Presidential Updates

Clif’s Notes for Jan. 12, 2021

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I hope you had a relaxing winter break. Due to the pandemic, this winter break was different than prior years. Gail and I spent a lot of time together at home recharging and celebrating the holidays.

The spring semester began yesterday, and we are off to a good start. Opening day enrollment numbers show us up in new undergraduate and graduate students, up in returning graduate students, but down in returning undergraduate students. It is important that we continue to do everything we can to support our students.

COVID-19 initiatives

This semester we will continue our COVID-19 initiatives from last semester. Asymptomatic testing will be available throughout the semester. We will continue to administer COVID-19 tests at Magers Health and Wellness Center for those who have symptoms or have been exposed to someone with the virus.

We have also implemented several new initiatives.

Our students living on campus were tested for COVID-19 immediately before the semester began.

We have scaled up and automated our wastewater testing program to systemically monitor campus wastewater for early detection of COVID-19 outbreaks in a residence hall or other facility. I want to give a special thanks to Dr. Amy Hulme, David Vaughan and others who made this possible.

We are also in communication with local, state and federal authorities to obtain and provide COVID-19 vaccine for our campus community as soon as it becomes available for us. We will keep you updated as we receive information about vaccination priorities for our campus community, etc.

You can find other information about the university’s virus response and initiatives on the COVID-19 Information Center. Our dashboard has been updated for the new semester. You can find the final fall 2020 dashboard online as well.

Plan to join town hall

We will host a Virtual Town Hall meeting at 3 p.m. Jan. 15.

I will be joined by Director of University Safety David Hall and other administrators to update the campus community on the university’s COVID-19 response and strategies. You are free to submit your questions and input on any topic at the meeting.

You can find the Zoom link and other information about the meeting on the university’s webpage.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State!

 

Clif’s Notes for Dec. 1, 2020

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Earlier this month the Board of Governors Executive Committee met.

The committee awarded the contract to construct the Springfield Public Schools Agricultural Magnet School at Darr Agricultural Center to Larry Snyder & Company. This is a $6.7 million project funded entirely by private donations.

The committee also approved $800,000 in purchases to upgrade the efactory and JVIC to meet public health emergency guidelines. These purchases are funded entirely with CARES Act funds allocated by Greene County and the Missouri Department of Economic Development.

I also updated the board on the status of COVID-19 on our campus and our plans to finish this semester and start the spring semester without making changes to our academic calendar.

Cost-saving measures

I updated the board on the FY2021 budget.

The budget currently includes several cost-saving measures, including:

  • A 75% reduction in funding for facility repairs and classroom upgrades.
  • A 25% reduction in the President’s enhancement fund.
  • A 75% reduction in funding for academic equipment.
  • A 50% reduction in travel budgets.

These cuts are in addition to savings generated by the hiring freeze, eliminating the incentive payments for teaching online classes and delaying the completion of the new residence hall. Even with these reductions in place, we still planned to use $4 million of reserves to balance the FY2021 budget.

Thanks to all of your hard work, fall enrollment exceeded projections. Accordingly, it does not appear that we will need to use $4 million in reserves to balance the budget.

Additionally, Gov. Mike Parson released more than $1.5 million in state appropriations for the Springfield campus and more than $100,000 for the West Plains campus. Our leadership team worked with the Executive Budget Committee and the Board of Governors to develop a plan to revise the FY2021 budget and allocate these funds.

Pay increase

This plan includes a $600 per year across-the-board pay increase for full-time faculty and staff hired on or before Nov. 30, 2020. The increase will begin in January for 12-month employees and in February for 9- and 10-month employees.

The increase will be spread throughout the year the same way a percentage increase would be spread. For example, an employee in a 12-month exempt position paid once each month will receive an extra $50 (before taxes and withholdings) per month beginning with their paycheck at the end of January 2021.

The university typically implements across-the-board pay increases as a percentage of each employee’s salary. If we were to do that in this situation, we would have provided a 1% raise.

We decided to structure this increase differently because the financial impact of the pandemic and of forgoing raises in July disproportionately affected our lowest paid employees. Our lowest paid employees also benefit more from a $600 raise than a 1% raise.

Moreover, almost all of our employees who were placed on 2/3 pay during the spring and summer will benefit more from a $600 raise. We believe it is important to recognize their loyalty in returning to work after their temporary pay reductions.

The plan also funds adjustments to our salary ranges to match the calendar year 2019 employment cost index.

The remaining $700,000 will be allocated to temporarily restore a portion of the reduced funding for facility repairs and classroom upgrades. Because the $600 raise is being implemented in the middle of this fiscal year, only half of the annual cost of the raise must be allocated in the FY2021 budget.

