CLIPS REPORT
Clips Report is a selection of local, statewide and national news clips about the University of Missouri and
higher education, compiled by UM System Strategic Communications as a service for UM System officials. The
report may include articles dealing with controversial subjects, policy matters, higher education trends and
other significant topics affecting the University.
The articles are not screened for accuracy, balance of favorable and unfavorable reports, or representation of
campuses, University Extension or media outlets. Some articles, especially those from Columbia newspapers,
are written by students. The report is not an effort to measure the University’s public information efforts.
February 13, 2009
UM president delivers State of the University Citizens across Missouri call for stronger
address, 1 Sunshine Law, 83
UM president given furlough authority, 4 Missouri’s private college fight cut in aid, 86
UM curators with expired terms remain on Our view: MOHELA plans lacking in explanation,
board, 10 90
UM decides to keep financial consultant, 11 Nixon betting on federal stimulus to balance
Governor recommends restoring Extension Missouri’s budget, 91
Center funding, 12 Past recessions suggest current downturn will
Editorial: Pale face, 35 bring permanent cuts in state funds, 96
MU releases final fundraising tally, 36 Wording of Missouri stem cell ballot summary
MU suing professor over work, 37 prompts two lawsuits, 97
Founder of ABC Labs dies at 91, 39 The latest online match: Companies can hook up
MU researcher develops tool for diabetes with universities on tech transfer, 107
screening, 43 Community colleges feel crunched by surge in
Gov. Nixon releases $5 million for new MU students, 108
autism center, 45 Higher education and the stimulus bill, 110
Ellis Fischel offers free screenings, 47 Editorial: Make college tax deductible, 119
State’s health ranks No. 38, 48 Sharing ideas: Tough times encourage colleges to
MU assistant professor on franchising, 50 collaborate, 120
ASUM students lobby at state capitol, 52 Pension shortfalls put pressure on strained
MU welcomes new chair of psychiatry, 54 university budgets, 125
MU professor studies how, why eating disorders Harvard University to offer buyouts to 1,600
consume females in U.S., 55 workers, 127
MU student crowned 2009 Miss Kirksville, 62 U. of Texas System to cap nonfaculty hiring and
MU rejoins RecycleMania competition, 63 executive pay, 128
Defibrillator used during MU basketball game, 65 Arizona State U. president outlines additional
A grassroots effort for the life sciences, 66 cuts and enrollment cap, 129
UMKC building will bear names of a civic couple, New rules will push colleges to rethink tactics
68 against student pirates, 130
UMKC School of Nursing gets $1.75M grant to Credit freeze leaves thousands of student
target rural areas, 69 borrowers stuck in default, 133
Anheuser-Busch Foundation gives $2.5M to Survey of chief academic officers raises concerns
UMSL, 70 about diversity and longevity, 138
Speck credits teamwork for enrollment jump at Career centers see more students and fewer
MSSU, 72 recruiters in tight job market, 141
Webster University picks Elizabeth Stroble as Banning weapons on campuses: The battle is far
president, 74 from won, 145
Hemenway advises state lawmakers: ‘You can’t What a music service’s demise says about
cut your way to excellence,’ 78 campus downloading, 147
KU Hospital will open blood, marrow transplant Standardized tests: Fair or unfair, 149
program’s dedicated space, 80 Gordon Gee’s call for ‘reinvention’ of higher
Bill would put regents in charge of college education, 152
admission standards, 81 Financial and psychic costs of college slow
SIU awards contracts, 82 community-college students’ progress, 154
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
UM president lays out ideas for curriculum, finances
By KAVITA KUMAR
Saturday, February 7, 2009
In his first state of the university address, University of Missouri system President Gary Forsee laid out
on Friday five strategic directions for the next year, including tailoring the curriculum to the needs of
major employers, having outside auditors evaluate the university's performance and bringing in more
revenue from commercializing research.
It's been almost a year now since Forsee, the former chief executive of Sprint Nextel, became
president of the university system and its four campuses. His biggest challenge by far has been helping
steer the university through the economic recession. Forsee said it may sound like a cliché, but the
university is indeed at a crossroads.
"I think this is a time for the University of Missouri to step up," he said, adding that they should not be
afraid of outside inspection or of exploring new ideas.
On Friday, the Board of Curators also approved several of Forsee's belt-tightening recommendations at
a meeting in Columbia. But some of those cutbacks — including requiring university employees to
contribute 1 to 2 percent of their salary to their pension plans — have begun to rankle some faculty
members. Some professors are calling the pension change a back-door salary cut.
While the university's benefits program is generous in comparison to other universities, professors and
school leaders have argued that it makes up for the university's comparatively low faculty salaries.
Tom McPhail, a media studies professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, said many faculty
members are upset that Forsee did not first consult with them about the change.
"There appears to be widespread concern about a lack of faculty governance and collaboration with
faculty," McPhail said.
But Forsee said he feels faculty concerns have been adequately addressed.
In a "perfect world," the 26,000-plus university employees would have been able to each have a voice
in the matter, he said.
"But that is not practical," said Forsee, noting that this is a challenging time.
The Board of Curators also gave Forsee the power he had requested to furlough employees if needed.
But the curators put a limit on it, saying that Forsee would have to consult with the board first and his
power would expire June 30.
Forsee said he hopes he will not have to institute a furlough. The only circumstance that might prompt
the move, he said, is if the state decides to withhold funding at the last minute to fill a state budget
shortfall this fiscal year.
As for his goals for the coming year, Forsee said he plans to appoint task forces or focus attention in
the following five areas:
— Assessing whether the university and its curriculum are meeting the needs of the state's 25 largest
employers.
— Improving the K-12 pipeline to higher education.
— Hiring outside auditors to evaluate the university's performance on 55 measures.
— Increasing the university's licensing revenue to $50 million a year by 2014. (Currently, the university
brings in closer to $10 million. Forsee added that he knows that the university will have to dedicate
more money and remove some roadblocks so researchers can more easily commercialize their
inventions.)
— Sharing more services across the four campuses — and possibly with other public universities and
community colleges — to save as much as 20 to 30 percent. Purchasing, accounts receivable and
information technology are some of the areas he suggests that could be shared.
Board President Bo Fraser praised Forsee's performance in his first year as president. He added that
Forsee has shown skeptics that someone with a business background can succeed in running a
university.
Columbia Missourian
Economic development ‘key’ to university future
Forsee: UM facing a ‘perfect storm.’
By JENNA YOUNGS
Friday, February 6, 2009
The University of Missouri is ready to prove itself as an economic driver in the state during the worst
recession in decades, UM System President Gary Forsee said this morning in his first State of the
University address.
University of Missouri System President Gary Forsee delivers the State of the University address today
to the Board of Curators at the Reynolds Alumni Center.
“It’s game on,” he said during this morning’s Board of Curators meeting on the MU campus. “We’ve
got it. Let’s do it.”
He said the university is facing a “perfect storm” of financial constraint and leaders will need to make
tough decisions to see the university through it.
The Board of Curators this morning approved a measure allowing Forsee to institute employee
furloughs, or forced unpaid time off, if future state appropriation withholdings make it necessary.
Forsee would be required to consult with the board before doing so, and his authority would end on
June 30, the end of the current fiscal year.
Another measure requires employees to contribute to the university’s defined-benefit pension plan,
which is currently fully funded by the university. Participating employees would contribute 1 percent
of their salary for the first $50,000 and 2 percent of their salary for any amount over that.
Employees who leave the university before they are vested in the plan would receive their
contributions back with interest, UM System spokeswoman Jennifer Hollingshead said.
Board Chairman Bo Fraser said the university needs to use the economic situation as a way look at the
“challenges and opportunities that lie ahead as we navigate the troubled waters.”
“I think we should continue to focus on economic development as a key to our university’s, state’s and
nation’s future,” he said.
Forsee also outlined five goals that expand upon the strategic development plan he introduced to
curators in October.
Work with large employers throughout the state to determine whether education programs are
properly training students for the future.
“We tend to take a look at how prepared students are when they come toward us,” Forsee said.
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“How often do we look at those getting our services and how well has the job been done to prepare”
students “for the future?”
Create an additional task force to find ways to increase student enrollment and support the “P-20
pipeline,” intended to ensure that students succeed in all levels of education from preschool
through graduate school.
Grow the university’s revenue from licensing products developed through research from $10
million a year to $50 million by 2014.
Institute accountability measures, benchmarks and objectives to determine the university’s
efficiency. Fifty-five objectives have been identified to audit, and Forsee expects reports from the
four campuses by December. “We shouldn’t be afraid to allow that inspection to occur,” he said.
Create “shared services centers” throughout the system to cut down on duplication.
As an example, he cited the 2007 consolidation of the university’s information technology program
with the Columbia campus IT department, which Forsee said saves the university $700,000 a year in
salaries and benefits. He said consolidating programs will be a five-year undertaking.
Forsee said he hopes the initiatives will invite participation from other public universities throughout
the state and increase the role of higher education in Missouri. “There are a lot of strengths at the
University of Missouri,” he said. “We’ve got to leverage that strength in our role in the state. … We can
and should do more to provide leadership in thought and in action.”
St. Louis Business Journal
Forsee delivers state of UM address
By LISA R. BROWN
Friday, February 6, 2009
University of Missouri President Gary Forsee outlined his priorities and future direction for the UM
system Friday.
The five strategic directions Forsee presented in his address before the UM Board of Curators were:
Grow revenue derived from tech transfer. The goal is to increase licensing revenue to $50 million
by 2014. In fiscal 2009, the current amount totals $10 million.
Focus on “outside-in” — ensuring the UM system matches the needs and expectations of Missouri
employers. A task force will evaluate this issue and report back by Dec. 1, 2009
Ensure the P-20 pipeline is strong and seamless. P-20 initiatives are directed by the Missouri
Department of Higher Education to connect early childhood, elementary, secondary education
and higher education. Forsee said MU will seek to identify areas where higher education can
support state P-20 efforts.
Audit accountability and measurement plans. An independent performance audit on
accountability measures, benchmarks and objectives will be finalized by December 2009.
Deploy shared service center concept across four campuses, extend offer to higher education
colleagues. This will affect purchasing, accounts receivable, transaction processing, treasury and
cash management, IT, library and research documentation and shared network services
supporting distance learning.
The UM system has 66,000 students and 26,000 employees. In the state of the university address,
Forsee said UM’s economic impact on the state totaled $1.1 billion and 13,000 jobs.
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Columbia Daily Tribune
Letter: UM workers must fight pension move
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Editor, the Tribune: University employees, it is time to speak up! Some on the UM Board of Curators
think you should have no defined-benefit pension plan at all, and the recently announced 1 to 2
percent required match is the first step toward that goal.
What the board and president seem to have forgotten is the university doesn’t offer profit sharing,
stock options or year-end bonuses. Apparently they also forgot that the university pays significantly
less for the same work than companies like Sprint. The defined-benefit plan helps offset that lower
pay!
Employees: Remember all those years that you got no raise or had a net pay cut after benefit costs
rose? Remember the boom years when your friends in corporate America got big raises and yours was
a pitiful 1 percent? You stuck with the university out of loyalty, and now, when times get tough, the
university ... gives the football coach a $500,000 raise, and the chancellor takes a European vacation at
a conference on “trans-Atlantic agricultural policy?”
Gary Forsee’s report to the curators says he needs $13 million from employees to fund the retirement
plan. I have a very hard time believing there isn’t another $13 million in efficiencies to be found in a
$1.6 billion budget.
Furloughs? Fine. Close up for a week after school lets out if need be. But “shifting retirement costs” is
a pay cut that will stay in place even after the current crisis is over.
Columbia Missourian
UM System employees to begin required retirement payments July 1
By NATHAN WINTERS
Monday, February 9, 2009
COLUMBIA — MU employees will pay into their retirement plans beginning July 1, according to a
memo sent to employees Monday morning.
The date corresponds to the beginning of the 2010 fiscal year.
"President Gary Forsee wanted to be able to realize the full impact for the full upcoming fiscal year,"
said Jennifer Hollingshead, spokeswoman for the UM System.
A Web site linked to the memo made it clear all full-time, benefit-eligible employees must participate
in the pension plan with no choice of opting out.
The UM System Board of Curators approved the changes Feb. 6 during a meeting in Columbia. Final
details will be released after the board's next meeting in April.
The step was taken to help the system's financial position during an expected economic downtown
and to make it more consistent with other peer institutions that already require contributions, the
system's Web site reported. Previously, the system has not required employee contributions toward
its own pension plan.
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Employees will be required to contribute 1 percent of their salary up to $50,000, and 2 percent on any
amount exceeding $50,000.
For example, an employee who makes $90,000 would pay $500, or 1 percent of their first $50,000,
plus $800, or 2 percent of the remaining $40,000, for a total contribution of $1,300.
The summary of the pension plan changes includes these items:
Temporary and part-time employees will not have to contribute to plan. UM retired employees
who work at the university on a part-time basis will also not be required to contribute.
All contributions will go to the UM Retirement, Disability and Death benefits plan.
The system will continue to be responsible for most of the resources needed to fund the plan.
Regular pay, contract pay, vacation pay, personal days, shift differential, sick leave pay, and
summer session pay are examples of salary categories to be used in determining contribution
amounts for employees.
The employee contributions to the plan will be made before taxes.
Retirement benefits in the plan will not be affected by any of the changes. They continue to be
based on the gross amount of an employee's salary.
Employees who decide to leave the university before they have vested status will be eligible for a
refund in the amount already contributed, plus interest. Final determination of the interested
factor will be announced when plans are finalized.
Contributions to voluntary retirement savings plans such as the UM Deferred Compensation
Program or UM Tax Deferred Annuity Program can still be adjusted at any time.
Southeast Missourian
MU head given furlough authority
The Associated Press
Saturday, February 7, 2009
COLUMBIA, Mo. — University of Missouri curators have given system president Gary Forsee the power
to furlough campus workers should the economy continue to spiral downward.
That means Forsee could force employees to take time off without pay. He would still have to consult
with curators first.
Forsee said no job cuts are planned at the university system's four campuses. He spoke Friday at the
conclusion of a curators meeting.
Forsee's furlough authority runs through June 30.
The nine curators also approved Forsee's request to offer medical benefits and severance pay to any
employees who may lose their jobs down the road.
Columbia Daily Tribune
Letter: UM’s plan to cut pay for benefits unfair
Sunday, February 8, 2009
From the executive committee of the MU Chapter of the AAUP
On Tuesday, University of Missouri System President Gary Forsee announced a plan that would force
employees to start contributing to their university retirement plan beginning at a 1 percent deduction
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for salary up to $50,000 and a 2 percent deduction for any salary more than $50,000. Since this
announcement, the MU chapter of the AAUP has received numerous messages of concern and anger
from faculty about this proposal. We believe implementation of the proposed policy would result in
strained relationships among the faculty and administration, which would be counterproductive to the
university.
Most faculty concerns can be summed up with the following four points:
1. The process through which this decision is being implemented does not involve shared governance
with faculty. Inviting the faculty-at-large to contribute ideas for how the university should save money
is not the same as consulting faculty before making a decision to implement a proposal of such
immense impact on faculty and staff and that radically changes MU policy. Notably, the town hall
meetings are scheduled for after the curators make a decision to support or reject this proposal. We
do not dispute that the administration makes the final decision about policy changes, but decisions
that affect faculty should be tempered through discussion with them, especially given the impact of
these policy changes on faculty and staff morale. Also, decisions affecting the ability to recruit the
best-qualified people to teach and do research that contributes to the economy and enriches our
culture should be discussed with faculty members in advance.
2. The university is already far below the national median in terms of faculty salary and 47th in the
nation in terms of state funding. In a recent letter by Forsee to the Department of Higher Education,
he wrote: “State support for higher education operations over the past eight years, FY 2001 to FY
2009, has been stagnant in nominal terms and declining in real terms. Substantial withholding has
occurred, in addition to cuts in the appropriations base. The quality of educational offerings has been
sustained by underpaying faculty, deferring maintenance, increasing tuition, and increasing
enrollment. ...” The same is not true of other institutions in the nation.
Faculty and staff salary reductions, even if diverted to compensation plans, are not advisable during an
economic recession. The proposed reduction constitutes a “backdoor salary cut,” even though it was
stated at the general faculty meeting in the fall that salary cuts were not included in the scenarios
envisioned by the administration to address revenue shortages. Gov. Jay Nixon also recently, quite
generously, expressed his continued full support for the university’s budget, making further salary cuts
seem unnecessary. Yet Forsee has described the current budget situation as an “opportunity to
evaluate the way we cost-effectively carry out our mission.” Faculty members do not feel the same
sense of “opportunity” in decreasing already below-average salaries.
There is further concern that the proposed reductions will hurt most those with the least income. Even
a 1 percent decrease for staff or adjunct professors making less than $50,000 a year is too much when
that salary is needed to support families and pay off student loans, which constitute a much greater
burden today than in past decades. Why end the 2 percent increase at salaries of $100,000? Why not a
3 percent deduction from $100,000 to $150,000 and a 4 percent deduction from $150,000 to
$200,000? A 4 percent deduction for someone making more than $150,000 is not a greater sacrifice
than a 1 percent deduction for someone making $50,000 year or less.
3. Altering the benefits package makes MU less competitive. If asked, many faculty members would
prefer an overt salary reduction that would be rescinded in better economic times than losing a
benefit that is better at MU than at other educational institutions. MU’s benefits package is one
reason some faculty stay at MU even with its poor salaries, and this policy change will make the
university less competitive.
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Also, some faculty are concerned those who retire now will have paid nothing while most of the
faculty will pay a lot to compensate not only retiring faculty benefits, but also the benefits of much
more highly paid administrators.
4. Transferring the authority from the board to the UM president to institute furloughs undermines
the checks and balances that have been built into the system for a reason. One person, regardless of
how wise or just, should never have too much power over the lives and careers of others. Does the
president believe the process of administering furloughs for faculty or staff will happen so quickly that
the oversight of the curators has to be superseded? A justification for the need to transfer power from
the curators to one person has not been made to the satisfaction of faculty and staff.
For the above-stated reasons, the AAUP strongly opposes both the plan to make faculty pay for a
portion of their university benefits plan and the proposal to grant the power to furlough solely to the
president.
Columbia Missourian
Five ideas: Are furloughs the solution the UM budget is seeking?
By JEWELS PHRANER
Saturday, February 7, 2009
On Tuesday, University of Missouri System President Gary Forsee sent a memo to university faculty
and staff about his plan to request approval from the Board of Curators for the authority to require
unpaid leave "if necessary" and for employees to begin paying into their retirement plans. He cited the
recession as the main reason for “reevaluating” the university's expenses.
The plan, approved Friday by the curators, gave Forsee authority to impose furloughs with board
consultation. It also requires benefit-eligible employees to make contributions based on their level of
salary, beginning at 1 percent for a salary of up to $50,000, and 2 percent on any salary earned over
$50,000.
A group of MU professors called this plan a “backdoor salary cut” in a letter in response to Forsee.
Unpaid leave, or furloughs, is being required by universities throughout the nation as a more
compassionate alternative to layoffs, but the group objected that faculty had not been involved in
discussions leading up to the proposal.
“Decisions that impact the faculty should be tempered through discussion with them, especially given
the impact of policy changes on faculty and staff morale,” said the letter, written by the executive
committee of the MU chapter of the American Association of University Professors.
Q: Are the changes the best way for the university to manage a growing budget deficit? Should the
faculty have been more involved in the process?
Columbia Missourian
Curators approve furlough, retirement plan
By NATHAN WINTERS, NICOLAS JIMENEZ
Friday, February 6, 2009
The UM Board of Curators on Friday gave President Gary Forsee the authority to impose emergency
furloughs.
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The board also authorized a proposal to require benefit-eligible employees to pay into their retirement
plans.
Additionally, the board approved a transition assistance program for employees who lose their jobs as
a result of budget cuts.
The board voted unanimously to give Forsee authority to implement furloughs if he deemed them
necessary. The authority ends June 30, and Forsee must consult the board before taking any action.
The president said only a reduction in state appropriations during the current fiscal year would prompt
such a move. He said it would not be imposed unilaterally.
“It wouldn’t be something that would necessarily be applied at the system level,” Forsee said.
In a news conference after the meeting, he was questioned about concerns that faculty were not given
enough warning about the changes.
“In a perfect world, all 26,950 of our associates would have a personal conversation with me, and
that’s not going to take place,” Forsee said. “That’s not practical, and we rely and I trust the
governance processes to work. “
He said he met with faculty leaders on the campuses earlier this week to discuss his proposals.
Forsee said the measures are intended to manage anticipated consequences of the economic
downturn.
“Some 18 months ago, we certainly saw the worst recession in 80 years starting to unfold in our
country. At the same time, we know that all of those impacts are just now starting to work their way
toward us.”
“The question is, how will times change with a new administration, and will that administration move
in different directions, and how will we respond and match up to that as we go forward? “
Forsee said it was a time for university leaders to provide ongoing dialogue with their constituents.
“Uncertainty affects everyone," he said. "The ability to hear directly from individuals who most impact
your role, in my experience, is the best measure to assure that morale in context can stay strong
during these periods of time."
KOMU.com
Curators approve policy changes
By CATE KELLY
Friday, February 6, 2009
COLUMBIA - The University of Missouri Board of Curators voted to approve the four policy changes
which will affect employees system wide.
Of the four changes, two delegated authority to President Gary Forsee to implement furlough days
and to implement a transition assistance program.
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The other two changes have employees contributing to their own retirement plan and the elimination
of overtime pay when on paid leave.
The biggest concern to Mizzou is the retirement plan package.
"We're already, compared to our peer institutions very poorly paid," said MU Faculty Council Chair
Tom Phillips. "We've always had a pretty good and fair pension system and we don't want to lose that
part of it since our salaries are so low."
Deaton said it is important to recruit top faculty and increasing salary for faculty is something that will
need work.
"Our benefits package is still very competitive, we're still in a very favorable position and the issue of
salaries for our faculty is one we've had for sometime," said MU Chancellor Brady Deaton.
Furloughs were the second big concern among employees. Forsee said they will only be used if funding
from the state falls short for the rest of the fiscal year.
"We are in a challenging time, and those challenging times require a variety of actions, some of which
are very difficult and complicated," said President Gary Forsee.
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Columbia Daily Tribune
Curators with expired terms remain on board
By JENNA YOUNGS
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Three participants during the University of Missouri Board of Curators meeting this week in
Columbia were “graduates in their overtime period,” UM System President Gary Forsee said after
the meeting yesterday.
Even though their six-year terms expired Jan. 1, curators Cheryl Walker, Don Walsworth and
Marion Cairns participated in the meetings because Gov. Jay Nixon has yet to appoint their
replacements.
Forsee said he is unsure when Nixon will name the new curators but said he’s confident they will
be on the board before the curators’ next meeting April 2 and 3 in Rolla.
“I expect now that” Nixon “is through the State of the State and more pressing matters, this is
now working its way up his list,” Forsee said.Addressing rumors that Walsworth might be
reappointed to another term on the board, Forsee said he spoke with Nixon about qualifications
that “a good board member would have” but said they did not talk specifically about Walsworth
or any other potential candidates.
Board Chairman Bo Fraser said he also doesn’t know of any potential candidates for the board.
“We’re anxious to know who the new class is coming in, but we don’t have any indication of who
that might be,” he said.
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Columbia Daily Tribune
UM decides to keep financial consultant
By JENNA YOUNGS
Friday, February 6, 2009
The University of Missouri has decided to ride out the rocky economy with its current investment
consultant rather than make a change midstream.
The UM Board of Curators’ Finance and Audit Committee opted to stick with Rocaton Investment
Advisors, based in Norwich, Conn., but members said they’d like to extend the deal only for two
years and revisit the issue when the economy is less turbulent.
“My experience is sometimes we have close experiences and sometimes we need to make
changes because relationships get stale,” UM System President Gary Forsee said during a meeting
of the committee yesterday. “But right now the whitewater is so extreme. … I think introducing a
small amount of change right now in this day-to-day turmoil might just be too much.”
The UM System has used Rocaton as its investment consultant since the company was founded in
2002, Rocaton CEO Robin Pellish said. Although curators had few complaints about the company,
some echoed Forsee’s thought that switching investment consultants might eventually be good
for the university.
Six companies submitted proposals to be the university’s investment consultant, and a committee
including UM System Vice President for Finance and Administration Nikki Krawitz and Curator
Doug Russell interviewed four of them. St. Louis-based Summit Strategies Group and Rocaton
were the two “unanimous” finalists, Krawitz said. The consulting firm advises UM on investing its
assets, including its endowment and pension funds.
Curator Don Walsworth said he’d like to see the curators consider a Missouri-based company to
advise them about investments in the future. “I think we could get a lot of good press and bring in
a local company,” he said.
Board Chairman Bo Fraser said he would like Summit Strategies “back at the table at some point,”
and Walsworth suggested Krawitz inform the company that curators supported reconsidering
using them in the future. “I would encourage you to inform the firm in St. Louis the reason we did
not engage them is because we wanted continuity in this market turmoil and the timing” of a
change “is bad,” he said.
The full Board of Curators was scheduled to approve the decision today during its meeting at the
Reynolds Alumni Center in Columbia.
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Southeast Missourian
Nixon recommends restoring Extension center funding
By BRIAN BLACKWELL
Friday, February 13, 2009
The state's University of Missouri Extension centers can breathe a little easier.
Gov. Jay Nixon has recommended the state legislature restore funding to the University of Missouri
Extension centers by nearly $9.3 million. The governor had originally proposed cuts of $14.6 million —
half of its state funding — but that number has been cut to $5.3 million.
The reallocation was possible because his administration identified surplus from the Chillicothe
women's correctional facility project, which he said cost less than expected.
"Because of our careful review of the state budget and efficient management on site in Chillicothe, we
have the resources necessary to increase our recommended appropriation for the extension programs
at both MU and Lincoln University," Nixon said in a written statement. "During these difficult
economic times, we've had to make tough choices about which priorities state government will be
able to fund, and I will always remain committed to the principle that here in Missouri, we pay as we
go. The university extension programs provide important services for Missourians, and I'm pleased
that we have the opportunity to allocate additional resources to fund their work."
Nixon said the Extension programs were some of the last programs cut, so they were the first priority
to be restored. Nixon has cut or eliminated 50 state programs and 1,300 state employees to balance
the fiscal year 2010 budget proposal.
"The cuts to the extension programs were the last ones made by the governor, so it was appropriate
that they be the first restored when this additional money was found," said Nixon press secretary
Scott Holste.
Since the original proposed cuts were announced, Extension center officials, farmers, Republicans
lawmakers and other Missourians have voiced displeasure with the decision. Extension officials
believed the cuts could eliminate 58 percent of extension jobs and result in millions of dollars in losses
in federal matching funds.
Republican lawmakers, including state Sen. Jason Crowell, have claimed the cuts contradicts Nixon's
promise in January not to cut higher education funding from the state's colleges and universities in
exchange for not raising tuition at those institutions this fall.
Crowell, who said he supports the Extension centers and their mission, said the news was a move in
the right direction.
"I support working with Gov. Nixon, passing a balanced budget and appreciate him listening to
concerns that leadership [has] in my mind," Crowell said.
The Extension center programs include 4-H Youth Development, Master Gardener, continuing
education, business development, agricultural enrichment and professional development.
Ronda Elfrink joined other Extension center officials who voiced concern over the cuts. She represents
16 counties in Southeast Missouri.
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"It's great to know we the citizens do have a voice," Elfrink said. "However, there is still a cut to
Extensions statewide. Again, our goal and mission is to restore entire funding or equal share of any
cuts to higher education."
KBIA.com
Nixon explains MU Extension reallocation
By MAUREEN MCCOLLUM
Thursday, February 12, 2009
COLUMBIA, MO (2009-02-12) Governor Jay Nixon has allocated more funds to university extension
systems than initially anticipated. KBIA's Maureen McCollum has more on where the money came
from.
Governor Jay Nixon proposed cutting University of Missouri Extension's budget in half a couple weeks
ago. Now, he's proposing to add more than ten million dollars to MU and Lincoln University's
Extension budgets. This still leaves MU Extension four to five million dollars short next year. Nixon says
the reallocated funds come from closed and accelerated payments and bonds to Chillicothe women's
correctional facility. Some of those bonds gained interest, which helped create the surplus.
Representative Chris Kelly of Columbia says the Chillicothe program cost nearly three-and-a-half
million dollars less than anticipated.
"So the combination of the interest money, which was not readily available, and the news that it came
in cheaper combine to make a pool of a little more than $10 million. What does the governor do?
Bingo! Right to Extension."
Nixon says Extension was one of the last proposed cuts to the budget, therefore it was the first to get
money reallocated to it. The state legislature votes in the spring on whether to approve Nixon's
budget.
MissouriNet
House Speaker says extension service will not be cut
By BRENT MARTIN
Thursday, February 12, 2009
House Speaker Ron Richard (R-Joplin) applauds a move by Governor Nixon to greatly reduce the cut he
proposes to the University of Missouri and Lincoln University extension services. And Richard tells
reporters at the Capitol that the House has no intention of cutting extension.
Governor Nixon originally proposed cutting $15.4 million dollars from the university extension
program. The proposal would cut in half the University of Missouri extension service budget and make
a 40% cut to the Lincoln University extension service. The governor's office this week stated $10.1
million would be restored to the extension service budget from money saved in the building of the
new women's prison in Chillicothe.
Richard says members of the House were shocked to learn the governor proposed a 50% reduction in
the University of Missouri extension service, a service that touches nearly all 163 districts in the House.
"It caught us flat-footed," Richard says. "There hadn't been any discussion about it."
The Speaker says he even talked with University of Missouri system president, Gary Forsee, who
hadn't been given notice of the proposal to cut the extension service.
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Richard says members of the House weren't happy with the proposal. He says there is no sentiment in
the House to cut extension.
"And I'm still saying, 'Fat chance, it's not gonna happen,'" Richard says.
The governor recommends a budget to the legislature. The House is the first to review the
recommendations and draft its version of the budget which it sends to the Senate. Negotiators from
both the Senate and House consult with members of the governor's office to reach a final budget for
the fiscal year that begins July 1st.
MissouriNet
State Senator has mixed feelings about restoration of extension funding
By STEVE WALSH
Thursday, February 12, 2009
The University of Missouri and Lincoln University extension programs get back some of the money that
had been cut by the Governor's Office after Governor Jay Nixon claims surplus funds were found
following construction of the new women's prison in Chillicothe.
Senator Kurt Schaefer (R-Columbia) - whose district is home to MU - wants to see all the money
restored for what he sees as a vital program. Schaefer doesn't like the fact the Governor could
unilaterally make cuts of this kind. Schaefer says the Governor should have informed the Board of
Curators at MU that cuts had to be made and left it to the Board to decide where and how to cut.
The Governor's initial 2010 Fiscal Year recommendation included a combined cut of $15.4-million for
MU and Lincoln's extension programs. $10.1-million will be restored.
Brownfield Network
Missouri Farm Bureau says extension programs still left short
By JULIE HARKER
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Missouri Farm Bureau President Charlie Kruse says he’s pleased Governor Jay Nixon has restored some
of the proposed cuts to university extension programs at the state’s two land grant universities.
However, Kruse told reporters this morning that’s still a $5 million dollar shortfall for extension
programs, “Even with the proposed restoration of cuts there’s still a very significant cut in extension.
And, there’s so many programs in extension that are very, very important to our members, to people
who live and work in rural Missouri.”
When Governor Nixon initially proposed a 50% cut in the state appropriation for University of Missouri
Extension and a 40% cut at Lincoln University, Kruse says Farm Bureau members were very concerned,
“We’ve been getting a lot of calls, a lot of letters, a lot of emails from our folks expressing great
concern about this.”
Nixon, on Wednesday, amended his Fiscal Year 2010 budget proposal to restore $10.1 million to the
extension programs after initially proposing $15.4 million in cuts. He plans to do so with surplus funds
remaining after construction of the new women’s prison in Chillicothe.
Missouri House Speaker Ron Richard of Joplin said Wednesday the proposed cuts caught lawmakers by
surprise. While the governor's restoration of some of those funds is a step in the right direction,
Richard says the House is staunchly opposed to making ANY cuts to the extension service, "And I'm still
sayin', fat chance, it's not gonna happen." Richard says Governor Nixon can recommend the extension
service be cut, but the Missouri House will put the money right back.
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According to the Missouri Legislative Black Caucus, which supports the governor's reversal of proposed
extension cuts, Wednesday's policy change avoids cutting $803, 000 for Lincoln University in Jefferson
City and preserves $9.3 million for the University of Missouri.
Capitol Calling
Blog: Nixon makes move on UM Extension
By JASON ROSENBAUM
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Gov. Jay Nixon announced yesterday that he would scale back the cut for the University of Missouri
Extension program.
Before his State of the State Address, Nixon's budget writers noted they were planning to cut the
program by around $14.6 million. The program assists in running numerous agricultural-related
programs, including 4-H Clubs.
Nixon's office sent out a press release yesterday stating that the first-term governor "identified surplus
funds remaining after the construction at the new women’s correctional facility at Chillicothe." About
$9 million of the $10 million will go to the UM Extension, while the rest will go to the Lincoln
University extension program.
“Because of our careful review of the state budget and efficient management on site in Chillicothe, we
have the resources necessary to increase our recommended appropriation for the extension programs
at both MU and Lincoln University," Nixon said in a statement.
While the cut to Lincoln University's extension program was completely restored, Nixon's budget still
plans to reduce the budget for UM extension by about $5 million.
Sen. Kurt Schaefer, R-Columbia, said the extension program "deserved better."
