University Terrace to be torn down

[Note: this story has been modified since its original posting.]

University Terrace residents now know the fight for their homes is over.

The UM System Board of Curators gave final consent Friday for the University of Missouri Health Care Master Facility Plan, which requires the demolition of the apartment complex to make way for a parking garage and an orthopedic institute.

The apartments are home to graduate students, many of whom are international students.

Jackie Jones, vice chancellor of administrative services, explained the necessity of doing away with the complex at the board’s regular business meeting in Kansas City on Friday.

Jones said the complex has a deteriorating sewer system.

But some tenants feel the real issue is being overlooked.

“It’s not just about the sewers. It’s about the community,” said Xiaohui Chen, a Chinese graduate student studying biological engineering. “They are talking about the sewers not working. It’s not about the fifteen buildings; it’s about the community. We have people from 25 countries in this community.”

MU Chancellor Brady Deaton said the university is looking at housing alternatives for the displaced students. Options include other student housing facilities such as University Heights or University Village. Subsidies to offset increased housing expenses are also being considered.

“We are fully committed to ensuring that there is an alternative that meets their needs and we are exploring those options right now,” Deaton said. “I feel that they understand that we are going to work with them until it is appropriately settled.”

The first phase of the health care additions includes construction of a surgery tower, a new branch of Ellis Fischel Cancer Center and the orthopedic institute. Construction of those buildings will not begin until next summer to allow time for current tenants to move.

In other business, the board approved an executive order drafted by UM System President Elson Floyd concerning athletics department policies.

The order puts a five-year maximum on contract lengths and limits coaches from receiving more than their base salary for the remaining years on the contract in the event that the contract is terminated.

Some curators questioned whether the restrictions placed on contract length could limit the system’s ability to attract quality coaches, but Floyd stressed the necessity of the new policy.

“Quickly within our education community, there is going to be the expectation that if one coaches at the University of Missouri, those contracts are not going to be beyond five years,” Floyd said.

The board will now be more involved in contract considerations through the creation of a new committee for compensation and human relations. The committee will examine multi-year athletic and academic contracts, although most academic contracts will not be subject to the five-year clause because of tenure.

Toward the end of the meeting, UM Chief of Staff David Russell presented an administrative streamlining report with recommendations to cut just over $20 million across the four-campus system, including many administrative positions.

“We don’t want it to be like a Jenga tower, eroding it at the core,” said Maria Curtis, a non-voting student representative to the curators.

Curtis expressed her concern for the potential thinness of the administration, especially at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

“Traditionally, our (UMSL) administration has been very thin, because when cuts have come, historically they have had a real resistance to cutting faculty positions, and so the cuts have predominantly gone to the administration,” she said.

Curator Marion Cairns expressed similar concerns, but also praised the UM chancellors.

“Nobody is guarding turf,” she said.

Though some reductions included in the administrative streamlining report have already been implemented, Russell said, other reductions are to be accomplished over a one- or two-year period.

Deaton said that overcutting the administration is a concern that has been discussed at length.

“We have to make sure that as the money is reallocated in the core mission, that we find a way, longer term, to do the more high-priority things we need to do to strengthen our academic mission,” Deaton said.

He said that an issue of high priority was assuring high-quality teaching faculty in MU’s College of Arts and Science, especially as MU enrollment grows.

Deaton also stressed the importance of graduate support; increased scholarships for study abroad, especially for low-income students; and strengthening the research base in the areas of nano-science and the life sciences.

“It’s important to have measures to look at the successes (of the streamlining),” Russell said. “We can see and celebrate successes as we find ways to utilize our resources.”