MU announces plan to cut costs and boost faculty salaries

MU announced today that it is launching a three-year financial plan to cut costs and increase faculty salaries. MU Chancellor Brady Deaton said in a statement that the new plan, Compete Missouri, will allow MU to maintain its ability to offer high-quality educators to an ever-expanding student body. Deaton said the financial plan, which will also address rising energy and compliance costs, is instrumental to MU’s future.

“If Missouri is to compete successfully with other states related to economic development and if our students are to compete successfully for jobs and graduate education, then we must have the faculty and staff who can make that happen and not lose them to other states and private institutions,” said Deaton.

The plan also calls for a review of all open faculty and staff positions — what Deaton called strategic position management — “to determine which positions we must fill to accomplish our goals.”

According to the Association of American Universities, the salaries paid to MU faculty are among the lowest offered at public research universities. Led by MU Provost Brian Foster, three committees have been working since spring to come up with ways to cut 1 percent from the general operating budgets of each of the UM System’s four campuses. Meanwhile, administrators say MU needs $7 million for additional operating budget needs for the upcoming school year. Among the solutions to be considered in the new plan are consolidating faculty and programs and offering nine-month contracts. The plan will also look at new ways to generate revenue, such as increasing summer and evening enrollments.