others. I will be serving on this task force and will advocate our interests to the Coordinating Board as work goes underway to modify the state’s performance funding model.

New approval process for adding academic programs

Outside library

The Coordinating Board also approved the framework for a new approval process for academic programs. This decision resulted from the Higher Education System Review Task Force that I participated in over the past year.

The new process is a three-tiered framework. The first tier is staff review. This tier applies to minor program changes such as:

  • deleting a program,
  • changing the program’s title or Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) code,
  • or adding an option to an existing program.

For all such requests received by the first of each month, staff will process, review and report back to the requesting institution by the end of that same month.

The second tier is routine review. This tier applies to proposed programs that:

  • are within an institution’s CBHE-approved mission and service region,
  • do not unnecessarily duplicate an existing program in geographic area or other relevant distinction,
  • will be offered at the institution’s main campus or at a CBHE-approved off-site location,
  • will build on existing programs and faculty expertise,
  • and can be launched with minimal expense within an institution’s current operating budget.

Proposals that fit within these parameters will be approved provisionally for a five-year period on an expedited basis.

The final tier is comprehensive review. This tier applies to proposals that constitute more significant changes and that do not meet the requirements for routine review. To qualify for approval under a comprehensive review, the institution must:

  • demonstrate that it made a good faith effort to explore the feasibility of collaborating with another institution to offer the program,
  • demonstrate that the program will meet a workforce need,
  • and meet other threshold requirements.

These programs will be approved on an annual basis.

The next step is for the Missouri Department of Higher Education to start a rule-making process to revise the Code of State Regulations. Once rule-making is complete, the new program approval process will become law. These regulations, however, cannot overrule Missouri State’s statutory degree restrictions, so it remains as important as ever that we continue to advocate that the General Assembly pass legislation that would modify those restrictions.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State!

Clif’s Notes for June 9, 2015

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Clif's Notes

In this issue, I discuss statewide initiatives related to funding higher education.

Committee investigates ways to increase number of Missourians who attend college

Clif Smart at MDHE meetingThe Missouri Department of Higher Education (MDHE) is developing a new coordinated plan for Missouri higher education titled “Preparing Missourians to Succeed: A Blueprint for Higher Education.” By 2018, an estimated 60 percent of all jobs in the state will require some form of postsecondary education.  Currently, about 49 percent of Missourians have a college degree or certificate. Through its coordinated planning process, MDHE is developing a strategy to make progress toward closing this gap.

MDHE has formed a steering committee to develop the new coordinated plan. I am a member of that committee. This year the steering committee held nine public hearings throughout the state to gather input from Missourians about the state’s higher education system. The steering committee will now begin to draft the new coordinated plan. In December, MDHE will present the new coordinated plan for approval by Missouri’s Coordinating Board for Higher Education.

Clif Smart at MDHE meetingSmart testifies at public hearing

Last week the steering committee held a public hearing in Springfield. I testified at the hearing. My testimony focused on funding for higher education. I highlighted our tradition at Missouri State of being the value option for students by providing a high quality education at a reasonable cost. We have accomplished this despite state funding not keeping pace with increasing operational costs by maximizing operating efficiencies and developing new revenue through increased enrollment.

I have been proud to participate in these hearings on behalf of Missouri State. You can read more about MDHE’s coordinated planning process on its webpage. If you would like to provide input to MDHE as part of this process, I encourage you to complete a public comment form.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State!