The Missouri Department of Higher Education released its Facility Review last month with concerns about deferred maintenance issues on Missouri campuses.
It also identified 40 buildings at MU in need of major renovation or complete demolition.
Becky Dunn, an editor for the Facility Review, said, “it talks about some of the challenges with using newer technology in older buildings and that can create some issues for learning.”
Missouri schools need a total of almost $1.5 billion in order to address all the maintenance issues across state campuses, according to the Review, which also stated: “As a result, many of these conditions will worsen before they are addressed, significantly increasing costs.”
The legislature continues to allocate funds to Missouri universities and colleges. In November, the state allocated over $125 million to MU, but the university didn’t see all those funds. Governor Parson has restricted and vetoed large portions of the funds.
“Funds that were appropriated are not actually distributed because they are restricted for some purpose by the governor,” Dunn said.
Parson vetoed 61 percent of the funds allocated to Truman State University and 56 percent of approved funds for MU.
“As we look around campus, we still have a significant amount of deferred maintenance and it is a problem that we continue to struggle with,” said Christian Basi, Director of MU News Bureau.
This makes it more difficult to address the more than $780 million in facility maintenance MU currently has for Education & General buildings.
As of right now, University of Missouri’s Board of Curators and MU have listed the main priority for campus is building a new complex for translational precision medicine. The university requested around $50 million for this project.