Presidential Updates

Clif’s Notes for Jan. 19, 2021

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I have positive budget news to share.

In July, Gov. Mike Parson withheld $11.9 million of our state funding.

In October, Gov. Parson released $1.7 million. The board used this revenue to fund a $600 across-the-board pay increase for full-time faculty and staff hired on or before Nov. 30. The pay increase will begin this month for 12-month employees and in February for 9- and 10-month employees.

Earlier this month, Gov. Parson released the remaining $10.2 million of withheld state funds. When he released the funds, he directed that we spend $8.4 million on maintenance and repair projects.

I want to thank Gov. Parson for once again prioritizing higher education and Missouri State University when making decisions about which funds to release as the FY2021 state revenue situation came into focus.

Planning maintenance projects

The Executive Committee of the Board of Governors will meet later this week to discuss what projects to prioritize with the funds recently released by Gov. Parson.

I will recommend that the board invest $8.4 million in maintenance and repair facility projects as directed by Governor Parson and hold the remaining funds in reserves. These remaining funds — approximately $1.7 million — will then be available to allocate for FY2022, which will begin on July 1.

State FY2022 budget recommendations coming soon

These developments place us in a strong financial position as we begin to develop the university’s FY2022 budget. That budget process will begin soon.

We anticipate receiving Gov. Parson’s budget recommendations in late January. Our Executive Budget Committee will then meet in mid-February to begin assembling budget recommendations for the Board of Governors.

COVID-19 vaccination update

I also want to update you on our work regarding the COVID-19 vaccine.

The State of Missouri authorized vaccination for people in Phase 1A a few weeks ago. This group includes healthcare and long-term care facilities.

Last week and earlier this week, the state authorized vaccination for everyone in Tiers 1 and 2 of Phase 1B. This includes people 65 and older, people with certain co-morbidities, first responders, emergency services and public health infrastructure.

Unfortunately, vaccination has not yet been authorized for higher education. In the meantime, I would encourage all members of our campus community who are in Phase 1A and Tiers 1 and 2 of Phase B to get vaccinated.

The state’s decision on who can be vaccinated is only one piece of the puzzle. The other piece is the state’s decision on how to physically distribute the vaccine. Vaccine supplies are very limited.

We learned last week that we will receive a small number of COVID-19 vaccines early this week. These vaccines will be available through Magers Health and Wellness Center for employees who are eligible to be vaccinated (currently meaning they meet the requirements of Phase 1A and Tiers 1 and 2 of Phase B).

Eligible employees will sign up for this vaccination through My Missouri State online, similar to how employees sign up to receive the flu vaccination.

The university continues to work to obtain additional vaccine. As we receive additional vaccine and as additional groups of employees become eligible to be vaccinated, we will let you know through Inside Missouri State and the vaccination webpage on the COVID-19 Information Center.

View the town hall recording

Thanks to all who attended the town hall meeting last Friday. For those unable to attend, a recording of the presentation is available online.

If you have questions about the subjects discussed at the town hall meeting or any other topic, feel free to email them to me at president@missouristate.edu.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State!

Clif’s Notes for June 23, 2020

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Last week, the Missouri State University Foundation announced that it had received an eight-figure gift commitment from the C.W. Titus Foundation. The funds will support scholarships for students in the College of Arts and Letters. The funds will also support the university’s plans for an arts park and a permanent outdoor amphitheater.

At its meeting last week, the Board of Governors voted to name the College of Arts and Letters the “Judith Enyeart Reynolds College of Arts and Letters” in recognition of the gift from the C.W. Titus Foundation.

Reynolds worked in MSU’s department of English from 1966 until her retirement in 1994. She and her husband, Tim Reynolds (who is a trustee of the C.W. Titus Foundation), were long-time supporters of the university.

2021 budget update

The board also approved the university’s FY2021 budget. The budget assumes a loss of $9.25 million in state funding and an enrollment decline of 1,500 students.

These revenue reductions were offset with several cost-saving measures, including:

  • Freezing 68 open positions through June 30, 2021.
  • Eliminating online course incentive payments for faculty.
  • Delaying the opening of the new residence hall.
  • Reducing allocations for travel, classroom repairs, academic equipment and the president’s enhancement fund.
  • Spending $4 million of university reserves.

The budget does not include across-the-board pay reductions, furloughs, layoffs or similar personnel actions. These decisions have been delayed until we know more about fall enrollment and how much state funding Gov. Parson will withhold.

Re-opening plans

I briefed the board on our plans to reopen in the fall. My remarks to the board were consistent with what I discussed at the town hall meeting and in my Clif’s Notes since the town hall meeting.

New plans, policies and directives continue to be developed.

If you have questions related to your specific situation, I would encourage you to talk to your department head or supervisor. Dr. Frank Einhellig and I will continue to update you through our campus-wide communications as central decisions are made.

Campus climate discussion

The board also had a long discussion about race relations and campus climate. All members of our board are well aware of current events and the national conversation on racism.

I updated them on campus incidents and the ongoing conversation among members of the campus community. I shared incidents I learned about through tweets under the #blackatmostate hashtag.

We discussed the university’s plans to address racism on campus before the fall semester and throughout the coming academic year. Our leadership team will discuss and further develop these plans at our retreat later this week.

Professional Building updates

The board awarded the consulting contract to Hood-Rich Architecture for renovations to the Professional Building. Hood-Rich will assess space in the Professional Building and determine how to convert it into appropriately sized classrooms equipped with up-to-date technology and state of the art research facilities.

As part of the planned renovation, the Speech, Language and Hearing Clinic will be updated, advisement and student collaboration spaces will be created, and many mechanical, life safety, electrical and plumbing systems will be replaced.

