wireless Archives - Presidential Updates

Clif’s Notes Vol. 3, No. 14

June 25, 2014 by Clif Smart

In this issue of Clif’s Notes, I provide information about free wireless on campus and review the June Board of Governors meeting, which includes the approval of the operating budget for fiscal year 2015 and outlines how we will handle the governor’s withholding.

Free wireless on campus

I wanted to make sure you know that the open-access wireless service for all areas within both the Plaster Student Union and Meyer Library was brought online May 24. Here is the information you will need to access this service:

Wireless network name: MSU Open (This name will appear when you search for available networks with your device.)
Password: Welcome2MSU (This password should not change but possibly once a year.)

The open-access wireless provides full access to the Internet but limited access to Missouri State resources since we want to encourage students, faculty and staff to use their BearPass Logins to access their sensitive information.

There are currently no bandwidth limits on this network. Computer services will re-evaluate as the summer semester continues to see if limits are necessary prior to the fall semester. In the meantime, please let computer services know if you have questions.

We are pleased to offer this service, and I want to thank Jeff Morrissey and the computer services staff for making this a reality.

Board of Governors meeting

Again this year, the Board of Governors had its June meeting Friday in Kansas City. We combined that meeting with a donor event Thursday night and the Missouri State Night at Kauffman Stadium Friday night for alumni and friends. We appreciate Governor Steve Bough assisting with the arrangements in Kansas City.

The Board took several actions at the meeting that I want to summarize for you.

Operating budget for fiscal year 2015

The Board approved the operating budget for fiscal year 2015 which totals about $263 million, up approximately $10 million from the current year. The budget increase will be funded in part by three items:

A 5.2 percent increase in state appropriations based on Missouri State meeting all five of its performance measures
Continued enrollment growth, which continues to be a vital part of increasing revenue
Modest increases in non-resident and graduate tuition and fees

Undergraduate tuition remains steady

Tuition for Missouri undergraduate students will remain at the 2013-14 rate of $204 per credit hour. The University’s commitment to hold Missouri undergraduate tuition the same from 2013-14 to 2014-15 is based upon the governor’s recommended budget and the approved General Assembly’s budget.

Investing in the compensation package

As I have outlined in previous issues, the majority of the increase in the budget will be dedicated to significant investment in the compensation package to faculty and staff for fiscal year 2015. The Board also approved a 1.5 percent pay increase for full time faculty and staff and various compensation initiatives. This continues the Board’s commitment to improve compensation for faculty and staff.

You can read more about the budget in this news release and see the complete budget online.

Plan to deal with withholdings

On Tuesday, Governor Jay Nixon announced that he would sign the operating budget bill but withhold the entire 5 percent increase for higher education. For Missouri State, that means the 5.2 percent, which amounts to about $4 million.

We are very disappointed about the withholdings — especially the extent of the withholdings and the timing on the eve of the new fiscal year. We prepared the fiscal year 2015 operating budget in good faith based on the increase which was recommended by the governor and approved by the Missouri General Assembly. We must now potentially find ways to reduce the budget and options available to us are neither good nor easy.

We expect to know more about the fiscal year 2015 budget following the veto session in mid-September. In the meantime, we will continue to talk with our elected officials about the tax cut bills and the timing of their implementation given the fact that state revenues are at least flat, if not declining.

Initial decisions

I wanted you to know that we have made these initial decisions:

We will proceed as planned with all compensation increases (1.5 percent across-the-board increase, Full Professor Incentive, staff salary initiative, 1.5 percent increase for graduate assistants, etc.) — this is appropriate given that improving compensation for faculty and staff continues to be the No. 1 priority for the Board of Governors and this administration.

Maintaining the compensation means we may have to accept other difficult decisions to balance the budget — for example, we will delay the 1.5% restoration of operating budgets for cost centers and evaluate its viability after the veto session.

We will continue to review and consider options for reducing the budget deficit as we wait for the results from the veto session and fall enrollment numbers. This action again highlights the importance of enrollment growth.

Faculty Handbook revisions

The Board approved the revisions recommended by the Faculty Handbook Committee. You may review those revisions.

I want to thank and congratulate the Faculty Handbook Revision Committee, chaired by Dr. Rich Biagioni, for its good work on this initiative.

Discussion updates

For this month’s Board discussion, we provided updates on the three discussion topics for 2013-14:

Diversity
First generation students, as well as transfer students
Higher Learning Commission and other accreditations

The Board was pleased with the progress we are making in each of these areas.

New student Board member

At the Kansas City meeting, we welcomed our new student Board member, Caleb Doyle. Caleb is a junior from Barnhart, Missouri, majoring in secondary education. He replaces Paige Jenkins who represented the students well during her time on the Board.