Accordingly, we have tentatively tagged the $700,000 used to partially restore funding for facility repairs and classroom upgrades as available to fund most of the remaining cost of the $600 raise in the FY2022 budget.

We will present this plan to the board for approval at their December meeting.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State!

Clif’s Notes for Sept. 29, 2020

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Next Thursday and Friday, fall break will mark the midpoint of the fall semester. To mitigate spread of the coronavirus, we will augment our ongoing efforts to clean and sanitize classrooms and certain other high touch spaces by performing additional detailed cleaning.

To make this possible, we need to reduce the number of personnel on campus as much as possible. Accordingly, campus will be closed on Oct. 8-9.

In accordance with the School Cancellation Policy, staff are not to report to work on these days unless they are notified or have been given prior instructions to report as part of essential services. Exempt and nonexempt staff will be paid for these days in accordance with university policy on campus closures.

Folks, I know we have all been working really hard since March with very few days off. While this is very short notice, I would like to advise that all Zoom/virtual meetings scheduled for Oct. 8-9 be rescheduled in order to give everyone the break they deserve.

Focus on enrollment

Last week we completed our census enrollment report for the fall 2020 semester.

Before the pandemic, we anticipated an enrollment decline of 834 continuing undergraduate students. This was due to many factors, including graduating two very large senior classes in 2019 and 2020 as well as national and regional demographic shifts.

To address these shifts, last fall we began to analyze long-term enrollment strategies through a strategic enrollment management planning process.

We also implemented a series of access initiatives:

The pandemic presented a new set of challenges. However, our faculty and staff banded together to continue to recruit new students and support our existing students.

Overcoming a challenging environment

This year’s enrollment report is a testament to that work. Enrollment on the Springfield campus grew by 37 students to 24,163. System enrollment grew by 15 students to 26,016.

We also grew in strategic areas where we have invested significant time, effort and resources.

  • We achieved a first to second year retention rate of 79.2%. This is the highest rate ever since we began tracking our retention rate.
  • Our graduate enrollment grew by 4.5% to 3,985.
  • Students from underrepresented groups grew by 7.3% to 3,300.
  • New transfer undergraduate enrollment grew by 2.3% to 1,468.
  • Dual credit enrollment grew by 14.8% to 3,967.

I hope you are as proud as I am of our university’s enrollment success this year. This success would not have been possible without your work to increase access and offer an array of seated, blended and online classes this fall.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State!

 

Clif’s Notes for Feb. 18, 2020

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Earlier this month the Springfield campus Executive Budget Committee held its first meeting to discuss the fiscal year 2021 budget. This year’s chair is Dr. Richard Gebken, and each college has an elected faculty representative on the committee. Leaders of Faculty Senate, Staff Senate, the Student Government Association also sit on this committee.

The purpose of this meeting was to evaluate preliminary budget numbers and discuss strategies to increase revenue and reduce expenses to fill the budget shortfall. The Executive Budget Committee makes recommendations that the Board of Governors considers when finalizing and approving the university’s operating budget.

Reviewing the current budget

Before beginning to work on next year’s budget, the committee first reviewed this year’s budget.

This year’s budget includes:

  • A modest tuition increase that was substantially less than the increases at most other public universities in Missouri
  • $9 million in new revenue due to a substantial increase in state appropriations (this is net of the state’s standard 3% withholding and the West Plains campus’s share of the increase)
  • $1.4 million in additional interest income
  • $6.9 million in payroll and benefit increases
  • $2.4 million in expense reductions and re-allocations

Unfortunately, we also had to budget for $4.6 million in reduced revenue because of a decline in credit hour enrollment.

Planning for next year

As we begin to work on next year’s budget, we will start with a carry-forward of $3.2 million in revenue. We intentionally left this carry-forward in this year’s budget because enrollment projections indicate another enrollment decline in fall 2020.

Next year’s budget assumptions include:

  • More than $300,000 in faculty promotions
  • Funding for enrollment strategies that were rolled out this year, such as the application fee waiver, the Academic Advising and Transfer Center, the Center for Academic Success and Transition, and scholarship program changes
  • Increases in the cost of employment benefits, such as a $900,000 increase in the university’s pension premiums, $1 million in increased health care costs and more than $200,000 in increased usage of the credit course fee waiver program.
  • A $1.3 million reduction in the support the university’s auxiliary system can contribute to the operating budget

Unfortunately, our enrollment model continues to project another enrollment decline in fall 2020.  This will impact the budget with:

  • Another $5.2 million decrease in tuition revenue
  • A $700,000 decrease in anticipated auxiliary student fee and parking revenue

If Missouri State increases undergraduate in-state tuition by the maximum amount allowed by the law, we will still have an anticipated budget shortfall of nearly $7 million that must be filled for the upcoming fiscal year.

