Presidential Updates

Clif’s Notes for June 11, 2019

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Yesterday Governor Mike Parson signed the budget, completing the state’s budgeting process for the coming fiscal year.

As you will recall, this year’s budget includes a $10 million core funding increase for Missouri State University as well as one-time funding to expand the university’s nursing program.

Please join me in thanking Governor Parson and our legislative leaders for supporting MSU.

Highlights from recent higher ed meetings

Last week the Missouri Council on Public Higher Education (COPHE) and the Coordinating Board for Higher Education met.

COPHE spent significant time discussing highlights from the legislative session. These include a list of troublesome bills that did not pass, such as legislation that would have:

  • Impacted the way universities handle Title IX allegations and investigations
  • Limited university boards’ authority to regulate the possession of firearms on campus
  • Prohibited public universities from charging health fees to students
  • Prohibited public universities from requiring students to live on campus after their first year
  • Limited campus free speech policies, required particular policies for religious student organizations, and restricted university boards’ authority to set tuition and fees

COPHE also discussed several bills that the legislature passed, such as legislation that:

  • Establishes Fast Track, a new grant program that will fund tuition and fees for qualifying nontraditional students to pursue degrees in fields that have a workforce shortage
  • Expands higher education benefits for veterans
  • Authorizes dual credit tuition reimbursement for community colleges and universities

MSU was actively involved in each of these legislative victories. Thanks again to everyone who helped make this year a success in Jefferson City.

Development of a funding formula

After the COPHE meeting, Commissioner Zora Mulligan asked me to participate in a meeting with NCHEMS, a nonprofit organization that is assisting the coordinating board to develop a per-student funding formula. I was encouraged by this meeting and the other conversations on this topic.

Our work to eliminate the gap between MSU and the next lowest funded university had a significant impact this year when the legislature increased our appropriation by $10 million. Based on my conversations over the last week, I am hopeful it will have a longer lasting impact as the coordinating board works to develop a funding formula designed to allocate funds based on weighted FTE enrollment.

Details on what this formula will look like and how it will impact universities throughout the state will emerge in the coming months.

Approving programs to address workforce needs

The coordinating board approved a new vision statement. The coordinating board also approved amendments to their rule on residency and transfer in response to CORE 42.

The coordinating board approved mission descriptions for all community colleges and universities throughout the state. This approval followed a years-long process that involved significant work from administrators at institutions throughout the state. Thanks to Dr. Frank Einhellig and everyone else who invested into this process.

The coordinating board also approved program designations for the Fast Track Workforce Incentive Grant program. Missouri State University offers many academic programs that will qualify under the Fast Track program, and we are already working to determine how we can utilize the program at Missouri State to educate non-traditional students for careers in high demand fields.

The coordinating board also gave full approval to Missouri State’s Doctor of Nurse Anesthesia Practice program and approved Missouri State’s Visual Studies MFA program for a two-year follow-up.

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!

Missouri’s Public Universities: Adding to the State’s Bottom Line

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Missouri State Universities---Adding to the Bottom LineThe Council on Public Higher Education (COPHE) has issued a new publication that explains how investing in Missouri’s public universities creates opportunities and adds value to the state:

  • Public universities develop the advanced workforce of the 21st century.

  • Public universities “teach the teachers.” Our graduates are educating the state’s next generation of leaders, from preschool through doctoral programs.

  • Public universities fuel the economic engine of Missouri every day of every year.

  • Public universities improve the quality of life in Missouri by providing public benefits, as well as personal benefits.

Read complete publication

I encourage you to read and share this publication as we continue to make the case for investing in Missouri’s public universities.

About COPHE

Missouri’s 13 public four-year universities comprise the Council on Public Higher Education in Missouri (COPHE). Brian Long is the COPHE Director.