"And I think that the university deserves better than that," Schaefer said. "I think the governor made a
promise that the 2010 budget would not have any cuts for the University of Missouri beyond what was
in 2009. And he's still $5 million short on that promise, at least as it applies to extension - not even to
mention the $31 million for the [Ellis Fischel Cancer Center]."
Schaefer also said he was worried that the money for the continuing program was coming from a one-
time source of revenue.
Nixon's office previous stated that the cut to the UM Extension was not a violation of his promise to
keep campus funding static in exchange for a tuition freeze. Nixon spokesman Jack Cardetti told the
Columbia Tribune last month that "the governor does not want to see cut is the base money that goes
to the classroom."
Springfield News-Leader
University of Missouri Extension still facing cuts
By CHAD LIVENGOOD
Thursday, February 12, 2009
JEFFERSON CITY — Gov. Jay Nixon's plan to scale back cuts to the University of Missouri Extension
would still result in the loss of 75 faculty and staff jobs at outreach centers across the state.
That's according to Michael Ouart, vice provost for extension at MU, who appeared before the House
Agricultural Policy Committee on Thursday to make a case for no cut in overall funding to extension.
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Nixon’s current plan is to cut $5.3 million in funding.
MU officials want extension funding to be considered part of Nixon's pledge to not cut university
funding in exchange for a statewide freeze on tuition.
“We really want to be considered as a part of higher education, under that umbrella, and treated as
such in the budget,” Ouart told the committee.
Ouart said if MU Extension has to take cut, the university wants it to be “proportionate to the rest of
higher ed.”
Nixon had previously proposed cutting half of MU Extension's state funding — $14.6 million. But on
Wednesday, the Democratic governor announced his administration had found $9.3 million in spare
cash from a renovation project of a women's prison in Chillicothe, which was used to restore money to
extension.
While Nixon's decision was welcomed news, the university is still seeking to be held harmless in the
2010 fiscal year, which begins July 1.
Ouart said the “best case scenario” for extension under the proposed $5.3 million cut is for the service
to raise its program fees and apply for additional grants to make up for the shortfall, which adds up to
an 18 percent reduction in state aid.
The controversial cuts to extension have been met by stiff resistance by both Republican and
Democratic lawmakers from rural parts of the state where MU Extension's agricultural development
services are best known - and lauded.
House Speaker Ron Richard, R-Joplin, said the Republican-controlled House plans to reject Nixon's
proposal and restore all of the money for extension.
“Fat chance,” Richard told reporters Thursday. “It's not going to happen.”
Sen. Frank Barnitz, a Democrat from Dent County, said his rural constituents across south-central
Missouri think the governor's plan is a “terrible” idea.
Since Nixon unveiled the proposed cuts late last month, extension supporters have been calling
lawmakers and asking that their programs be sparred the budget ax.
“It should awaken extension (supporters) to open communication with the legislature,” said Barnitz, D-
Lake Spring.
Republicans legislators have expressed frustration that Nixon would try to cut extension without
consulting with them.
“I don't think somebody thought that through,” said Rep. Mike Parson, R-Bolivar.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Found dollars give Extension reprieve
By GEORGINA GUSTIN
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Gov. Jay Nixon announced Wednesday that he was restoring proposed funding for the state's
extension system after finding extra dollars remaining from the construction of a new women's prison.
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Nixon had originally said he would cut state funding to extension programs, run by the University of
Missouri and Lincoln University, by $15.4 million. Critics of the decision said it would cripple farmers
who rely on the extension for advice and threaten programs that bring higher education to cities and
suburbs.
Nixon said Wednesday that he planned to cut only $5.3 million from the programs by relying on $10
million of funds left over from a recently completed women's prison at Chillicothe.
In late January, Nixon said that he would not cut funding to the universities, nor raise tuition or fees
for the 2009-2010 academic year. As details of his budget emerged, it became clear that state funds to
extension system would be sliced in half.
Initially, extension officials feared they would have needed to ax 200 jobs and risked losing millions in
federal matching funds. They said the cut would slice into programs that were even more critical in
hard economic times.
"MU Extension should be treated no differently than all of public higher education in the state," said
University of Missouri Vice Provost Michael Ouart. "MU Extension provides access to educational
programs that are critical to the state's economy and the health and well-being of its citizens."
Extension offices in rural areas are a resource for farmers, while urban and suburban offices offer
classes in everything from budgeting to nutrition. The extension also runs 4-H programs.
"It's a place people can really turn to get some answers," said Frank Fillo, a spokesman for the
extension system.
Members of the councils that oversee the extension offices planned to meet Wednesday night at the
University of Missouri-St. Louis to discuss how to deal with the cuts.
Late in the day, they got the news that the damage wouldn't be as severe.
Bud Reber, director for the extension's east-central region, said the smaller $5 million cut was "is
markedly better than 14.6."
Still, extension officials said, they will have to think hard about where to cut, as even $5 million will
probably cost jobs and programs.
"Trying to pick apart what to cut to hold onto the matching funds, you need to look at each program
and each faculty," said Rhonda Gibler, assistant vice provost for the University of Missouri Extension.
"There's no combination that I can cut that isn't going to affect some other funding source."
Springfield News-Leader
Extension lobbies against funding cut
Centers want to get protection pledged to higher education.
By CHAD LIVENGOOD
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Jefferson City -- Gov. Jay Nixon's plan to scale back cuts to the University of Missouri Extension would
still result in the loss of 75 faculty and staff jobs at outreach centers across the state.
That's according to Michael Ouart, vice provost for extension at MU, who appeared before the House
Agricultural Policy Committee on Thursday to make a case for no cut in overall funding to extension.
Nixon's current plan is to cut $5.3 million in funding.
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MU officials want extension funding to be considered part of Nixon's pledge to not cut university
funding in exchange for a statewide freeze on tuition.
"We really want to be considered as a part of higher education, under that umbrella, and treated as
such in the budget," Ouart told the committee.
Ouart said if MU Extension has to take a cut, the university wants it to be "proportionate to the rest of
higher ed."
Nixon had previously proposed cutting half of MU Extension's state funding --$14.6 million. But on
Wednesday, the Democratic governor announced his administration had found $9.3 million in spare
cash from a renovation project of a women's prison in Chillicothe, which was used to restore money to
the extension.
While Nixon's decision was welcomed news, the university is still seeking to be held harmless in the
2010 fiscal year, which begins July 1.
Ouart said the "best- case scenario" for extension under the proposed $5.3 million cut is for the
service to raise its program fees and apply for additional grants to make up for the shortfall, which
adds up to an 18 percent reduction in state aid.
The controversial cuts to extension have been met by stiff resistance by both Republican and
Democratic lawmakers from rural parts of the state, where MU Extension's agricultural development
services are best known -- and lauded.
House Speaker Ron Richard, R-Joplin, said the Republican-controlled House plans to reject Nixon's
proposal and restore all of the money for extension.
"Fat chance," Richard told reporters Thursday. "It's not going to happen."
Sen. Frank Barnitz, a Democrat from Dent County, said his rural constituents across south-central
Missouri think the governor's plan is a "terrible" idea.
Since Nixon unveiled the proposed cuts late last month, extension supporters have been calling
lawmakers and asking that their programs be spared the budget ax.
"It should awaken extension (supporters) to open communication with the legislature," said Barnitz, D-
Lake Spring.
Republican legislators have expressed frustration that Nixon would try to cut extension without
consulting with them.
"I don't think somebody thought that through," said Rep. Mike Parson, R-Bolivar.
Columbia Daily Tribune
Nixon softens UM Extension funding cuts
But lawmaker is unsure of future.
By JANESE HEAVIN
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Gov. Jay Nixon is backing off of his original recommendation to slice state funding to University of
Missouri Extension in half.
Now, rather than suggesting lawmakers cut Extension by $14.6 million, Nixon is proposing a $5.3
million cut to the program. The lesser cut is possible because a state construction project came in
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under budget, resulting in a $10.1 million surplus, Nixon’s spokesman, Scott Holste, said. Of that, $9.3
million will be allocated for UM Extension and $800,000 will be used to fully restore a proposed cut to
the Extension program at Lincoln University.
“In making choices as far as what program would be cut or eliminated, a cut to the Extension program
was the last to be made,” Holste said. “So it would be natural” that Extension “would be the first to
receive any kind of restored money.”
UM Extension provides a laundry list of services to residents across Missouri, including support for
small businesses, nutrition and health programs and tools for farmers.
“We know the millions of citizens across Missouri who have benefited from Extension will celebrate
this news,” MU Chancellor Brady Deaton said.
Rep. Chris Kelly, D-Columbia, said he was “very pleased” with Nixon’s decision to restore some of the
allocation to Extension.
“To the governor’s credit, he figured out it was a big problem both in terms of governance and in
terms of perception, and he went out and worked hard to find a way to solve it,” he said. “He said, ‘If
anybody can find me the revenue, I’ll fix this.’ Somebody found the revenue, and he fixed it.”
Sen. Kurt Schaefer, R-Columbia, quipped that he was glad Nixon took his advice. Asked whether he
specifically talked to Nixon about Extension funding, Schaefer said it came up during a discussion with
Nixon’s chief of staff.
“I’m sure the governor reads the paper, as well,” Schaefer said. “I certainly haven’t been shy with the
governor’s office or the media about the fact I thought a 50 percent cut was the wrong thing to do.”
Schaefer worries, though, that the found money isn’t a reliable funding source.
“I’m troubled by the fact that the money he did find is one-time money,” he said. “Extension needs a
steady, consistent, long-term stream of money just like the rest of the university. Traditionally,
governors do not balance the budget of the University of Missouri with one-time money.”
It’s still unclear why Nixon specified a cut to Extension in the first place. Technically, the state allocates
money to the University of Missouri, then curators and administrators deem where to spend those
funds. Last month, Nixon’s communications director, Jack Cardetti, said the goal was to keep budget
cuts away from classrooms.
“It’s never a good idea for a governor to reach down in the university and handpick what to cut,”
Schaefer said. “That’s dangerous on so many levels, to let political judgment determine what’s
valuable and what’s not. In this case, I think you had a gross misunderstanding of what the program
does.”
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Political Fix: Gov. Jay Nixon reverses stance on budget cuts to university extension
By TONY MESSENGER
Thursday, February 12, 2009
JEFFERSON CITY — Perhaps Gov. Jay Nixon was simply in a gracious mood after his beloved Missouri
Tigers defeated the defending national champions this week.
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But the governor’s office has reversed a budget decision that was getting quite a bit of criticism in the
Capitol and throughout Missouri. After promising to propose a budget with no cuts to higher
education in exchange for a promise from university presidents that they would keep tuition stable,
Nixon proposed a budget cutting the University of Missouri’s extension program in half.
That left rural lawmakers and county commissioners upset over a program that is very popular in rural
counties. It also ruffled some feathers at the University of Missouri where some officials believed
extension was a core university program.
But Nixon has announced that he’s found some savings in the construction project of a new women’s
prison in Chillicothe and will now add about $10 million of his proposed $15 million cut in extension
funds back into the budget.
The creative budgeting will require a vote of the Board of Public Meetings, which could give Nixon rival
Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder a chance to try to score some political points. But Nixon will have the votes. The
board consists of the governor, the lieutenant governor and the attorney general.
Springfield News-Leader
Extension budget cut scaled back
Nixon says review found surplus cash to fund program.
By CHAD LIVENGOOD
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Jefferson City -- Gov. Jay Nixon has found $9.3 million in his proposed 2010 budget to give back to the
University of Missouri Extension.
The Democratic governor announced Wednesday that he would reduce his proposed $14.6 million cut
to the MU Extension to $5.3 million, which amounts to an 18 percent reduction in state aid. Nixon also
restored $803,000 to Lincoln University's extension service that he previously wanted to cut.
Nixon said his administration found the money in a surplus of cash that was previously appropriated
for the construction and renovation of the women's prison in Chillicothe.
"Because of our careful review of the state budget and efficient management on site in Chillicothe, we
have the resources necessary to increase our recommended appropriation for the extension programs
at both MU and Lincoln University," Nixon said in a statement.
The extension cuts were among reductions to 50 state-subsidized programs the governor is
recommending the legislature approve.
The extension programs were a top priority to restore funding if possible, spokesman Scott Holste
said.
Nixon's office said public pressure did not play a role in restoring the funding .
"Obviously the extension programs affect a lot of Missourians," Holste said.
"That's why we're certainly glad to be able to restore a high percentage of those cuts to those
programs."
Republican lawmakers and extension officials have criticized Nixon for his initial proposal to cut half of
the MU Extension's state funding.
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The extension service is mostly known for its agricultural and rural development work, but it also has
programs in urban areas, such as its master gardener's courses.
Lawmakers and university officials have suggested Nixon's cuts goes against his pledge not to cut
higher education funding to state schools in exchange for the institutions not raising tuition next fall.
"We appreciate any and all efforts to fully restore the MU Extension budget for next year. MU
Extension should be treated no differently than all of public higher education in the state," Michael
Ouart, vice provost for extension at MU, said in a statement.
Republicans also have questioned whether Nixon even has authority to make a line- item cut to MU
Extension because its funding is part of a combined appropriation for the University of Missouri
System, its four campuses and other programs.
Debate over the proposed cuts continues in the Capitol.
The House Agriculture Policy Committee is scheduled to hear a presentation on budget issues by MU
Extension officials this morning.
Southeast Missourian
University of Missouri Extension centers may be in jeopardy
By BRIAN BLACKWELL
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Gov. Jay Nixon has proposed cutting $14.6 million in funding to the state's University of Missouri
Extension centers.
The news has Extension center officials concerned about the effect the 50 percent funding cut could
have on business and agriculture programs it provides to the state's residents.
Ronda Elfrink, Extension representative of 16 counties in the region, fears the cuts may also lead to a
58 percent reduction in staff personnel.
"We'll lose a lot of critical programming which are needed, especially in these tough economic times,"
Elfrink said. "Our programs mesh with what the governor is trying to do and to cut the funding would
be devastating. We want everyone to contact their legislators and the governor's office to have this
turned around."
Extension center initiatives include 4-H Youth Development, Master Gardener, continuing education,
business development, agricultural enrichment and professional development.
Elfrink said the programs have resulted in the addition of 770 jobs and $87 million to the state
economy through pasture-based dairies, helped 24 north Missouri communities get $173,583 in grants
and helped entrepreneurs find $105 million in new financing and created 9,700 jobs.
Furthermore, Elfrink said for every $1 million invested in its programs, $24.7 million is generated
through new jobs, sales and investments, $1.2 million in reduction in families' medical costs and $1.8
million in increased tax revenue.
Missouri Farm Bureau president Charles E. Kruse said his organization is alarmed at the proposed cuts.
"A proposed funding reduction cuts deep into programs that provide valuable services to Missouri
farmers and also help fund agriculture research, youth development initiatives such as 4-H, and local
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nutrition programs," Kruse said in a written statement. "Missouri Farm Bureau's long-standing
relationship with our state's extension programs dates back to the early 1900s.
"These programs have in years past and continue today to provide a critical link between higher
education and Missouri citizens," he said. "In the coming weeks, we will be talking to legislators about
our concerns and examining more closely the implications and magnitude of these proposed budget
cuts."
However, Scott Holste, a spokesman for Nixon, said the governor remains committed to higher
education. The state's public universities agreed last month to stop raising tuition if lawmakers spare
them from the recession-driven budget cuts likely to hammer the rest of state government.
Holste emphasized the university system has the flexibility to prioritize how funds are spent.
"When you're in tough economic times, tough choices have to be made," Holste said. "Certainly the
governor has show his commitment to higher education and will continue to do so."
The Kansas City Star
Nixon finds money to reduce cuts to university extension programs
By JASON NOBLE
Thursday, February 12, 2009
JEFFERSON CITY | Reacting to outcry in Columbia and statewide, Gov. Jay Nixon declared today that
he's found an additional $10.1 million to fund Extension programs at the University of Missouri and
Lincoln University.
In his budget proposal released last month, Nixon suggested cutting $14.6 million from Missouri
Extension and about $803,000 from Lincoln Extension.
The money cut from Missouri Extension is earmarked for Caring for Missourians, Nixon's proposed
program to increase the number of graduates in health-care fields.
Nixon said Wednesday he could reduce the cuts by channeling cost-savings from a prison construction
project to the universities.
"The university extension programs provide important services for Missourians, and I’m pleased that
we have the opportunity to allocate additional resources to fund their work," Nixon said in a
statement.
The $10.1 million will come from interest earned on bonds issued to pay for the women’s correctional
facility in Chillicothe.
About $7 million is available immediately, and the rest will become available later this year.
Nixon did not specify how the money will be divided between the programs.
St. Louis Beacon
Nixon restores money for rural extension programs
By JO MANNIES
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Gov. Jay Nixon may have quelled a possible mutiny from rural legislators when he announced this
afternoon that he had submitted an amendment to his FY 2010 budget that adds more than $10.1
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million to the appropriation for the extension programs at the University of Missouri and Lincoln
University.
Nixon said in a statement that his administration had found "surplus funds remaining after the
construction at the new women’s correctional facility at Chillicothe."
Nixon's initial budget proposal cut the programs by $15.4 million, touching off an uproar among rural
legislators, the universities and the Farm Bureau. Extension programs are particularly popular in rural
areas, where they provide support for such programs as school nutrition and 4-H. The state cut also
would have prompted trims in the extension system's federal grant money, which hinged on the state
aid or match.
Some legislators likened Nixon's apparent political misstep to that of his predecessor, Republican Matt
Blunt, when his new administration cut the funding for the state's "First Steps'' early childhood
education. That cut touched off a controversy among parents of the children helped by the program,
which targeted children with disabilities.
Nixon's statement today didn't allude to any of the controversy over his initial extension cuts. Rather,
the statement simply said that "the university extension programs were one of the last programs cut,
so when Gov. Nixon identified these surplus finds, this was the first priority to be restored."
Columbia Missourian
Governor redirects surplus funds to MU Extension in budget proposal
By NATHAN WINTERS
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
COLUMBIA — Gov. Jay Nixon said Wednesday his proposed state budget would redirect $10.1 million
in surplus funds to Extension programs at MU and Lincoln University.
Nixon said his administration identified funds remaining after construction of a women's prison in
Chillicothe to transfer to the extension programs.
Extension programs were initially targeted for a $15.4 million cut in his budget for fiscal year 2010. Of
that, the proposed direct cut to MU Extension was $14.6 million.
Under the revised budget proposal, which still needs legislative approval, extension programs at
Lincoln would be restored. MU Extension would have $9.3 million returned, leaving a cut of $5.3
million.
“The university extension programs provide important services for Missourians, and I’m pleased that
we have the opportunity to allocate additional resources to fund their work,” Nixon said in anews
release.
“There will still be a cut, but it is far less than what was originally recommended a couple of weeks
ago,” said Nixon's press secretary, Scott Holste.
The additional funding is reimbursed interest paid on bonds issued by the Board of Public Buildings to
finance the correctional facility in Chillicothe, which opened in December.
About $7 million is immediately available from the project fund for the building, Holste said. Another
$2.7 million will become available April 1 and the remaining $419,000 on Oct. 1.
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The release of these funds must be approved by the public buildings board, which is scheduled to
meet next week.
H.C. Russell, MU Extension State Council chairman, said he was pleased to see the proposed cut
reduced but still voiced concerns.
“The governor’s commitment to higher education is strong and we are very supportive of that, but his
desire to pick out and scrutinize a single department is simply unreasonable,” Russell said.
The state council will continue to work with officials to get its message out, he said.
“We will continue to press the legislators to treat extension as a part of higher education in Missouri,”
Russell said.
Once the General Assembly passes a state budget, university administrators will allocate the
appropriations.
MU Chancellor Brady Deaton praised Nixon for the move.
“Extension's ability to stimulate economic development, create jobs, train the work force, educate
Missourians about nutrition and preventative health care, and provide pathways for our youth to
contribute to Missouri's economic success is being recognized, and we are grateful," Deaton said.
Southeast Missourian
UM extension centers alarmed by proposed funding cuts
By BRIAN BLACKWELL
Monday, February 9, 2009
Gov. Jay Nixon has proposed cutting $14.6M in funding to the state's University of Missouri Extension
Centers.
The news has extension center officials concerned about the impact it could have on many programs
that they say benefit residents and businesses throughout Missouri. Extension centers run 4-H
programs, business and workforce development and other agricultural development initiatives.
"We'll lose a lot of critical programming which are needed, especially in these tough economic times,"
said Ronda Elfrink, representative of 16 counties in the state Extension council. "Our programs mesh
with what the governor is trying to do and to cut the funding would be devastating. We want everyone
to contact their legislators and the governor's office to have this turned around."
Elfrink argues that for every million dollars invested in the Extension program generates $24.7 million.
Look for more on this story later in the day at semissourian.com and in Tuesday's edition of the
Southeast Missourian.
Springfield News-Leader
Extension’s fate hangs in balance
Amid threat of cuts, program educating public on purpose.
By DIDI TANG
Sunday, February 8, 2009
For Rogersville farmer Keith Baxter, help to run his cattle operation efficiently is only a phone call
away.
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But some calls to the local office of the University of Missouri Extension may start going unanswered.
Gov. Jay Nixon has proposed slashing state funding to extension by $14.6 million.
Extension officials worry that the loss, a major chunk of its $96 million annual budget, would be even
bigger because state dollars help leverage other money.
The crisis has kicked the extension into high gear. It now must show the public what it does to rally
support.
"It's time for you and your friends to step up," Carl Allison, the extension's southwest regional council
chairman, told members Thursday. "Extension as you know it is in jeopardy."
Programs include farming and horticulture as well as medical education, emergency training, 4-H
programs, concerts and conferences. Local efforts have prepared tax returns for the poor, taught
parenting skills and educated schoolchildren on water issues.
Extension officials say the public, as well as lawmakers in Jefferson City, need to know its services are
critical to the state's economy, as they reach far beyond farms and gardens. For example, the
extension runs a network of business centers helping local entrepreneurs.
Extension leaders argue that every dollar invested in its programs generates $2.77 in economic impact.
"The budget cut would negate what we are trying to do to stimulate the economy," said Susan Martin,
a Taney County Extension council member. "To me, that's a cross-purpose."
As a land grant university, MU views the extension as part of its mission, along with education and
research. The extension spreads practical information to residents beyond campuses.
To do so, the extension has an office in every Missouri county.
Farming
Darrel Franson, a Mount Vernon cattle farmer, said the extension keeps him up to date on technology
advances in agriculture so he can stay competitive.
"We're kind of isolated," Franson said of farmers. "The job of the extension is to get cutting-edge
information out to people like me. Without it, the information is not flowing as it should."
The extension provides unbiased information, whereas companies peddling products have an agenda,
Franson said.
He has learned how to effectively use the byproducts of ethanol production as a nutritional
supplement in feed, and through an extension program he can better market his calves.
The program let Franson ship some of his calves to an out-of-state feed lot, where he can monitor
their growth until they're big enough to be sold for meat.
The data of his calves' performance, Franson said, allows him to ask for higher prices.
"That's information, and information is power," Franson said. "I can tell the buyers, you can pay a little
more because my calves are feed-lot tested. They are proven products."
A curtailment in extension services would have a detrimental long-term effect, Franson said.
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"... For whatever amount of time the information stream is blocked, the information will not flow," he
said.
Nutrition
Away from pastures, the Pregnancy Care Center in Springfield, which serves at-risk pregnant women,
worries about losing the extension's nutrition programs.
"There will be a gap, and no organization can survive that gap," executive director Cindi Boston said.
Three days a week, nutrition educator Martha Wood visits the center on East Primrose Street to teach
expectant moms how to eat properly, even on a low budget. She also works with other agencies such
as the Family Violence Center.
Boston praises the service, which is free of charge to organizations like hers. She notes that without
exception, the more than 1,200 women who have come to the center over the past 8 1/2 years have
delivered babies of healthy weight.
"Extension does a marvelous job," she said. "Their specialists come to talk to the moms, and that
nutrition program has been 100 percent successful."
4-h programs
Hal Snider, a Fair Grove farmer, loves the local 4-H program because it teaches his children social skills
and responsibility. Local 4-H programs are coordinated by the extension.
In the Snider household, Marissa, 16, raises heifers; Makayla, 14, opts for lambs and calls her favorite
one Cupcake.
They make sure the animals are fed. In freezing weather, they break ice so animals have drinking
water.
But 4-H does more. It organizes hobby groups and takes members on field trips.
In Rogersville, Diana Baxter was involved in the 4-H program when her children were younger.
"4-H teaches leadership skills and people skills that the you don't get anywhere else in rural areas,"
she said.
In Lawrence County, Franson said 4-H also prepares rural youth for life away from the farm.
"No other program than 4-H does more in developing rural youth to be viable workforce," Franson
said.
Horticulture
MU Extension runs the state's Master Gardeners program. Master Gardeners offer gardening tips
tailored to local needs, guiding homeowners through scorching summers and freezing spring days in
the Ozarks.
They also have built flower beds in public parks and are campaigning for a botanical center in
Springfield.
The extension helps small fruit and vegetable growers.
Curtis Millsap grew up in the city but now grows two acres of vegetables as his Community Supported
Agriculture effort. Extension services -- provided free -- have been priceless, he said.
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"There's a new generation of farmers coming up, and most of us are not coming from agricultural
background," Millsap said. "To have free resources that I can turn to is pretty valuable."
Extension horticulture specialist Patrick Byers comes to his farm twice a year, identifying problems and
offering solutions for the 200 varieties of vegetables he grows.
"He identifies potential diseases on tomato plants, which you don't know unless you've seen them
before," Millsap said. "And we're relatively new to vegetable growing."
The extension also organizes conferences where growers can get new ideas, learn about pruning skills
and share experiences.
City planning
It's costly to hire a consultant to design the future of a city, but the extension has done the job for
several area towns.
In the past two years, the extension teamed up with architecture students at Drury University to
develop long-range visions for nine communities.
Jeff Barber, extension housing and environmental design specialist, said the approach helped cities --
such as Lamar, Ozark, Greenfield, Warsaw, Highlandville, Webb City, Willard, Joplin and Brookfield --
save hundreds of dollars in consulting fees.
Jay Garrott, a Drury professor of architecture and director of the university's Center for Community
Studies, said the collaboration has been fruitful.
"It's one-plus-one-equals three there," said Garrott,
Barber gets a community ready before Drury students start an intensive 15-week planning process,
Garrott said.
"It has allowed us to come into a project where the community is more prepared and better
understanding of the issues involved, such as resources, both human and monetary," Garrott said.
When Drury leaves at the end of a semester, Barber keeps working with the community, Garrott said.
But the biggest beneficiary probably is communities like Webb City that get their long-term plans
developed for a few thousand dollars.
"As a small city, you could have never afforded this type of service," said Chuck Surface, Webb City's
economic development director. "It was a tremendous help to us."
KOMU.com
Home for refugees
By JOSH SKURNIK
Sunday, February 8, 2009
COLUMBIA - Some programs are on the chopping block because of proposed cuts to the MU extension
program.
But one program helped a family of refugees get a fresh start. The Ruvugwas are Tsutsi and lost many
friends and family members during the genocide in the nineties.
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"I'm scared to live in Rwanda because I don't think they'll do the genocide again, but I'm scared to live
there," Felicite Ruvugwa said.
Felicite and her family just moved in to a new house built by Habitat for Humanity. They say they're
trying to make a new life in Columbia and 4-H members came to help make that life happen.
"This has been a wonderful learning opportunity for the young people, to help increase their skills and
giving back to the community, and its been a wonderful relationship to get to know the family better,"
4-H leader Alison Copeland said.
The decorating of the home are part of a program affiliated with the MU extension program. The
family says they can't express how gracious they are and soon the program might not be able to
provide others with the same gift.
Governor Nixon recently asked the Board of Curators to cut the MU extension programs funding in
half.
"Pretty unlikely to be able to continue doing the same sorts of programming if we had a fifty percent
cut financially," Copeland said.
At least they were able to help one family with broken memories to create new ones.
The Lebanon Daily Record
Extension awaits the state’s ax
By BRADY SHOEMAKER
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Already facing cuts, the University of Missouri Extension could see half its state funding dry up in the
new budget.
Missouri Governor Jay Nixon has asked state congressional budget committees to include a 50-percent
slash to Extension funding in the 2009 budget.
James Thompson, county program director for the Laclede County MU extension, said previous
funding cut attempts by former governors to the MU Extension system have failed. Thompson hopes
that lawmakers will shoot down the governor’s plan this time too.
“What goes into the state coffers is about $10 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to
support the University of Missouri Extension service. Then the state kicks in about $31 million, and
that’s what the governor is talking about cutting. The rest of the money, I think, comes from grants
and continuing education money,” Thompson said.
The Extension also receives annual funding from the Laclede County Commission.
“The commissioners in this county have faced a lack of revenue, but all offices in the courthouse have
done an excellent job of planning ahead and in planning for reduced incomes. We did the same thing
when we submitted our budget. We were cut $1,100 from the county, and we can live with that,” he
said.
Thompson said the local extension gets about $47,600 from the county commission to cover secretary
pay, for office operations.
“The president of (MU) is already making a list of cost savings, and we have been doing a lot of that
too. What we’re trying to do locally is keep the programing going and keep what we do locally very
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effective and prominent, but the annual conference that we have has been canceled for October. The
(extensions) have also been looking at cutting out-of-state trips. There won’t be any salary increases
for ‘09 and probably for 2010 too,” he said.
If the threatened cuts go forward, the Columbia office would have to drop about 200 jobs from the
extension payroll statewide, Thompson said. Extension services around the state employ about 900
people.
“We have two ladies here with the food and nutrition program, which is through a grant with the
USDA. We have a youth development specialist, and myself: an agriculture business specialist. The
extension administration in Columbia would have to decide what jobs are cut,” he said.
Thompson said the budget cut could affect 4-H, nutrition education and agriculture programs.
“The budget has to go through the senate and house budget committees, before it goes to the full
house and senate. A $14.6 million dollar cut to the extension budget would be one half of what the
state appropriates for the extension,” he said.
Other belt-tightening measures may include salary freezes and furloughs, according to University of
Missouri President Gary Forsee. In an interview with the Associated Press, Forsee said furloughs would
mean workers would not get paid for a certain amount of time, but would not lose their jobs.
Forsee also called for employee salary freezes for 2010.
MU Extension Assistant Vice-Provost for Management Rhonda Gibler said in an email to the Daily
Record that the Columbia office is analyzing the potential impacts of state funding cuts.
“We are not specifically looking for exactly what would be cut. Our budget is complex with multiple
matching and partnership agreements, so it would take some concerted effort to determine what cuts
preserve the greatest amount of our overall program impact,” she said.
Gibler said a cut of the size Nixon proposes would impact every office in the state.
Springfield News-Leader
Fund cut is uphill climb for Nixon
By CHAD LIVENGOOD
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Jefferson City -- Lawmakers say Gov. Jay Nixon's plan to cut $14.6 million from the state's subsidy of
the University of Missouri Extension is easier said than done.
First, extension officials say they would have to forgo millions in federal and county grants in order to
untangle their state aid, which Nixon wants to slash in half.
Second, Republican lawmakers from rural areas where cuts to extension agricultural services could be
most severe say the Democratic governor's proposal may be dead on arrival.
"This could be Gov. Nixon's version of what Gov. Blunt did with First Steps," Senate President Pro Tem
Charlie Shields said.
Shields was referring to former Gov. Matt Blunt's controversial 2005 proposal to gut funding to a
program for developmentally disabled children, which ultimately failed to get legislative approval after
an outcry from parents who protested in the Capitol.
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Shields, R-St. Joseph, said MU Extension programs are "near and dear to folks out in rural Missouri."
He predicted the GOP-controlled legislature would ultimately restore most of the funding.
Because MU receives one lump sum appropriation from the state to support its four campuses,
extension service, health care system and other programs, Nixon may have overplayed his hand in
attempting to make a direct line-item cut to the extension, lawmakers say.
"I do not believe he has the authority to do that," said Rep. Jim Viebrock, R-Republic, who said he's
had "lots of calls" from concerned constituents about Nixon's proposed cuts.
The governor's office acknowledges that the extension cuts are just a recommendation.
But there's $10 million more in overall funding for other programs and the school's Board of Curators
can make cuts internally to fill the gap for extension's budget, Nixon spokesman Jack Cardetti said.
"The university can prioritize that," Cardetti said.
Under Nixon's proposed budget, MU would get a $10 million overall increase in total funding to $461
million in 2010, mostly from increases in other programs, Cardetti said.
When MU leaders brokered a deal with Nixon last month to not raise tuition in exchange for no overall
cut in funding, officials say the governor didn't mention his intention to seek a cut in extension
funding.
"We had not anticipated that University Extension would be singled out for a 50 percent reduction in
state funding," Gary Forsee, president of the University of Missouri System, said in a statement after
Nixon's Jan. 27 State of the State address.
Forsee said extension services in agriculture research, nutrition programs for low-income people and
youth development programs have "been part of the fabric of our state for nearly a century."
Complex funding
Extension programs were designed as a cooperative effort between the federal, state and county
governments.
"This fact is evidenced in the complicated budget matrix that supports the extension programs carried
out in the state of Missouri," according to a budget memo the university is distributing to legislators
and the public.
The $27.1 million the state gave extension in the 2008 fiscal year helped leverage $41.5 million in
federal funding, the memo said.
Because of the complexity of extension funding, state tax dollars go to subsidize positions that are
partially funded by federal, county or other sources, said Rhonda Gibler, chief financial officer for the
MU Extension.
"I don't have any single whole person who is paid for by just state money," Gibler said.
To cut $14.6 million from the extension's budget would require eliminating at least 220 of its 900
positions statewide, Gibler said.
