Presidential Updates

2011 State of the University Address

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Clif Smart and Frank Einhellig presented the State of the University address at noon on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2011.

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Supplemental information

Broadcast information

For those who could not attend in person, the speech was recorded for replay at 7 p.m. on Sept. 28 on KSMU 91.1, 88.7 in Mountain Grove, 90.3 in West Plains, 98.9 in Joplin, 103.7 in Neosho, and KSMS 90.5 in Branson.

The speech will be televised on Ozarks Public Television at 9:00 p.m. on Sept. 29. Ozarks Public Television is seen in Springfield on Mediacom channel 13. Viewers with over-the-air antennas receive OPT on channel 21.


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Dear Colleague Vol. 1, No. 8

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As you may know, the Missouri House and Senate Budget Conference Committee came to an agreement Wednesday night. Their recommendation now goes to the full house and senate for approval. By law, the budget is required to be approved by tomorrow, May 6, which is one week before the session ends. When approved, it will move on to the governor for signature; he has 45 days to act on it, but will likely be more prompt prior to the July 1 start date for the fiscal year.

To remind you, the budget is not complete and official until all of these steps are completed. But at this point, we are confident the Budget Conference Committee’s recommendation will be accepted and approved.

I want to summarize the major components of the compromise package and describe their implication for Missouri State University.

Carrington HallOperating budget

You will recall that the Governor’s recommendation, which was adopted by the House, was for a 7 percent reduction in state appropriations for public higher education institutions. That is the premise we have worked with for the past several months.

The Senate recommended a smaller reduction. It proposed adding $20 million back to higher education so that the cut was 4.8 percent.

The compromise passed by the Budget Conference Committee was for $12 million to be added so that the reduction is approximately 5.8 percent.

For Missouri State, this means approximately $1 million more than we had planned to receive for fiscal year 2012. The Executive Budget Committee has a meeting scheduled for Monday, May 9, at which time we will begin discussing how best to invest those additional funds. At the legislature’s request, we will use a portion of it to help reduce the cost for students. We will report back to you on the Executive Budget Committee’s recommendation.

On behalf of the Board of Governors and the campus community, I want to thank the governor and the Missouri General Assembly for its hard work on the budget which again reflects the high priority all parties place on higher education.

Student studying outside libraryCooperative doctor of pharmacy degree program

After three years of hard work, our legislative delegation was successful in obtaining the on-going funding for the cooperative doctor of pharmacy degree program (PharmD) with the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC). Our hope is to enroll the first class in fall 2012.

UMKC will receive $2 million to create a satellite program at Missouri State. The satellite program will be similar to the one UMKC has on the Columbia campus. To implement the program, UMKC will contract with Missouri State for about half of the annual appropriation.

Three years ago, UMKC received one-time start-up funding of $2.3 million which will now be used on both campuses to prepare for the program.

In the coming weeks and months, we will work closely with UMKC, the local hospitals, and others to prepare to launch this much-needed program. We want to express our thanks and appreciation to our area legislators for their good and persistent work in achieving this goal. It will be the citizens of southwest Missouri that benefit the most from this.

I hope this update is helpful to you. We will continue to communicate as we head toward the Board of Governors’ approval of the fiscal year 2012 operating budget at the June 17 meeting.

Sincerely,

James E. Cofer, Sr.

President

Executive Budget Committee revises guidance on budget

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By Eric Bosch, Chair of the Executive Budget Committee

The Executive Budget Committee met Friday, Jan. 21, to recalibrate our approach to the budget following the State of the State address delivered by Governor Jay Nixon last Wednesday (Jan. 19). We are thankful that the governor reaffirmed his commitment to, and support of, higher education. I now want to provide our revised guidance on the budget process for fiscal year 2012 based on the governor’s recommendation of a 7 percent reduction of state appropriations for Missouri State University.

Students in the snowBudget target

The proposed reduction of 7 percent of state appropriations is significantly less than the “worst case scenario” for which we had begun planning. This reduction will result in a net cut of $5,410,787 for the Springfield campus and $375,726 for the West Plains campus. With the defense and strategic studies reduction of $6,372, the total is $5,792,885. Accordingly, the Executive Budget Committee proposes the following revised approach.

