Presidential Updates

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!

Clif’s Notes for Dec. 4, 2018

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We have done significant work on our campus facilities over the past year. That work was recognized at this year’s Springfield Contractors Association (SCA) Salute to Design and Construction.

For the second time in five years, we received the Developer of the Year award, the top honor awarded at the event. This award recognized the university completing 86 projects at a total value of more than $85.5 million, including renovations to Ellis Hall, Glass Hall, Hill Hall, the Plaster Center and Woods House, and the construction of the Magers Health and Wellness Center.

Thanks to everyone who made this award possible, particularly Mark Wheeler and his team for leveraging the limited resources we have to maximize the positive impact on students and the campus community.

More SCA awards

The university received several other awards at this year’s SCA Salute. Doug Sampson, former Missouri State architect, received a lifetime achievement award. Additionally, three Missouri State teams were recognized for placing in the Associated Schools of Construction Region IV Management Competition.

Public safety awards

The university’s recent awards are not limited to facilities.

David Hall, the university’s emergency manager, received the Missouri Department of Public Safety’s Hall of Fame Award. The award recognizes his years of service as a firefighter and the Springfield Fire Chief. I want to say a special congratulations to David. We are fortunate to now have you on our team at Missouri State.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State!