But there are caveats, she said.
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For instance, the university can't get rid of any of its 150 nutrition specialists across the state because
they're funded entirely by federal grants through the food stamp program, Gibler said.
And if the university cut the 220 positions across the board, millions in additional grants would be lost,
Gibler said.
"We might lose grant money, we might lose federal money and we might lose county money because
we're not holding up our end of the partnership," Gibler said.
As the legislative process plays out, MU is studying how to undo the funding web which, by design,
was never intended to rely on a single source of money.
Lawmakers must approve a budget by the first Friday in May so the governor can approve a balanced
budget by July 1, the start of the 2010 fiscal year.
But that means there may not be enough time to prepare for such a cut in the first place, Gibler said.
"We're doing a lot of analysis, but given the complexity of how all of that comes together, if this comes
to fruition it would take us some time to activate a plan that does the least amount of damage," Gibler
said.
Lawmakers in the dark
House Speaker Ron Richard, R-Joplin, and Minority Leader Paul LeVota, D-Independence, both said
Republican and Democratic lawmakers were caught off guard by Nixon's proposal.
LeVota said Democrats from rural areas across the state have expressed concern with the cuts.
Richard, R-Joplin, said, "it would help if the governor would come and talk" to legislative leaders of
both parties "before he throws some of that out there."
"We'd like to be part of the dialogue and that hasn't happened," he said.
Neosho Daily News
Local extension leaders voice concerns on possible funding cuts
By AMYE BUCKLEY
Friday, February 6, 2009
Neosho, Mo. – Elements of Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon’s budget have put some local programs in
jeopardy.
Proposed cuts to the University of Missouri Extension would reduce the level of funding from last
year’s $28 million to $14.6 this year.
“We’re kind of in the crosshairs of it right now,” said Rick Mammen, southwest regional director for
the University of Missouri Extension program. “It caught everybody by surprise.”
The extension program funds a variety of projects: 4-H, Master Gardener programs, business
development programs, dairy and livestock programs, nutritional education and state and county fairs.
Much of the non-state funding for the program is based on matching funds. Federal money must be
matched with non-federal funds from the state or counties. Mammen said the more than 50 percent
proposed state cut would result in a 37 percent drop in overall funding and would be devastating to
the work done through the extension office.
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“It’s probably going to have a dramatic effect in Southwest Missouri,” said Dennis Evans, Newton
County extension president.
A hiring freeze went into effect Nov. 17 leaving the McDonald County specialist doubling up as county
agent for both McDonald and Newton counties.
“I can categorically say that every program, every area and virtually every office would be affected.”
Mammen said.
“I am deeply disturbed by Gov. Nixon’s proposal,” said State Rep. Kevin Wilson, (R-Neosho). “On the
one hand (Nixon) made a big deal out of the fact that that he was going – in his proposed budget – to
hold the universities harmless as long as they didn’t raise tuitions, and then he proceeded to make a
very draconian cut to the University of Missouri Extension services. These affect primarily, or most
importantly, rural counties. I think it’s going to have the most profound impact on rural counties.”
Although he recognizes the economic challenges facing the state, Evans said the resources offered
through extension services — from soil testing to meal planning — should not top the cut list.
“Yeah, you can search the Internet and kind of find that information yourself, but there are experts
available that are just a phone call away,” Evans said. “It’s just a shame. You go to the 4-H
achievement night and you see the kids, you see the projects. They’ve worked so hard on their
projects and then you see them up there making the presentations. They’re not afraid to stand in front
of people and communicate with their peers. It’s just an awesome sight.”
Both Evans and Mammen agree that it is the ability to give back to the community that makes the
extension program so valuable.
“This is almost a fundamental to our society — what made our nation great,” Mammen said.
“Because of the ability to transfer that research-based information from the university back to the
people that fund it, the people that pay the taxes, that have the families, that raise the cattle and all
that — that’s kept us.”
As a member of the education appropriations committee, Wilson said he will do everything he can to
support the extension services program.
“That is merely the governor’s proposal and I can tell you that I have found no one in the capitol that
agrees with his proposal regarding the extension service — no one,” Wilson said. “I haven’t talked to
anybody that has said anything to imply to me that they would support cutting extension services like
that.”
Columbia Business Times
Nixon’s college funding plan gets mixed reviews
By JASON ROSENBAUM
Friday, February 6, 2009
Gov. Jay Nixon’s proposals for funding higher education, which will now be considered by the House
Budget Committee, elicited enthusiasm from the local legislative delegation but some skepticism from
Republicans who control the General Assembly.
Before introducing his budget at the end of January, Nixon traveled around the state, including to the
Reynolds Alumni Center at the University of Missouri, to tout a plan that would make no cuts in state
funding for the colleges and universities in exchange for a tuition freeze.
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“The leaders of Missouri’s four-year public institutions have spent the past few weeks carefully
reviewing the budget and planning for our future,” Nixon said on Jan. 21. “We know that a highly
trained work force is vital if we’re going to turn this economy around.”
With state revenues down because of the recession, the University of Missouri has planned for deep
cuts in funding for the budget that starts July 1. Shortly before Nixon’s visit, Forsee complied with a
state government directive by asking department heads to prepare scenarios for funding cuts ranging
from 15 to 25 percent.
Nixon’s proposal was enthusiastically endorsed by UM System President Gary Forsee, who attended
the news conference. Also present were three members of the Columbia delegation: state Sen. Kurt
Schaefer, R-Columbia; state Rep. Chris Kelly, D-Columbia; and state Rep. Mary Still, D-Columbia.
“For the university’s part, we commit to being great stewards of the state’s resources,” Forsee said.
“We want to be sure that we’ll be able to heighten the accountability that should be *in line with the
economic times+.”
Nixon used a great deal of his State of the State address to delineate the expansion or creation of
several higher education programs. For instance, Nixon is calling for a boost to the state’s A+ Program,
which allows high school students who tutor and earn a certain grade point average at eligible schools
to go to a vocational or junior college tuition-free. Nixon wants to provide a chance for students in the
program to go to a four-year college or university for free as well.
“It builds upon our current A+ Schools Program, which allows students at eligible high schools to get
their two-year degrees at community colleges tuition-free,” Nixon said in his address. “The Missouri
Promise allows those students who take advantage of A+ scholarships to continue at a Missouri public
college or university and complete their four-year degree debt free.”
Nixon also brought back a revamped version of the “Preparing to Care” initiative. The measure, which
would cost roughly $40 million, is aimed at creating space at colleges and universities to train health
care professionals. This year, the plan has been re-branded as the “Caring for Missourians” plan.
“Right now, we have far too many jobs in health care that we can’t fill right here in Missouri because
we can’t find people with the right skills,” Nixon said. “We need nurses, pharmacy workers and rural
health care workers. Filling those positions is critical to both our economy and our health care
system.”
Democrats generally were enthused with Nixon’s proposals. Kelly, for instance, let out an excited yelp
when Nixon announced he was reintroducing the Preparing for Missourians initiative. Although Rep.
Stephen Webber, D-Columbia, said a funding freeze was “not ideal,” he added it was the best option
for the current budget situation.
Kelly said he was especially pleased with Nixon’s relationship with Forsee. After Nixon’s speech, Forsee
released a long statement praising the governor for a “clear commitment to investing in public higher
education, and his belief that education is vital to advancing Missouri’s economy, creating jobs and
preparing students for a globally competitive workplace.”
“I’m incredibly encouraged,” Kelly said. “It’s interesting to see what a difference it makes when you
have a governor who graduated from [MU+.”
Some Republicans were receptive to some of Nixon’s proposals. Schaefer said he would support
getting funds for the Caring for Missourians Program. He also said there were a lot of members of the
General Assembly who would want to see the tuition plan implemented.
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Senate Appropriations Chairman Gary Nodler, R-Joplin, also found something to like in the tuition-
freeze proposal. “I’m not guaranteeing that we can and will do it,” he said. “But yes, I think it’s
possible. And yes, I think it’s a good idea.”
But some Republicans were less positive about Nixon’s agenda and approach.
For instance, members of House Republican leadership-including House Speaker Ron Richard, R-Joplin,
and House Higher Education Committee Chairman Gayle Kingery, R-Poplar Bluff-said they were not
happy that Nixon didn’t consult with them before announcing his tuition freeze.
And some Senate Republicans said they were concerned about how Nixon was predicating nearly $800
million within his budget with funds from a pending federal stimulus package.
“It was a good speech for people who are bad at math,” said Senate Majority Leader Kevin Engler, R-
Farmington. “If you don’t listen to the details, it’s really good. But when you start listening to the
details and you look at the budget, it balances only if there’s $800 million coming from the federal
government.”
Nodler said he was concerned about paying for programs needing funding each year, such as the A+
Program or an eligibility expansion in the state’s Medicaid program, with stimulus money.
“You don’t want (the federal stimulus plan) to be like a shot of heroin that causes a dependency and
causes withdrawal,” Nodler said.
Additionally, the Caring for Missourians plan faces steep opposition from powerful lawmakers. Last
year, the previous iteration of the plan was taken out of Gov. Matt Blunt’s budget. Nodler, then-House
Speaker Rod Jetton, R-Marble Hill, and House Budget Chairman Allen Icet, R-Wildwood, opposed the
measure.
Icet expressed doubt last week that the plan would find favor in an even tougher budgetary climate.
“I think it’s fair to say that any new decision item-unless we can find a program that could pay for (it)-I
think for the most part is dead on arrival,” Icet said. “It’s just not fiscally prudent to do something like
that.”
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St. Louis Business Journal
Editorial: Pale Face
Thursday, February 12, 2009
In one of the more dramatic and surprising presentations to Missouri lawmakers, a dynamic duo –
Mike Nietzel and Gary Forsee – painted a bleak (or more accurately, pale) picture of the state.
Mr. Nietzel is president of Missouri State University. Mr. Forsee leads the University of Missouri.
The message they brought to Jefferson City is that the well-being of the state’s citizens is
inextricably tied to their levels of education. There were charts linking high degrees of education
to low social welfare costs; charts showing when education rises, so do pay levels; and charts
linking smoking with education, or the lack therof.
But the most dramatic chart was a map of Missouri, showing education levels by county. The
darkest counties were the most educated. There are only three of them: St. Louis, Kansas City and
Columbia. The rest of the state is very light green or totally white.
It’s a pale picture that will inhibit a rosy future for Missouri.
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St. Louis Business Journal
Alumni biggest givers to Mizzou
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Alumni were the largest donor group in University of Missouri’s eight-year, $1 billion fundraising
campaign, school officials said Thursday.
The campaign, which officially ended Dec. 31, surpassed its goal of $1 billion by raising nearly $1.04
billion. University of Missouri is the first public university in the state to raise $1 billion.
Donor contributions have funded $221 million for an additional 1,500 scholarships, $87 million for 91
new endowed faculty positions and $242 million for private research.
Who gave what:
Alumni: $390 million
Grants: $242 million
Friends (non-alumni): $172 million
Corporations: $142 million
Foundations: $68 million
Organizations: $15 million
Faculty/staff/retirees: $9 million
Columbia Daily Tribune
MU releases final fundraising tally
Thursday, February 12, 2009
The For All We Call Mizzou campaign has racked up a final total of $1,038,909,621, University of
Missouri officials said today.
The campaign, which officially concluded Dec. 31, reached its $1 billion goal in November.
Contributions of $221 million have allowed MU to fund 1,500 merit and need-based scholarships; $87
million helped create 91 endowed faculty positions; $487 million will enhance programs and facilities;
and $242 million will support private research.
Alumni contributed the most toward the campaign, with donations totaling more than $390 million.
Non-alumni friends of the university contributed $172 million; corporations donated $142 million; and
grants made up $242 million.
“The astounding success of the campaign is evidence that MU alumni and friends are committed to
supporting the University of Missouri even during challenging economic times,” MU Chancellor Brady
Deaton said. “We are deeply appreciative of the support from our donors throughout the past eight
years.”
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Springfield News-Leader
Mizzou suing professor over work
Technology transfer is touchy issue for faculty, universities.
By ALAN SCHER ZAGIER
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Columbia -- Mere months ago, the University of Missouri routinely touted chemical engineering
professor Galen Suppes for his innovative research into renewable energy.
Now the school considers him a renegade scientist trying to keep the university from getting its
fair share of profits from his inventions. Missouri is suing the professor in federal court.
Their deteriorating relationship points to the broader pitfalls of "technology transfer," the
growing enterprise in which university labs help incubate discoveries that can speed lifesaving
drugs and modern conveniences to market.
Those innovations can line the pockets of scientists and their university employers with millions in
royalties. A prime example is the University of Florida, where the creation of Gatorade nearly four
decades ago launched the sports-drink industry while earning the school more than $80 million.
But for every Gatorade success story, missteps or disputes like the one in Missouri are more
typical.
Often, universities have inflated hopes about the money they can reap from technology transfer,
said Joshua Powers, an Indiana State University professor who studies the subject. Powers has
found that the top tier of universities, such as Yale, Stanford and California-Berkeley, account for
60 percent of all technology-driven profits earned on campuses nationwide. Many other schools
lose money vying for their share, because applying for patents and trying to license them for
commercial use is complex, costly and time-consuming.
"Universities are under enormous pressure to demonstrate their worth in economic terms,"
Powers said. "By definition, they are involved at the early stage of the research process. They
often don't know when a technology is going to be successful."
Missouri says it is among those schools profiting from technology transfer. In the most recent
fiscal year, the campus spent $1.4 million marketing intellectual property while earning $6.2
million in licensing income.
Making money with beneficial research was the goal of Suppes and his business partner, William
"Rusty" Sutterlin, a former Missouri graduate student and postdoctoral fellow. In 2003, they
formed a spin-off company, Renewable Alternatives, to develop dozens of inventions related to
fuel cell technology, nontoxic diesel fuel additives and an eco-friendly antifreeze.
Suppes, 45, says that the university failed to recognize and pursue the commercial prospects for
his research. Yet when he tried to reclaim his rights to those inventions that the university
wouldn't pursue, Suppes says, the university obstructed him with onerous rules.
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Among those requirements: that Suppes take out $1 million to $2 million in liability insurance.
Suppes claims that isn't required of the private companies that sign deals with the university to
license technology.
"The Missouri tech transfer program is totally broken and basically beyond repair," he said.
At least some of Suppes' colleagues concur. In the past two years, two faculty committees have
recommended changes in how the university commercializes research. One panel pointed to
several peer institutions, including Alabama and Texas A&M, that impose fewer restrictions on
researchers.
There are no uniform standards on how universities should handle professors who want to
reclaim their intellectual property when the schools won't try to commercialize it. Nor should
there be, said Jon Soderstrom, managing director of Yale University's Office of Cooperative
Research and president of the Association of University Technology Managers, an industry group.
However, Soderstrom acknowledged that Missouri's lawsuit against Suppes "is extremely rare."
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Columbia Daily Tribune
Charles Gehrke, founder of ABC Labs, dies at 91
By JODIE JACKSON JR.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Charles Gehrke’s children said their father faced death the same way he approached life: with purpose
and honor.
Gehrke, founder of Analytical Biochemistry Laboratories Inc. in Columbia, died Tuesday at University
Hospital. A world-renowned scientist who studied moon rocks to determine they did not carry disease
or signs of life, Gehrke died as his son, Jon, and daughter, Susan, were holding his hands. He was 91.
“He’s somebody Columbia should be proud of,” Jon Gehrke said. “We sure as heck are.”
Charles Gehrke recently had stomach surgery in a battle against lymphoma. The discovery of a tumor
indicated he would not win the battle.
Gehrke was present in the fall when ABC Labs celebrated the official opening of its $15 million
pharmaceutical development facility at the University of Missouri’s Discovery Ridge Research Park. The
90,000-square-foot building was the first business to open at the research park near Highway 63 and
New Haven Road.
ABC Labs’ relocation to Discovery Ridge came 40 years after Gehrke and two of his graduate students
started the business. At the time, Gehrke was a biochemistry professor at MU.
Gehrke did breakthrough research to determine “biological markers” in blood and urine to make
cancer treatment more precise and with fewer negative side effects. His research on amino acids led
to his involvement with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the study of moon
rocks collected on Apollo space missions.
He also authored or edited 11 scientific books and more than 260 scientific publications in analytical
chemistry and biochemistry. Gehrke lectured and taught internationally. More than 60 master’s and
doctoral students received advanced degrees under his direction. The list of honors, awards and
achievements spans several decades and continents.
Gehrke’s life and accomplishments are being chronicled by local freelance writer Dianna O’Brien, who
was commissioned by Jon Gehrke and Susan Isaacson to write their father’s biography. O’Brien had
been working with Gehrke for two years. She visited with him the morning of his death.
“As late as Sunday, he was still giving me orders,” O’Brien said, noting that the Gehrke biography is
about 80 percent complete. The book will be titled “From the Melon Fields to the Moon.” But Gehrke
insisted the book add a subtitle, “A Scientific Journey.”
“He was very adamant about it as he was about everything,” O’Brien said. “He had very firm ideas, but
he was absolutely wonderful to work with.”
Jon Gehrke, an orthopedic surgeon in Des Moines, Iowa, and Susan Isaacson, an attorney in
Minneapolis, said their father worked almost until the end on bringing scientific minds together for
various projects. ABC Labs apparently was as much a part of the family as his children and grandkids.
“It’s kind of like his other child,” his daughter said. “It’s his baby.”
38
On Sunday, as he lay in the intensive care unit, Charles Gehrke asked to see his grandchildren. Eight of
his nine grandchildren were present. He phoned the ninth grandchild in Florida.
“He spent time with each grandchild individually,” Jon Gehrke said. “He had something special to say
to each of them.”
Susan Isaacson said her father “knew exactly what to say to each of them. He said goodbye. He told
them he loved them.” Then he told Jon and Susan he was proud of them.
“In a way, he just kind of said, ‘My work here is done,’ ” Isaacson said. “He wanted to see our mom
again.”
Charles Gehrke’s wife, Virginia, died Christmas Day 2007 — their 65th wedding anniversary.
Services are scheduled at 11 a.m. Feb. 21 at First Presbyterian Church, 16 Hitt St., followed at 3 p.m. by
a reception at the MU Reynolds Alumni Center. Visitation is scheduled from 4 to 7 p.m. Feb. 20 at
Memorial Funeral Home, 1217 Business Loop W.
Columbia Missourian
Dr. Charles Gehrke, researcher and businessman, dies at 91
By ANDREW VAN DAM
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
COLUMBIA — At his first meeting with his biographer, all 90-year-old Dr. Charles Gehrke wanted to
talk about was his latest grant proposal to NASA.
Family and friends say that despite his many accomplishments as a researcher and entrepreneur, Dr.
Gehrke, who succumbed to lymphoma Tuesday, was never one to dwell on the past.
The longtime MU professor did a lot with his life, hunting for signs of life in moon rocks and helping
found ABC Labs, now one of Columbia's largest employers; he continued to add to his résumé until his
death on Feb. 10, 2009. He was 91.
As recently as a month ago, Dr. Gehrke was bringing folks to research meetings at ABC Labs' new
facility, his son, Jon Gehrke, an orthopedic surgeon in Des Moines, Iowa, said.
His children agreed that out of his 70-year career in science and business, Dr. Gehrke was proudest of
two things: his grandchildren and the research he did for NASA.
'Is there life on the moon?'
In the late '60s, NASA asked Dr. Gehrke to screen rocks brought home from the first moon landing for
any signs of extraterrestrial life. Dr. Gehrke was selected because of his pioneering work analyzing
amino acids, critical building blocks of life. The chromatograph he used to search for life in the lunar
samples from six different Apollo missions is now part of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space
Museum.
Before he signed a contract with NASA, Jon said, his father had to sign release forms stating that, if he
were to catch some sort of extraterrestrial disease from the rocks, he wouldn't fight when they
whisked him away to permanent quarantine. That shows just how little the government knew about
the moon at that time, Jon said, and what a gaping void of knowledge his father helped fill.
39
His daughter Susan Isaacson, an attorney in Minneapolis, said Dr. Gehrke was proud to be chosen to
answer the first question everybody asked after the Apollo astronauts came home: Is there life on the
moon? "As a scientist," she said, "There's no greater honor."
Even after the Apollo program wound down, Dr. Gehrke never lost his fascination with the final
frontier, helping to organize conferences and facilitate discussion on space exploration and the future
of humans in space well into this decade. Dr. Gehrke pushed for the construction of a lunar laboratory,
his children said, and even travel to Mars.
"He knew that we wouldn't be around to see that happen," Jon said, "but he wanted it to happen"
regardless.
'He never took shortcuts'
Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Gehrke was born July 18, 1917, to German immigrants in New York City. At a
young age, he moved to tiny Canal Lewisville, Ohio, and Anglicized his name.
"His father was not really part of the picture," Jon said. His mother cleaned houses and worked in a
shoe factory to support her family. Dr. Gehrke himself worked on farms from an early age as his family
struggled to survive.
Those trying early years left Dr. Gehrke with an complete lack of pretension, his children said. Despite
his commercial success and national recognition, he still lived in the same modest house on Edgewood
Avenue that he had built when he moved to Columbia six decades ago.
"He did everything in a very honest way," Jon said. "He never took shortcuts, never compromised
anything."
Dr. Gehrke earned his Ph.D. in agricultural biochemistry from The Ohio State University, finishing his
studies in 1947 after taking time off to teach chemistry at Missouri Valley College in Marshall in the
mid '40s. He came to MU as an associate professor of agricultural chemistry in 1948, and became the
manager of Experiment Station Chemical Laboratories in 1954.
Dr. Gehrke's first major breakthrough came in the automation of gas chromatographic analysis of
amino acids. Before Dr. Gehrke's work in the '60s, researchers could analyze one or two samples a day,
said Jim Ussary, one of Dr. Gehrke's former graduate assistants and his business partner. After Gehrke
and his assistants automated the process, Ussary said, they could analyze about 20 samples an hour.
It was this advance that would lead to Dr. Gehrke's greatest entrepreneurial success.
In 1968, Dr. Gehrke founded Analytical Bio-Chemistry Laboratories Inc. with the help of Ussary and
David Stallings, another graduate student. ABC Labs used Gehrke's methods to analyze amino acids for
the agricultural industry. Dr. Gehrke chaired the company's board of directors until 1991, and
remained an active member until 2003.
Ussary, now 72 and retired in Goldsboro, N.C., said he took care of ABC's business side, as Dr. Gehrke
preferred to focus on his research.
According to the company's Web site, ABC Labs now employs 300 scientists and support staff, making
it one of Columbia's largest employers and a key resident of MU's Discovery Ridge research park.
His work in chromatography and related disciplines helped scientists in a wide range of activities from
rapidly analyzing a crop's nutritional content to quickly detecting a cancer's advances and remissions.
40
Dr. Gehrke was recognized by many different organizations for his contributions to his chosen field. In
1971, he earned the Association of Official Analytical Chemists' most prestigious award; in 1983 he
served as the association's president.
In 1987, Dr. Gehrke retired from the agricultural chemistry department and began helping at MU's
Cancer Research Center. He stayed there until 1993.
One piece of his legacy, the Charles W. Gehrke Proteomics Center in the Bond Life Sciences Building,
was dedicated in 2004.
Even when he stopped working at MU, Isaacson said, Dr. Gehrke kept working and never became
irrelevant.
He was still a leader in his chosen fields, she said.
Catalyst for innovation
Jon Gehrke compared his father to one of the catalysts in the elder Gehrke's never-ending stream of
experiments, projects and trials, someone who "brought people together to accomplish something
greater" than they could have individually.
"His whole life revolved around hard work, doing the right thing and bringing ideas together," Jon said.
Dr. Charles Gehrke brought people from across the world together during his 33-year career as
director of MU's Experiment Station Chemical Laboratories and well into his retirement. Dr. Gehrke
advised 60 post-graduate students, hosted scores of visiting researchers and authored or co-authored
nine books and more than 260 peer-reviewed articles.
Although Dr. Gehrke's devotion to his work was considerable, his children said, his family never felt
eclipsed by business or science.
Dr. Gehrke pitched in around the house at a level that was unusually high for his era, biographer
Dianna O'Brien said. She said he was so involved in his children's upbringing that he washed dishes
every night and even helped his wife, Virginia, change diapers.
Virginia died on Dec. 25, 2006, the couple's 65th wedding anniversary. She was 87.
His oldest son, physician Charles Jr., was training to become a flight surgeon when he died in a mid-air
collision in March of 1982. He was 34.
"(The plane crash) killed my brother," Jon said, "and it just about killed my parents."
Jon Gehrke described his father as "open with people" and "not judgmental with anyone," saying that
Dr. Gehrke was interested in others until the final days of his life, when he asked the nurses in his ICU
unit where they came from and where they went to school.
O'Brien remembered how, even at age 90, Dr. Gehrke would go out before she visited and shovel a
path through the snow from her parking space to the front door, just to make things more convenient
for her.
"I feel very very honored that I got to be his biographer, but I also felt very honored that I got to know
somebody who was such a great role model," she said.
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Columbia Missourian
MU researcher develops tool for diabetes screening
By AYLA KREMEN
Thursday, February 12, 2009
COLUMBIA — Almost six million people in the U.S. have undiagnosed diabetes, and an MU
researcher has created a tool that could lower that number.
Richelle Koopman, assistant professor of family and community medicine in the MU School of
Medicine, developed TAG-IT, a test that analyzes six factors to determine how likely a person is to
be diabetic or pre-diabetic.
The six factors are age, sex, body mass index, family history, resting heart rate and measured high
blood pressure, all things that could be noted on an electronic health record.
“We wanted things that could be easily measured and that might be able to be pulled out of an
electronic health record because we recognize that that is the future direction of medicine,”
Koopman said.
Koopman also said that with this test, doctors could go through lists of their patients and choose
those they think are at risk for pre-diabetes or diabetes and recommend they get tested.
This test will also be helpful in detection because people with early diabetes and pre-diabetes
have nebulous symptoms, such as fatigue, hunger, thirst and more frequent urination, and these
are often ignored, Koopman said.
“People don’t notice the symptoms, and so they don’t go to their doctor, and there is just no way
for them to know that they’ve actually developed the disease,” she said. “And it develops
insidiously over the course of maybe years, so the symptoms are vague and people just don’t
notice it.”
Pre-diabetes is especially important to detect early because it can be stopped before it progresses
into full-onset diabetes, said Arch Mainous, a co-author of the study Koopman published on TAG-
IT.
“We don’t want to have them switch on over (from pre-diabetes to diabetes)," Mainous said. "I
think identifying people who might be at risk and coming up with some way of doing something
with them to keep them from transitioning is very useful.”
Koopman said that this tool would most benefit young people who are at risk for diabetes.
According the American Diabetes Association, one in six overweight adolescents from 12-19 have
pre-diabetes.
“In models of benefit of intervention, preventing disease in young people always gives you the
most bang for your buck,” she said. “Anyone who found they had pre-diabetes could benefit, but I
think it is mostly targeted at young people.”
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David Mehr, professor of family and community medicine in the MU School of Medicine, said he
thinks TAG-IT has promise but needs to be tested at a higher level before it can be used to help
patients.
“It’s something that has potential, and like other new things that have potential, it needs to be
tested out in a real-world setting,” Mehr said. “It has to be tested using real patients to see
whether or not patients benefit from this.”
Koopman acknowledged she needs to test a larger group of patients.
“We just developed the tool, and we haven’t done the research to say how we can use it in a real-
patient population,” she said. “We developed it from real people, but as far as applying it to
patient populations, that’s our next step.”
43
Columbia Missourian
Gov. Nixon releases $5 million for new MU autism center
The Associated Press
Thursday, February 12, 2009
COLUMBIA — Gov. Jay Nixon says he will honor a pledge made by his predecessor last year and
turn over $5 million toward construction of a new autism research and treatment center at MU.
The new governor announced his decision Thursday after a tour of the university's Thompson
Center for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders.
Former Gov. Matt Blunt signed legislation in 2008 to give money to the center from the state's
capital improvements fund. But the sour economy prompted Nixon to place a temporary hold on
all pending capital projects until they could bereviewed further.
Connect Mid-Missouri
Nixon tours Thompson Autism Center in Columbia
By KERMIT MILLER
Thursday, February 12, 2009
COLUMBIA -- The governor Thursday kept the spotlight on autism.
Gov. Jay Nixon toured the Thompson Center and announced he was releasing the $5 million
appropriated last year for a new diagnostic and treatment facility.
"He was disruptive and he had problems," said mother Jennifer Hayes, who two years ago, moved
from another state to Fulton, Missouri, specifically so her son, Tyler. The move was so he could be
evaluated and treated at the Thompson Center in Columbia.
She says it has made all the difference in both their lives.
"My son is not on anti-psychotic medications that any other doctor would try to put him on,” said
Hayes. “We don't just want him to be compliant...we want him to excell."
Tyler is now on the road to a mainstream education. He is among more than 1,700 people who
will be helped by the Thompson Center staff this year.
"More than 33,700 Missourians are living with autism,” said Nixon. “So the work taking place here
is truly changing lives for our state."
Run by the University of Missouri, the Thompson Center is the state's premier autism research
facility. Most parents who bring their children there do so with apprehension.
"As you can imagine they have many worries when they walk in the door,” said Janet Farmer,
Thompson Center Director. “But when they leave, we often sense a renewed sense of hope."
New hope is restored because scientists at the center constantly push the envelope on
understanding the spectrum of developmental disorders known collectively as autism. And they
44
tailor their management strategies to individual cases to give parents more control at home.
Dr. Janine Stitcher describes what doctors’ focus on when helping a child. "How can I support that
child's language development at home, motor skills at home,” said Dr. Stitcher.
The Thompson Center is desperate to expand, but when Nixon took office last month, he froze all
capital improvements contracts pending a re-evaluation. Now, he says its time to go forward on a
new Thompson Autism Center. He also says its time to take a serious look at requiring insurance
companies to cover autism diagnosis and treatment.
"Whether we get to the full amount in this year or not, it's certainly a path that we begin moving
down this year," said Nixon.
Nixon says he has found the money to save university extension programs at Mizzou and Lincoln
University. He expects to increase those budgets by more than $10 million.
Nixon says his budget people located surplus funds remaining after the construction of the new
women's prison in Chillicothe.
The university extension programs were among the last cuts made by his budget staff.
45
Columbia Daily Tribune
Ellis Fischel offers free screenings
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Ellis Fischel Cancer is providing free breast-cancer screenings through March 31 to women who
might not otherwise be able afford them. The free screenings are offered through a grant from
the Mid-Missouri affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure.
To be eligible, women must be between ages 40 and 64 and reside in Adair, Audrain, Boone,
Callaway, Camden, Chariton, Cole, Cooper, Howard, Macon, Maries, Miller, Moniteau, Morgan or
Randolph counties. The women may not have Medicare, Medicaid or health insurance that covers
annual mammograms, and they must demonstrate limited financial resources. Women younger
than age 40 at high risk for breast cancer are eligible for a free mammogram with a physician’s
order.
Cancer screenings are available at Ellis Fischel Cancer Center, 115 Business Loop 70 W. in
Columbia, or in the Ellis Fischel mobile mammography van.
To schedule an appointment at Ellis Fischel’s Cancer Screening Services clinic in Columbia, call
(573) 882-8511. To view an online schedule for the Ellis Fischel mammography van, visit
ellisfischel.org/screening/van.shtml.
46
Springfield Business Journal
State’s health ranks No. 38
Missouri’s funding for public health fares worse at No. 47 in per capita spending
By JEREMY ELWOOD
Monday, February 9, 2009
Based on the latest rankings from the United Health Foundation, the overall health of Missouri's
citizens is in need of a checkup.
The Show-Me State ranked 38th in citizen health among the 50 states and the District of
Columbia, according to America's Health Rankings 2008, a study from the United Health
Foundation.
Among the study's findings: About a quarter of Missourians smoke, and 28 percent of state
residents - including 16 percent of children ages 10 to 17 - are considered obese. The study also
says that there are 88.6 unnecessary hospitalizations per 1,000 Medicaid enrollees annually.
The numbers are even more telling when looking at year-to-year health improvement; Missouri is
last on the list ranked by improvement between 1990, the first year of the study, and 2008.
According to Kristofer Hagglund, interim director of University of Missouri's Master of Public
Health program, improving those numbers is not going to be easy.
"Most of the data ... has found that Missouri citizens are not among the healthiest in the nation,"
Hagglund said. "The reasons for that are multifaceted, and the methods needed to improve our
health are also multifaceted. We're going to have to take a long, hard look at what got us into this
situation."
Brooks Miller, director of Jordan Valley Community Health Center, said that while access to care
has improved in his 26 years in Missouri health care, it probably hasn't kept up with demand -
especially with state Medicaid cuts in 2005 that reduced access to health care for thousands.
"The overall state of health, not only in Springfield but in southwest Missouri as a whole, is
decreasing," Miller said. "In Springfield, I think we have many of the same issues - we have a lot of
people who still smoke, and we know the problems with that. But I wouldn't say the problem is
different here than it is elsewhere. Those problems are, unfortunately, the norm."
The role of public health
Hagglund, whose program is advocating for additional state funding, said one of the keys to
improving those dismal health statistics is prevention, specifically through local public health
organizations.
"This is an economic development issue," he said. "We know that if we could get people to
manage cholesterol, hypertension, weight and smoking, there would be a substantial reduction in
health care costs and a significant increase in productivity - and those are all public health
programs."
The numbers are even drearier when looking at state health funding - Missouri ranked 47th in
47
per-capita state funding for public health programs, according to a 2008 report by Trust for
America's Health. Missouri programs received $10.20 per person from the state in fiscal 2007, the
last year examined in the study.