The next time the Board meets it will be July 31 for the annual summer retreat. The emphasis of the retreat is to discuss and finalize the goals for 2014-15.

Conclusion

With classes, various academies and camps, along with the construction, the campus is buzzing this summer. I trust that you will not only be productive in your various activities but also take some time to refresh and rejuvenate. It won’t be long before we are preparing to welcome students back for the fall semester.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State University.

—Clif

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This summer you won’t have to travel far to meet someone from Japan, Mali, Ecuador or Saudi Arabia — just downtown to the Jim D. Morris Center. More than 450 students representing 24 countries will take part in programs offered by the English Language Institute (ELI) this summer alone.

“One of our students described the ELI as a mini-United Nations where students from different countries bring their diverse political, religious and cultural views to share with one another in a non-threatening environment. We all learn from each other — and in so doing, we discover what we have in common is far greater than our differences,” said Dr. Jane Robison, executive director of the ELI.

Intensive English program

ELI began in 1996 as an intensive English program for international students planning to study abroad in the United States. According to Robison, ELI enrollment has grown from five students to more than 200 each session, with program participants now including international professors seeking professional development opportunities.

Short-term programs

In addition to its intensive English program, ELI offers a number of short-term programs during the summer:

Isesaki Global Leadership Academy: a 10-day program for 120 high school juniors from Yotsuba school in Isesaki, Japan, Springfield’s Sister City

Language and Culture Program 8: an eight-week English training program for professors and students from Colombia and other countries

Language and Culture Program 4: a four-week English training program for participants from Korea, Global UGRADs, Brazil and Colombia

Global Leadership Academy, a three-week program for international and domestic high school students

Children’s English Program, a two-week on-campus program for five young Chinese children accompanied by six parents

Isesaki Youth Program

“All of these programs are a great opportunity to introduce potential students to our campus, to expose them to the public affairs mission through the program’s objectives and to bring an awareness of the value of having international guests of all ages on our campus and in our community,” said Robison.

Clif’s Notes Vol. 2, No. 1

August 9, 2012 by Clif Smart

In this first issue of Clif’s Notes for 2012-13, I want to provide a summary of actions from last Friday’s Board of Governors meeting, preview the fall semester, and draw your attention to changes we have made in the scholarship program beginning for fall 2013.

Board of Governors meeting

There were several actions worth noting from last Friday’s Board of Governors meeting.

Operating budget decision items

The Board approved our four decisions items for the fiscal year 2014 operating budget. We are required to submit these each August to the Missouri Department of Higher Education and the Coordinating Board for Higher Education. Here are summaries of the four:

A funding adjustment for equitable funding — a grand total of about $17.2 million (about $16 million for the Springfield campus and about $1.2 million for the West Plains campus) spread over three equal payments of $5,742,107
Funding to cover inflation — 1.7 percent for a total of $1,335,341
Funding for a new occupational therapy program— ongoing funding of $825,000 per year, with the first two years being used for start-up costs and subsequent years to provide on-going support for the program
- A Missouri State University task force has reported the strong need for an OT program here. While this program proposal has not yet gone through the curricular process, that process will start this fall and it is timely that we simultaneously seek funding at this critical time.
- This program will help meet the growing need for trained therapists. Local hospitals have expressed a strong interest in having an OT program that will provide educated professionals for the needs they must meet. Offering this degree aligns with Missouri State’s long-range plan that calls for providing additional health-care education programs, and it fits the State of Missouri’s goal to increase the number of degrees granted in critical disciplines of workforce need.
Funding to help us address maintenance and repair — about $8 million

Given the state’s budget situation, it is unlikely all of these requests will be funded. We did believe, however, that it was important to identify the needs and officially request the support.

Wireless campus

The Board approved about $1.4 million to improve the wireless coverage of campus, to provide greater capacity and to increase the speed of the network. Achieving campus-wide wireless coverage was a significant goal of the long-range plan and we are going to achieve it several years ahead of schedule.

New entrance

No doubt you have seen the new entrance to the campus is taking shape at National Avenue and Monroe Street. The City of Springfield has completed its work of expanding the entrance, adding turn lanes and installing the traffic light. The next step is the addition of signage, the funding for which the Board approved Friday. I am including two artist’s renderings of the entrance so you know the vision.

Creating this entrance addresses a long-time issue Missouri State, like many urban universities, has had. For many years, we have struggled with exactly how to direct visitors to come to campus. This new entrance will address this need. The long-term goal is to add a welcome center near the entrance, which would accommodate visiting students and families as well as be a resource for other visitors.

College of Business

The Board approved changing the name of the College of Business Administration to the College of Business. This name is more commonly used across the country and by our peer institutions. The change is effective immediately but will take some time to fully implement.

