MU leaders brace for possible multimillion dollar loss

The University of Missouri faces another multimillion dollar loss in revenue, if the governor’s proposed budget for the state passes without change.

Gov. Eric Greitens released his plan for the 2018 fiscal year, which lasts from July 1 of this year to June 20, 2018. The budget will reduce funding for higher education by more than $100 million, carving out $1.15 billion for two- and four-year colleges around the state.

“I’m confident that this year, they can tighten their belts, just like the rest of us, and help us focus on excellence and get back to basics,” Greitens said at a news conference Thursday morning.

Interim MU Chancellor Hank Foley said he expects if the budget passes as it is, the school would receive $22 million less in FY 2018. The UM System would get $40 million less compared to last fiscal year, as well. Foley told the MU Faculty Council Thursday they would need to approach next year’s budget differently than in years’ past.

MU is still grappling with another $20 million in withholdings from the governor in January, equal to about one month’s payment from the state to the school. Lagging enrollment also caused the school to cut five percent of its budget this year.

Foley said controlling cost and boosting enrollment would help the school manage the shortfall. Tuition makes up around 80 percent of the school’s budget, and changes within the school’s marketing and recruiting will hopefully give them that boost, Foley said. The school is still trying to ease concerns over campus safety for prospective students, said interim Vice Chancellor Jennifer Hollingshead, the head of the school’s marketing efforts.

Foley and Vice Chancellor of Finance Rhonda Gibler suggested a more involved review and crafting of the next budget. Gibler suggested three new committees look at the school’s finances, dedicated to tuition and fee structures, allocation of resources and capital project finance.

Faculty members asked Foley for greater transparency not only in the school’s overall budget, but within individual departments. Foley said each dean, including the several new ones, needed to be on board with the plan, and go over budgets with faculty and staff in their departments. Foley said he doubted he would ask each department to find 5 percent to cut this year, as they did for the current budget.

Foley told ABC 17 News after the meeting he understood that the governor needed to balance the budget, and trusted Greitens’ commitment to higher education.

Boone County’s state elected officials, who represent an area in which the university is by far its largest employer, also talked about the higher education hits in Greitens’ budget proposal. Rep. Kip Kendrick (D – Columbia) said cuts to higher education resonate deeply in his district, which covers the campus and northern half of Columbia.

“It also hits the students very hard as well,” Kendrick said. “This is going to be increased cost in tuition not just here at the University of Missouri, but all around this state.”

“This is the first step in the process as it relates to the budget. It will change a lot between now and late April, early May,” Sen. Caleb Rowden (R – Columbia) said. He told a crowd at the Daniel Boone Regional Library that elected officials needed to make the case to other lawmakers on the benefits the university gives across the state.