By comparison, Hawaii, which ranked No. 1 in state health funding, spent $152.66 per capita in
2007. The national median is $33.26.
Springfield-Greene County Health Department Director Kevin Gipson said increased funding has
been in the city's list of legislative priorities since he joined the department in 1993, but state
appropriations for public health departments have not increased in 10 years.
Gipson said appropriations decreased in 2004, from $9.5 million to $9 million statewide, and have
not been increased since. Greene County receives about $250,000 annually from the state for
"core functions," including food protection, disease prevention and child health programs. That
equates to about 96 cents per person, which Gipson called "pretty sad."
"I think we'd do a better job with disease prevention and do better work in our internal and child
health programs, offering more immunization services and working with more at-risk pregnant
women," Gipson said. "There's just a laundry list of things we could do if we had those dollars."
Funding outlook
Gipson said he's not optimistic that a new state administration means additional health funding.
Gov. Jay Nixon's recommended budget, as stated in his Jan. 27 State of the State address, includes
the same amount of funding for public health as in previous years, and $18 million in additional
funding requested by the Missouri Association of Local Public Health Agencies likely will not gain
approval because of the current economic crisis.
"All of us in public health would like to see improved funding for work force training and for our
public health agencies," Hagglund said. "The governor and the state legislature are going to be
facing some difficult challenges, and I wouldn't want to presume to suggest to them exactly what
needs to be done. But anything that could be aimed at improving public health would be
beneficial in the long run."
Gipson, however, hopes that state decision-makers take a long look at the potential benefits of
increased state investment in health care - and the potential drawbacks of not increasing that
funding.
"What concerns me is that we spend billions of dollars on direct health care, but we don't make
an investment in prevention," Gipson said, noting that studies indicate a return of anywhere from
$4 to $7 for every dollar spent on health prevention programs. "We know prevention pays if we
just invest in it. It takes a while, but those things pay off in the long run."
48
Columbia Business Times
Pickleman’s marketed as franchise opportunity
By SEAN SPENCE
Friday, February 6, 2009
Consider the facts: Two sandwich shops-Quiznos and W.G. Grinders-closed recently downtown. Two
others are among the nation’s most successful franchises, Subway and Jimmy John’s. We’re in the
midst of a national recession.
And still, Doug Stritzel, who opened his second Pickleman’s on Broadway less than a year ago, isn’t just
thinking about how to survive. He believes his restaurant is America’s next great franchise
opportunity.
Stritzel created the concept for the restaurant from scratch, relying on four years as the second in
command to Jimmy John’s founder and CEO Jimmy John Liautaud and another four years as operating
partner of a Wendy’s franchise.
“One of the biggest advantages I have is that I’ve been on both sides of the business as both a
franchisor and a franchisee,” Stritzel said. “I know what it takes to make this business work.”
Stritzel opened the first Pickleman’s in southeastern Columbia on Old 63 in 2005 and the second
restaurant is approaching its one-year anniversary. He has 50 to 55 employees, depending on the
season, including three who have been with him since the beginning and intend to make Pickleman’s a
career.
Stritzel hopes to open two or three Pickleman’s franchises in Missouri’s biggest cities by the end of
2009. “This next year and a half should be a great time for franchising businesses to really take off
simply because you have a lot of mid-level and senior-level executives that are going to get laid off,”
he said. “These are the kind of people that might have a quarter million or more available, have the
skills and are looking for something to do.
He says he’s “pretty confident” a franchise will open up in six to nine months in Springfield, and “we
have a couple of parties interested in doing some franchising in St. Louis; then perhaps there will be
somebody in Kansas City.”
Stritzel said that the biggest obstacle is getting someone to invest in building his or her own
restaurant. The cost of opening a Pickleman’s franchise will be between $200,000 and $250,000.
“For some people that’s a big, big deal,” he said. “In the restaurant franchising business, that’s less
than a Jimmy John’s, less than a Quiznos and far less than a lot of other franchise companies. I think
it’s a pretty good bargain.”
Pickleman’s has advantages over comparable franchises such as Subway, Jimmy John’s and Quiznos,
he said, including the quality of the food and marketing materials.
“We spent the last six months really working on the infrastructure, making sure the franchisee will
have the marketing materials they need to look professional in whatever environment in which they
choose to open,” Stritzel said.
49
“My food pictures are real food. It’s not a doctored up thing,” he said. “When you see the picture,
that’s really what the food looks like contrary to what you see with a lot of companies with big
marketing budgets.”
Stritzel also touted a variety of business practices that customers won’t see but that can make a big
difference for owners.
For example, as franchisees join the Pickleman’s organization, Stritzel said he will do something almost
unheard of in restaurant franchising. Because of bulk buying, chain stores typically get large rebates
from their vendors, ranging from thousands to millions of dollars in a single year for larger chains.
Stritzel said that, unlike other franchisors, he will share those rebates with his franchisees.
Stritzel also said that he’s committed to straight talk with potential franchisors about where
Pickleman’s might be viable.
“Pickleman’s will do well in any larger market or any college town, and I’m not opposed to doing that
now,” he said. “What I am opposed to is a single operator who wants to open somewhere like Boise,
Idaho, in the middle of nowhere, because it would be too costly to give them support, and they would
be starting with not a lot of name brand recognition.”
“If there’s someone that’s interested in doing a three- to five-store deal in Austin, Texas, or Lincoln or
Omaha, Nebraska, where they want to do the whole city, it’s a great deal for them.”
Alan Skouby, who teaches at the University of Missouri’s Trulaske College of Business, said that the
real benefits of franchising come when a critical mass of restaurants is reached, and that it will take a
while for Pickleman’s to reach that point.
“I’m not sure what the number is when critical mass is reached, but it is probably more than 10,”
Skouby said. “At that point, it will be easier to get financing, name recognition will be a bigger factor,
and they’ll be able to take greater advantage of cooperative advertising and buying power.”
John Dupuy, former owner of Columbia’s Ninth Street Deli and now an investor in two Quiznos
locations, thinks that Pickleman’s could go national. “It’s possible,” he said. “They certainly started the
stores in a way that is reproducible. The restaurant trade is a tough one, but he certainly has a shot.”
A bit of a sandwich aficionado, Dupuy is a fan of Pickleman’s. “I rotate between Pickleman’s, Quiznos
and Sub Shop, depending on mood,” Dupuy said, offering his off-the-cuff review. “Pickleman’s is
lighter and fresher tasting. Subshop is more meaty. Quiznos does the beef sandwiches best.”
Stritzel knows there are no guarantees that his franchise dreams will be realized. “But in my opinion,
success is a lock as long as you follow the process,” he said. “You’ve got to roll your sleeves up and
make it work.”
50
Truman Index
Storm troopers
By KELLY KIESEL
Thursday, February 5, 2009
A storm is brewing at the state capital.
Student Senate President senior Lizz Esfeld and other Senate members are working on a campaign
called "Storm the Capital," in which students travel to Jefferson City to lobby in support of Gov.
Jay Nixon's higher education budget recommendation.
"It is an experience for students to see their legislators at work, and also has the dual purpose of
legislators being able to see Truman students and what they represent," Esfeld said.
Starting this Saturday, Feb. 7, one or two lobbyists from Jefferson City, including State Rep.
Rebecca McClanahan, D-Kirksville, will host lobby meetings and will train students to lobby
effectively.
"It will be the beginning of what is going to be a long-term campaign on Truman's behalf from
students," Esfeld said.
The session will be recorded to teach students who couldn't be present at the first session. Other
training dates are Feb. 16 and 23, leading up to "Storm the Capital" Wednesday Feb. 25.
"The idea from our standpoint is to put a face to a name," Esfeld said. "Show what we are now as
Truman students and present our case in the form of people."
Between 25 and 30 students attend the event each year. Esfeld said she hopes to see at least 100
students attend this year. Senate has sponsored practices for the campaign in past years, and it
will be even more critical for students to show up for fiscal year 2010, she said.
"With the budget situation, it really makes it important that we show our support of Truman and
the Truman experience at the capital," Esfeld said. "Especially, given the governor's proposal, we
have something to defend in the capital - something to really fight for."
The day will begin at 6:30 a.m. with a bus ride to Jefferson City. Appointments already are set for
the lobbyists to meet and talk with legislators, including members of the Higher Education
Committee. The group plans to leave Jefferson City at about 4 p.m.
Senior Leigh Wickell, legislative director for the campaign, monitors bills and legislators at the
state level to see how they affect the University.
"We want to show legislators that Truman is the model school with an outstanding student body
that sets us apart," Wickell said. "We care about our school, and we are the constituents."
For those who cannot attend "Storm the Capital," Senate members have set up a letter-writing
campaign Feb. 3 to 5 and Feb. 9 to 12 in the Student Union Building. Students will have the
opportunity to write letters to their legislators about preserving Truman.
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"The most important thing to include is the Truman experience, and how it would be affected by
the budget cuts," Wickell said. "This will help to explain why they should support level funding for
us."
Freshman Emily Hutti and some of her friends participated in the letter-writing campaign.
"I feel it is important because everyone should have the opportunity to go to school," Hutti said.
"This could potentially leave some students from being able to go to school anymore."
Associated Students of the University of Missouri is another organization that lobbies in Jefferson
City. This group includes one representative each from University of Missouri-Kansas City,
University of Missouri-St. Louis and Missouri University of Science and Technology, and five
representatives from University of Missouri-Columbia.
Through ASUM, these representatives are required to lobby at the capital at least two days a
week on behalf of student issues. At least two of these campuses are close to the capital, so they
have the opportunity to lobby every week.
ASUM also is coordinating with the University of Missouri Higher Education Consortium to have a
separate lobby day. The goal for this lobby day will be for representatives from all public schools
in Missouri to talk with legislators at the capital. Craig Stevenson, ASUM's Board of Directors
chairman, helps approve the policies that the ASUM lobbies for.
"ASUM's main aspects are campus presence and programming and the other aspect is the
lobbying organization," Stevenson said. "The real goal is for students to make some connection
with the local legislators."
Scott Holste, press secretary to Gov. Nixon, said he only has heard about the lobbyists and has
little information about the cause.
"With this being Jay Nixon's first month as governor, we have no expectations to what lobbying
will bring, although we look forward to meeting with groups from around the state on a variety of
issues during the legislative session in particular and we appreciate the support," Holste said.
52
Columbia Missourian
MU welcomes new chair of psychiatry
By LAURA HERRING
Friday, February 6, 2009
COLUMBIA — John Lauriello will lead MU's Department of Psychiatry as a professor and the
Chancellor's Chair of Excellence in Psychiatry, according to a press release from the School of
Medicine.
In this position, Lauriello will work to improve the quality of inpatient and outpatient psychiatric
services and recruit new faculty members for assistance in developing programs at MU, the press
release said.
Currently, Lauriello is a professor and vice chair of psychiatry at the University of New Mexico. He
will start at MU by July 1.
53
Columbia Missourian
False reflection: MU professor studies how, why eating disorders consume females in U.S.
By TIFFANY CHAN
Friday, February 6, 2009
COLUMBIA — When Anna Bardone-Cone was three years out of college, her family spent Christmas in
the Dominican Republic visiting a sister in the Peace Corps.
To celebrate the holiday, Bardone-Cone’s mother bought a tiny fake tree and played an old family
cassette recording.
Bardone-Cone was in fifth grade when the tape was made. On it, the family sang Christmas carols
(sounding like "The Chipmunks"), then made New Year’s resolutions.
Bardone-Cone’s: To lose weight.
She didn’t remember making the resolution or why, at age 10, she was thinking about dieting. When
she heard herself on the tape so many Christmases later, she was surprised and sad. As a child, she
was of slim to average size.
“What is going on that someone who certainly wasn’t overweight – certainly didn’t have any health
concerns related to weight – was thinking that way?” she wondered.
That question is one reason why she decided to study eating disorders.
Now 39, Bardone-Cone is director of the Eating Behaviors and Body Image Lab at MU, which she
founded in 2001 as an assistant professor in the psychological sciences department. She wanted to
better understand eating disorders, disordered eating and body image.
Since she began her research, Bardone-Cone has provided evidence of the negative effects of pro-
anorexia Web sites. She has studied how perfectionism might play into eating disorders. And she is
working on redefining “recovery” with the hope of making a full recovery possible for more eating-
disorder patients.
“I’ve worked with young women who are very bright and (have) lots of potential,” Bardone-Cone said.
“And they are so consumed — it’s an interesting word to use with eating disorders — but consumed.
Their thoughts are consumed with weight, food, eating, that it’s a pretty miserable kind of life.”
The facts
According to the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders," Bardone-Cone said, 0.5
percent of American women have anorexia nervosa, which means they keep their weight more than
15 percent below ideal body weight by limiting food intake or exercising compulsively.
One percent to 3 percent of American women have bulimia nervosa. While experiencing a loss of
control, they eat a larger amount of food than a typical person would in a similar setting, then they try
to shed the calories by either vomiting, using laxatives or diuretics, fasting or overexercising.
The vast majority of eating disorders — as much as 90 percent — occur in females.
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Eighty percent of American women are "dissatisfied with their appearance,” according to
NationalEatingDisorders.org, and “as many as 10 million females and 1 million males are fighting a life
and death battle with an eating disorder such as anorexia or bulimia.”
D. Paul Robinson, former chief of the adolescent medicine division and a former associate professor of
clinical child health at the MU School of Medicine, said the aforementioned estimates include women
of all ages. Looking specifically at adolescent women, he said 1 percent have anorexia and 3 percent
have bulimia. The two peak ages of onset are 14 and 18, when independence is important in
development.
Robinson said it is rare for a 30- or 40-year-old woman to develop an eating disorder for the first time.
Instead, he said, it’s likely she suffered before in adolescence, even if her disorder wasn’t as severe or
she didn't admit she had one.
Bardone-Cone added that both disorders are most common in industrialized societies where food is
plentiful and attractiveness is linked with thinness.
Robinson said eating disorders are more common among white upper-middle-class girls, though there
is an increasing incidence of eating disorders in Asian-Americans, particularly Chinese-American girls,
which is probably because of pressure from their parents to be perfect.
There is a lower incidence of anorexia in African-American girls, possibly because of genetic factors or
because their ethnic culture doesn’t put as much emphasis on being thin, Robinson said. They show
similar rates of binge eating and, to a lesser degree, bulimia.
Genetics play an important role in contributing to a disorder’s onset, Robinson said, and most patients
have a family history of eating issues. Although genes can contribute to a person's risk, an active
disorder can often be triggered by a person's environment, such as being subjected to teasing about
body image, or sexual or physical abuse.
Bardone-Cone and Robinson said anorexia has the highest death rate of all psychological disorders,
including schizophrenia; most anorexics tend to die through suicide or organ failure because their
bodies shut down from starvation.
Robinson said that within 10 years of a diagnosis, six to eight out of 100 anorexics die.
Growing up
Looking back on her own childhood, Bardone-Cone has tried to understand why she and every other
girl she knew, including her two sisters and her friends, focused so heavily on their bodies.
She doesn’t think she ever suffered from an eating disorder growing up, though she thinks she had
some disordered eating – a notch below a formal eating disorder. There is still some sort of
impairment, such as restricted dieting or bingeing only once a month (as opposed to the minimum of
two times a week for three months that is necessary to diagnose someone with bulimia).
No one ever told Bardone-Cone to lose weight, but she said she thinks that she and her friends put
pressure on one another to be thin — something they thought was important to be able to get a
boyfriend. In junior high, she and her best friend taped pictures of thin women to their bedroom walls
for inspiration; they measured their thighs and kept track of how big they were.
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Bardone-Cone, whose mother is from Ecuador and whose father is from Kansas, was born in Puerto
Rico. She lived there until she was 8, when her family moved to Pennsylvania. She doesn’t remember
focusing on body image or restrictive eating in elementary school in either place, so she’s not sure
where her resolution to lose weight came from.
Nor has she found any explicit link between her background and her body image, though she said she
would like to study Latino culture with that in mind. For example, she said, Latinas appreciate curves
and place food as a central part of family and love.
Part II: Catalysts
Lab findings
There is no typical day in the Eating Behaviors and Body Image Lab, located in Noyes Hall at MU.
Bardone-Cone usually runs one to two experiments a semester and analyzes data from others with the
help of graduate and undergraduate students. Study subjects often come from the Pediatric &
Adolescent Specialty Clinic at the Children's Hospital at MU, as well as from introductory psychology
classes. Others respond to fliers or newspaper ads.
As a psychological researcher, Bardone-Cone tests theories or phenomena related to human behavior.
Specifically, she focuses on psychosocial factors such as personality, ethnicity-related cultural factors
and the media. For example, in her study on pro-anorexia Web sites, Bardone-Cone wanted to prove
that such sites negatively affect a person’s sense of self.
Pro-anorexia Web sites provide inspiration and support for those who have latched on to extreme
food restriction as a way to lose weight, she said. One site offers “tips, pictures, and many other things
that will help individuals who have Anorexia, and do not wish to recover.”
Some examples of postings:
* “yeah so, i'm pretty happy (: / I havent eaten since last wednesday! / have only had- chewingum, and
diet coke. / that's all (: / Ive lost a lot too :) / about 5 pounds. / official stats tomorrow though! / plan to
do it right up until christmas-coz we all know, were all made to eat then :/ / how are all my lovelys?” *
“i need some help so so so so badly. I figured i'd take up some serious cardio workouts at my gym, so
i've been doing kickboxing. I've been eating hardly anything, drinking coffee and water/herbal teas and
whatnot. BUT, i've gained 4 pounds from like, 5 workouts. I know it's muscle and everything, but now i
have no idea what the hell to do. / usually whenever i combine intense cardio and hardly eat anything
then the disgusting, lumpy fat just disappears and i love it!! but now it's not shifting........my ana
started when i was about 14, and i'm 22 now, so i know my metabolism is f**ked, but i didn't think it
was this bad.”
In her experiment, Bardone-Cone split female college students into three groups and altered only one
condition among them: One group viewed a prototypical pro-anorexia Web site; another viewed a
female fashion Web site that featured average-size models (sizes 8 to 12); and the third group viewed
a home decor Web site.
The study found that the women who viewed the pro-anorexia Web site had more negative emotions
and lower self-esteem than the women in the other two groups. They also felt heavier afterward,
meaning a woman who identified herself before the viewing as average weight suddenly considered
herself overweight. According to the study, these women also “reported a greater likelihood of
exercising and thinking about their weight in the near future, and engaged in more image
comparison.”
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Now, Bardone-Cone and her students are studying the connections among self-concept, body image
and romantic relationships. She declined to discuss details because she doesn’t want to influence any
results by publicizing her hypotheses.
Bardone-Cone has also looked at perfectionism and its relation to eating disorders. She has studied
two types of perfectionists: adaptive, or self-oriented, perfectionists, who have very high standards;
and maladaptive perfectionists, who are very self-critical, especially when they do not meet their
standards — rather than being motivated by success, they focus on failure or the fear of failure.
So, for females, an adaptive perfectionist wants straight A's because she strives for excellence and
wants to do her best; if she gets A's, she is satisfied. But a maladaptive perfectionist wants straight A's
because she is afraid of failing to meet others’ standards; if she gets A's, she might think she should
have gotten an A-plus.
Maladaptive perfectionism is associated especially with bulimic behaviors, and both types of
perfectionism are associated with anorexia, according to Bardone-Cone’s research. But because not
every perfectionist has an eating disorder, Bardone-Cone looked for other risk factors.
Her finding: Perfectionism combined with body dissatisfaction and low self-efficacy, or one’s
confidence in being able to meet goals, increases the risk of an eating disorder.
For example, perfectionists might see feeling overweight (body dissatisfaction) as not meeting a
standard. Those with high self-efficacy might think they can change either their body or their attitude
to make the situation better. They might even be OK with not being at their desired weight if they’re
reaching other goals.
Those with low self-efficacy don’t believe they can make such changes to be happier with their bodies
and might have a sense of helplessness and hopelessness.
“The thought is that that group has the most negative feelings about themselves,” Bardone-Cone said.
“And for some women, that really motivates binge eating. It lets them sort of zone out; they can numb
their feelings.
“And even though it’s counterproductive because most of these women want to be thinner and eating
a lot of food won’t lead you to that goal, for the moment, it serves the function.”
Redefining 'recovery
Bardone-Cone also hopes to redefine “recovery” for eating-disorder patients.
She said most research defines recovery in physical and behavioral terms. That is, eating-disorder
patients are considered recovered if they fall into a healthy weight range and no longer binge, purge
or fast. (Normal weight range is based on a body mass index — the calculation of a person's weight
(kilograms) divided by height (meters squared) — between 18.5 and 25. (For a calculator, go to
consumer.gov/weightloss/bmi.htm.)
Eating disorders also are thought to be chronic. In other words, some patients will always struggle with
eating issues.
But Bardone-Cone argues that full recovery might be possible for some.
57
She found a significant minority (45 percent) of some eating-disorder patients seemed fully recovered
— physically, behaviorally and psychologically — and looked like people who had never had an eating
disorder.
Bardone-Cone said she would have to follow up with these patients to prove they are fully recovered
but expects they would have very low relapse rates, especially when compared with those who are
only recovered physically and behaviorally, but not psychologically. She is applying for a grant to
follow up with the study.
In the future, Bardone-Cone also wants to predict what helps a person fully recover and who is more
likely to get there. By doing so, she hopes therapists will be better able to determine what steps are
necessary for full recovery, such as having a close relationship with a health care team or a supportive
parent. And knowing that full recovery is possible would give patients “a sense that, even in these
darkest days, there is some hope,” she said.
Robinson agreed that it’s too simple to define recovery based solely on weight. For example, he said, a
woman might reach a certain weight and still think about food 85 percent of the day; if she is
concerned with every bite she eats and feels horrible after eating an ice-cream cone, she is still
suffering. It’s important for eating-disorder patients to eliminate the fear, anxiety and negativism they
have about eating, he said.
Robinson said that before they can get better, anorexics have to improve their nutrition; only then can
they respond to counseling. Bulimics can be treated with some anti-depressants, as well as counseling.
As part of treatment, dietitians work with patients to teach them the truth about food. For example,
anorexics might think that eating one cookie will cause them to gain 10 pounds. In reality, for a typical
person, it takes 3,500 calories above the body’s needs to gain 1 pound, so it would take 35,000 surplus
calories to gain 10 pounds. The average cookie has 150 calories.
Counselors deal with stressors, such as exams or conflicts with parents or significant others, that can
cause the disorders to flare up.
Recovery from an eating disorder is more like a marathon than a sprint, Robinson said. It can take
three to five years of treatment before patients break through. He remembers attending a conference
in California and seeing a woman he had treated about five or six years earlier. She gave him a hug,
and after talking for a minute, she said:
“Guess what, Dr. Rob?”
“What?”
“Guess what I ate last night?”
“What?”
“A steak!”
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Robinson explained: “Here it was five years after I had been treating her, and she had been in and out
of the hospital a lot —very sick. It took her five more years to get to the point where she could eat a
steak.
“So, it’s a long process. It’s a horrible illness. And so anything that would help speed up the recovery so
women can get their lives back would be great.”
Meg Harney, a second-year psychology graduate student who works with Bardone-Cone, also thinks a
redefinition of recovery has broader implications.
Under current definitions, insurance companies might mandate a patient leave once she meets a
certain weight threshold. And even if that patient has follow-up treatment set up, she might not be
well enough to pursue it. But, Harney said, evidence has shown that if patients’ recovery meets
psychological criteria, they should experience lower relapse rates.
“If insurance companies got that message and saw that evidence, they should be motivated to allow
treatment to continue to or (get) closer to full recovery,” Harney said. “That should reduce the
'revolving door' phenomenon, which is not uncommon in eating-disorder treatment.”
Part III: Solutions
The function of eating disorders
Before Bardone-Cone started her research lab, she counseled eating-disorder patients. While talking
with them, she would try to figure out what purposes their eating disorders were serving. She learned
that bulimics might binge to temporarily avoid feeling bad about themselves. Anorexics might want a
sense of control, especially if they do not feel they have control over other things, such as
relationships or grades.
A lot of patients resisted letting go of their eating disorder, so Bardone-Cone would ask them to
separate the good and bad things that resulted from it.
Some examples of the latter:
"Well, I feel like my mom is always looking over my shoulder, so I feel like she’s always worried
about what I’m eating, and that’s kind of a pain.”
“I feel like I always have to wear these bulky clothes because if I don’t, people will see me and, like,
freak out.”
“I feel really tired at the end of the day. And my friends want to go out, and I just have no interest.”
By discussing the negatives in greater detail, Bardone-Cone tried to amplify them, thereby helping
patients realize they weren’t what they wanted.
The hardest cases were ones where patients had no motivation, and even a resistance, to change,
Bardone-Cone said. She once worked with an adolescent who had anorexia and clearly did not want to
be treated. She sat turned away from Bardone-Cone and kept her legs held tightly against her body,
with her arms folded over them. When she spoke, which was seldom, she was often sarcastic,
answering questions about her food obsessions with “Duh!” or “Yeah, of course.”
“How can talk therapy be helpful when there’s no talk?” Bardone-Cone said.
Eating disorders can become part of a person’s identity, which can cause patients to wonder who they
would be without them.
59
“There is so much time and energy that’s spent on food and eating and appearance,” Bardone-Cone
said. “To the degree that it’s really tied together with one’s sense of self, it’s kind of scary to think like,
‘Well, if I lose that, that’s how I think of myself.’”
When treating patients, Bardone-Cone uses a cognitive-behavior therapy model, which is especially
helpful to bulimics, as well as some anorexics. With this model, Bardone-Cone seeks to determine
what triggers a binge and alternative responses.
Negative emotions — such as anxiety, depression or boredom — or stressful situations can cause
some patients to binge. In that case, Bardone-Cone might suggest that her patients journal instead or
distract themselves by calling a friend, going to a movie or taking a walk. She recommends that people
put themselves in situations where it is difficult to binge.
She also emphasizes distress tolerance, which is the realization that the feelings will go away with
time; binging isn’t necessary. And she tries to calm anorexics’ fear of ballooning if they do start to eat
and the fear that if they aren’t thin, no one will love them.
Getting off the scale
Bardone-Cone tries to live her beliefs, so she doesn’t weigh herself. Instead, she just reads her body.
“You put on your jeans,” she said. “You know if they feel tighter or not.”
She eats when she’s hungry and stops when she’s full. She doesn’t deprive herself but eats in
moderation. That usually means a bit of chocolate every day, whether it's half a handful of chocolate
chips, a couple of mini dark-chocolate Hershey’s bars or a chocolate dessert at a restaurant. She tries
to follow a pact she made with her husband and her sister to exercise for a half-hour, three times a
week.
Bardone-Cone is trying to model the same behavior for her two boys, ages 3 and 5.
“I’m way against the clean-plate club idea because, again, if you’re not hungry, don’t eat, and if you
are hungry, please eat,” she said.
The Bardone-Cone family talks about vitamins, minerals and proteins. As vegetarians, they discuss how
tofu and milk provide protein, but “we never talk about calories,” she said. “It’s more (about) food as
something that’s healthy for your body, gives you energy and tastes good.”
If she can live that philosophy, her weight will naturally be where it should be, she said. She guesses
she weighs around 130 pounds, a healthy weight for her at 5 feet 2.5 inches tall.
“Although I feel that I’m very comfortable in my body, I do know that there have been times when I
have gotten on the scale and there’s a little bit of like, ‘Aww,’ or something like that, and I'm like,
‘That’s ridiculous.’ So I think, ‘Why even get on?’”
60
Kirksville Daily Express
Univ. of Missouri student crowned 2009 Miss Kirksville
Monday, February 9, 2009
KIRKSVILLE — A University of Missouri-Columbia student won the 2009 Miss Kirksville Pageant at
Baldwin Auditorium Saturday night in front of 200 people in attendance.
Kaylen Sanborn, a junior at MU, came away with the top prize and a $1,000 scholarship along with the
opportunity to compete in the Miss Missouri Pageant in June.
Four other young women competed in the event that featured a talent portion, question and answer
session, swimsuit competition and a showcase of formal gowns.
Truman students Tricia Hurt, Danielle Fox and Brittany Rosner vied for the designation of Miss
Kirksville along with Jillian Richardson, of the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
Sanborn, a Bourbon, Mo. native, says the competition was difficult to compete in because of the
quality of the other young women in the pageant.
“They are all the nicest girls I have ever met,” Sanborn said, who performed a dance during the talent
portion of the show. “I’m definitely going to Facebook them and hopefully see them in the future.”
Richardson was selected as the first runner up before Sanborn received the tiara.
Richardson was also given the People’s Choice Award based on audience voting, which was tabulated
during the program. Rosner was selected as Miss Congeniality and Hurt was awarded as the second
runner up.
Sanborn hopes to help the Humane Society during her time as Miss Kirksville.
“I think this is a wonderful opportunity to raise awarness for the animals,” Sanborn said after she won
the first pageant she has ever competed in. “I’m so excited.”
The night also featured the Little Sisters of the Miss Kirksville program. Oliva Coy, Lannie Davidson,
Kenzie Easley MaKayla Gibb, Elizabeth Moots, Abbey Triplett, Sophie Stuart, Emree Jo Stufflebean and
Kenslie Stufflebean were all crowned by 2008 Miss Kirksville Jenna Osseck.
Osseck also crowned Sanborn after informing the audience about the difficulty of the event.
“It takes a lot of courage to get up here and walk around in your swimsuit,” she said. “You got to give
(the contestants) some credit for that.”
61
Columbia Missourian
MU rejoins RecycleMania competition
By JASON LENHART
Sunday, February 8, 2009
COLUMBIA - From now until March 28, tossing your soda can into the recycling bin could make
MU a national champion.
It's part of RecycleMania, a 10-week competition that pits MU against 333 other colleges and
universities to see who can recycle the most. This will be MU’s sixth year participating.
“(RecycleMania) is a friendly competition to encourage schools to recycle,” said Steve Burdic,
Solid Waste and Recycling Coordinator for the university. “But it is also a great opportunity to talk
about our recycling in general.”
Through this friendly competition, colleges and universities are encouraged to get out and
promote their on-campus recycling programs. MU is represented by a partnership of Campus
Facilities and the student environmental group Sustain Mizzou.
MU has contracts with both the city of Columbia as well as Civic Recycling, a private recycling
company, to collect all the recyclables on campus.
Civic Recycling is responsible for picking up paper and cardboard on campus, as well as indoor
beverage recycling containers. The city is responsible for sidewalk recycling and drop-off
containers.
Roughly once a week, both companies collect the accumulated recycling on campus and process
it. To provide RecycleMania with accurate results, all the recycled material is weighed before
being processed.
The Material Recovery Center in Columbia will report the amount recycled from campus to Layli
Terrill, the city's waste minimization supervisor, who will then report it to Burdic.
Burdic’s job is then to report to RecycleMania.
"I think (RecyleMania is) a great program,” Terrill said. “It serves as a reminder to students that
there is a recycling program on campus.”
There are a number of categories in which schools can compete. This year, MU will report
numbers for the Grand Champion Prize, which measures the weekly recycling rate. The school
will also compete in the Per Capita Classic and Waste Minimization, both measured in pounds per
person.
The big competition for MU is the Gorilla Competition, which measures sheer pounds
recycled. Larger schools like MU have an edge in the contest. Smaller schools have a slight
advantage in categories like the Per Capita Classic because of their smaller student populations.
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In the Targeted Materials division, which measures specific materials collected, MU will report on
its collection of paper, corrugated cardboard, bottles and cans, and “food service organics,” which
are composted from Rollins Dining Hall. In the category of cardboard recycling, MU finished in
11th place last year. It was the university's highest finish in the competition.
Although MU fell shorter than organizers would have liked, new steps are being taken to help
boost MU’s score in this year’s competition. As one of the primary promoters of RecycleMania,
Sustain Mizzou is getting more involved this year.
“I’m hoping we can do a much more targeted ad campaign in the dorms” to get more students
involved, said Patrick Margherio, president of Sustain Mizzou. “That’s really where the potential is
to change attitudes about recycling."
Mike Madden, the RecycleMania project leader for Sustain Mizzou, will be posting fliers in many
of the residence halls with the help of some Sustain Mizzou volunteers. He said he also hopes to
be able to speak to the Missouri Students Association to encourage students to spread the word.
“This year you’re going to see an improvement,” Madden said. “Next year, we’re going for the
gold.”
For example, he hopes to begin promoting the competition before it starts and wants to bring
Tiger Tailgate, the successful recycling program used during home football games, to the
basketball games. Last year’s Tiger Tailgate pulled in 19.2 tons of recyclables. It didn't coincide
with the RecycleMania competition.
MU isn’t the only local school in the competition. Stephens College and Truman State University
are both competing. Last year, Stephens finished first in the Targeted Division for paper. Truman
State finished fifth for corrugated cardboard.
Last year, 58.6 million pounds were recycled in the RecycleMania competition. By comparison,
last year the city of Columbia recycled almost 18 million pounds of material.
To track MU’s progress, go to recyclemania.org and click on the "participating schools" tab.
63
Columbia Daily Tribune
Device is lifesaver for a fan
Defibrillator used during MU game.
By T.J. GREANEY
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
A University of Missouri women’s basketball fan who went into cardiac arrest before Saturday’s MU-
KU game is resting in stable condition after an usher used an automatic defibrillator device on him,
university officials said.
It was the first known successful use of one of the devices at an MU athletic event since the school
began installing them about a decade ago. University officials did not release the name or age of the
man.
