On Thursday, Governor Greitens released his budget recommendations for fiscal year 2018. As I discussed in a prior note, the state’s revenue in the current fiscal year has not met projections. Accordingly, the governor is recommending a fiscal year 2018 budget that is $572 million less than the fiscal year 2017 budget.

Meeting with leaders to determine strategies

The impact of these reductions for higher education included a $72.7 million reduction in core operating appropriations for public universities. Missouri State University’s share of that cut is $8.2 million, an 8.9 percent reduction from last year. This year’s budget also omits the line item included in last year’s for our collaborative mechanical engineering program with the Missouri University of Science and Technology.

I spent a significant part of the month of January meeting with the governor, the governor’s chief policy adviser, the lieutenant governor, the commissioner for higher education, our elected leaders in the General Assembly, other government officials and other university leaders about the funding situation. I have also spent substantial time meeting with our board, the senior administrative team and leaders of university constituent groups to discuss our strategy for implementing the budget cuts.

Based on these discussions, I want to assure you of a couple of things:

• First, our elected leaders have repeatedly told me that they remain committed to higher education and are proud of the overwhelming success we have achieved at Missouri State University. The funding situation is the result of a revenue gap at the state level, not hostility to higher education generally.
• Second, Missouri State University has worked through budget cuts before, and we have an experienced team who will guide us through the current situation.

Our board makes a plan

Last week the Board of Governors spent the bulk of its time discussing the budget. The result of that conversation is the following set of guiding principles that the university will use to develop the university’s fiscal year 2018 budget:

• Protecting the core mission of the university—academic achievement, scholarship and student success—is paramount. Budgetary decisions should be consistent with the mission and strategic plan of the university, with a primary focus on preserving strong academic programs, increasing the number of graduates at all levels, and enhancing diversity and inclusion.
• All units will share in budget reductions and must become more efficient, but decisions about the relative levels of reductions will be strategic and reductions will not be equal in all areas of the university.
• Given the importance of increasing revenue, any reduction in student credit hours would negatively impact the budget. Enrollment growth must continue to be a priority. The university must continue to invest in programs, facilities and technology that will grow enrollment and increase revenue while continuing to align with accreditation requirements.
• Affordability and access remain important goals of the university; therefore, the university will not rely solely on increased tuition and fees to replace the budget shortfall.
• All budget decisions will be made through a transparent process that uses existing budget committees, involves all constituent groups and utilizes a university-wide communication strategy. The university will continue its commitment to valuing and supporting people and will carefully consider the impact of all budget decisions on faculty and staff.

Guidelines for budget considerations

The university will also direct cost centers to consider or avoid the following specific strategies in making budget decisions:

• The overall goal of budget decisions should be to help our university emerge as a stronger, distinctive and more focused leader in higher education, poised for the future. We must maintain quality, maximize efficiency, reduce expenses and increase revenue.
• No one-time savings should be used for filling an on-going budget shortfall without prior approval from the president or provost. Transferring an ongoing and necessary cost to another unit is not an option.
• Rather than imposing across the board cuts, cost centers should evaluate if entire programs may be eliminated without significantly impacting enrollment. Budget decisions should not reduce student access to core courses during fall, spring and summer semesters.
• Evaluate restructuring units, positions, programs and support services to achieve greater efficiency.
• Budget reductions should not significantly increase risk to the university. Evaluate the effects of cuts on enterprise risk management.
• Budget reductions should not interfere with the university’s compliance with state and federal regulations.
• Continue to develop and leverage partnerships with other colleges and universities in the state, along with corporate partnerships, for successful program expansion and increased revenue

The Executive Budget Committee will meet this week to begin the process of developing fiscal year 2018 budget recommendations for the Board of Governors. We will keep you informed of and involved in the process as it occurs.

Evaluating athletic expenditures

Last week, as the budget news was emerging, we formed a work group to evaluate strategies to reduce expenses in athletics.  The Athletics Budget Work Group will be chaired by Dr. Jim Hutter. I have asked that group to determine how we can reduce athletics expenses by at least $750,000.

Supporting our international students

The university issued a statement last week about our efforts to support our international students from the countries impacted by the Jan. 27 Executive Order. Read the full statement.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State!