UM Board of Curators approves fiscal year 2019 budget

UPDATE: The University of Missouri Board of Curators approved the fiscal year 2019 budget at their meeting Thursday.

The total revenue budget for the UM System is $3.2 billion, half of which is from sales services and patient revenues.

CFO Ryan Rapp said the university needs to approach its annual budget from a five-year planning cycle. He said the university system needs to grow revenue, and that will be critical moving forward.

“It’s a good budget but if we think we can replicate this over the next five years and be the university we want to be, it won’t work,” Rapp said.

Rapp said the current budget has a $2 million surplus for strategic investments. There’s also a $100 million funding gap the system is trying to close over the next five years. Rapp said, moving forward, the key is to identify the university’s goals and then calculate how much revenue is needed in order to achieve them.

“Our hope is, of course, by going to a five year model, thinking about how we generate more revenue, thinking about how we minimize the cost that will help us then to close that gap over time,” MU Chancellor Alexander Cartwright told ABC 17 News after the meeting.

The budget approval comes as an administrative review is currently underway. University leaders said they are making changes in HR, IT and finance. We are “trying to transform how we deliver these services,” Rapp said.

Curator David Steelman said people are concerned about their jobs in light of the review and budget challenges. He asked Rapp what they are doing to ease fears.

“If you come to work every day and you add value to the university and you’re willing to change, I think this is going to be a great place for you to work,” Rapp said.

In addition to the budget approval, curators also approved new policies for layoff benefits, sick leave and personal days.

Non-tenure track faculty and non-ranked faculty will now be added to the transition assistance plan. Former employees can get transition pay for up to 20 weeks.

“We’ll continue to think about, you know, how we help our employees as much as we can during difficult times where we’re making decisions that we don’t want to make, but we have to because of the budget situation,” Cartwright said.

To read more about the policy changes, click here.

ORIGINAL: University of Missouri Board of Curators is expected to approve Mizzou’s operating budget for fiscal year 2019.

According to the University’s website, the UM system has $3.2 billion in their operating budget for 2019; Mizzou accounts for about $1.31 billion.

MU saw about $49 million in revenue shortfalls for 2019. Earlier this month, the University of Missouri announced it was eliminating 185 jobs, about 30 of which are layoffs, to help fill a budget gap caused by reductions in state support and decreasing enrollment.

It’s not all bad news for MU’s 2019 budget. Leaders said they are putting aside $6.2 million to help fund merit-based pay raises and are also setting aside about $8 million for scholarships.