COLUMBIA — From travel to training, University of Missouri System administrators are being told to “significantly” cut back.
Chancellors at the four UM System campuses were sent a memo from UM President Gary Forsee Wednesday that listed 14 specific areas where expenditures should be reduced.
Jennifer Hollingshead, a spokeswoman for the UM System, said there is no expectation for the amount of spending reductions at each campus. Additionally, she said there is no timetable for plans from each chancellor on how spending will be limited in each of the 14 areas listed in the memo.
But the memo states: “The expectation is that the university will significantly (italics and underlining present in the memo) reduce expenditure in each of the categories listed below.”
Forsee directed chancellors to distribute the memo widely across their campus departments by Friday.
“In order to reduce expenditures without putting the university at risk, management will need to exercise judgment in deciding what to eliminate and what to allow," Forsee said in the memo.
MU Chancellor Brady Deaton sent a memo out to MU department heads reiterating Forsee's points and outlining how budget reductions will specifically affect MU.
"It is important that we continue to appreciate the gravity of the financial crisis that we face in Missouri, nationally, and internationally. However, we must not become paralyzed or compromise our primary mission of teaching, research, service and economic development," Deaton said in the memo. He also listed the categories that Forsee highlighted and gave examples of how each applied to MU: "It is CRITICAL that every effort is made to reduce expenses in the categories below, in many cases as much as 50 percent, commencing immediately."
Click here for Forsee's 14 points, along with Deaton's explanations specific to MU.
Forsee's memo is the latest measure by the UM System to account for potential cuts in state funding which included a systemwide hiring freeze on Nov. 14.
The Missouri General Assembly asked state-funded universities and colleges to file reports in early December on how cuts of 15 percent, 20 percent and 25 percent in state funding would impact their operations. The UM System responded by submitting a report to the Missouri Department of Higher Education that listed layoffs and tuition increases as possible impacts of funding cuts.
Deaton said in a press conference on Dec. 19: "The University of Missouri was founded in 1839. I have no doubt it’s going to be here in 2039 and 2139."