The University of Missouri System Board of Curators approved its 2014 budget Friday. UM System President Tim Wolfe says the budget identifies strategic areas for funding to help strengthen the university brand.
The $2.9 billion budget includes a 1.5 percent increase in benefit costs for medical and retirement plans and an up to 3 percent increase in campus salary budgets. The Curators also approved an extension of benefits to eligible adult dependents, meaning same sex couples can be covered.
UM System President Tim Wolfe says the move to cover adult dependents is common among large companies nationally and statewide.
“We did this to remain completive and to retain the best and brightest faculty and staff.”
Wolfe also said $50,000 of seed money has been set aside to launch the Brady and Anne Deaton Institute for University Leadership in International Development. That money comes from University investment funds, with the hope that future investors eventually will kick in more money to keep the institute running.
Brady Deaton, who is stepping down as chancellor in the fall, says he hopes to build a program that will help identify possible solutions to global issues by bridging communication among international organizations with similar interests. He says he hopes the information learned can help benefit the university system.
“Then we can use that back here for stronger curriculum, enabling out students to step away much better prepared for future jobs they would get and to be the kind of citizens that really have an understanding of the world, an understanding of other cultures and languages,” Deaton says.
Wolfe says a search committee for Deaton’s successor will be put together soon with the goal of having someone in place by Deaton’s last day – November 15.