Eric McDonnell, an athletic trainer, said it happened at about 12:25 p.m., 35 minutes before tip-off. A
relative of the man noticed he was having trouble breathing and, with assistance of ushers, brought
him to a “backstaging area” at court level and laid him on an exercise mat. A university police officer
performed emergency breathing, an usher applied the pads from the defibrillator device to the man’s
chest and another performed chest compressions. Within minutes, the device detected a “shockable
rhythm” and restored the man’s heartbeat.
“I don’t think anyone in the crowd actually realized what happened,” McDonnell said. The entire
process “worked just like it’s supposed to.”
There are 13 defibrillators at the MU Sports Park, including five in Mizzou Arena. About 60 of the
devices are placed in strategic locations around campus.
“I feel that all those involved with this incident showed extreme professionalism in taking care of this
man in his moment of need,” said Frank Hoelzeman, an events assistant who was on the phone with
emergency medics throughout the incident.
Rebecca Bergfield, who has taught a training course on the devices and CPR for years, said
defibrillators are simple to operate with a bit of instruction.
“They require you to have training, but once you’ve had that training, it’s kind of like riding a bike
because the steps are just that easy to follow,” she said.
Bergfield can recall only one other time when a defibrillator was used on campus. That occurred
during a massive snowstorm of December 2006 when a man working at the MU Power Plant suffered
a heart attack.
The device did not work properly at the time, but paramedics responded quickly enough to restart his
heart.
Bergfield said anyone who is forced to use a device and is not trained should call 911 immediately.
From powering up to shocking the patient, the device requires less than two minutes, she said.
“The thing to do is make sure you’re on the phone with EMS, and they can walk you through the
process,” she said.
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The Kansas City Star
A grassroots effort for the life sciences
By JASON GERTZEN
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Kansas City’s civic leaders clearly have embraced the idea of making the region a bioscience hub.
But not everyone is a scientist able to work in a laboratory.
“The challenge for regular folks is: How can I help? How can I get involved?” said Laura McKnight,
the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation’s president and chief executive officer.
Many more individuals, corporations and other foundations now can join the quest for cures and
a more prosperous future with the new Kansas City Life Sciences Fund established at the
foundation.
Contributions ranging from $25 to hundreds of thousands of dollars will be pooled to aid in such
efforts as recruiting top scientists for university labs or local research hospitals.
The need for these investments is great.
A panel of national experts several years ago, for example, urged the area to bolster the life
sciences with more than $300 million in philanthropic support for the University of Kansas
Medical Center and the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
These universities, area hospitals and research labs are conducting cutting-edge work in areas
such as diabetes and new cancer drugs.
Beyond help for patients, this work also could attract millions of dollars in research grants and
stimulate involvement of startups or other companies interested in advancing the locally
produced innovations.
The “Time to Get it Right” report, commissioned by the Kansas City community foundation,
recommended a path for the area to follow. But civic leaders confronted a daunting obstacle.
That was a lot of money, McKnight said.
One of the ideas driving the creation of the new fund involves breaking down the overall funding
needs into a series of “very specific building-block kind of projects,” McKnight said. These projects
will be more accessible for a wide range of potential givers.
Scientific experts assembled by the Kansas City Area Life Sciences Institute will serve as advisers
for the fund. The panel includes renowned researchers from such places as the University of
California-Berkeley and Dana Farber Cancer Institute.
Leaders at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation were encouraged enough to provide an initial
contribution of $1.5 million.
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The advisers, far more successfully than individual donors, can recommend how to invest the new
fund after determining whether the community’s research base would benefit more from a new
diabetes specialist or a neuroscientist, said Lesa Mitchell, a vice president at the Kauffman
foundation.
Consolidating support under the direction of such a top-level group of scientific advisers can
accelerate the advancement of the region’s life sciences community, Mitchell said.
Obtaining federal grants is increasingly challenging. This community would enjoy an advantage by
capitalizing on such local support, said Bill Duncan, president and chief executive officer of the life
sciences institute.
“This is a new day for the life sciences initiative regionally,” Duncan said. “We are truly going to
have significant resources to deploy.”
One early contribution the new fund might make could help recruit a top diabetes researcher to
lead a regional coalition bringing together area universities and hospitals.
KU intends to expand research funding to about $50 million, hire more than a dozen new
researchers and eventually gain federal designation as an elite diabetes research center, said
David Robbins, director of the university’s Diabetes Institute.
Support from the new life sciences fund could jump-start this effort, Robbins said.
“It’s an incredible opportunity for us to put Kansas City’s pin on the map in contributing to the
cure of diabetes,” Robbins said.
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The Kansas City Star
UMKC building will bear names of a civic couple
By MARA ROSE WILLIAMS
Friday, February 6, 2009
COLUMBIA | The University of Missouri-Kansas City’s newest residence hall will be named for the late
Herman and Dorothy Johnson, two of Kansas City’s most beloved civic leaders.
The Herman and Dorothy Johnson Hall on Oak Street will be the first UMKC residence hall named after
someone and the first campus building named after African-Americans.
“Herman was a hero of mine,” UMKC Chancellor Leo Morton said Friday after the University of
Missouri Board of Curators meeting in Columbia. “Being part of naming a new facility after him and his
wife, well I can’t think of anything more satisfying.”
Johnson was a successful businessman, a former president of the Kansas City NAACP, a Tuskegee
airman and a state legislator. He had been involved in social justice in Kansas City since the 1950s.
During disorder after Martin Luther King Jr.’s death, Johnson escorted schoolchildren to city hall to
commemorate the day of King’s funeral.
Dorothy Johnson served with her husband on numerous civic boards and had been an assistant
professor of psychiatry at UMKC. She was once named Kansas City social worker of the year and
Kansas City woman of the year.
He died in 2004 at age 87. She died five months later at age 88.
Nearly two decades ago, Herman Johnson started the Herman Johnson African American Scholarship
Fund, considered the largest privately endowed scholarship fund specifically for African-American
students at UMKC. To date it has paid out almost $500,000 in scholarships to help about 170 minority
students pay for their education.
The $17 million residence hall will house 330 students and is scheduled to open for the fall semester.
Other city leaders said they were pleased to learn the university would name the hall for the Johnsons.
“He and his wife gave so much of themselves to improve education, politics, and the social lives of
young people in Kansas City,” former City Councilman Alvin Brooks said.
Curator Warren Erdman of Kansas City called Herman Johnson a legend.
“He and Dorothy were engaged in our community like few,” Erdman said. “I can not think of a more
deserving couple in Kansas City for this honor.”
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Kansas City Business Journal
UMKC School of Nursing gets $1.75M grant to target rural areas
Monday, February 9, 2009
The University of Missouri-Kansas City announced Monday that its School of Nursing has been
awarded a three-year grant of nearly $1.75 million to increase the number of registered nurses in
rural areas.
The money from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration will help UMKC expand
its distance-learning program to include more rural students.
Those rural students who enter the program will receive a laptop computer, which will enable
them to participate in a live, online classroom.
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St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Anheuser-Busch Foundation gives $2.5 million to University of Missouri-St. Louis
By JEREMIAH MCWILLIAMS
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Let it not be said that Anheuser-Busch has forgotten how to give money — even after a takeover
and massive cost cutting.
The Anheuser-Busch Foundation has pledged $2.5 million over the next five years to the
University of Missouri-St. Louis to help raise a new College of Business Administration building.
The new Anheuser-Busch Hall will house the business school’s classrooms, research, technology
and meeting facilities under one roof.
Supporting education is at the core of Anheuser-Busch’s charitable giving philosophy, the
company said.
The gift “reinforces our commitment to the community,” Dave Peacock, president of Anheuser-
Busch, told Lager Heads. “It’s been a longstanding principle of Anheuser-Busch to support the
community.”
Anheuser-Busch is a fairly ecumenical giver. It has given money to local schools including
Washington University, St. Louis University and UMSL over the years. About 280 UMSL alumni
work now for Anheuser-Busch InBev.
“These are important universities for us in identifying and creating talent,” said Peacock, who
earned his MBA from Washington University. “These schools create our future colleagues, so it’s
important for us to invest there.”
Anheuser-Busch and the Anheuser-Busch Foundation have supported UMSL for some time; The
brewer helped complete an UMSL performing arts center in 2000, for example. That was just one
part of more than $370 million donated by A-B and its foundation to charitable organizations over
the past decade.
Is the UMSL gift a sign of more abundant giving to come? Only time will tell, but Lager Heads will
watch for evidence.
The takeover of St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch by InBev last year stirred fears among local
charities who traditionally counted on the largess of Anheuser-Busch for sizable chunks of money.
Under cost-conscious InBev, what would become of the brewer’s historically generous giving? The
economic downturn added another layer of uncertainty.
The gift to UMSL is one example of A-B keeping things on track, Peacock said. The assets of the
Anheuser-Busch Foundation are affected by the capital markets, but it’s a fairly well-balanced
portfolio with enough assets to ensure a “pretty good level of giving,” he said.
“The key for us is not just about giving money,” Peacock said. The goal is to improve “the
communities in which we work and live.”
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Columbia Missourian
Anheuser-Busch Foundation pledges $2.5 million to UMSL
The Associated Press
Thursday, February 12, 2009
ST. LOUIS — The University of Missouri-St. Louis said the Anheuser-Busch Foundation has pledged
$2.5 million over the next five years for new construction at its College of Business
Administration.
The university called it the largest gift in the college's 42-year history.
The university is in the early stages of planning and fundraising for a new building to house the
business school's classrooms, research, technology and meeting facilities under one roof.
Anheuser-Busch and its foundation have funded several university projects, including the Blanche
M. Touhill Performing Arts Center in 2000.
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The Carthage Press
Speck credits teamwork for enrollment jump at MSSU
By JOHN HACKER
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
A rise of nearly five percent in enrollment at Missouri Southern State University reverses a downward
trend that had been in place for at least four semesters.
"After having enrollment losses, especially in the fall for two consecutive years, this is very good
news," said Missouri Southern President Bruce Speck. "I believe part of this tells us that the policies
we've put in place are working. For instance, the policy about when people pay for classes has helped
us in this regard. It also is a good story about teamwork and many, many people who worked very
hard to make sure that we can have increased enrollment and it's just a real wonderful example of
teamwork in this university."
Spring 2009 enrollment is 5,090, compared to 4,861 in 2008, an increase of 229 students, according to
Dr. Delores Honey, assistant vice president for assessment and institutional research.
Honey also reported that the number of total credit hours taken by students rose this semester by
1,449.
Speck said by multiplying 1,449 credit hours by $143, the cost per credit hour to take a class at
Southern, he estimated the University will bring in a little more than $207,000 in additional revenue
from the increase in the number of students.
"It helps a little bit," Speck said. "It means we have more students who have paid, but it's not going to
be so significant that all of a sudden we can say we don't need to cut anymore. What's really going to
be significant for us is going to be the fall enrollment. That's going to be incredibly important because
that's going to be where we determine if we are going to have more money than we budgeted or less
money than we budgeted."
Just last month, Speck announced the end of the men's soccer program and the closing of the Child
Development Center, both efforts to save money and reduce the deficit facing the university.
At that time he also raised the specter of an across-the-board pay cut of as much as four percent.
Off the table?
On Tuesday, Speck said the across-the-board salary cut could be avoided if the Missouri General
Assembly and Gov. Jay Nixon can work things out to keep the higher education budget in Missouri
from being slashed.
In January, Nixon said he would propose that higher education receive the same amount of money in
fiscal year 2010, which starts in July 2009, as it did in fiscal year 2009.
In exchange, the public colleges and universities across Missouri agreed not to raise tuition this year.
The state is also dealing with a shortfall in revenue in the current fiscal year, meaning the possibility of
state money being withheld from Southern and other institutions of higher learning.
"At this point if the Governor's proposal goes through and if we don't have a big problem in terms of a
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hold back in this budget year, we're taking off the table the across-the-board salary cuts," Speck said.
"We're trying to quell people's fears as much as we can, but we're also trying to be realistic and telling
them we just don't know."
Speck said he's looking at the possibility of imposing furloughs, unpaid time off, on faculty and staff, as
a possible money saving option.
Gary Foresee, the president of the University of Missouri system, announced last week that Mizzou
was also looking at the possibility of using furloughs to save money.
"The difference between an across-the-board cut and a furlough is this, an across-the-board cut says
this year, we're going to cut everybody's pay by four percent or whatever we decide," Speck said.
"That a permanent cut. A furlough is saying this year and this year only, we're going to not pay you so
much. For this week, everybody's off. For spring break, when the faculty's off, everybody's off and
you're not going to get paid for this week.
"It's a reduction in pay, but it's not a permanent reduction in pay, that's why furloughs have taken on a
kind of added glamour, if that's the right word or desirability because it's not a permanent cut and
there are times when you can do that and then people are still employed."
The Joplin Globe
Enrollment up at Missouri Southern
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Enrollment for the spring 2009 semester at Missouri Southern State University is up 5 percent over the
same time last year, according to university officials.
According to official census figures released today, spring enrollment is 5,090, compared to 4,861 in
2008 — an increase of 229 students.
The figures are recorded at the end of the fourth full week of classes for state and federal reporting
purposes.
“This is a testament to what we can do working together to meet the higher education goals of the
region,” MSSU President Bruce Speck stated in a news release.
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St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Webster University picks Elizabeth Stroble as president
By KAVITA KUMAR
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Webster University has chosen a seasoned Ohio college administrator to be its next president,
passing over a longtime Webster insider who some students and faculty had suspected was a
shoo-in for the top job.
On Tuesday, the university announced that Elizabeth Stroble, the senior vice president, provost
and chief operating officer at the University of Akron, will be the school's 14th president. Stroble,
57, described by one of her colleagues as a "dynamo," will start on July 1.
"The board is extremely proud of where Webster stands today," said George H. Walker III,
chairman of the Board of Trustees. "But of course, having an outsider come in always brings in
fresh ideas and new thoughts. That was a factor in our selection."
Stroble said in a phone interview on Tuesday that she wanted to try to connect the different parts
of Webster — especially the international campuses to the home campus — to make it more of
"one university." Webster has about 10 international campuses as well as 30-plus extended sites
in the United States and offers programs on more than 40 military bases. Webster has more than
20,000 students.
In some ways, Webster has been kept a well-kept secret, Stroble said. But she said she would
work to change that.
"I think that Webster is a great university and has not received the regard and the reputation that
it merits," she said.
The other finalist for the job was Neil George, who has been serving as interim president for
about a year since Richard Meyers resigned. George, 68, has worked at Webster for 35 years and
was previously the school's executive vice president in charge of academics.
Webster's board also announced on Tuesday that it had decided to make George the university's
first chancellor, a newly created position in which he will advise the president on a host of issues
and work to implement the school's strategic plan.
"We thought we had two very good candidates, as you can imagine," Walker said. "There was a
lot of discussion. We thought if there's a way we could get both of them involved in the
university, it would be a win-win situation. If Dr. George had decided not to stay with the
university, I think all of us would have been extremely disappointed."
Walker said the new position established for George was a serious position with real
responsibilities.
"I promise you he will have plenty to do," he said. "We're not just giving him a title and saying,
'Now go to Hawaii and enjoy yourself.'"
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George said he was excited about his new role. He said it would be "significantly" different from
his previous role as the academic vice president because he wouldn't deal with as many day-to-
day details but could work on broader, big-picture issues.
Stroble and George, the two known finalists, both took part in a day of interviews on campus in
mid-January. A third finalist dropped out a couple of months ago because of family issues.
Elizabeth Eisele, a Webster graduate student and former president of the student government
association, sat in on the forums. She immediately liked Stroble.
"I was excited about her because she is new and she is a woman," Eisele said. "For a while it's
been just men in the presidential role," which is strange, she said, "considering that Webster
started as an all women's college."
She also liked that Stroble would be part of a new regime.
"I didn't necessarily think that staying the course was the way to go," she said. "I think the
university is ready for something new."
She said that some students were skeptical about the process, worried that it was just a "dog and
pony show," and figured that George was the inevitable choice. "But obviously, because of the
outcome, it wasn't," she said.
Stroble has local connections. She grew up in a suburb of Chicago and was a teacher in Vandalia,
Ill. She received a bachelor's degree at Augustana College in Illinois and has two master's degrees
from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. She also has a doctorate from the University of
Virginia.
During her tenure at the University of Akron, she helped establish the university's honors college,
established partnerships with the public schools, and successfully helped lobby for $34 million in
private and public grants and other funding.
Harvey Sterns, a psychology professor and president of the Faculty Senate at the University of
Akron, praised Stroble and said many people would be disappointed by her departure. He said she
had had to make some difficult personnel decisions — including reshuffling responsibilities among
administrators — but had handled them with finesse.
"She's open to hearing everyone's ideas, but she has no trouble making up her own mind," he
said. "She can make tough decisions."
Sterns added that she had a "real spark" and a strong sense of what she wanted.
"She's a very petite woman who is a real dynamo," he said.
Walker noted that Stroble got "very high marks" from the people she worked with in Akron.
"We want to continue to raise the academic standards at Webster, and she has done that," he
said. "She's very articulate. She's got a lot of self-confidence. And she makes friends easily. You
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can't help but like her when you're with her."
Webster's previous president, Richard Meyers, was recently named president of Fielding
Graduate University, a school based in California that offers online classes.
Springfield News-Leader
Webster University names new president
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Webster University has chosen Dr. Elizabeth Stroble as the university’s 14th president and chief
executive, a news release from the university said.
The Board of Trustees also named Interim President Dr. Neil J. George to the newly created
chancellor position.
Stroble is currently the senior vice president, provost and chief operating officer at the University
of Akron in Ohio. She will begin her new job at Webster University July 1, the news release said.
Stroble, 57, brings 35 years of experience as an educator and academic leader to her new
position. She holds a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction from the University of Virginia, two
master’s degrees from Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville and a bachelor’s degree from
Augustana College in Rock Island, Ill., the news release said.
Based in St. Louis, Webster University has a Springfield campus called Ozarks Regional located at
321 W. Battlefield. The site offers six master’s degree programs. The Ozarks Regional campus is
part of Webster’s global network of more than 100 campuses in the United States and abroad.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
The Grade Blog: Richard Meyers, former Webster President, takes new job at online university
By KAVITA KUMAR
Monday, February 9, 2009
Richard S. Meyers, the former president of Webster University whose abrupt resignation last year
stunned the campus, has taken a new job as president of an online university in California.
Fielding Graduate University, based in Santa Barbara, announced his appointment on Monday.
Meyers will start on July 1.
Meyers, 70, had been president of Webster for 14 years. He resigned last February and
immediately disappeared from campus, fueling questions about the circumstances behind his
departure. But he later told the Post-Dispatch that he had dropped out of sight because was so
emotional about retiring from being a university president — a job title he had held for about 33
years.
“I wanted to try something else and I did,” Meyers said Monday. “I tried it — and I found out that
I missed some things in the university life.”
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After he left Webster, Meyers started an international consulting company that he and his wife,
Yakko, run out of their home in west St. Louis County. He has been advising universities mostly in
Japan about how to expand their global reach, which is what he was best known for during his
tenure at Webster.
But Meyers said he missed the interaction with students.
So when someone nominated him for the job at Fielding, Meyers applied. He thought it was a
good fit because the school wants to expand abroad and is focused on social justice — bringing
together two of Meyers’ major interests.
While it is an online university, Meyers said he will get to connect through students through
special programs and events like commencement. He noted that some students also sit on the
board.
Meyers said he is looking forward to returning to the West Coast, where he lived for many years.
One of his daughters also lives in the Santa Barbara area.
James Muren, the chairman of Fielding’s board of trustees, said he was impressed by Meyers’
resume when he first saw his application over the summer.
“Dr. Meyers comes to us with over 30 years in experience as presidents of colleges and
universities,” Muren said. “He is very impressive as a leader as well as a human being.”
Meyers said he’s not been involved in the search for a new president at Webster because he
didn’t want to meddle and be seen as “someone who overstays their welcome.”
Webster officials interviewed two finalists for president a couple weeks ago — Neil George, a
close colleague of Meyer’s who has been serving as interim president, and Elizabeth Stroble, a
senior administrator at the University of Akron. Webster has about 22,000 students.
Fielding serves about 1,500 students. It is geared towards professional students who are looking
to advance or change their careers. The average age of a Fielding student is about 45. The school
has been around since 1974.
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Lawrence Journal-World & News
Hemenway advises state lawmakers: ‘You can’t cut your way to excellence’
By SCOTT ROTHSCHILD
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Topeka — Leaders of state universities said Wednesday that budget cuts in the 7 percent range so
far have been painful, but manageable. But they said further cuts that are under discussion would
cause serious damage.
A reduction of 10 percent "would significantly harm our students," said Kansas University
Chancellor Robert Hemenway.
Hemenway and other university presidents spoke to a Senate budget subcommittee, as
lawmakers face a $200 million budget deficit in the current fiscal year, and upwards of a $1 billion
deficit in the next fiscal year, which starts July 1.
To meet 7 percent cuts called for by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, KU has trimmed $4.6 million at the
Lawrence campus, and $3.7 million at the KU Medical Center, Hemenway said.
That has resulted in 11 layoffs and 110 unfilled positions, he said.
In preparation for the next fiscal year, KU says it is looking at eliminating 76 positions; 47 of those
are currently occupied. In addition there will be a cut of $2.3 million in new equipment,
technology, maintenance and program support.
Half of the positions remaining unfilled on the Lawrence campus are faculty positions, which
means fewer course offerings and larger class sizes, Hemenway said.
The proposed cuts, he said, also jeopardizes expansion of the Pharmacy School.
But state universities may face deeper cuts.
Senate Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jay Emler, R-Lindsborg, has said the budget crisis
may force additional cuts in the next fiscal year from 10 percent to 19 percent.
Hemenway said a 10 percent cut would mean additional layoffs, employee furloughs, increased
class size, and reduced course offerings that could impact students’ ability to complete their
degrees on time.
Despite the state's dire financial condition, Hemenway sounded an optimistic note, saying that
Kansans have often faced tough challenges.
But he added, "You can't kill off the intellectual future and be a successful state. You can't cut
your way to excellence."
Earlier, presidents of Emporia State University and Fort Hays State University told the committee
that they have taken steps to handle budget cuts in the 7 percent to 10 percent range.
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But they said any deeper cuts will have a dramatic effect on the quality of higher education in
Kansas.
"You're going to change the scope of the institution," said Fort Hays State President Ed Hammond
when referring to cuts in the 12 percent to 15 percent range.
Hammond said a 15 percent budget cut at Fort Hays State would result in 85 layoffs, more than 10
percent of the school's workforce.
Emporia State President Michael Lane said the school has left open 73 positions because of the
proposed 7 percent cuts.
Any further cuts will result in layoffs, Lane said.
"I can't accomplish that without putting Kansans out of work," he said.
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Kansas City Business Journal
KU Hospital will open blood, marrow transplant program’s dedicated space
Thursday, February 12, 2009
The University of Kansas Hospital’s Richard and Annette Bloch Cancer Care Pavilion in
Westwood will open a 7,500-square-foot dedicated space Monday for its Blood and Marrow
Transplant program.
The space’s renovation started in the fall and cost $2 million, KU Hospital spokesman Dennis
Minich said Wednesday. The project was paid for by Annette Bloch’s $20 million donation in the
fall, Minich said.
The Blood and Marrow Transplant program had been in shared space in the cancer pavilion, he
said.
The program had three years of significant growth, necessitating the dedicated space, the hospital
said in a release. The program was established in 1977 and has pioneered advancements in bone
marrow and stem cell transplantation in the Kansas City area.
In July 2007, the hospital teamed with the Kansas City Cancer Center to create the region’s
largest BMT program. The program grew by 94 percent in 2007 and another 52 percent in 2008,
making space an issue even though the facilities at the Westwood campus were only 18 months
old, the release said.
The University of Kansas Hospital is a partner with the University of Kansas Medical Center in the
pursuit of National Cancer Institute designation.
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Lawrence Journal-World & News
Bill would put regents in charge of college admission standards
By SCOTT ROTHSCHILD
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Topeka — Several legislators Thursday expressed apprehension about a bill that would put the Kansas
Board of Regents in charge of admissions standards at state universities, including Kansas University.
The current admissions standards were set in state law by the Kansas Legislature and governor in
1996.
State Rep. Deena Horst, R-Salina, said if the regents were in charge, she feared a situation where “KU
could be the Harvard of Kansas and Emporia (State University) might be lower on the totem pole.”
But Regent Gary Sherrer, who led a task force on admissions policies, said if the regents tried to do
that, the political reality is that the Legislature would stop it.
Sherrer argued in favor of House Bill 2197, saying the regents, in charge of higher education, should be
the body that has the responsibility for setting admissions standards.
He said the higher education system would be much more efficient and responsive to changes in
academics if the regents could set those standards.
The measure would allow the regents to establish admission standards that could be different for each
university in accordance with each institution’s educational mission.
If the standards are more rigorous than those in current law, they would not go into effect before the
2014-2015 academic year.
The House Higher Education Committee is expected to vote on the bill Monday.
Currently in Kansas, students may be admitted to a regents university if they have graduated from an
accredited high school and have either an ACT score of 21, rank in the top third of their high school
class or earn at least a 2.0 grade-point average on a prescribed curriculum.
KU has been pushing for a change in admission standards, saying the existing ones are too lenient and
outdated.
Some members of the Higher Education committee said they favored giving the regents more
authority.
State Rep. Shirley Palmer, D-Fort Scott, said the regents stay on top of higher education issues and
should be the ones making decisions about admissions standards.
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St. Louis Business Journal
SIU awards contracts
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Southern Illinois University awarded contracts worth nearly $850,000 to seven Metro East
companies for expansion projects at its School of Dental Medicine in Alton, Ill., and School of
Pharmacy in University Park.
The dental school project will add four oral surgery stations, while the expansion at pharmacy
school includes added gathering and common study space.
Pharmacy project bids were awarded to: GRS Construction of Columbia, $405,300, for general
work; Pyramid Electric Contractors Inc. of Fairview Heights, $51,875; and France Mechanical
Corp. of Glen Carbon, $41,500, for ventilation work.
In the School of Dental Medicine’s project, a contract worth $132,000 was awarded to general
contractor Morrisey Construction Co. of Godfrey; a $119,177 contract was awarded to Wegman
Electric of East Alton; a $72,631 contract was awarded to Bel-o Sales & Service of Belleville, for
plumbing; and a $26,320 contract was awarded to JEN Mechanical Inc. of Alton, for ventilation.
In other business, the SIU board of trustees approved planning for one project and approved
another project, both at the SIUE National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center. The board gave
planning approval for laboratory expansion and gave project and budget approval for renovation
of the NCERC’s distillation and dehydration systems, which is estimated to cost $1.5 million.
In addition, the board approved a $1.68 million increase in SIUE’s advertising budget to add
additional print marketing and cable television, radio and network television spots, as well as
additional billboard marketing.
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The St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Citizens across Missouri call for stronger Sunshine Law
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
JEFFERSON CITY — From Brentwood to Cape Girardeau to Rolla, citizens who have battled for
more openness at City Hall urged legislators Tuesday to strengthen the state's Sunshine Law.
The witnesses told a House committee that current law provides inadequate notice of public
meetings, especially when private land is being taken for commercial development. They also
argued for tougher penalties, clearer record-keeping provisions and a right to electronic copies of
public records.
"Elected officials should be trying to find ways to conduct business in the open, not to find ways
to close things," said Jay C. Purcell, a county commissioner in Cape Girardeau County.
The bill's sponsor, Rep. Tim Jones, R-Eureka, said problems at the local level had spurred the
proposed changes in the Open Meetings and Records Law.
For example, some municipalities have called meetings on 24 hours' notice — the minimum time
required by law — to approve developers' plans in St. Louis County. Jones' bill would require five
days' notice if the agenda included subjects such as tax increases, eminent domain or tax-
increment financing.
Another change would require newly elected officials to abide by the Sunshine Law even before
they were sworn in. If they met with other officials and the group constituted a quorum, the
meeting would be open under Jones' bill.
Officials who violated the law could be fined up to $500, even if the violation was unintentional.
Those who purposely violated the law could be fined up to $8,000.
Under current law, those who "knowingly" violate the law can be fined up to $1,000. Those who
"purposely" violate it can face fines ranging up to $5,000.
The bill also would open up the complaints filed with Missouri Ethics Commission. However,
investigative reports would remain closed during an inquiry and would be permanently closed if
the complaint was dismissed.
Former Ethics Commissioner John Maupin, of Creve Coeur, supported the bill. He said current
restrictions made it impossible for commissioners to confirm the status of complaints and
"allowed people to abuse the system."
Groups representing local officials say the bill goes too far.
Gary Markenson, a lobbyist for the Missouri Municipal League, objected to requiring five days'
notice for meetings and lowering the threshold for fines when violations are unintentional.
Opponents also said small towns lacked the staff to compile detailed accounts of their meetings. If
minutes must be written up every time two of the three county commissioners ride together in a
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car, "you're going to require them to drive individually or have someone taking notes," said Todd
Smith, a lobbyist for the Missouri Association of Counties.
Jones said the House General Laws Committee, which he heads, would fine-tune the bill before
sending it to the House floor for debate.
The bill is HB316.
Southeast Missourian
Lawmaker seeks to expand Sunshine Law fines
By DAVID LIEB
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — A Missouri lawmaker is proposing a $500 a fine for officials who violate
Missouri's open-government laws — even if they do so unwittingly.
Newly revised legislation by Rep. Tim Jones would make it easier to assess penalties for breaking
the Missouri Sunshine Law.
Currently, anyone found by a judge to have "knowingly" violated Missouri's open meetings or
records law can be fined up to $1,000, while those who "purposely" violate the law can face fines
up to $5,000.
Jones said the "knowingly" standard is too vague and too hard to prove.
His revised bill, presented Tuesday to the House General Laws Committee, which he chairs, would
allow fines up to $500 for Sunshine Law violations regardless of whether they are made
"knowingly." Fines for purposeful violations would increase to $8,000.
Legislators last broached the subject of liability for Sunshine Law violations in 2004, when they
considered lowering the legal threshold for penalties from purposeful to negligent violations.
They backed off the negligent standard under resistance from several senators and the Missouri
Municipal League, which argued the lower standard could have deterred people from serving on
volunteer boards.
The legislature in 2004 instead adopted the current two-tiered level of knowing and purposeful
violations for determining fines.
Among those testifying in support of the legislation was Jay Purcell, a Cape Girardeau County
commissioner who has sued his own commission for allegedly holding improper closed meetings.
"Without strong language that puts teeth and repercussions for public governmental bodies, they
will not follow the law," Purcell testified to the House committee. The legislation "sends a clear,
clear message that ignorance of the Sunshine Law is not acceptable."
Other sections of the bill would make public more records of the Missouri Ethics Commission;
narrow the lawsuit-discussion justification for closing meetings; apply the Sunshine Law to newly
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elected public officials who have not yet taken the oath of office; and require meeting minutes to
contain accurate descriptions of all discussions.
Markenson and Todd Smith, a lobbyist for the Missouri Association of Counties, both criticized the
expanded requirement for meeting minutes. Smith said it could force two county commissioners
carpooling to take minutes of their discussion if they happen to hit a pothole and remark that
they should make sure it gets fixed.
Under current law, public entities must give 24 hours' notice before meetings. The legislation
would expand that to five days' notice for city or county meetings where the agenda includes
discussion of tax or fee increases, eminent domain, zoning or the creation of special districts that
can either impose taxes or receive tax breaks.
That provision drew support from representatives of a labor union and retailers, who said cities
sometimes consider development incentives with just 24 hours notice for the public while
providing much greater notice to the developers pitching proposals.
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St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Missouri’s private college fight cut in aid
By KAVITA KUMAR
Friday, February 13, 2009
WILDWOOD -- In a rare display of collective force, Missouri's private university presidents pressed
their case on Thursday that state scholarship levels for their students should not be cut as proposed
under a plan by Gov. Jay Nixon.
The governor wants to transform how $100 million in college scholarships are divvied among more
than 40,000 students. Supporters say the plan would make sure the awards are equal for students at
both private and public universities.
But critics say the plan would come at the expense of students at private campuses, whose
scholarships could shrink by as much $1,750 a year.
In a packed meeting of the Coordinating Board of Higher Education at St. Louis Community College's
Wildwood campus, adminstrators from more than a dozen private colleges and universities voiced
opposition to the plan.
"Please don't do it on the backs of our students," said Karen Luebbert, a senior executive at Webster
University.
The proportion of state scholarships that go to students at public universities versus private
universities has been a hotly debated topic for years. It has regained steam this year with Nixon's
proposal to rebalance the Missouri Access scholarship program.
Under the current system, eligible students who go to private universities can receive as much as
$4,600 a year. Conversely, students attending public four-year universities can receive $2,150 and
those who attend community colleges can get $1,000. Part of the reason for the differential is because
tuition at private universities is more expensive than that at public universities.
Nixon is proposing to set the maximum award at $2,850 a year at both private and public schools.
"These are taxpayer funds that should be distributed on an equal basis rather than there being a
disparity," said Scott Holste, a Nixon spokesman.
Public universities have welcomed Nixon's proposal, saying it is a long overdue rebalancing. But private
universities have argued that many of their students are low-income — whose families also pay taxes
— and should not be penalized for choosing a private institution.
The governor's plan would have to be approved by the Legislature. The coordinating board has no
direct role in that process. But university presidents hope the board will help steer the debate.
Washington University Chancellor Mark Wrighton told the board that not only do private universities
like his own attract out-of-state talent, but they also help drive the economy though research and
jobs. He noted that private schools enroll about 36 percent of the state's students. If public
universities had to educate them instead, it would cost about $700 million, he said. Given the state's
budget constraints, that would not be an easy task.
