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Anticipated MU Enrollment Decline a Factor in Possible Budget Shortfall

Columns at University of Missouri
Adam Procter
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If UM Curators approve the increases, tuition could spike as much as 7.5 percent at the Columbia campus.

COLUMBIA - University leaders are projecting “a very significant budget shortfall” at MU, according to a statement emailed to MU faculty and staff today.

In the statement, Interim MU Chancellor Hank Foley says that factors including an anticipated drop in first-time students and student retention for fall of 2016 could cause a roughly 1,500 student decline in enrollment at MU. That decline would contribute to the $32 million budget gap projected for next year.

 

The shortfall does not take into account potential budget losses due to a decline in state appropriations for next year. Foley writes that the current state appropriation proposal to date would keep MU funding flat, but the UM System appropriation could be reduced.

 

Republican Representative Caleb Rowden of Columbia says this year the budget process changed in the legislature.

 

“All of the campuses were separated out, separated from the system, and then also extension, and another research line was separated out. There used to be one line, now there are seven. So presently as we stand the campuses’ funding is flat, there's no increase from last year, and the system has a 7.7 million dollar cut that we are trying to get fixed.”

 

Rowden says he will continue to challenge cuts.

 

“I’m still optimistic about some changes being made in the Senate.  Our Senate appropriations chair is Kurt Schaefer, who is our Senator here in Mid-Missouri. The conversations I’ve had with him make me  think that he is certainly willing to look at what can be done to turn some of this stuff around.” 

 

Foley writes that tuition rates cannot be raised sufficiently to meet the shortfall because of regulations that limit increases, and that expenditures must be reduced. The letter lists three guidelines for financial year 2017 budget planning on the MU campus, which are a five percent cut to all annual recurring general revenue budgets, an across-the-board hiring freeze and a hold on merit-based raises.

 

UM System Spokesperson John Fougere says the issue of the budget in the legislature is ongoing.

 

“Certainly what we are seeing is something we have to take notice of, but that’s why it’s extremely important for us to continue again to work very closely with our state legislators as they determine what our appropriation will be.”

 

New initiatives to increase enrollment include contacting admitted but unenrolled students, adding out-of-state recruiters and revamping admission materials, according to Foley.

Sara Shahriari was the assistant news director at KBIA-FM, and she holds a master's degree from the Missouri School of Journalism. Sara hosted and was executive producer of the PRNDI award-winning weekly public affairs talk show Intersection. She also worked with many of KBIA’s talented student reporters and teaches an advanced radio reporting lab. She previously worked as a freelance journalist in Bolivia for six years, where she contributed print, radio and multimedia stories to outlets including Al Jazeera America, Bloomberg News, the Guardian, the Christian Science Monitor, Deutsche Welle and Indian Country Today. Sara’s work has focused on mental health, civic issues, women’s and children’s rights, policies affecting indigenous peoples and their lands and the environment. While earning her MA at the Missouri School of Journalism, Sara produced the weekly Spanish-language radio show Radio Adelante. Her work with the KBIA team has been recognized with awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and PRNDI, among others, and she is a two-time recipient of funding from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.