Differential fees

The Board agreed with our new policy for considering differential fees by program. As you recall, the Board approved the first such undergraduate fee for the College of Business to be implemented this fall.

Marketing research

We have a great University and we do much to market it to prospective students. But we want to do better. That begins with good market research. On Friday, the Board approved a contract for us to conduct comprehensive research focused on enrollment. I wanted you to be aware of this project.

The work will begin soon and continue through early spring 2013. The research will be extensive enough that we can evaluate it by geographic location (southwest Missouri, Kansas City, St. Louis, etc.); type of student (undergraduate, graduate, adult, current, prospective, alumni, etc.); and by unit (not only university-wide, but by academic college and the School of Agriculture). Also included in the project is research on our recruitment of under-represented student populations.

From the research, the company will develop marketing plans for the University, the six academic colleges, the School of Agriculture and for diverse populations. Our intent is to implement the plans with our own talented staff.

Marketing has been a priority for the Board of Governors and the administration for several years. It has been a decade since we conducted comprehensive research on students, so it is long overdue.

As part of the research, several faculty and staff will be interviewed and/or surveyed. If you are contacted for your input, I hope you will participate.

Fall semester 2012

The fall semester 2012 is fast approaching. Fall classes begin Monday, Aug. 20.

The pace picks up beginning Monday, Aug. 13. There is a full schedule of activities for new faculty members, including orientation, the Showcase on Teaching and Learning and much more.

Likewise, there is a full slate of activities for new and returning students. Those activities are listed on the Welcome Weekend website.

As always, I encourage you to consult the University’s master calendar for all events.

I would ask two things as we prepare for the fall semester to begin:

Please help us greet, welcome and help our new students as they come to campus. Making the transition to college, especially coming from a smaller community to a large university like Missouri State, can be intimidating, as well as exciting, for even the brightest students. We can help make that transition a little easier for them with a smile and an offer of assistance.

I encourage all employees and their families to attend the New Student Convocation at 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 19. Faculty are invited to march in the ceremony. It is a great event for our students and a great way to remind us all why we are here.

Scholarship revisions for fall 2013

Even as we anticipate the beginning of the fall semester 2012, we have already begun recruiting for fall 2013. In conjunction with that, we have revised several of our scholarship programs.

I want to draw your attention to three significant changes:

We have expanded our multicultural scholarships and added the Diversity in Education Scholarship. We expect that these financial aid opportunities will help us address our goals of becoming more diverse University-wide, and especially in our College of Education.
We have added the A+ Recognition Scholarship for students who qualify for the A+ Scholarship. For students who qualify for the Pell Grant, the A+ Recognition Scholarship will cover the difference between the cost of tuition and fees and the Pell Grant.
We have added a study away component to our top academic scholarships to make them more competitive and to encourage our students to participate in life-changing study abroad experiences.

As you visit with prospective students for fall 2013, I hope you will keep these scholarships in mind.

Other notes

Let me add three other quick notes here:

Tobacco-free campus
Remember, as of Aug. 15, Missouri State will be a tobacco-free campus. This has been in the works for two years and we officially make the change Aug. 15.

Foster Family Recreation Center
This new center is spectacular and officially opens this month with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 3 p.m. Monday, Aug. 20. The students are to be congratulated for helping design the facility and voting a dedicated fee on themselves for the construction and on-going funding of the facility. They can be very proud of what they have created using only the dedicated fee and some significant private gifts.

Health Risk Assessment
Again this year we will be conducting the Health Risk Assessment as part of our wellness initiative and our effort to keep our health costs under control. A separate email with details and deadlines will be coming soon.

Conclusion

Thanks to your good work, Missouri State University had a terrific year in 2011-12. I appreciate your efforts very much.

I am excited and optimistic as we prepare to begin a new year. I look forward to working with you again to provide the best education possible to our students and to serve the State of Missouri in the best way possible.

We will officially outline the goals for the year at the State of the University address. Provost Frank Einhellig and I will present that address at noon on Thursday, Aug. 30, in the Plaster Student Union Theater, on the Springfield campus. I will give a similar address on the West Plains Campus at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 11.

My promise to you is to continue to keep you informed about major issues and important decisions affecting Missouri State. Together we can have another great year. Thank you.

–Clif

Telling the Missouri State story

Former Student Body President Scott Turk recently received a significant national honor. He was named the 2011-12 recipient of Theta Chi Fraternity’s Reginald E.F. Colley Memorial Trophy, Theta Chi’s most prestigious undergraduate honor. The socio-political communication major was selected for this award based on his leadership on campus, in Theta Chi and in the community.

On campus, Turk served as a student senator from 2009-11, as a SOAR leader, and as student body president from 2011-12. As student body president, he served on multiple committees: Executive Budget Committee, Executive Enrollment Management Committee and Public Affairs Committee.