"I'm not arguing for us," he said. "I'm arguing for the students. I think the state is getting a pretty good
deal."
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He added that Washington U. does not get any state funding nor does the state pay for any of its
facilities. (At Washington U., 158 students received the Access Missouri scholarships last school year.)
Access Missouri is fairly new. In 2007, state lawmakers consolidated two other scholarship programs
— the Gallagher and Guarantee programs — to create a more streamlined program.
Wrighton urged the presidents to "be on the same side of the table." The Access Missouri
"experiment" is less than two years old and should not be interrupted midway through, he said.
"I believe we should continue this experiment a little longer to realize the benefits," he said,
Bill Kauffman, vice president and general counsel at St. Louis University, noted that about 30 percent
of SLU students are first generation, needy, or minority students. Those students should have a choice
where they want to go to school.
"We think choice is important," he said.
SLU has about 817 students who receive a total of $3.2 million in these scholarships.
University of Missouri system President Gary Forsee countered that not only has state funding for
higher education slipped in recent years, but many construction projects have been stalled and other
much needed-funding has not come through for public universities.
"Given that context, have we gotten our support for students a bit out of sync?" he asked.
Bruce Speck, president of Missouri Southern State University, noted that Missouri ranks 47th in the
nation in per capita state funding for higher education while it ranks fourth in the amount of
scholarships that go to students at private institutions.
"That seems a real imbalance," he said.
John McGuire, president of St. Charles Community College, said he doesn't know of any other situation
where people are given a higher subsidy for choosing something that costs more.
Luebbert, of Webster University, jumped in to note that private universities offer some programs that
students can't get at the state's public universities. She told public university presidents that she and
her colleagues in the independent sector are ready to stand by them to demand more state funding
for public higher education. But she asked that the state not penalize her students.
In the fall semester, about 41,000 students received Access grants. In that semester, about $21 million
went to 22,500 public university students, while about $25 million went to 11,700 private university
students.
Student Life: The Independent Newspaper of Washington University in St. Louis
Governor’s plan for college grants upsets private schools
By PUNEET KOLLIPARA
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
A group of private colleges and universities in Missouri that includes Washington University is
distraught over Gov. Jay Nixon’s proposal to lower the maximum award private college students can
receive from the Access Missouri grant program.
The new governor’s proposal would change the maximum Access Missouri award for any four-year
college student in Missouri to $2,850 per year starting in fiscal 2010. Students at four-year private
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institutions can currently receive up to $4,600 in Access Missouri grants each year, while students at
four-year public institutions can receive up to $2,150.
Access Missouri grants are need-based awards for full-time students from Missouri attending a post-
secondary institution in the state.
Governor Nixon’s press secretary Scott Holste told Student Life that the primary reason Nixon wants to
make the maximum award equal for private and public school students is that the grants are taxpayer
funded.
“They’re an important part of ensuring that students in Missouri are able to get a quality education,”
Holste said. “We’ve got great schools, great universities in Missouri, both public and private, and we
want to continue to have a well-trained workforce. Because this is taxpayer money, the governor
believes we should have equal distribution on those grants.”
The total monetary amount of grants would stay at its current level of $95.8 million under the new
plan, with $2.5 million in additional funding to offset inflation, Holste said.
According to Missouri Department of Higher Education (MDHE) spokesperson Kathy Love, 42,244
students have received Access Missouri grants this academic year.
Roughly 50 percent of funds go to private school students. Twenty-nine percent of award recipients in
the 2007-2008 academic year attended private institutions.
The measure, which is part of the state’s annual budget, must first pass the Missouri General
Assembly. The state’s budget is expected to be a hot topic during the current legislative session as the
new administration faces a more than $250 million budget shortfall this year.
Leaders of some public universities are praising the proposal. Gary Forsee, president of the University
of Missouri System, released a statement on Jan. 28 supporting the governor’s plan.
“Students who attend private institutions are currently eligible for more than twice the funding of
those who choose to attend public institutions,” Forsee said. “The governor is on the right track to
make this a fair and balanced financial aid program that will improve access to higher education for all
students.”
The proposal comes after Nixon’s pledge to maintain the current level of funding for Missouri public
colleges in fiscal 2010 in exchange for tuition freezes, in light of the economic crisis.
But there is some concern that the changes to Access Missouri would compromise the ability for
students receiving the grants to pay for private institutions, according to Rose Windmiller, director of
state relations and local government affairs at Washington University.
Windmiller told Student Life that Access Missouri, which was devised with input from experts in
Missouri’s private and public education sectors, is doing its job. She said the University does not
support Nixon’s proposal.
“Our argument for graduated awards is that students at public institutions are already receiving the
benefit of substantial state subsidy to public institutions, which helps them with a lower tuition rate
than private institutions, because private institutions don’t have the benefit of direct state support,”
Windmiller said. “The most important thing is funding the student and the school that best fits their
need, whether it’s a public four-year institution, a community college or an independent institution.”
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A position paper released by the University of Missouri System, however, argues that the 50 percent
rate at which Access Missouri grants go to private school students is too much higher than the national
average of 33 percent.
The tough economy and the 4.4 percent rise in the University’s tuition next academic year mean that
the changes, if passed, would have “a pretty big effect” on the ability of University students receiving
Access Missouri grants to pay for their educations, senior Alexandra Jensen said.
“You just have to try really hard to get money to come here. It doesn’t come easily, so you have to
either get a grant or some sort of scholarship, or you just have to be rich,” Jensen said.
According to Windmiller, 158 Washington University students received Access Missouri grants totaling
$547,000 in the 2007-2008 academic year.
A spokesperson for Fontbonne University, a private school with more than 500 students receiving
Access Missouri awards, criticized the proposal, addressing the issue in light of Missouri’s budget
shortfall.
“We realize the state government must address budget shortfalls, but we should not balance
Missouri’s budget at the expense of students trying to fulfill their dream,” said Mark Johnson,
Fontbonne’s director of communications, in a statement to Student Life Monday afternoon.
On Jan. 30, the Independent Colleges and Universities of Missouri (ICUM), of which the University and
Fontbonne are members, also issued a statement criticizing Nixon’s plan, saying that it “would amount
to a tax increase for some working and lower-income families in our state.”
The proposal has not been introduced to committee in the General Assembly yet, but discussions
about the plan continue in the executive branch. MDHE’s Coordinating Board for Higher Education will
discuss the Access Missouri changes with the presidents and academic officers of Missouri schools at
its meeting tomorrow in Wildwood, Mo.
ICUM and a recently formed coalition of Missouri parents, students and educators called Keep Me in
College are lobbying state lawmakers to vote down the changes, Windmiller said.
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Truman Index
Our view: MOHELA plans lacking in explanation
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Oh MOHELA -we love it, we hate it, but mostly we're just baffled by it. During the past three years
MOHELA has been manipulated, audited, sold in bits and pieces and mostly just reduced to a topic of
debate and unrest among politicians, and now it looks like it might have all been for naught.
We must admit that we were a bit skeptical when we first heard about Gov. Matt Blunt's Lewis and
Clark Discovering Initiative back in 2006. In a series of visits around the state, Blunt announced funding
for 31 capital improvement projects at public colleges and universities. The bill for these projects,
covered by the sale of MOHELA assets, was to total $350 million.
As one of the largest student loan secondary markets in the U.S., MOHELA has helped students get an
education without carrying around heavy debt and impossible loan payments. No doubt it did its job
well, until reporting a profit loss of $12.4 million in the first quarter of 2008 - its first loss since it was
created in 1981. Students who had a vested interest in MOHELA's well-being began to show legitimate
concern about future loan payments and still others saw an opportunity for a well-worn corner of
Truman to receive a much-needed face lift. $350 million seemed like one heck of a large chunk of
money, and immediately students whose loans had been serviced by MOHELA wondered what the
effect would be. It was difficult to understand how this money could just appear for colleges and
universities without any repercussions for loan-holders. The media asked, and although Blunt issued
statements, we remained uneasy. We're still wondering about those effects, which is a frightening
thought because those of us who were freshmen when the plan was announced are about to graduate
and face loan repayment.
Now, three years later, the on-again, off-again relationship between MOHELA and Truman is back to
off-again - or at least maybe off-again. We could have broken ground in a mere 90 days had we
maintained the green light, but instead Truman now finds itself on the list of maybes. We suppose it's
better than the list of no's, but even better would be to be on the list of alreadys. Yes, that's right -
some schools already have completed their MOHELA projects. Others, like us, have received significant
amounts of money toward their projects - about $1 million significant in our case.
Except for the private letters sent to the presidents of the public colleges and universities throughout
the state that were scheduled to receive MOHELA help for capital improvements, no details about the
postponements and cancellations enacted by Gov. Jay Nixon are readily available. For a governor who
so heartily encouraged openness in government as the state's Attorney General, it seems odd that
more information hasn't been released explaining this decision. The governor already has thrown his
support behind higher education by recommending a level budget in 2010, so we don't question
where we fall on his list of priorities. However, when it comes to such necessary improvements as
those expected in Pershing, we just want some answers so we can know what to expect - both
personally when it comes to loans and as an institution when it comes to buildings.
We understand that the economy is not good, and that we can't complain about a lack of or even a
redistribution of funds in times like these. According to Truman officials, MOHELA just isn't making the
expected profits because of factors like the current financial crisis, and changes in the federal loan
reimbursement structure.
For now, it looks like our saving grace might have to be a chunk of federal stimulus money. If that
really is the case, we really hope this is the end of the Lewis and Clark Discovering Initiative roller
coaster.
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The Kansas City Star
Nixon betting on federal stimulus to balance Missouri’s budget
By STEVE KRASKE, JASON NOBLE and DAVID KLEPPER
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
To some political observers, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon is a riverboat gambler betting the mortgage on a
ridiculously risky play.
To others, the Democrat is like a lot of cash-strapped governors across the United States: just trying to
make the best of a dire financial situation.
Nixon’s budget bet: pour hundreds of millions of federal economic stimulus dollars into the state’s
checking account. Then hope and maybe pray the U.S. economy improves enough in a year or two so
that it can support all that spending — even after the stimulus windfall is long gone.
Missouri is hardly alone when it comes to the idea of depositing stimulus bucks into operating
budgets. Many states already are banking on multimillion-dollar windfalls to help with Medicaid
expenses, highway construction, local schools and colleges.
“It’s hovering over the decision-making in all of the states,” said Kansas Senate Majority Leader Derek
Schmidt.
The states’ motive is more than just the lure of easy money. Many are flat-busted broke with revenues
falling billions short of expectations.
The National Conference of State Legislatures reports that budget “gaps” in the current fiscal year
across the nation now total a whopping $47 billion. For 2010, the gap has grown from $65 billion
projected in November to $84 billion.
“Absolutely alarming,” said Corina Eckl, the conference’s fiscal program director. “The easy budget
fixes are long gone. Only hard and unpopular options remain.”
In Missouri, Republicans call Nixon’s plan for stimulus money a “Mad Max” gambit destined to mire
the state in a financial hole from which it may take years to escape.
“Irresponsible,” said House Budget chairman Allen Icet, a Wildwood Republican.
“A ticking time bomb,” said House Speaker Ron Richard, a Joplin Republican.
In accounting parlance, Nixon’s budget move is described as spending one-time dollars for ongoing
expenses — usually a big no-no in government.
But Nixon, who became governor last month just as the economy really started tanking, said
Missouri’s recovery depends on the success of the federal stimulus.
“If we maximize the benefit of what’s a one-time opportunity, and we use that to jumpstart Missouri’s
economy, then all the decisions that we’ll make are a heck of a lot easier,” Nixon said in a recent
conference call with his just-formed Economic Stimulus Coordination Council.
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Kansas is one state not counting on federal stimulus dollars — although lawmakers acknowledge the
money will eventually be appropriated once they get it.
“We don’t know how big these (stimulus) numbers will be and certainly we have not counted any of
these solutions here,” said Duane Goossen, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ budget guru.
The Republican-dominated Legislature wouldn’t tolerate relying on stimulus dollars in the state
general fund anyway.
“What does it solve?” asked Kansas House Speaker Mike O’Neal, a Hutchinson Republican. “What are
you going to do when the money’s gone?”
Another prominent Republican, Rep. Kevin Yoder of Overland Park, the chairman of the House
Appropriations Committee, threw down the gauntlet: “We don’t need to rely on a bailout from the
federal government. Kansas is spending more money than it takes in, and a federal bailout isn’t going
to fix that.”
Nixon is banking on $809 million in federal funds to balance Missouri’s 2010 budget and expand health
care for the poor. Republican leaders have asked the governor to more clearly identify which programs
will receive the federal dollars.
In a confrontational news conference last month, House Republicans argued that the governor’s plan
could put the state on rocky financial footing in 2011 or 2012, and insisted that federal funds would be
better spent on one-time projects and tax rebates.
But Nixon’s budget director, Linda Luebbering, said not using federal money to fill budget gaps could
be disastrous.
“Do they have $809 million that they’re ready to cut out of the ongoing services that Missourians
receive?” Luebbering asked of Republicans. “That would be a huge reduction to education, to health
care.”
Much of the federal aid is intended to stabilize state budgets until tax revenues bounce back with the
rest of the economy, she said, adding, “If the federal thing doesn’t work, then we’re all going to be
back here figuring it out, and we know that.”
In an interview last week, Speaker Richard softened his party’s stance on how the money should be
used.
While House Republicans still oppose any expansion of the state Medicaid program for the poor,
directing one-time federal dollars to ongoing expenses such as education and job training would be
acceptable because that could help the economy recover.
“Some ongoing expenses I might take a look at, some I won’t,” Richard said. “I’m not going to expand
welfare.”
In the Senate, budget leaders are concerned with a potential lack of transparency in how stimulus
money is spent. In Nixon’s proposed budget, the federal money is lumped in with the state’s general
revenue, with no distinctions between which programs receive state or federal dollars.
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To address that issue, Budget Chairman Gary Nodler, a Joplin Republican, and Sen. Joan Bray, the
committee’s ranking Democrat, have introduced a bill creating specific funds for all federal stimulus
dollars.
Directing the bailout money to specific accounts — and making appropriations from those accounts —
would allow lawmakers to identify exactly how it’s spent, and what may need to be cut in future years
after the money goes away.
“This is not a partisan response,” Nodler said. “This is the Missouri Senate and Missouri House as
institutions communicating to the governor the need for this segregation of funds.”
In Kansas, lawmakers from both parties are demonstrating some unusual fiscal discipline. Part of their
hesitation to bank on the federal stimulus money is based on wisdom gleaned through the ages: State
leaders say they can’t predict congressional action.
Sebelius, a Democrat with friends in Washington, has said she’s optimistic the state will reap the
benefits of a stimulus package expected to be approved any day now. But she didn’t count on it in her
plan to eliminate the state’s $207 million deficit this year, or the $1 billion deficit next year.
Still, lawmakers and Sebelius agree that if Congress passes a stimulus package, the money could help
the state avoid drastic cuts.
Sebelius formed a task force of top agency officials led by Lt. Gov. Mark Parkinson to begin figuring out
how the stimulus could help. The group, which met for the first time last week, also will prepare the
state to apply for competitive grants offered in the stimulus package.
“We want to make sure we have a very aggressive plan,” Parkinson said.
But the state faces a few hurdles in getting all the money it would like from the federal government.
First, because the state’s employment and revenue haven’t taken the same hit as other states, Kansas
may be too well off to receive some funds.
Also, some stimulus money may have strings attached. Kansas, for example, might not get as much aid
for education if the Legislature cuts school spending to balance the budget.
Money for energy infrastructure also could depend on whether the state has tough energy efficiency
standards for state buildings.
“The other question is when will the money arrive?” asked Kansas House Minority Leader Paul Davis, a
Lawrence Democrat. “There’s just so many unknowns.”
U.S. News & World Report
Blog: Education spending is major sticking point in stimulus talks
By EDDY RAMIREZ
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
As both parties in Congress begin negotiations on a final economic stimulus bill, education spending
promises to be a major sticking point. The Senate passed a stimulus bill that includes $83 billion for
public schools and higher education. That amount is considerably less than the $150 billion voted by
the House. So, what ended up on the chopping block? The Senate bill is stripped of, among other
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funds, $16 billion for school construction and $40 billion more for states to fund schools. (Read a
comparison of the two bills.)
President Barack Obama has signaled that he wants those funds reinstated. He seemed bewildered
during Monday's televised news conference by the logic of lawmakers who say that school
construction is the responsibility of states, not the federal government. "Why wouldn't we want to
build state-of-the-art schools with science labs that are teaching our kids the skills they need for the
21st century . . . and, by the way, right now, will create jobs?" Obama said. Arne Duncan, the secretary
of education, made a similar case Tuesday while visiting a high school in need of repairs in Arlington,
Va. A day earlier, Duncan warned that almost 600,000 education jobs are at risk unless a stimulus
package is passed and that the Senate's proposed $39 billion in state aid for schools is not enough.
One concern that the Obama administration didn't address was how states that are losing students
and shuttering schools will make use of school construction funds. Minneapolis, for example, would
receive $25.9 million in construction funds over the next two years under the House proposal. Trouble
is, student enrollment in the city has been declining since 2000, and the district has had to close down
six schools, the Minnesota Independent reports. A spokesperson said the district has found a use for
those funds but declined to elaborate.
For their part, state governors—Republicans and Democrats—are furiously lobbying lawmakers to
enact the levels of education spending proposed in the House bill. In Ohio, for example, Gov. Ted
Strickland, a Democrat, is warning that the Senate measure could lead to higher tuition for 40 percent
of public-college students as well as the loss of thousands of state and local government jobs, the
Columbus Dispatch reports. At least 40 states are running deficits this year, and school districts in
those states could be the hardest hit. On average, states spend about a third of all their revenue on
education.
Republican lawmakers and some education experts remain skeptical about the benefits of more
money for schools in a final stimulus bill. Rick Hess, director of education policy at the American
Enterprise Institute, says that federal aid to schools should have strings attached. Among the
conditions that lawmakers should demand from states receiving school bailout money, Hess writes:
"States and localities would have to demonstrate that they were reallocating dollars from less
effective programs and services to more effective ones. School systems would identify and remove
poor teachers and redirect resources to the best teachers and to those with scarce skills. Federal aid
would be conditioned on its recipients' pursuing a course back to financial sustainability by unwinding
unaffordable promises of benefits and pensions, as has been the case with Detroit's automakers."
Even if Congress passes the Senate version of the stimulus bill without the school construction funding
and the additional aid to states, it will still account for a significant federal investment in education.
The federal Department of Education currently provides $59.2 billion for education programs.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Scientists happily count their dollars as stimulus agreement nears
By PAUL BASKEN
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Washington — Science researchers may not be getting everything they want from Congress in the
economic stimulus bill. But they’re getting a lot.
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The Senate yesterday approved an $838-billion stimulus bill and now needs to reconcile it with the
$820-billion version passed earlier by the House of Representatives. About two-thirds of the House bill
consists of spending measures, as opposed to tax cuts, while the Senate devotes nearly 60 percent of
its cost to spending measures.
Among the spending measures, the Senate proposes $17.8-billion for federal research and
development, compared with $13.2-billion in the House bill, according to an analysis by the American
Association for the Advancement of Science.
Much of the difference involves the level of support for biomedical research at the National Institutes
of Health. The Senate is proposing $10.4-billion in support for the NIH while the House is offering only
$3.9-billion, the AAAS analysis shows.
Either way, scientists in a variety of research fields can look forward to an infusion of federal money
once the House and Senate negotiate a final compromise version of the stimulus bill and send it to
President Obama for his signature.
“For the science and engineering community,” the AAAS said in its analysis, “the two versions of the
stimulus bill are a welcome acknowledgement that scientific research, often regarded as long-term
and future-oriented, also has a role to play in short-term economic recovery.”
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The Chronicle of Higher Education
Past recessions suggest current downturn will bring permanent cuts in state funds
By ERIC KELDERMAN
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
In 1983 tuition made up about 23.5 percent of revenues for public higher education. After 25
years and two major economic recessions, public colleges are much more reliant on tuition
revenue, with that figure having climbed to more than 36 percent, according to a new report from
the State Higher Education Executive Officers.
While state and local funds for higher education have increased by more than 45 percent during
the past quarter-century, using constant dollars, a 25-percent increase in full-time student
enrollment over the same period has eroded the ratio of per-student support.
And as the growth of per-student spending by governments has slowed, tuition has become a
greater share of college revenues, especially during the recessions that began in 1990 and in
2001, the report concludes. Over the past decade, per-student appropriations from state and
local governments have actually declined by nearly 7 percent, the report says, while tuition has
grown by nearly 20 percent.
Those past trends in higher-education finance should be a warning to both lawmakers and college
leaders about what effects the current recession could have.
“All the signs in the current recession point toward further decline, renewing and accelerating the
long-term trend for public higher education to become more expensive for students and their
families,” said Paul E. Lingenfelter, president of the group, in a written statement.
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Columbia Missourian
Wording of Missouri stem cell ballot summary prompts two lawsuits
By CHRIS BLANK
Thursday, February 12, 2009
JEFFERSON CITY — A proposed constitutional amendment barring the use of public funds for abortion
and human cloning has prompted dueling lawsuits contending the ballot summary is insufficient and
unfair.
At issue is a proposed ballot measure sponsored by the Missouri Roundtable for Life, a critic of
embryonic stem cell research. The organization contends Missouri's secretary of state, auditor and
attorney general conspired to prepare an unfair ballot summary for the proposal.
A second lawsuit, filed by stem cell research supporters, contends the proposal is improperly drafted
and the summary shouldn't be allowed to go forward. That suit also claims the ballot summary is
unfair.
Steve Clark, a lawyer for Missouri Roundtable for Life, said Monday that the three elected officials
have not treated stem cell research critics fairly and worked on the ballot summary with stem cell
research supporters such as the Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures.
"We believe that the secretary of state, the attorney general and the auditor are conspiring among
themselves and with others to prevent pro-life and anti-cloning groups from ever getting their
proposed constitutional amendments before the voters," he said.
Clark, whose lawsuit was filed Friday in the Capitol's home of Cole County, added that, "Something
rotten is going on here, and we're going to get to the bottom of this."
Initiative petition sponsors can submit language that they would prefer to appear on the ballot. But
under Missouri law, the secretary of state's office is responsible for drafting the summary. The state
auditor is responsible for preparing a cost estimate, and the attorney general reviews those
documents.
The second lawsuit, also filed Friday, was brought by St. Louis attorney Eric Westacott and Columbia
disability advocate Bob Pund. Westacott was paralyzed in a 1993 softball game, and Pund was
paralyzed in a 1989 auto accident.
In a written statement released Tuesday by their attorney, Pund and Westacott said the ballot
measure is an attempt to "rob us of our hope for the future."
"The possibility that stem research could help current patients and others yet to encounter our
situations too valuable of a prospect not to defend," Westacott and Pund said in the joint statement.
Lawsuits challenging ballot language have become relatively common in recent years. But most of
those suits have sought simply to rewrite proposed language. The one filed by Missouri Roundtable for
Life goes further in its allegations.
Besides a new ballot summary and cost estimate, the Missouri Roundtable for Life is also seeking
punitive damages, permission to investigate how the summaries were prepared and court supervision
over the handling of ballot measures by the secretary of state, state auditor and attorney general.
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Ryan Hobart, a spokesman for Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, said he doesn't know if the Missouri
Coalition for Lifesaving Cures had contacted the office but that groups often do. Hobart denied that
there had been any coordinated effort and defended the fairness of the summary prepared by the
secretary of state.
"Those accusations are baseless," he said. "We are often contacted by multiple groups, multiple
people about the summary process."
A spokesman for the Coalition for Lifesaving Cures said that he is not aware of anyone from the
organization discussing proposed ballot language with the elected officials.
"These guys are throwing mud at the wall to see what will stick," coalition spokesman Jim Goodwin
said.
A spokesman for Attorney General Chris Koster said the office's involvement "is a legal duty, not a
conspiracy." Spokesman Travis Ford said the attorney general will aggressively defend against the
lawsuit.
Joe Martin, the chief of staff for State Auditor Susan Montee, declined to comment.
The main issue in the lawsuit is over the ballot language that would appear before voters on the 2010
ballot if backers get enough support.
The Missouri Roundtable for Life suggested ballot language asking voters whether to amend the state
constitution "to make it unlawful to expend, pay or grant any public funds for abortion services,
human cloning or prohibited human research, as such terms were defined by the Missouri General
Assembly in 2003."
The language approved by the secretary of state's office asks if the constitution should be amended to
"make it illegal for the Legislature or state or local governments to expend, pay or grant public funds
to hospitals or other institutions for certain research and services, as defined by the General Assembly
in section 196.1127, Revised Statutes of Missouri, 2003, such as abortion services, including those
necessary to save the life of the mother, and certain types of stem cell research currently allowed
under Missouri law."
Westacott and Pund suggest adding to the secretary of state's version further description of "public
funds" to include that donations, grants and federal money could be affected. They also propose
further clarification that the Legislature's definitions of abortion and stem cell research used in the
ballot measure were "for another purpose."
KOMU.com
Ballot battle
By MARGARET ENRIGHT
Thursday, February 12, 2009
JEFFERSON CITY - A legal battle is brewing in Jefferson City over a ballot measure that's still nearly two
years away.
In 2010, Missouri voters could vote on an measure whose individual words are so controversial groups
on both sides of the issue are suing on how it will appear on the ballot.
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The capitol was nearly empty Thursday due to the Lincoln's birthday holiday, but that doesn't mean
things are calm for Missouri's top officials.
Dueling lawsuits over a proposed constitutional amendment have Secretary of State Robin Carnahan
caught in the middle.
The Missouri Roundtable for Life has sponsored the amendment, which it wants to prohibit public
funding of abortion and human cloning. The group is suing Carnahan to change how she's worded the
amendment, saying Carnahan wrote the measure in a way that would persuade voters to defeat it.
The group is also seeking damages, saying Carnahan is politically motivated against it.
But opponents of the amendment are also suing Carnahan, saying they don't like the way she wrote it
either.
Stem cell research supporters say Carnahan changed too much of the language of the proposal and
left too much out.
Lawsuit plaintiff Bob Pund told KOMU, "It did not capture the full effects of what the opposition is
trying to do. There are a lot more problems that could arise than what the secretary of state put in
writing."
"We believe what our amendment does is it includes the protection for abortion in the case where the
life of the mother is at risk and that's required under federal law," said Missouri Roundtable attorney
Steve Clark. "Our proposed amendment includes that restriction. The Secretary of State says exactly
the opposite, and she completely misreads our proposed amendment and misunderstands the law."
"Our office is confident that the summary language that we prepared for this initiative is fair and
impartial and it complies with the state law," said Carnahan spokesperson Ryan Hobart. "The ballot
summary statements we write aren't made to appease any interest group."
The Missouri Roundtable say it expects the lawsuit to last several months, which could prevent the
group from getting enough signatures to see the initiative on the ballot in 2010.
St. Louis Beacon
Group pushes effort to ban any state funding for stem cell research
By JASON ROSENBAUM
Thursday, February 12, 2009
A St. Louis-based anti-abortion group is trying to put a ban on state funding for embryonic stem cell
research into the Missouri Constitution, a shift in strategy after efforts to ban specific stem cell
research procedures failed.
In 2006, Missouri voters narrowly approved a constitutional amendment barring the Missouri General
Assembly from interfering with any stem cell research allowed by federal law. The measure, commonly
known as Amendment 2, protects a practice called somatic cell nuclear transfer.
SCNT involves transferring a person's DNA from the nucleus of another cell into an unfertilized egg to
cultivate stem cells. Social conservatives believe the process is immoral, while researchers believe the
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technique could lead to cures of diseases, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, and reverse spinal cord
injuries.
Amendment 2 also has protections against government restrictions on funding for stem cell research;
governmental entities "shall not eliminate, reduce, deny, or withhold any public funds" to
organizations lawfully conducting stem cell research or providing treatments derived from the
research.
That passage has sparked budgetary battles over state funding. A group called Roundtable for Life ,
for example, has argued that Amendment 2 could open the door for the Life Sciences Research Trust
Fund to pay for embryonic stem cell research.
The trust fund was set up in 2003 to funnel the state's tobacco settlement money into life sciences
research. When the trust fund was created, lawmakers prohibited funding from going to "human
cloning" or abortion. Last year, lawmakers allocated $21 million to the trust fund for research on
projects such as animal science and medical device development.
But social conservatives argued the funding clause in Amendment 2 makes those restrictions
unconstitutional. Once restrictions are taken off, critics say, funds from the trust fund could be used
for embryonic stem cell research.
One of the Roundtable's leaders is Ed Martin, the controversial onetime chief of staff for former Gov.
Matt Blunt. Martin says the ballot item is meant to resolve the questions about funding. The
Roundtable's measure states that it "shall be unlawful to expend, pay, or grant any public funds for
abortion services, human cloning, or prohibited human research."
"What we have been saying is if you study closely what Amendment 2 did, it looks like it has created
access in the constitution ... to public funding" of embryonic stem cell research, said Martin.
Nonsense, says Donn Rubin, the president of the Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures , which
supports Amendment 2. "They claim to fear that somehow Amendment 2 would require the
legislature to fund stem cell research. But we have two years of experience now since Amendment 2
passed with a legislature funding very specific areas of life sciences that do not include stem cell
research.
"Clearly that's not their motivation. Their motivation is stated -- not to the press, but to their own
supporters on multiple occasions -- that basically these 'funding' attacks are really a Trojan horse to
ban stem cell research."
SHIFTING STRATEGY
The Roundtable's ballot item seems to shift focus from banning stem cell research outright to choking
off potential sources of funding.
Soon after Amendment 2 was passed, Sen. Matt Bartle, R-Lee's Summit, and then-Rep. Jim Lembke, R-
St. Louis County, introduced a constitutional amendment that would have provided Missourians with a
chance to ban SCNT. The pair's goal was to pass the measure through the General Assembly, which
would have placed the issue before the voters last year.
While the Lembke-Bartle resolution received plenty of attention during the 2007 legislation session, it
failed to get out of committee. Bartle later conceded that passing the resolution would be next to
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impossible. Lembke, now a state senator, said earlier this month that he has no plans to place a
legislative ban on SCNT on next year's ballot.
Opponents of embryonic stem cell research had no luck getting an SCNT ban on the ballot through the
initiative petition process. A group called Cures Without Cloning tried, but its effort was ultimately
unsuccessful.
Martin said that he sees the new ballot item as something of a compromise.
"We are not out saying to people that our goal is to criminalize anything or to ban anything," Martin
said, adding that proponents who don't want public funding and opponents who oppose the practice
should join together. "Don't trust government administering vast sums of money -- millions of dollars -
- through private non-profits and other entities. And that's what we're finding success in people
understanding."
A number of groups that supported a ban on SCNT have generally been positive about the
Roundtable's proposal. But that campaign won't completely replace efforts to ban certain stem cell
procedures, they say.
Jaci Winship, the executive director for Missourians Against Human Cloning , said curtailing potential
funding sources is important.
"That's certainly is going to be a focus, a very important focus," she said. "But we'll continue to bring
to light the issues, continue to educate people on human cloning and how inappropriate it is on a
number of levels. And (we'll focus on) the breakthroughs that continue to happen that don't require
creating and destroying human life."
Both Larry Weber, an attorney for the Missouri Catholic Conference , and Sam Lee of Campaign Life
Missouri said they're watching how the Roundtable's efforts play out. Weber said that the funding
focus, though, wouldn't necessarily stop efforts to ban SCNT.
"I mean, there are still a variety of issues that were presented by Amendment 2," Weber said. There
are people who have problems with funding, "but there are other people who want to deal with the
ultimate issue of human cloning and embryonic stem cell research."
Lee said the Roundtable's proposed amendment is one of many efforts to alter or change Amendment
2. "But certainly the funding is a big aspect of it," he said.
Susan Klein, legislative liaison for Missouri Right to Life , said rectifying the funding issue is part of a
multi-faceted strategy to alter portions of Amendment 2.
"All pro-life and pro-family organizations across the state are trying to close those loopholes, to make
sure that our state money does not get used for unethical research," Klein said. "All of the pro-life and
the pro-family groups are working together to close the loopholes on funding, to close the loopholes
on human cloning, to close the loopholes on… embryonic stem cell research that Amendment 2 put
into our constitution."
Republicans have disagreed over whether the restrictions on the trust fund are unconstitutional after
Amendment 2's passage. A smattering of Republicans -- including state Rep. Therese Sander, R-
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Moberly, and state Rep. Jason Brown, R-Platte County -- voted against legislation that included the
trust fund allocation.
Lembke, on the other hand, voted for that bill. But he said he was receptive to the Roundtable's
amendment.
"There are people on both sides of the issue that believe Amendment 2 ties the hands of the
legislature as far as their ability to appropriate," Lembke said. "I don't happen to agree with that. But,
you know, we haven't gotten to a point where a judge has said he think it does."
Impact of potential federal changes
Funding for stem cell research could get a boost in the near future. President Barack Obama is
expected to lift restrictions barring researchers from using unused embryos from fertility clinics. Only
existing stem cell lines were allowed to receive federally funded during President George W. Bush's
administration.
Lifting that ban, Rubin said, could provide scientists at universities and foundations with a chance to
vie for federal funding for research. When asked whether his group wants state funding for research,
Rubin said his organization is focused on "protecting the freedom to conduct research."
"And now with a new federal administration and Congress that is likely to increase funding for this
promising research, Missouri is placed to be able to attract federal funding to conduct that research,"
Rubin said. "There's never been a request for state funding for that research."
One of the potential consequences of the Roundtable's ballot initiative, Rubin said, is that all funds --
including private, state and federal money -- would be barred from projects at public universities.