  • We propose a modest tuition increase. The Executive Budget Committee and the administration are committed to keeping the cost of tuition affordable. We therefore propose a tuition increase linked to the increase in Consumer Price Index (CPI). For the past two years this has been approximately 4 percent. We do not intend to request a waiver for a tuition increase above the CPI. Assuming that enrollment remains at current levels this fee increase will generate approximately $2.8 million to $3 million.
  • The Executive Budget Committee recommends the remainder of the budget reduction be covered with a portion of reserve funds generated by the conservative approach of the administration during the past several years. This is expected to be approximately $2.8 million to $3 million in line with our previous proposal.

This combination of reserves and the modest tuition increase will cover the 7 percent reduction in state appropriations for Fiscal Year 2012 without need for budget cuts from the colleges. Accordingly, the charges for the Administrative and Academic Budget Committees will be redirected with new goals. With respect to administrative areas, the goal is to continue to improve efficiency and generate cost savings where possible. With respect to academics, the goal is to strategically reallocate savings already identified, along with another portion of the reserves, to specific programs and initiatives as determined by the respective budget committees.

Charge to the Administrative Budget Committee

The Executive Budget Committee will ask the Administrative Budget Committee to continue its work to find more efficient ways to operate the University. We are confident that the committee will identify ways in which the University can maintain essential services while reducing costs. We expect that recommendations from this committee also will be consistent with the new strategic plan and guiding principles.

Student working on a computerCharge to collegiate budget committees

In anticipation of possible cuts, the college budget committees have worked many hours to understand revenue and expenses, and look closely at college activities. It is now clear these efforts must be re-directed. So, instead of cutting budgets, we now have the opportunity to use this level of understanding to identify, and selectively invest in, those academic programs that make each college and the University distinctive. The Executive Budget Committee believes we must seize this opportunity and commit to Decisions for Distinctiveness.

We are asking the college budget committees to complete three tasks:

  1. Identify the programs/activities that will make the college distinctive. Ideally the areas identified should emphasize student success and learning, faculty excellence and interdisciplinary collaboration. These initiatives should be consistent with the new strategic plan of the University. Note that it is reasonable to expect more than one potential initiative from each College.
  2. Using the budget discussions that have taken place within the colleges as a starting point, determine the funding necessary to achieve distinctiveness in the areas identified above.
  3. Recommend how best to reallocate up to 2 percent of the existing college budget to fund the distinctive areas identified. Dr. Cofer intends to make some one-time matching money available to help “jump start” the best initiatives recommended by the college committees.

Each college will then forward proposals outlining these initiatives to the Academic Budget Committee. The Academic Budget Committee will evaluate the proposals and forward the selected proposals to the Executive Budget Committee. Given this change in emphasis of the committees the previous timelines are no longer relevant. We do, however, encourage the college committees to forward their ideas to the Academic Affairs Committee by mid-April.

Students in the audiology labGuiding principles

Some of the original guiding principles have changed, but many remain:

  • No one-time savings should be used for the college reallocation – only on-going funds should be used to address these initiatives.
  • Budgetary decisions should be consistent with the mission and strategic plan of the University, with a primary focus on student learning.
  • The University should make budget decisions that will not reduce student access to core courses during fall, spring and summer semesters – given the importance of student fees, it is clear that any reduction in student credit hours would negatively impact the budget.
  • Maintaining accreditation of current programs should be a high priority.
  • Both the college committees and the Administrative Budget Committee may address the budget reallocation/reduction with an appropriate combination of cost saving measures and substantiated plans for increased revenues to the cost center.
  • The overall goal of the budget decisions should be to help Missouri State University emerge as a stronger, distinctive, and more focused university poised for the future

Business students in a classroomPlan for compensation

Improving compensation for faculty and staff is a key goal of the Executive Budget Committee and the administration. In this regard, the Executive Budget Committee hopes to identify a modest pool of money for fiscal year 2012 that will be used to address both faculty and staff equity and market adjustments. An across-the-board salary increase is not proposed for fiscal year 2012. The Executive Budget Committee hopes to position the University so that it can provide across-the-board and performance-based salary increases to faculty and staff in fiscal year 2013. All involved are committed to making these increases as significant as possible.

On behalf of the Executive Budget Committee, I hope you find this report helpful. Clearly, the landscape has improved. We have an incredible opportunity to build on the conversations/discussions that have begun in the budget committees. It is up to us to be innovative, strategic, and intentional as we move forward to make Decisions for Distinctiveness.