How we move foward

We are developing several strategies to address this budget shortfall.

First, we are implementing cost reductions of $2.9 million across campus. I have asked all cost centers to begin the thoughtful process of identifying where these reductions can be taken.

Second, we are working to improve our enrollment situation for the fall semester. Due to state and national demographic shifts, we will not have increased (or even flat) enrollment in fall 2020. However, we are working on strategies to reduce the amount of our enrollment decline. Some indicators show that these strategies are making an impact, but we will not know for sure until the fall semester begins.

Third, we are advocating for an increase in operating appropriations from the state. Last week Chairman of the Board of Governors Craig Frazier and I traveled to Jefferson City and met with legislators to discuss the importance of year-over-year operating appropriation increases for Missouri State. You can find additional information about these meetings and the other work we are doing in Jefferson City in the most recent MSU Legislative Network update.

Board will discuss this week

We will present this same information to the Board of Governors later this week during the Finance and Facilities Committee meeting. Discussion at that meeting will focus on tuition and fees for the 2020-21 academic year.

Due to last year’s appropriations increase, we were able to hold the tuition increase for in-state undergraduate students to 2.87%. Our tuition increase was significantly lower than the increases at other public universities throughout Missouri. This allows us flexibility to increase tuition in the coming year while still being competitive with our affordability.

If you have input on any issues relevant to the university’s budget, please feel free to reach out to the members of the Executive Budget Committee. You can find the roster in the university’s Committees Handbook.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State!

Clif’s Notes for Dec. 17, 2019

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The Board of Governors met last week.

The board approved more than $400,000 in equity salary increases for 125 employees. These are pay raises that cost centers on campus have agreed to fund by reallocating money from their existing budgets.

This is the first time staff and administrators have been eligible for these kind of equity adjustments in more than a year. We went through a similar process in the spring for faculty, and the board approved more than $500,000 in equity salary increases and promotions for 88 faculty members in June.

The board also approved more than $70,000 in raises that we are centrally financing for 48 employees to comply with changes to Fair Labor Standards Act regulations.

Moving forward with JVIC expansion

The board also approved a letter of intent laying out the terms of our public-private partnership with The Vecino Group to expand the Jordan Valley Innovation Center. Under this agreement, Vecino will construct a $14.4 million 30,000 square foot white box addition to JVIC. The university will have the option to purchase the facility for no more than $6.2 million in seven years.

Through a financing model that utilizes $9 million in federal New Market Tax Credits as well as conventional financing, the university will pay $530,000 in annual lease payments. The university anticipates that new revenues the university will receive from JVIC tenants will cover these lease payments.

The university and the Missouri State University Foundation will pay up to $4.6 million when the contract closes (less if additional New Market Tax Credits are secured before closing). The university and foundation will work to recuperate as much of these funds as possible by selling $3 million in state tax credits allocated by the Missouri Development Finance Board for the project and by advocating for funding from the state through the MoExcels program.

This model will allow the university to receive a $14.4 million building for between $7.5 million and $10.8 million. We initially explored this project with a goal of developing additional JVIC space for a substantial discount. I am pleased to report that we are poised to accomplish this goal.

The board is excited to move this project forward. We know this arrangement is not without risks, but the potential impact on the university’s economic development footprint and the development of areas surrounding our downtown campus is outstanding.

Darr gift will grow agriculture programs

The board also approved an agreement to establish a Springfield Public Schools agricultural magnet school and to construct a small animal education facility at the university’s Darr Agricultural Center. These projects will be funded with a $6.5 million gift from the Darr Family Foundation to the Missouri State University Foundation.

The generosity of Mr. Darr and his family through this and other gifts have truly transformed the College of Agriculture and Missouri State University as a whole. Please join me in thanking them for this transformative gift.

Recognizing outstanding students

The board also awarded this year’s Citizen Scholar Award to six high performing students:

  • Cassidy Cunningham
  • Seth Hadley
  • Rachel Prather
  • Robbyn Rose
  • Niyati (Mia) Sethi
  • Stephanie Urich

You can find more information about the award and this year’s recipients in the news release.

The board also approved a commendation to William Miller for his service on the board as student governor. It has been a pleasure working with Governor Miller in this role, and he will be greatly missed.

The board received a strategic enrollment management plan update, viewed a presentation about the Darr College of Agriculture, received a report on the Onward, Upward foundation campaign, viewed a demonstration of the university’s variable data marketing initiative and virtual tour, discussed the Springfield and West Plains campus key performance indicators, and announced and approved board committee assignments for next year.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State!