Nixon talks statewide tuition freeze at MU

MU student leaders watch as Gov. Jay Nixon gives details regarding the agreement to freeze tuition for undergraduate in-state students on Nov. 18, 2009, at the Reynolds Alumni Center at MU. "By helping keep higher education affordable, we are taking bold steps to prepare the workforce that will move Missouri forward," Nixon said.   ¦  Jessica Cherry

COLUMBIA — The plan to freeze undergraduate tuition at Missouri's four-year public institutions for a second consecutive year while preserving 95 percent of the the state's appropriation for higher education puts Missouri in a unique position, Gov. Jay Nixon said on Wednesday.

"We may well be the only state in the country to see no raise in tuition," Nixon said at a morning news conference at MU.

Although the plan announced on Tuesday would, if approved by the Missouri legislature, mark the second consecutive year that undergraduate public tuition remained flat for Missouri residents, University of Missouri System President Gary Forsee cautioned that the UM system — and public institutions of higher education nationally — will continue to face major economic challenges going forward.

"The higher education business model, the funding model, is broken," Forsee said. "It has been for a while and we are learning to deal with that fact."

Forsee plans to meet with his staff on Wednesday to begin discussing how to address these challenges.