Design will occur throughout the fall 2020 and spring 2021 semesters. The first phase of construction is scheduled to begin next summer.

The contract with Hood-Rich is funded entirely with private gifts.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State!

Clif’s Notes for June 16, 2020

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Last week we made two critical decisions that respond to questions and comments received during and after the May 20 town hall meeting.

First, we have established cleaning and sanitation guidelines for the fall. Public, high-touch spaces and surfaces will be cleaned more frequently with hospital grade disinfectants.

Wellness incentive changes

We have also adopted changes to the university’s employee wellness incentive program.

This year, employees will have two options to reduce their health insurance premium by $30 per month:

  • Get a flu shot in fall 2020.
  • Or submit results of a biometric screening completed any time during the 2020 calendar year.

Flu shots will be available at Magers Health and Wellness Center beginning in mid-September. Employees must get a flu shot or submit biometric screening results by Dec. 1, 2020 to reduce their health insurance premium.

Details on flu shots, biometric screenings and open enrollment will be communicated during the fall semester.

Mental health resources

We also received several questions and comments about mental health resources for faculty and staff on the Springfield and West Plains campuses.

The university provides two Employee Assistance Program options at no additional cost to employees:

  • Cigna offers counseling for work-life issues, assistance with finding child or senior care, help with legal or financial matters and more.
  • New Directions Behavioral Health provides work-life resources, short-term counseling, crisis management and more. This benefit is provided through Mercy Health. It is available for full-time and part-time employees.

My Learning Connection also offers courses for employees on stress management. Employees can sign up for these courses on the My Learning Connection webpage.

The university’s health insurance plan also covers a range of mental health services. Deductibles and co-insurance requirements apply. Details can be found on the human resources webpage.

The pandemic has been extraordinarily difficult. Please encourage one another as we all continue to work through professional and personal challenges.

Next town hall

Our next Virtual Town Hall meeting has been scheduled for 10 a.m. – noon July 9. Details about the meeting will be posted to the town hall webpage as they become available.

The meeting will address issues most relevant to university employees, so we are asking that only faculty and staff attend the meeting.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State!

Clif’s Notes for Sept. 10, 2019

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Our mission is to educate students to be global citizen scholars committed to public affairs.

We integrate this mission into academic work in the classroom, research, creating a welcoming campus and providing extracurricular activities for students. We also demonstrate our commitment to this mission by hosting a wide array of speakers and events on campus.

Over the past few years the university has been privileged to rent campus facilities to actors, reporters, authors, politicians, activists, scientists, musicians and many others. These presentations often draw large crowds of supporters. Sometimes they also draw substantial opposition.

The First Amendment prohibits us from choosing who to rent to based on the specific cause or viewpoint of the group. Regardless of who we rent to, it is the university’s responsibility to make certain these events do not disrupt academic classes and other university activities.

To this end, the Board of Governors approved a Facility Rental Policy at its August retreat. This policy identifies several factors the university will evaluate when determining whether to rent a facility to an outside group and how to manage the rental to avoid campus disruption.

The policy makes clear that the university reserves the right to deny rental of a facility or offer alternate dates for a facility rental to avoid interference with classes and other campus activities. The policy also states that we will not make facility rental decisions based on the identity or viewpoint of the presenter.

As Missouri State’s profile continues to grow, outside interest in renting our facilities will increase. This a good thing — high level events on campus allow us to put the public affairs mission into practice, receive additional revenue and showcase our university to a larger audience. The new Facility Rental Policy will help us responsibly manage these requests and events.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State!

Clif’s Notes for March 5, 2019

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Two weeks ago, Peter Kageyama gave the keynote at the Springfield Business Development Corporation’s annual meeting. Peter is the author of “For the Love of Cities: The Love Affair Between People and Their Places” and is highly regarded in urban planning, design and development.

I had the opportunity to attend two meetings with Peter, and his insights were inspirational.

One of Peter’s main points was that a “hierarchy of needs” exists in city-making:

  • Interesting
  • Convivial
  • Comfortable
  • Safe
  • Functional

People expect their cities to be functional and safe. Filling the potholes does not separate good cities from great cities. To emerge from the pack, a city must move higher up the hierarchy. People fall in love with convivial, interesting cities, not merely functional and safe ones.

To help in this endeavor, Peter challenges leaders to ask themselves “where’s the fun?” as they make decisions and develop plans.

Maintaining the fun

Peter’s message translates to universities. All good universities are functional. To separate ourselves — for students, faculty, staff and others to fall in love with our university — we must be interesting and fun.

We have done a lot to add interest to our campus in the past several years. Examples include:

  • Banners and bearheads on facilities throughout campus
  • Carillon concerts and outdoor picnic tables
  • Construction projects that focus on architectural beauty
  • Revitalizing Bearfest Village before football games
  • Cutting-edge social media and April Fool’s Day website
  • Annual Chocolate Lovers Luncheon in the PSU

However, I don’t think I’m alone in noting that we have worked less on making our campus friendly and interesting as budgets have tightened and cuts have been made.

As we work through tight budgets year-over-year, we cannot lose sight of the need to ask “where’s the fun?” when making decisions and charting the university’s course.

I have told my leadership team that I want to approach this year’s budget development a bit differently than we have the past two years. When identifying efficiencies and reallocating resources, we will work to ensure that we are not sacrificing the interesting and sociable nature of our campus. What’s more, we will remain open to ideas for additional ways we can make the campus even more “fun” than it already is.

Fun ideas do not usually come from the top of an organization. We will accomplish much more if you put forth interesting ideas and leadership empowers you to put your ideas into action.

If you have “where’s the fun?” ideas, please email them to me at president@missouristate.edu.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State!