Named the 2011 Outstanding Junior, he was also a member of the Lambda Pi Eta, a national communication honor society, and Phi Alpha Delta Pre-Law Fraternity.

In the community, Turk helped raise more than $5,000 in relief aid for Joplin through his participation with “Songs for Joplin.” Independently, he raised $300 in supplies and donations and volunteered at donation collection locations. In 2010, he was selected to participate in the Missouri Governor’s Leadership Forum, a gathering of Missouri’s top collegiate student leaders hosted by Governor Jay Nixon.

In Theta Chi, Turk served as vice president in 2010 and also worked on the chapter’s public relations, standards, brotherhood and campus involvement committees. In 2011, he helped coordinate the Lower Plains Region Mid-Year Leadership Conference, Theta Chi’s regional leadership program.

Turk is a great example of what it means to live the public affairs mission.

Clif’s Notes Vol. 1, No. 9

December 20, 2011 by Clif Smart

In this issue, I want to update you on the Board meeting last Friday, the new policy on cellular/wireless service and the budget for fiscal year 2013.

December Board of Governors meeting

The Dec. 16 Board of Governors meeting was the first for our three new Board members: Steve Bough, Peter Hofherr, and Steve Hoven. We were able to spend a full day Thursday with the new members for orientation. All three have strong feelings for the University, are honored to be on the Board and will do an excellent job on the Board. All of us will enjoy working with them.

At the meeting, the Board had several actions of note:

The Board named and honored the six Citizen Scholars for 2011. These are outstanding students who make us proud to be at Missouri State.
The Board gave final approval to the mid-year salary increase. As you know, the increase is effective Jan. 1 for staff and Feb. 1 for faculty.
The Board approved the Faculty Senate recommendation to award the University’s 14th honorary doctorate to Shawn Askinosie, JD, founder of Askinosie Chocolate. Mr. Askinosie will receive the Doctor of Public Affairs degree during the spring commencement in May.

The Board agenda, minutes and other materials are located online in case you are interested.

Cellular/Wireless Service Policy

During the first week of my new job, I promised we would eliminate cell phone allowances. We have now revised the University’s Cellular/Wireless Service Policy and Procedures to do just that and to reduce the number of cell phones funded by the University. There are still a few departments that need cell phones to complete mission-critical responsibilities (public safety, mechanical, Bull Shoals Field Station, KSMU, Bookstore, etc.). With these few exceptions, I am pleased to report the University is out of the cell phone business.

Fiscal year 2013 budget

As you may have heard or seen in media reports, late last week we were informed that the reduction in state appropriations will very likely be higher than the 5 percent we had assumed for our budget preparation. I wanted to provide the most recent information.

It is clear that the state budget situation, and therefore the higher education appropriation, is “fluid” at this point. We have been in constant discussions with the governor’s office, other institutions, our legislative delegation and others to explore any and all options for addressing the budget crunch.

Here is the bottom line: We will have a clearer picture once the governor presents his budget proposal in late January.

Once we have his budget recommendation, we will reconvene the Executive Budget Committee. Based on new information, we will re-evaluate our assumptions and begin our work in all committees with revised guidelines.

There is no reason to panic, but just to be safe Provost Einhellig and I will not give final approval to any additional hiring out of the general operating budget until we know the governor’s budget recommendation. We can make a longer term decision once we have more details on the budget. This should occur by the end of January.

All of you should be congratulated on your stewardship during the past several years. Because of your attention to the budget, we have a reserve that can help us get through this reduction in state appropriations. Not every institution in the state is as financially sound as Missouri State.

As always, I will keep you informed. For now, we need to wait for the governor’s budget in late January and then proceed accordingly.

Happy holidays

Gail and I wish you and yours a happy and safe holiday. We hope you take time to be with family and friends and get some much-deserved rest. If you travel, please travel safely.

Finally, I want to thank all of you for what you do for Missouri State University. Together we have done good work in the past six months, and together we can do more good things in the spring semester.

Happy New Year.

–Clif

Telling the Missouri State story

In this space, I want to draw your attention to the six Citizen Scholars for 2011. This is one of the highest honors a student can receive. Students must be nominated by faculty, so I invite faculty members to consider nominating their outstanding students. These are the kinds of students who make us proud to work at Missouri State. The six Citizen Scholars for 2011 are:

Rebekah Allen, a junior dietetics major from Summersville
Alison Bos, a senior from Billings, majoring in agricultural communications
Rachel Greatwood, a senior pre-med student majoring in dietetics from Kansas City
Lindsay Kittrell, a senior nursing major from Republic
Deanne Vassalli, a senior marketing major from Fenton
Samantha Warner, a senior agricultural communications major from Archie

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