"The consequences are very broad," Rubin said. "Because it incorporates so many other statutes and
other definitions, it will probably take some time to really understand the far-researching
consequences."
Asked whether his measure targeted federal funding, Martin said that the amendment "deals with
public funds. That is a definition of state dollars. So, no."
"I believe that a good portion of the people who pushed Amendment 2 do want access to funding,"
Martin said. "I think that's realistic, I'm not particularly judging them. I think that's how a bunch of
private institutions and businesses function. They look to suckle at the teat of the state and federal
government."
BALLOT LANGUAGE FIGHT
For years, opponents of embryonic stem cell research have been at odds with Secretary of State Robin
Carnahan's office over ballot language. This election cycle is no exception.
Carnahan's office released ballot language on Martin's proposal that asked whether the Missouri
Constitution should be changed to "make it illegal for the legislature or state or local governments to
expend, pay, or grant public funds to hospitals or other institutions for certain research and services"
such as "abortion services, including those necessary to save the life of the mother, and certain types
of stem cell research currently allowed under Missouri law."
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The ballot language also stated that the measure "could have a significant negative fiscal impact on
state and local governmental entities by prohibiting the use of public funds for certain research
activities." It also said that federal grants to state government entities could be "in jeopardy."
Martin said ballot language is "outrageous" and "will not be tolerated." The group has filed a lawsuit in
Cole County Court to challenge Carnahan's ballot language and the fiscal note crafted by state Auditor
Susan Montee.
Steve Clark, an attorney for the Missouri Roundtable for Life, said in a statement that Carnahan's office
"abused her power one too many times and Missouri citizens need the courts to act to control her."
Additionally, two proponents of embryonic stem cell research also sued, telling the Associated Press in
a statement that the measure is seeking to "rob us of our hope for the future."
Ryan Hobart, a spokesman for Carnahan, defended the ballot language as "fair."
"Obviously, we think the ballot initiative summary language for this measure is fair and sufficient,"
Hobart said. "And it accurately describes the effect of the proposed constitutional change."
Hobart said ballot language is written up by the secretary of state's general counsel. After it is
approved by Carnahan, it goes to the attorney general's office to be reviewed for legal content. Hobart
also said groups opposed and supportive of ballot language can provide suggestions.
"Often, certain interest groups feel one or way or another about the language that we write. But it's
not written for them, it's written for the voters of Missouri."
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Stem cell critics sue over Missouri ballot measure
The Associated Press
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
JEFFERSON CITY — Critics of embryonic stem cell research have accused three top Missouri officials of
conspiring to prepare an unfair ballot summary for a proposal to bar use of public funds for abortion
and human cloning.
The claim is asserted in a lawsuit by Missouri Roundtable for Life seeking a new ballot summary and
cost estimate for a proposed amendment to the Missouri Constitution that proponents hope to put on
the 2010 ballot.
Steve Clark, a lawyer for the group, said Monday the secretary of state, attorney general and state
auditor have not treated stem cell research critics fairly and worked on the ballot summary with stem
cell research supporters such as the Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures. Clark's lawsuit was filed
Friday in Cole County Circuit Court.
Sponsors of initiative petitions can suggest ballot language for their measures, but Missouri law makes
the secretary of state's office responsible for drafting the summary. The state auditor is responsible for
preparing a cost estimate, and the attorney general reviews those documents.
Ryan Hobart, a spokesman for Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, said he doesn't know if the Missouri
Coalition for Lifesaving Cures had contacted the office but that groups often do.
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Hobart denied that there had been any coordinated effort and defended the fairness of the summary.
Jim Goodwin, a spokesman for the coalition, said he was unaware of anyone discussing proposed
ballot wording with the elected officials.
Kansas City Business Journal
Missouri Roundtable for Life sues Carnahan, others over initiative
Monday, February 9, 2009
Missouri Roundtable for Life, an advocacy group that opposes abortion and scientific cloning
techniques, has sued Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan and others, accusing her office of
manipulating the language of a ballot initiative to make it misleading to voters.
The organization filed suit late Friday in Cole County against Carnahan, Missouri Auditor Susan Montee
and Attorney General Chris Koster, accusing the three elected officials of politicizing a ballot question
that originally sought to ban the use of tax money for abortions, human cloning and other similar
operations. The complaint alleges that the state officials conspired to deprive the group of a fair and
impartial process for getting the ballot language on the November 2010 ballot.
Missouri Roundtable for Life officials blasted Carnahan on Jan. 30, when her office released ballot
language that altered and expanded the 44-word ballot question originally submitted to the state.
“The facts are these: Ms. Carnahan has abused her power one too many times, and Missouri citizens
need the courts to act to control her,” Steve Clark, an attorney for Missouri Roundtable for Life, said in
a written statement. “The ballot language Carnahan presented to the public turned a 44-word
amendment into a 128-word statement of her political views.”
Ryan Hobart, a spokesman for Carnahan’s office, said that the ballot summary complied with state law
and that interest groups are not the ones who write ballot language — the Secretary of State’s office
does.
“They are written so all Missourians can clearly understand what they are voting for or against,”
Hobart said.
The original 44-word “Taxpayer Protection Amendment” question reads like this: “It shall be unlawful
to expend, or grant any public funds for abortion services, human cloning, or prohibited human
research, as such terms were defined by the 92nd Missouri General Assembly in 2003, in Revised
Statutes of Missouri Section 196.1127, L. 2003H.B. 688.”
The ballot language coming from Carnahan’s office included phrases such as “Shall the Missouri
Constitution be amended to make it illegal for the Legislature or state or local governments to expend,
pay or grant public funds to hospitals or other institutions for certain research and services ... such as
abortion services, including those necessary to save the life of the mother.”
It also included fiscal information that suggested the proposal would have an unquantified “negative
fiscal impact” on state and local government units because the question may jeopardize research and
medical grants.
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The proposed ban would not directly affect research at the Kansas City-based Stowers Institute for
Medical Research, which doesn’t rely on tax support. However, consistent efforts to limit embryonic
stem cell research in Missouri have prompted the institute to hold off on local expansion plans.
Missouri Roundtable for Life also filed expansive open records requests to Carnahan’s and Koster’s
offices to obtain records of correspondence and phone calls made between those offices and non-
governmental organizations such as the Missouri Coalition for Life-Saving Cures in an apparent
attempt to find out whether those organizations are influencing elected officials.
Columbia Missourian
Abortion-rights opponents file lawsuit for initiative petition
By MATTHEW REINIG
Monday, February 9, 2009
COLUMBIA — Missouri Roundtable for Life has filed a lawsuit against Secretary of State Robin
Carnahan seeking a change in the wording of a 2010 ballot initiative.
The lawsuit was filed Friday in Cole County Circuit Court. The initiative petition, which wouldn't appear
on the ballot until 2010, would prevent public funds from being used for certain stem cell research
currently allowed under Missouri law and "abortion services," including those necessary to save the
life of the mother, according to a news release from Carnahan's office.
Ed Martin, president of Missouri Roundtable for Life, called the wording of the ballot by the secretary
of state “utterly offensive” and said that it is “certainly not the intention” of the petition.
Martin said the language was "screwed-up" from the group's original petition's language and filing a
lawsuit is "the only thing you can do." The group was in Columbia on Feb. 5 to talk with voters about
the petition.
The not-for-profit group says that the language of Constitutional Amendment 2, passed by voters in
2006, leaves gaps to fund cloning and abortion with taxpayer dollars. The amendment marginally
passed statewide.
The group said that cloning human embryos and somatic cell nuclear transfer, which is the kind of
stem cell research allowed under the amendment, is human cloning. The group argues that two
paragraphs of the amendment — in particular, paragraphs five and seven — create an entitlement of
public funds to stem cell research that it finds wrong and problematic.
“I did not like the way Amendment 2 was written in the first place,” former state Sen. John Loudon
said. “Understand this isn’t a statute, the constitution is a statement of who you are as a people.”
Loudon was a guest speaker at the Activity and Recreation Center in Columbia in support of the
Missouri Roundtable for Life's petition to amend Constitutional Amendment 2.
Loudon and Martin were speaking as part of a grass-roots campaign to educate voters about the
petition. Martin said he thinks now is an opportunity to speak relationally about the amendment issue.
“One of the reasons we are so convinced that it’s the right way to talk to voters about the issue is
because it gives a larger group of people an opportunity to sort of relate to it,” Martin said. “You meet
people who will say, ‘I don’t want to outlaw abortion, but I sure don’t want tax dollars to go to it.’ And
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you meet people who say, ‘Well, I’m not sure that I’m against human cloning. I don’t know if I care
much, but I don’t want tax dollars going to it.”
Michelle Trupiano, a lobbyist for Planned Parenthood Affiliates in Missouri, said she strongly opposes
the group's petition. “This measure would actually change our constitution to ban abortion in public
hospitals, even when a woman’s life is at risk or in cases of rape or incest,” Trupiano said. “This is
definitely too far. It can have very grave affects on women facing extreme circumstances.”
Trupiano also said that Planned Parenthood is a nonprofit organization, and that public funding is
allocated toward abortions in public hospitals only under “very rare circumstances.”
Ryan Hobart, deputy communications director for the secretary of state, said the ballot states exactly
what would be made illegal in terms of abortions and stem cell research, should the measure pass.
Martin said Monday that Missouri Roundtable for Life expects a court hearing on its lawsuit within 30
to 60 days.
KWMU.com
Mo. Roundtable for Life sues Robin Carnahan
By MARSHALL GRIFFIN
Monday, February 9, 2009
Missouri Roundtable for Life has filed a lawsuit against Secretary of State Robin Carnahan over
language used in a ballot initiative regarding funding for abortion services and human cloning.
The group says it wanted the language to read in part that it would be unlawful to expend, pay, or
grant public funds for abortion services, human cloning, and prohibited human research.
The language drafted by the Secretary of State’s office asks in part if it should be illegal for state funds
to go to hospitals or other institutions for certain research and services.
Steve Clark is attorney for Missouri Roundtable for Life.
“We’re asking for the courts to rewrite the language in a fair and mutual and impartial manner as the
law requires,” Clark said.
Carnahan spokesman Ryan Hobart says the language they’re using is fair and sufficient, and accurately
describes the proposed constitutional change.
“Ballot summary statements are not written for the proponents or opponents of any
initiatives…they’re written so Missourians can understand what it is that they are voting for or
against,” Hobart said.
The lawsuit also names State Auditor Susan Montee and Attorney General Chris Koster. They’re
accused in the suit, along with Carnahan, of conspiring to prepare an unfair ballot summary.
Hobart calls the accusation completely baseless.
Carnahan lost a similar lawsuit last year over a proposed anti-Affirmative Action ballot question, but
later won on appeal.
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The Chronicle of Higher Education
The latest online match: Companies can hook up with universities on tech transfer
By GOLDIE BLUMENSTYK
Friday, February 13, 2009
Orlando – Online sites where universities list their available technologies are nearly as old as the
Internet, but a site unveiled here Thursday is expected to be about more than e-commerce. It's an
attempt by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation to foster collaboration among institutions,
companies, and professors.
The site, iBridge Network, introduced during the annual meeting of the Association of University
Technology Managers, lets institutions share information about inventions and research tools
developed by their faculty members. It also includes features that allow scientists or companies to sign
up for alerts about new developments in certain fields. In some cases, they will be able to license
rights to technologies listed on the site with the click of a button.
The site describes inventions from nearly 70 universities, including places like Columbia University and
the University of Wisconsin at Madison, which are known for their sophistication in technology
licensing.
Many of the technologies listed by those institutions, and others, are software products or cell lines—
the kinds of research materials that institutions often make available to each other, or to companies,
for free or at nominal cost.
Laura Paglione, the director of advancing innovation for the foundation, said the iBridge site will make
those exchanges easier. It will also be a way for industry to learn about the work of academics that
might be of commercial interest.
Working with industry is a major theme of the meeting, which has drawn about 1,500 attendees from
universities and industry, more than 20 percent of them from abroad—and the topic is being discussed
not only during the formal sessions.
Given the state of the economy, that's hardly surprising.
Technology-transfer officials report that in many cases, licensing deals with companies are beling
delayed because the companies don't have the ready cash to pay the license fees. Boston University,
for one, says that for some deals, it is loosening its typical requirement that the licensee pick up the
costs for patenting an invention, rather than lose the deal entirely.
And with venture-capital firms facing their own credit crunch, many officials said they are finding it
hard to find backers for start-up companies based on academic inventions.
Faced with tighter budgets and increasing expectations that they produce higher revenue, some tech-
transfer offices are also showing unusual interest in a service offered by some vendors here: firms that
conduct royalty audits to make sure licensees pay what they should be paying.
Judy Ann Byrd, a director at Invotex Group, said research by her company found that, typically, only
about 20 percent of all licenses are fully adhered to, and in half the cases, licensees are underpaying
by at least 10 percent. Audits are not a new technique for universities, but Ms. Byrd said the interest
level seems higher this year. "We've had a lot more inquiries," she said.
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Columbia Missourian
Community colleges feel crunched by surge in students
By DAVID TIRRELL-WYSOCKI
Sunday, February 8, 2009
CONCORD, N.H. — College freshman Elizabeth Hebert's choice of a four-year school suddenly got too
expensive. George Haseltine already has a business degree, but he concluded after several layoffs that
he needed more training to get work.
So, in the middle of this school year, both landed at New Hampshire Technical Institute, which like
other community colleges across the country has suddenly grown a lot more crowded.
The two-year schools are reporting unprecedented enrollment increases this semester, driven by
students from traditional colleges seeking more bang for their buck and by laid-off older workers.
But community colleges aren't exactly cheering in this down economy: Tuition doesn't come close to
covering costs, and the state funds used to make up the difference are drying up.
Final figures aren't in for this semester, but a national group representing community colleges says the
average increase from spring-to-spring is dramatic, and similar to what New Hampshire is reporting at
its seven schools — a range of 4 to 19 percent.
The figure is 20 percent in Maine and South Carolina. One school in Idaho has more than twice the
number of students this spring over last.
Last fall, Hebert, of Antrim, N.H., began her first semester at Eastern Nazarene College in
Massachusetts. But as the economy fell, she began rethinking the thousands of dollars in loans she
was carrying — at age 18.
"It was the realization of paying $30,000 a year for four years, and then to take that in loans, it was
just way too much," said Hebert, who is now paying $3,000 a semester at NHTI.
Haseltine, 25, of Rochester, N.H., said he was tired of being laid off from various jobs, so he drives
almost an hour for his two-year criminal justice program. He hopes to become a police officer.
"The economy being in shambles pretty much, being constantly laid off and not having lucrative job
offers," he said. "They are three reasons why."
Nationwide, the average annual cost of community college is $2,402, compared to $6,585 in tuition
and fees at in-state public four-year schools, according to the College Board. Average tuition and fees
for private four-year schools: $25,143.
Factoring in financial aid, the College Board estimates the average net cost at community colleges is
only about $100.
"We have seen it even more and more, mom and dad saying, 'Come back home, we can't afford it,'"
said Jim McCarthy, admissions director at Pennsylvania's Northampton Community College, where
spring enrollment is 10.4 percent higher than a year ago — and for the first time is higher than it was
in the fall semester.
New Hampshire is marketing the transfer trend.
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"I was going to a much larger school out of state and paying $45,000 a year to go there," straight-A
business major Elizabeth Leone says in a TV ad. "I am getting a better experience here at NHTI and it's
more affordable and closer to home."
Leone transferred last fall after racking up $20,000 in loans and putting $5,000 more on credit cards
for her first year at college in Pennsylvania. She couldn't imagine how much more she would have had
to borrow to return.
Going to a community college doesn't require giving up on hopes for a bachelor's degree, since credits
often transfer to four-year schools. States including New Hampshire, Maryland and New Jersey have
made it easier for students to begin their higher education at a community college and end it at a
university.
Several community colleges can trace a bump in enrollment to area layoffs. In Boise, Idaho, after
semiconductor maker Micron Technology laid off 1,500 workers, 243 students enrolled at the Larry
Selland College of Applied Technology for this spring, more than double last spring's enrollment.
Northampton waives a semester's tuition for people laid off in the last 12 months because of the
economy. This semester, 260 students enrolled through the program, more than twice what the
school expected.
So why, with enrollment skyrocketing, are many community colleges hurting?
"I get that every place I go," said John Fitzsimmons, president of Maine's community college system.
"People can't understand, with more customers, why that isn't good news."
Tuition covers just 25 percent of the cost of education in Maine's system. Other community colleges
vary, but all depend on counties or states that in many cases are cutting their funding.
Maine reported spring enrollment increases of 20 percent, after laying off employees and leaving
vacant positions open to cope with a $2.9 million state cut. At Wake Technical Community College in
North Carolina, the president and two vice presidents are teaching classes because of a $2.3 million
cut last fall.
Arizona community colleges have absorbed $19.3 million in cuts and may lose all remaining state aid,
said Norma Kent, spokeswoman at the American Association of Community Colleges. Some systems
have had to reject thousands of applicants, she said.
"Community colleges are built on access, so for us to turn someone away is like a surgeon saying, 'I
won't operate on someone who is having a heart attack,'" Kent said.
Community colleges hope the impending federal economic stimulus plan will help keep the doors
open. Competing House and Senate versions include billions of dollars for Pell Grant financial aid, long-
delayed facility improvements and expansions and job retraining programs.
Maine's Fitzsimmons is all for it, saying "intellectual infrastructure" deserves as much stimulus as roads
and bridges.
"Taking people out of the unemployment lines and putting them in school is a great way to take
pressure off the economy," he said. "And when we come out (of the recession) we will have people
with higher skills and better opportunities waiting for them."
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The Chronicle of Higher Education
Colleges and students cheer Congress’s economic-stimulus deal
By SARA HEBEL
Friday, February 13, 2009
Washington – The compromise, $789-billion economic-stimulus bill that Congress is planning to try to
deliver to President Obama by Monday contains large sums of money for student aid and biomedical
research, and would give states billions of dollars to ease budget cuts to colleges and schools.
College lobbyists didn't get everything they wanted in the plan, which the House and Senate are
expected to approve and could take up as soon as today. The measure, for instance, doesn't include
the separate pot of money for campus construction that the House had passed or money for the
Perkins Loan program that the Senate had approved.
It also excludes a $2,000 increase in annual borrowing limits on unsubsidized Stafford Loans for
undergraduates, a provision in the original House bill that student-aid administrators and other groups
had pressed but that student groups had opposed. Student-loan companies, too, failed to win a
change they sought to the way the government calculates subsidies it pays to lenders that participate
in the federal student-loan program. The change, which the House had passed, would have increased
their payment rate.
But, over all, advocates for colleges and students cheered the billions of dollars for education that is in
the bill as details of the compromise began to be made public on Thursday. The deal worked out by
House and Senate negotiators, which was first announced on Wednesday amid a flurry of intense and
hurried last-minute negotiations, includes $95-billion for the Education Department to spend over two
years.
The plan would raise the maximum Pell Grant to $5,550 by 2010, an increase that legislators said
would help seven million students. (The current maximum award is $4,731.) The aid program would
receive $15.6-billion from the bill, an amount that would also erase a shortfall in the program's
budget.
A tax credit for tuition would be increased to $2,500, from its current level of $1,800, for the next two
years and would make textbook costs an education expense that could be counted toward the benefit.
People who do not earn enough money to owe taxes also would be eligible to take $1,000 of the
credit.
The bill would also bolster the Federal Work-Study program, providing $200-million. And it would
allow families to buy computers with money they have saved for college expenses in so-called 529
plans, whose earnings are exempt from taxes.
"Fundamentally this is a big win for our nation's students and for colleges and universities," said Larry
Zaglaniczny, vice president for governmental relations at the National Association of Student Financial
Aid Administrators.
Value to Economy Questioned
Some Republicans and other critics of the stimulus legislation had questioned whether pouring money
into student aid would be an effective way of kick-starting the economy and argued it should be cut
from the bill.
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"The stimulus bill ought to be for programs that create new jobs now," Sen. Lamar Alexander, a
Republican from Tennessee, former education secretary, and former college president, said in a
speech earlier this week at the annual meeting of the American Council on Education. He said that
many of the funds for education included in the stimulus measure should be debated separately, as
part of Congress's normal appropriations process.
Higher-education lobbyists and the new education secretary, Arne Duncan, fought to preserve the
money, including funds for Pell Grants, as the stimulus package moved through Congress. They
considered aid to education to be vulnerable in negotiations, particularly those that occurred among
moderate Democrats and Republicans in the Senate who were critical to the measure's fate.
Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California and speaker of the House, provided a rationale for putting
education spending in the stimulus measure in a summary of the compromise plan that she
distributed. "Economists tell us that strategic investments in education are one of the best ways to
help America become more productive and competitive," the document said.
Money for States and Facilities
The question of whether, and how much, money to include for construction at colleges and schools
was one of the stickiest issues for House and Senate negotiators. The House bill had included $7-billion
for higher-education facilities, but senators struck all money for college construction from their bill.
The compromise does not include a separate pot of money for campus building projects. But colleges
could use some of the money they receive under a "state fiscal-stabilization fund" to repair,
modernize, or renovate their facilities. The nearly $54-billion fund includes money for states to limit
budget cuts to colleges and schools and to spend on other priorities.
Of that total, close to $40-billion would be set aside for states to funnel to public colleges and school
districts, which could use the money in various ways, including to restore budget cuts, prevent layoffs,
or modernize facilities. Governors would be given $8.8-billion to allocate to high-priority needs, which
could include money for public or private colleges. The rest of the state fund would be distributed by
the education secretary to reward performance, based on measures that apply mainly to elementary
and secondary schools.
To be eligible to receive money for colleges under the stabilization fund, states would have to meet a
minimum bar for spending on higher education, giving their public colleges at least as much in the
2009 and 2010 fiscal years as they spent on them in the 2006 fiscal year. States facing serious financial
difficulties could seek a waiver from the secretary of education.
Big Amounts for Biomedical Research
The legislation provides more than $15-billion for research in science and technology, with the
majority going to the National Institutes of Health for biomedical studies, and it would allocate $7-
billion to extend broadband services to communities that are underserved.
The bill contains $8.5-billion for biomedical research at NIH and $1.5-billion for the agency to spend on
renovating university facilities to help them compete for biomedical research grants.
The National Science Foundation would receive $3-billion for basic research in science and engineering
under the compromise. And other portions of the bill would give money to research on energy
efficiency, climate change, and innovative technologies, among others.
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The Chronicle of Higher Education
Colleges urged to take actions as they prepare to reap billions in stimulus bill
By SARA HEBEL
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Washington – As Congress continues to debate an economic-stimulus bill that includes billions of
dollars for students and colleges, one U.S. senator warned higher-education leaders on Monday that
they needed to rein in costs if they wanted to persuade his colleagues to back further increases in aid
to academe.
Sen. Lamar Alexander, a Republican from Tennessee, former education secretary, and former college
president, said many members of Congress worried that increases in Pell Grants were too often offset
by increases in tuition. During a speech at the annual meeting of the American Council on Education
here, the senator urged college leaders to offer new ideas and suggested that they begin to provide
three-year bachelor's degrees as one way to lower costs. He also advocated allowing students to
attend community colleges at no charge.
"Use this time of retrenchment to try something new," Mr. Alexander told the gathering. "You'll
probably have to anyway because of the way the economy is."
Mr. Alexander acknowledged that creating a three-year bachelor's program could be hard for the
leaders to imagine, given that it might be met with resistance from faculty members and that only the
best-prepared students might be able to take advantage of it. But institutions should at least consider
offering it as an option, he argued.
He also said that giving students a community-college education at no cost is a practical option, noting
that it is already being done. He cited a program in Tennessee in which high-school graduates in five
counties can attend two years of college at no charge if they enroll in a degree program at Northeast
State Technical Community College. Students must apply for federal and state financial aid, and the
counties agree to pay any remaining tuition costs.
A Message of Responsibility
College officials here also heard from Education Secretary Arne Duncan on Monday. He, too, delivered
a speech that urged higher-education leaders to take responsibility for helping the nation meet key
education challenges.
He said higher-education officials needed to help bolster college-graduation rates, make college more
affordable, improve teacher education, and "break the culture of blame," in which people in different
sectors of education fault one another for students' deficiencies in learning and preparation for
college.
If he accomplishes one thing in the coming years, Mr. Duncan said, he wants to eliminate the "extreme
variation in standards" from state to state.
"I know that talking about standards can make people nervous, but the notion that we have 50
different goalposts is absolutely ridiculous," he said. "A high-school diploma needs to mean
something, no matter where it’s from. We need standards that are college-ready and career-ready,
and benchmarked against challenging international standards."
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Stumping for the Stimulus
The education secretary also used his speech to praise Congress for including "a historic level of one-
time education funding" in the stimulus bill (The Chronicle, February 13, 2009). The House and Senate
measures would increase the maximum Pell Grant by at least $500, provide a tuition tax credit of
$2,500, and allocate billions of dollars to scientific research.
The bill that passed the House also includes $7-billion for college construction and $490-million for the
federal Work-Study program. And it would increase annual borrowing limits on unsubsidized Stafford
Loans by $2,000 for undergraduates. The legislation that is expected to pass the Senate today does not
include those provisions, although it would provide $61-million for the Perkins Loan program that the
House bill does not.
The House bill also is expected to contain $40-billion more than the Senate bill for a "state fiscal-
stabilization fund," which would include money for states to distribute to public colleges and
elementary and secondary schools to help buffer them from budget cuts. If the Senate bill passes, as
expected, the two chambers will meet to reconcile their differences.
In his speech, Mr. Duncan said it was important for education to get as much money as possible in the
stimulus bill. "We need to push for every dollar we can get because public universities and community
colleges desperately need that money to avert cuts," Mr. Duncan said. He cited a University of
Washington study being released on Monday that showed that almost 600,000 jobs in elementary,
secondary, and postsecondary education were at risk of state budget cuts.
Meanwhile, at an event in Indiana, President Obama said on Monday that he hoped Congress would
restore some of the money for education that senators were cutting from their version of the bill.
"Over the next few days, as we’re having these conversations, we should talk about how we can make
sure that we’re investing in education because that’s what’s going to keep companies investing right
here in the United States over the long term," he said.
Questions About the Long Term
But Mr. Alexander told the American Council on Education conference that he, like many Republicans,
doesn't like the stimulus bill. He argued that it could create problems for higher education over time.
While the legislation would provide colleges and students with an infusion of money over the next two
years, he questioned whether that level of financing could be sustained in the years to follow.
He also said he worried that the bill might reduce pressure on lawmakers to overhaul the Medicaid
health-care program, which is taking up growing proportions of state budgets, by pouring billions of
dollars into it. Abolishing state contributions to Medicaid would be the single best way to free up more
money for states to give to higher education, Mr. Alexander said.
Columbia Daily Tribune
Who gets what: Billions to colleges and students
By JUSTIN POPE
Sunday, February 8, 2009
DURHAM, N.C. (AP) -- The stimulus plan emerging in Washington could offer an unprecedented,
multibillion-dollar boost in financial help for college students trying to pursue a degree while they ride
out the recession.
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It could also hand out billions to the states to kick-start idled campus construction projects and help
prevent tuition increases at a time when families can least afford them.
But cuts of $40 billion for state and local governments in the Senate version were a big
disappointment for college leaders. House-Senate negotiations will determine whether education aid
to the states is relatively modest or massive - and how much gets directed to high-need institutions for
building projects, versus elite universities that would benefit if the final package spends more of the
money on scientific research.
Students are big winners. Both the House and Senate bills call for the largest-ever funding increase for
Pell Grants, the government's chief college aid program for low-income students.
It will take much of the proposed $15.6 billion increase in the House version (slightly less in the
Senate) just to erase the existing funding shortfall and meet the surging demand as the economy sours
and more students enroll.
But the package would also increase next year's maximum award by up to $500, to $5,350, starting
July 1. That's the biggest increase in history and would cover three-quarters of the cost of the average
public four-year college.
Most Pell recipients come from families earning less than $40,000. And supporters note the new Pell
dollars would be spent almost immediately - students can't save them - while also paying off down the
road.
"Long-term, if we want a better economy, we need more people going to college," Education Arne
Duncan told The Associated Press last week.
College leaders meeting in Washington this week for the American Council on Education's annual
meeting will be grateful for the student aid boost. But they'll be closely watching how Congress
bridges the huge gaps between how much the House and Senate versions propose spending to bail
out state budgets and prevent drastic education cuts.
The House bills calls for $79 billion to prevent cuts to local school districts and public higher education.
But it's not yet clear how the money might be divided between K-12 and higher education, and a
portion could go to things besides education. The Senate version calls for $39 billion.
Meanwhile, colleges are hoping Congress will agree restarting idled building projects is an efficient
short- and long-term investment. As they lose revenues from state support, endowments and tuition,
hundreds of projects are on hold nationwide, from a library extension at Fresno State to new dorms at
Washington University in St. Louis and a biology lab at Yale.
The California State University system alone has halted 130 projects, which it values at $850 million
and says account for 13,000 jobs. Meanwhile, the system may have to cut 10,000 enrollment slots.
The House bill has $6 billion for such projects, while the Senate has none.
"We're ready to go, there's great jobs involved, and we're educating kids who wouldn't have other
opportunities if we weren't there," Chuck Middleton, president of Roosevelt University in downtown
Chicago, said Sunday. His university has a $135 million new building with classrooms, labs, dorms and
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offices on hold after financing dried up. Construction could be under way in six months, he says,
providing 600 jobs for two years while helping Roosevelt's diverse student body.
Also helping students, the House and Senate both call for expanding the Hope tuition tax credit from
$1,800 to $2,500 and making it partly refundable. Now, almost half of families with children pay no
income tax, so the current tuition tax-credit system doesn't help them (the full benefit kicks in for
families earning at least $43,000).
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates the change could help 3.8 million students.
If the infrastructure spending survives, it would likely prioritize colleges with high minority
enrollments, schools rebuilding from disasters like Hurricane Katrina, and energy-saving projects. It
may also take steps to make sure community colleges get their fair share, and private colleges - such
as Roosevelt - are hoping the final version will allocate some to their sector, too.
The money would be for academic facilities, and wouldn't go - directly at least - to things like gyms,
food courts or chapels.
The House version calls for $1.5 billion for biomedical research facilities, while a Senate amendment
set aside more than $6 billion in extra research money for the National Institutes of Health, among
boosts to other research agencies. Those investments have long-term benefits, but it would take time
to distribute them, and research universities would benefit most.
One other benefit notable for families: The Senate bill would also allow families to spend money from
529 college savings plans on computers.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Skeptics say billions for education won’t stimulate economy
By KELLY FIELD
Monday, February 9, 2009
Washington –A stimulus bill working its way through Congress would help thousands of students pay
for college and could give colleges money to fix crumbling buildings. But would spending billions of
dollars on education really kick-start the economy?
That's the question many legislators and policy experts in Washington were asking last week as the
U.S. Senate debated the roughly $900-billion measure.
Some members of Congress were calling for the removal of $16-billion for Pell Grants from the
stimulus bill, arguing that the aid, while worthwhile, doesn't spur immediate job growth. Some
legislators were also calling for trimming funds for the National Science Foundation's budget and other
research, among other portions of the legislation they argued isn't urgently needed to fuel the
economy.
"You don't want to be against Pell Grants," Sen. Ben Nelson, Democrat of Nebraska, told reporters as
the stimulus bill was being debated on the Senate floor. "But the question is: How many people go to
work on Pell Grants?"
But a majority of Democrats, and the new secretary of education, support the increase and say they
will fight for its inclusion in the final version of the bill. As they moved toward passage of their
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legislation, senators struck a deal that kept funds for Pell Grants in the bill but cut some money they
had originally proposed for campus construction and for a fund to help states limit budget cuts to
public colleges. Advocates of aid for education said that making college more affordable will provide
both short-term and long-term economic benefits by bolstering local economies and by moving more
Americans into the middle class.
"The best thing we can do is educate our way to a better economy," Secretary of Education Arne
Duncan said last week at a conference of private-college leaders, adding that the bill's education aid
"is very much in the balance right now."
College presidents say a Pell increase would help them retain students who are struggling financially,
while easing growing budgetary pressures on their institutions. Many colleges have increased
institutional aid in the economic downturn but say they cannot do so indefinitely, particularly as
endowment earnings drop.
"We have students where $500 will make a difference between whether they stay in school or don't,"
said Jonathan Brand, president of Nebraska's Doane College. Thirty percent of Doane students receive
Pell Grants.
Last week, Mr. Brand and two other Nebraska college presidents met with Senator Nelson to argue for
an increase in the Pell Grant. Mr. Brand said he wasn't sure if they had changed their senator's mind,
but they felt he had listened.
"We made our case," Mr. Brand said. "Will it change his opinion, I don't know. Time will tell."
Questions About the Long Term
Depending on which provisions of the House and Senate bills are included in the final legislation, the
stimulus package could triple the Education Department's budget, make some 800,000 more students
eligible for Pell Grants, and significantly expand the federal role in campus construction.
The bills would also deepen the federal deficit and set lawmakers up for some difficult spending
decisions in the years ahead, when the short-term money runs out.
Under the Senate bill, the maximum Pell Grant would increase by $681 over two years; the maximum
Hope tuition tax credit would grow by $700, to $2,500; and universities would get billions of dollars for
scientific research. The House version of the legislation would also provide $7-billion for campus
construction and increase funds for the federal Work-Study program by $490-million.
