Research remains top priority at UM Curators meeting: “that drives economic development”

Research took center stage at day two of the UM Board of Curators meeting, which was held at the Bradford Research Center in Columbia.

MU Vice Chancellor for Research Dr. Mark McIntosh kicked off the meeting with a presentation on research and economic development. He spoke about the need to work with companies in Missouri, improve research facilities and grow faculty salaries.

“AAUs everywhere are having issues,” McIntosh said, adding that other universities don’t have the same “brand” problems as Missouri, but they are all dealing with financial troubles.

On the topic of faculty salaries, McIntosh said the salaries are not competitive and that has an effect on recruiting new, strategic hires. UM System President Mun Choi agreed.

“This is a really critical issue for us,” Choi said, adding that the system is facing a “severe depression” in terms of salaries that must be addressed.

McIntosh said the same is true for research space.

“We are out of high quality research space,” he said, “We are short on high quality animal research space.”

Incoming MU chancellor Alexander Cartwright also chimed in, saying “whoever we are hiring…must add value to the team.”

The other portion of Wednesday’s meeting focused on “system-ness,” or essentially, how all four universities can work together. UMKC provost and executive vice chancellor Barbara Bichelmeyer led the conversation.

Curators discussed whether the system is a “one ship” or multi-ship entity. Bichelmeyer said she knows it’s one ship because everything that happened on MU’s campus in 2015 had a direct impact on what she did.

“The university system has to start working as one entity because money and resources are tight,” Curator Steelman told ABC 17 News after the meeting.

Curator Steelman also said research needs to be the university system’s top priority, in spite of the current budget crisis. “We have to prioritize research,” he said. “That drives economic development, that creates jobs, that brings people to the state, that keeps people in the state.”

Day one of the curators’ meeting focused on enrollment strategies. You can read more about that here.