But the money to pay for those increases would disappear in two years, when the law would expire. If
Congress doesn't continue to pour billions of dollars into student aid and research after those two
years, the maximum Pell Grant would fall by as much as $300 in the 2010-11 academic year, and
thousands of students who had gained eligibility under the stimulus bill would lose it. At the same
time, the maximum tax credit would decrease to its previous level, 163,000 students would be
dropped from the work-study rolls, and thousands of researchers would have to find new financing.
Historically, lawmakers have been loath to cut spending on student aid and research. Congress has cut
the maximum Pell Grant only three times in the program's 35-year history, and the largest cut was
only $100, according to the College Board. When past presidents have proposed cuts to other
education programs, Congress has often reversed them.
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This time lawmakers aren't making any promises. In a recent phone call with reporters, Rep. George
Miller of California, a Democrat and chairman of the House education committee, demurred when
asked if the Pell increase would be sustained after two years.
"We'll have to see where the economy is," he said.
Debate Over Pell Grants
While the uncertainty makes higher-education lobbyists uneasy, their bigger concern has been
preserving the increase in the maximum Pell Grant as the stimulus bill moves through Congress.
Some of the research-and-education spending in the bill has attracted little attention. Senators barely
blinked at the bill's $3.5-billion for the National Institutes of Health, even adding $6.5-billion more to
the agency's budget during the floor debate.
But a growing number of lawmakers, most of them Republican, were questioning the $16-billion in Pell
money, saying it would do little to create jobs or spur economic growth.
"It's not a question of the merits of Pell funding. It's a question of whether it creates jobs and qualifies
as emergency spending," said Alexa Marrero, a spokeswoman for Rep. Howard P. (Buck) McKeon, the
top Republican on the House education committee. "If it doesn't, it needs to be debated" in the annual
appropriations process instead.
Some critics go so far as to say the Pell increase would be an economic loser because it would put less
money into the pockets of taxpayers who aren't attending college.
"Individual taxpayers know their needs and desires better than the politicians who give their money to
colleges and students, and hence they use their money more effectively," argues Neal McCluskey,
associate director of the Center for Educational Freedom, at the libertarian Cato Institute.
College advocates disagree.
"Money spent to pay for college is spent in the United States, as opposed to money spent on a big-
screen TV that goes to Korea or China," said Terry W. Hartle, senior vice president for government and
public affairs at the American Council on Education. "Investing in human capital is the best thing we
can do to enhance the nation's economic growth and progress."
College presidents argue that the money in the stimulus bill would bolster the economy by improving
graduates' earning potential and by delaying their entry into an overcrowded work force — much as
the GI Bill did half a century ago.
"We certainly don't want a large number of young people going on to the job market prematurely
right now," said Frederik Ohles, president of Nebraska Wesleyan University.
Federal Role Grows
Meanwhile, colleges are preparing for the possibility of receiving a $7-billion influx of infrastructure
aid that would significantly, if temporarily, expand the federal government's role in campus
construction.
Although Congress has provided some money for campus construction since the 1960s, it has been
limited in recent years to small programs at the federal science agencies and direct aid to historically
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black institutions and federally supported colleges for the deaf. In the 2007 fiscal year, the federal
government contributed less than 1 percent of the money spent on college capital projects — roughly
$86-million — according to the National Association of State Budget Officers. States bore the bulk of
the remaining costs.
The House bill would shift more of the burden onto the federal government and put the states in
charge of distributing federal higher-education infrastructure aid for the first time. Money would be
awarded to states based on their share of the nation's full-time undergraduate population.
Both bills would also increase the overall share of education revenue that comes from the federal
government. In recent years the federal government has contributed roughly 14 percent of the
spending on four-year public colleges and 10 percent of the spending on four-year private colleges,
while states have contributed 26 percent to four-year public colleges and 1 percent to four-year
private institutions, according to data from the Education Department.
By adding as much as $140-billion to the Education Department's roughly $60-billion budget, the
stimulus legislation would increase the federal share significantly. The bills also include money for
states to distribute to school districts and public colleges.
That shift could ease some of the budgetary pressure facing state appropriators, particularly in the
areas of construction and need-based aid. But it could also reduce their leverage over colleges in
accountability debates.
The federal government, meanwhile, could gain more leverage, said Mr. McCluskey.
"A new deluge of federal money could increase already loud drumbeats for more Washington-driven
accountability," he said. "After all, there has to be some amount of money beyond which taxpayers
will not permit Washington to spend without getting real, demonstrable results, right?"
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College Media Network
Editorial: Make college tax deductible
Friday, February 6, 2009
Recognizing the importance of higher education for success in the modern, globalized world, Missouri
state senator Timothy Green recently introduced a bill that would create a deduction against
taxpayer’s state income tax for the value of college tuition. The bill stipulates that the taxpayer’s
federal adjusted gross income must be less than $200,000 to receive the deduction and the student
must be registered at half-time status or more. As students at Washington University, many of us are
registered to vote in Missouri and elected a representative who might have the possibility to influence
the future of this bill. We should be interested in state issues relating to higher education and make
our voices heard on these issues regardless of whether we would directly benefit from the change.
Senate Bill 107 has the potential to make higher education much more affordable for Missouri
residents. Although this move would help Washington University attract more qualified students from
the state of Missouri, students who might not otherwise be able to afford the education, it will also
help residents in Missouri to better afford higher education in general. The benefits of helping families
afford higher education cannot be stressed enough. With an uncertain economy, the need to spend
money to meet this month’s bills can make it difficult for families to make the long-term financial
sacrifices needed to send their kids to college. But the more we educate people, as a society, the more
likely we are to find solutions to the problems we currently face, including economic downturns.
Investing in Missourians will pay off in the long run.
In fact, investment in education is so important that we believe this bill should go further to help
improve the affordability of higher education for each potential student. Rather than set a flat
adjusted gross income of $200,000 as the limit for qualifying for the tax deduction, we believe the bill
should provide more nuanced guidelines that would take into account the number of students in a
family attending college and other special circumstances.
Unfortunately, in the course of a legislative session only a few of the proposed bills actually make it to
the Senate floor to receive a vote, and only a few of those bills actually pass. While we don’t have
control over the legislative process, our interest and participation can influence which bills actually
move throughout the session. Yesterday, SB 107 had its first hearing in the Governmental
Accountability and Fiscal Oversight Committee. This committee will decide whether the bill makes it to
the floor. Right now we have the chance to influence the members of this committee by e-mailing
them and letting them know we care about the decision they make with regard to this bill. We can also
e-mail our elected senators and let them know that we want them to exert whatever influence they
can on the process to help SB 107 become law.
At the local level especially, even the smallest action can truly make a difference. Enacting SB 107
would be a positive step toward increasing access to education by removing some of its financial
burden. Take a moment to help make this bill a reality by voicing your support.
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The Chronicle of Higher Education
Sharing ideas: Tough times encourage colleges to collaborate
By PAUL FAIN, GOLDIE BLUMENSTYK and LIBBY SANDER
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Despite its veneer of cooperation, higher education is a competitive industry, where resource sharing
is eyed warily. But the recession is chipping away at that reluctance, and institutions are pursuing
partnerships, both to cut costs and to keep pace with expanding academic fields.
Joseph E. Aoun, Northeastern University's president, says cooperation helps colleges better leverage
their resources. Through partnerships, they can expand their fields of research and teaching, such as in
language studies.
"You cannot go at it by thinking that the world stops at this campus," says Mr. Aoun. "No university is
self-sufficient."
Northeastern has forged several such agreements in recent years, including an extensive partnership
with nearby Hebrew College that includes joint degree programs, and a nanotechnology center that
Northeastern leads with two public-university partners.
Lawrence G. Dotolo has encouraged links among universities for decades. Executive director of the
National Association for Consortium Leadership, he also leads the Virginia Tidewater Consortium for
Higher Education, a group of 15 institutions. He says his phone has been buzzing with calls from
colleges looking for tips on building new collaborations or improving existing ones.
A few intercollege consortia have existed for decades, most notably the Five Colleges Inc., in Amherst,
Mass., and the Claremont Colleges, in California. And in recent years, scores of institutions have
worked together in library offerings, information technology, and research centers.
But resource sharing may now be expanding beyond those traditional areas.
"Some things they never wanted to cooperate in," Mr. Dotolo says, citing as examples campus security
and financial-aid services. "Now they're stepping back and saying, 'Let's do this.'"
Cooperation, however, does not come naturally to colleges. And some experts remain skeptical that
partnerships will gain much ground, even in a rough economy. James H. Roth, a vice president at the
Huron Consulting Group, leads the firm's education branch. "It makes economic sense and business
sense" to find partners, he says, but so far "I've not seen a lot of collaboration."
Several types of partnerships can be beneficial, he says, like student-transfer agreements between
community colleges and public universities.
In the following articles, we look at three new or expanding partnerships that illustrate the rising wave
of cooperation.
THE FIX: JOIN FORCES
When fire broke out at a residence hall last fall at Hampshire College, police officers, including a few
based at Mount Holyoke College, seven miles away, were on the scene within minutes. Weeks later,
when an assault was reported after a dance at Mount Holyoke, officers from Hampshire were part of
the team that responded and made an arrest.
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"We sent people right over instead of calling people in from home," says Paul L. Ominsky, who has
directed the police forces of both colleges since June, when they merged their public-safety
departments.
Combining Hampshire's department, which has the equivalent of about 15 employees, with Mount
Holyoke's, which has the equivalent of 26, has reduced costs for training, added flexibility to staffing at
major events on each campus, and created opportunities for promotions and new positions. An officer
from Mount Holyoke is now a detective in the joint department, and Mr. Ominsky was able to add a
civilian position to work with student groups on matters like crime prevention.
"We have a lot more investigative depth. We have a lot more outreach depth," says Mr. Ominsky,
adding that he hopes the merger will bring a higher overall level of professionalism and help reduce
turnover.
Mary Jo Maydew, vice president for finance and administration at Mount Holyoke, says the
arrangement has helped cut costs at her college and raise the level of service at Hampshire.
That level of collaboration is unusual even for institutions with a tradition of working together, as
these two have for nearly 40 years as members of the Five Colleges consortium.
Traditionally, campus leaders have been hesitant to combine operations that are so hands-on and
round-the-clock. Mr. Ominsky calls such reluctance a mistake. Instead, he says, colleges should think
how they might model their security departments after the precinct approach used by many city police
forces, in which a single chief oversees a network of community-based squads. "If it works in the city,
it can work on the campuses," he says.
A system like that is especially useful for colleges that are close to one another, he says. It also helps if
the respective staffs are "flexible and professional."
Colleges considering that kind of collaboration also need to think about matters like insurance (which
wasn't a big issue for Mr. Ominsky, because the Five Colleges already operated under a single risk-
management department), compatibility of computer and communications systems, and aligning
policies and approaches. "The more you can be consistent, I think it improves public safety generally,"
he says, noting that this is especially true for his institutions, where academic arrangements encourage
many students and faculty members to spend time away from their home campuses.
It helps, too, if the colleges have somewhat similar cultures. Both Hampshire and Holyoke are small,
private, residential liberal-arts colleges. "Otherwise," he allows, "I do think it could get a little bit
confusing."
Mr. Ominsky's duties extend to Smith College, another Five Colleges member. He is director of public
safety there, overseeing a department of sworn officers and other personnel who are not part of the
merged department. (For one thing, the Smith force is the only one that is unionized.)
Half of Mr. Ominsky's salary comes from Smith, and the rest from Hampshire and Holyoke.
Arrangements like those are a new effort for the Five Colleges. (Amherst College and the University of
Massachusetts at Amherst are the group's other two members.) Until recently the consortium focused
on academic collaborations over administrative ones, although it does operate a single transportation
system, and some of the colleges have combined the management of energy use and recycling.
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Those collaborations, like Mr. Ominsky's role as a multicampus public-safety chief and the
departmental mergers of Mount Holyoke and Hampshire, predate the biggest economic shocks now
hitting many colleges.
The members are always looking for new collaborations. But now all of the institutions have been
looking more intently, says Ms. Maydew. "We're seeing new urgency."
THE FIX: SHARE NETWORKS
Since 1958 the 11 universities of the Big Ten Conference have worked with a former member, the
University of Chicago, in a partnership called the Committee on Institutional Cooperation. But that
collaboration has heated up in recent years, say several presidents of constituent institutions.
The slumping economy and interest in cost-saving measures has led to "a marked acceleration in the
depth of the cooperation between our members," says Barbara McFadden Allen, the committee's
director for 11 years.
Besides the quest for savings, technological developments have played a role. Social-networking tools
and videoconferencing technology have helped make ideas for collaboration a reality, she says.
And the member universities have put big money behind some of those ideas.
The chief information officers of committee members had been meeting for years and had compared
the bids they were considering to build out fiber-optic networks on their campuses. They decided to
invest together in those networks, with each university ponying up a share, and to link their capacity
together.
"They built something better, faster, and cheaper" than what they could have purchased on their own,
Ms. Allen says.
All of the campuses, which stretch across eight states, are now connected online through Chicago. The
shared network is much more powerful than what a single campus could have mustered.
And the savings are impressive. In addition to an estimated $23-million saved jointly in the purchase of
the network (compared with the total that would have been spent on independent systems), each
university saves $600,000 in annual maintenance costs, says Ms. Allen.
Another relatively new effort of the committee is to share language-study offerings. Taken together,
the 12 universities teach about 120 languages — but only about 30 on each campus.
Through a three-year pilot program, currently in its final year, the committee has arranged for 40
language courses to be taught across the group. The participating faculty member typically uses
videoconferencing to reach students at other universities.
But the real "magic" of the partnership takes place in the registrars' offices, Ms. Allen says. The
committee's role is to minimize friction and red tape.
Carolyn A. (Biddy) Martin, chancellor of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, acknowledges that
competition can make collaboration difficult. But universities' self-interest, she says, must be balanced
with the potential benefits for students and faculty members.
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More partnerships are on the way, she adds. "That's going to have to be a big part of the future."
THE FIX: LINK CLASSROOMS
After the long, slow fade of its signature textile industry, Danville, Va., is trying to transform its
economy into one based more on science and technology than on textiles, tobacco, and
manufacturing.
In doing so, the city of 45,000, just over the North Carolina border, has received a welcome boost from
two of Virginia's most prestigious universities.
Through a distance-learning liberal-arts curriculum for adults at the University of Richmond's School of
Continuing Studies, and an engineering-science program at the University of Virginia's School of
Engineering and Applied Science, residents of Danville who are eager to participate in the region's
economic rebirth can do so without leaving their city on the Dan River.
The budding partnerships are products of a statewide collaborative spirit among two-year and four-
year colleges that has taken hold in Virginia. Although the links were forged before the recession,
officials say the programs make even more economic sense now, and could offer a road map to even
more creative ways of delivering education in times of fiscal hardship.
As enrollment at community colleges has grown, and as universities look to tap into other pipelines of
qualified students, articulation agreements have become more common. The arrangements specify
the community-college courses for which a four-year college will grant transfer credit and ease the
transition for students. Since the 1980s, 30 states have written into law transfer or articulation
agreements intended to better integrate two-year and four-year colleges.
But new, narrowly targeted programs in Virginia could further smooth the path from community
college to university — with significant benefits to the state as well, officials say.
"The economic developments in this country are going to push us all in that direction," says James F.
Groves, an assistant dean at the engineering school who directs the engineering program. "How can
we not be responsive?"
In the four or so years since Virginia's state lawmakers called on public four-year institutions to be
more attentive to economic development and work more closely with their two-year counterparts, the
collaborative efforts have grown more creative, and more specific.
Articulation agreements are now enhanced by program-to-program outreach efforts.
The result is a much more efficient way of linking the resources of major universities with community
colleges in the same regions, many of them rural, that are hungry for a broader array of educational
options, officials say.
"We have a wide work force that is really looking for work or looking to start a second career," says
Stephanie Ferrugia, site coordinator at Danville for Richmond's Weekend College, as the program is
known. "They're bracing themselves and saying, 'I need to diversify myself and make myself different
from the guy working next to me on the line at the plant.'"
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Only about one in 10 of the residents of southern Virginia hold college degrees, Ms. Ferrugia says.
Until recently, the educational pickings were slim for people whose job or family responsibilities
prevented their leaving Danville to study elsewhere.
But all that is changing. To attract companies looking to move to the Danville area — and to guarantee
that Danville's residents could actually land new jobs — local officials needed a way to expand
educational offerings, and quickly.
By 2006, UVa's Mr. Groves and his colleagues were hearing urgent calls for undergraduate engineering
education from communities and employers around the state.
One plea came from a technology company in Manassas, a Washington suburb, that manufactures
memory for iPods and other digital devices. It wanted part-time engineering education for workers so
they could train but still remain employed at the plant. Another came from a nuclear-energy company,
which predicted that it would soon need as many as 1,000 engineers.
Then there were the Danvilles — small cities eager to reinvent themselves but in need of the
education and training required to attract employers and jobs.
In all of the cases, Mr. Groves recalls, the question was the same: Is there something you can do to
bring engineering education to our community?
The collaborative program, whose first cohort of students is to enter UVa this fall, began with just one
institution, Central Virginia Community College, in Lynchburg. It recently expanded to include 10 of
Virginia's 23 community colleges, including Danville Community College.
The program allows students to earn bachelor's degrees in engineering science on a part-time basis,
and without leaving their communities.
Students complete the first two years of classes in mathematics, chemistry, and physics at their local
community colleges. After earning associate degrees in engineering, eligible students can transfer to
the UVa's engineering school to complete the remaining classes online. Officials there assume that
students will not be studying full time — a significant departure for Virginia's prestigious university.
"We have traditionally been a residential, full-time student population, and what we're doing here is
allowing people to go part time, at a distance," Mr. Groves says. "That's a big shift."
Richmond's Weekend College, meanwhile, offers on-campus or distance-learning classes in a liberal-
arts curriculum to students at two community colleges. The program, designed for older students with
some college credits, focuses on writing, public speaking, business literacy, and management —
courses that officials say prepare them to work in corporate settings.
"I ask students, 'Why are you looking at our program?,' thinking that the attraction is the Richmond
name," Ms. Ferrugia says. "But actually, it is the accessibility. The reputation is second."
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The Chronicle of Higher Education
Pension shortfalls put pressure on strained university budgets
By MEGAN ECKSTEIN
Monday, February 9, 2009
With the stock market in decline, college pension plans are losing money, and administrators are
scrambling to cover the shortfall.
At some institutions, defined-benefit pension plans are at their lowest levels in decades. Many plans
now hold less than three-quarters of the money they will need to pay retiree benefits, says Olivia S.
Mitchell, a professor of insurance and risk management at the Wharton School of the University of
Pennsylvania.
That figure lags behind the holdings of public pension plans over all, which have been financed at
around 85 percent over the past few years, according to the Governmental Accounting Standards
Board, an independent agency that establishes standards of financial accounting and reporting.
"The market has tanked and continues to go down," Ms. Mitchell says. "Universities are going to have
to come up with money ... in order to restore funding levels."
Colleges' pension problems could bring other difficulties with them. Although an underfinanced
pension system is not an immediate threat to an institution's credit rating, it is treated as a debt-like
obligation and could affect the rating, says Roger Goodman, a vice president at Moody's Investors
Service.
An overwhelming majority of public universities, and some private institutions, participate in defined-
benefit pension plans, which guarantee employees a certain amount of compensation in retirement.
The colleges themselves usually pay most of the costs of the defined-benefit plans in which they
participate, but in some cases employees contribute small amounts.
New Stress for Public Colleges
The pension shortfalls — several billion dollars in some large university systems — are creating new
stresses for public colleges, many of which are already grappling with state budget cuts and
endowment losses.
In some states, the legislatures are ultimately responsible for ensuring that public colleges' pension
systems contain enough money to pay retiree benefits. But if states have to unexpectedly replenish
lost pension money, they may have to make cuts elsewhere, including higher education, says Robert L.
Clark, a professor of economics management, innovation, and entrepreneurship at North Carolina
State University.
Colleges are dealing with their pension deficits in various ways. The University of California, which saw
its pension investments drop by about $6-billion as of June 2008, faces a shortfall of 5 percent — or
$2-billion — if it does not add money to the plan. (Financing formulas do not require that institutions
replenish the full amount of losses in a given year.)
Administrators in California will very likely address the possible shortfall by dipping into the system's
operating budget and requiring employees to contribute to the plan for the first time in almost 20
years, says Paul Schwartz, a university spokesman.
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The system's Board of Regents is scheduled to decide this month whether to pour $875-million into
the pension fund, mostly university money but also some employee contributions. [Late last week,
after this article went to press, the regents approved that proposal.]
The decision will come just a year and a half after the system put off plans to resume contributions —
and it will follow more than two decades of surpluses. At times the plan was bloated, with almost 50
percent more money than it needed, allowing the state to avoid paying into the plan since 1990. But
the surplus has run out.
A pension system in Missouri that covers professors at many of the state's regional colleges dropped in
value by about $2-billion in 2008. Although the colleges' contribution rates are locked in for the
coming fiscal year, the institutions will probably have to find room in the 2011 budget to increase its
contributions, says Christine A. Rackers, manager of investment policy and communications at the
Missouri State Employees' Retirement System.
The colleges' one solace is that not all of their faculty and staff members participate in the slumping
defined-benefit plan. In 2002 the regional institutions started funneling new faculty members into a
defined-contribution plan, which removes employers' liability. Now, whenever that fund's value drops,
the new employees are on the hook.
In Pennsylvania, Gov. Edward G. Rendell has warned that the state's flagship university may need to
increase its contributions to the State Employees' Retirement System.
Pennsylvania State University's pension plan incurred significant investment losses last year, a
spokesman says; its value will not be made public until April. As of December 31, 2007, it had a 3-
percent shortfall.
About a third of Penn State's faculty and staff members participate in the plan. In recent years, the
university has contributed about $10-million annually, or at least 3.2 percent of employee payroll, to
the state's pension system, says Albert G. Horvath, vice president for finance and business.
It is too early to know how much the university's contributions would be increased as a result of the
pension's declining value, he says.
Some defined-benefit plans are proving especially costly during this market downturn, says North
Carolina State's Mr. Clark, but it is unlikely that there will be a shift toward plans that place less liability
on the employer. Some state pension systems considered such a move a decade ago, after noticing
that the private sector had moved toward defined-contribution plans. But the states decided against
the switch, largely because of short-term costs and labor issues.
For now, colleges are stuck trying to compensate for the lost money. The full extent of the damage
may not be clear until this fall, when financial reports for the current fiscal year can be analyzed.
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Bloomberg.com
Harvard University to offer buyouts to 1,600 workers
By OLIVER STALEY
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Feb. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Harvard University will offer buyouts to about 1,600 non-faculty
employees as the school slashes its budget after losing at least $8 billion, or 22 percent, from its
endowment.
Staff members who are age 55 and older and have 10 or more years of experience will be eligible,
said Marilynn Hausammann, vice president for human resources, in an e-mail to employees
yesterday. The university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has about 16,425 full time and part time
employees, not including faculty, according to its Web site. Harvard’s endowment is the richest in
education.
Harvard’s reported losses, which do not include its investments in real estate and private equity,
may grow to 30 percent for the full fiscal year, the university said in December. Distributions from
the endowment provide more than a third of the university’s budget and units with Harvard have
announced freezes of hiring and salary increases.
The buyout packages will be presented to employees in two phases, Hausammann said in her e-
mail. The first, to be offered this month, will be for workers affiliated with the Faculty of Arts and
Sciences, and Harvard Medical and Dental Schools. The second, to be made in March, will cover
the rest of Harvard’s 12 divisions.
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The Chronicle of Higher Education
U. of Texas System to cap nonfaculty hiring and executive pay
By KATHERINE MANGAN
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Austin, Tex. — The new chancellor of the University of Texas system announced today a partial
statewide hiring freeze for non-faculty positions and proposed that salaries for senior executives
like himself also be frozen.
The hiring freeze, which takes effect immediately, is expected to last through August 2010. It will
allow the presidents of the system’s 15 academic and health institutions to decide which positions
should be frozen and which are critical to the campus’s functions.
“I am not dictating to them what positions to fill — only that the hiring decisions be carefully
scrutinized at the appropriate level of the institution,” said the chancellor, Francisco G. Cigarroa.
He said that after consulting with senior system and campus officials, he decided to recommend
the salary cap for top executives at the 15 campuses and the system office.
“The leadership of the UT system and its institutions are keenly sensitive to the current economic
climate, which has touched every corner of our great state and nation,” Dr. Cigarroa said. “Just as
Texans are tightening their belts, so must we.”
The steps that Texas is taking aren’t unusual today. The flagship universities in several other
states are carrying out similar measures to deal with their budget woes. But Texas is generally
considered to be a well-off state whose universities have been able to hire away faculty members
from struggling states, so today’s announcement is another indication of just how widespread the
nation’s higher-education budget problems have become.
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The Chronicle of Higher Education
Arizona State U. president outlines additional cuts and enrollment cap
By LAWRENCED BIEMILLER
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Arizona State University will shut down dozens of academic programs, cap enrollment, and
require employees to take two to three weeks’ worth of unpaid leave, its president, Michael M.
Crow, told The Arizona Republic today. The moves come as the state faces a $1.6-billion budget
shortfall for 2009 and possibly a $3-billion deficit for 2010.
Mr. Crow also said that the university might have to raise tuition, and that even though the
institution had already eliminated 550 jobs and declined to renew the contracts of about 200
faculty associates, several hundred more people would probably have to be let go. The university
will scale back operations at two of its four campuses this year, Mr. Crow said, and next year it
might have to close the two campuses altogether.
The Legislature is still working on measures to deal with the revenue shortfalls, but lawmakers are
waiting to hear details of the federal stimulus package before making final decisions.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Blog: Arizona State furloughs some laid-off workers
By ERIC KELDERMAN
Friday, February 6, 2009
Some Arizona State University employees who are being laid off will also be subjected to a 15-day
furlough, reports The Arizona Republic.
The university, which is eliminating up to 550 positions through attrition and layoffs in response
to a state budget crisis, has ordered all of its 12,000 employees to take up to 15 days of unpaid
leave by June 30.
“Anyone still getting a paycheck between February 2 and June 30 is affected,” Terri Shafer, an
Arizona State spokeswoman, told the newspaper. “It’s across the board because the cuts at the
Legislature are so deep.”
State lawmakers recently cut $141.5-million from the appropriations for the three state
universities, which also include the University of Arizona and Northern Arizona University. —Eric
Kelderman
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The Chronicle of Higher Education
New rules will push colleges to rethink tactics against student pirates
By SARA LIPKA
Monday, February 9, 2009
Colleges are about to be told how to fight piracy. They have deployed various tactics over the years to
deter illegal file sharing, usually of commercial music and movies, by their students. But this month,
the U.S. Department of Education will begin crafting regulations that specify strategies. That prospect
is making some campus officials wonder if plans they have already invested in will pass muster.
The regulations will interpret three antipiracy provisions in the Higher Education Act renewed by
Congress last year. The law requires colleges to inform students of institutional and criminal penalties
for unauthorized file sharing, to "effectively combat" copyright violations with "a variety of
technology-based deterrents," and to offer alternatives to illegal downloading. Because the
requirements are simultaneously strict and vague, colleges are attentively awaiting their
interpretation.
Many are in good shape. "To a large extent, the Higher Education Act codifies what colleges are doing
already," says Steven L. Worona, director of policy and networking programs for Educause, the
college-technology group. About 90 percent of four-year colleges and universities have policies to
deter illegal file sharing, according to an October survey by the Campus Computing Project, which
tracks information-technology trends.
Still, community colleges and other institutions that largely escaped the Recording Industry
Association of America's mass lawsuits against students accused of violating copyrights may not have
developed those policies as fully. And some that do have policies are unsure whether their approaches
will comply with the new rules.
The industry's lawsuits and lobbying helped to shape the new law. Through years of Congressional
hearings, music and movie executives urged lawmakers to require technology to stop unauthorized file
sharing, while colleges argued that content-monitoring software is problematic. Kenneth C. Green,
director of the Campus Computing Project, calls the new provisions "pro bono compliance
enforcement for the entertainment industry."
Record companies describe it differently. "Lawmakers sent a clear signal that universities need to take
action to prevent theft on campus networks," Cara Duckworth, a spokeswoman for the association,
wrote in an e-mail message.
Blocks and Fines
Colleges have already taken action, campus officials will argue before Education Department
negotiators in the next few months. From tutorials on copyright law to bans on file sharing, each
institution has picked the plan that best suits it. Now campuses are seeking regulations flexible enough
that they can continue to use their own approaches to fighting piracy.
Many colleges combine offense and defense. They warn students against illegal downloading in
orientation sessions, mandatory tutorials when they receive their network log-ins, and residence-hall
presentations throughout the year. The campaigns bear snappy names, like "Get Legal" at the
University of California at Los Angeles and "Are You Legal?" at Indiana University. Many institutions
limit the amount of space students can use on their networks, restricting large music and video files.
Some search the network for file-sharing activity and notify participants or halt downloads. Others
block peer-to-peer file-sharing software entirely.
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Infringers — whether caught by their own institutions or, more commonly, identified through
"takedown" notices universities get from industry associations — face sanctions. At 86 percent of
public universities and 73 percent of private ones, those penalties involve losing network access,
according to Mr. Green's computing project.
Most colleges allow students three strikes, with increasingly severe penalties. At Utah State University,
the first strike carries a $50 fine. When takedown notices come in to the university's information-
technology office, Bob Bayn, the security-team coordinator, matches Internet-protocol addresses with
students and blocks their computers from the network.
To restore their connections, students must pay the fine, as well as pledge to delete the offending files
and refrain from further copyright infringement.
The students are often apologetic, he says. "Most of them don't want to get in any more trouble than
they think they might already be in."
Mr. Bayn tries to work with them, restoring their Internet access as soon as they meet the
requirements. And he won't disable students' network access on a Friday: "It just creates too much
grief." When they gripe about the fine, he mentions Stanford University, which, if students don't
respond within 48 hours, levies $100 for a first offense, $500 for a second, and $1,000 for a third.
Rather than trying to modify behavior, Mr. Bayn says, Utah State just wants to recover the costs of
processing the takedown notices. Repeat offenders are fined at the same rate, but Mr. Bayn refers
them to the university disciplinary officer.
Indiana also bills $50 to students — about 900 of them last year — and makes them pass a quiz to get
back online. The true-false test is designed to dispel popular misconceptions about copyright, and the
fines help pay for staff, hardware, and education programs, says Jonny Sweeny, the university system's
lead security analyst.
This semester Indiana is experimenting with a new way to educate students on its South Bend campus.
It is running monitoring software called Snort, which identifies peer-to-peer traffic and alerts students
who may be illegally downloading.
Bowling Green State University does more than simply notify students. In October it deployed a
software program, Audible Magic's CopySense, to detect copyrighted files and block the Internet
connections of students who try to download them. Takedown notices were pouring in so steadily that
network analysts had little time to watch for viruses and hackers, says Matthew Haschak, Bowling
Green's director of IT security. When the fall semester began, before the program was installed, the
university was getting an average of 39 notices a week. After it started running CopySense, that
dropped to seven.
The program cost Bowling Green $75,000, and it has generated some false accusations — usually
students downloading perfectly legal World of Warcraft game updates — but Mr. Haschak finds it
worthwhile. "Based on how the complaints were ramping up," he says, "the cost savings is significant."
While the record industry has touted content-monitoring programs like CopySense and Red Lambda's
Integrity, higher-education groups have repeatedly argued against using them, for a variety of reasons.
The programs threaten privacy and academic freedom, block legitimate traffic, and don't stop all
illegal downloads, says the Common Solutions Group, which is made up of chief information officers
from 26 major research universities.
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Those are some of the reasons that the University of California at Los Angeles strongly opposes
content monitoring. It does, however, require students implicated by takedown notices to attend a
group session with the dean of students. Before the sessions began, in November 2007, about 12
percent of students nabbed once were caught again, says Kent Wada, director of IT strategic policy.
Now that rate is virtually zero.
Mr. Wada tries to point students toward legal resources like Hulu, a Web site that offers free TV shows
for viewing with the consent of their owners. By April he hopes to integrate a new legal aggregator,
Modern Feed, into student portals like My.UCLA.edu.
"The intent is really to make the free and legal stuff available as easily and ubiquitously as possible,"
says Mr. Wada. He is not too worried about the new federal rules. "UCLA," he says, "is already
essentially in compliance."
Flexible Alternatives
Compliance with the new law can turn on interpretations of two phrases. It requires colleges to
"combat" copyright violations, but is responding to takedown notices combative enough to qualify? It
says institutions must "offer alternatives" to illegal downloading, but does that mean subscriptions to
music services or referrals to other resources?
With regulations yet unwritten, campus officials have two main concerns: that they may be required
to police networks, like Bowling Green does, and buy music-service site licenses. Optimistic officials
point to a Congressional report clarifying lawmakers' intent that accompanied the Higher Education
Act. It acknowledges colleges' need for flexibility, and it includes, among examples of "technology-
based deterrents," a "vigorous program" of responding to takedown notices. It mentions CopySense
and Integrity but says that lawmakers intend "for each institution to retain the authority to determine
what its particular plans for compliance ... will be."
While some institutions trust that their existing policies will comply with the regulations, others may
need to catch up. For example, only about two-thirds of community colleges have policies to deter
illegal file sharing, says Mr. Green, of the computing project. "Community colleges have been far less
engaged," he wrote in a report last fall, "as these institutions generally have not been the targets" of
the recording or movie industries.
Valencia Community College, in Central Florida, limits network traffic to prevent illegal downloading,
but the problem is largely absent at the nonresidential institution, says William Mullowney, its general
counsel. The use of technology by the college may count as "combat," but offering alternatives is
trickier, he says. "An alternative to what? It's really not happening on our campuses."
Colleges' requirements should become clear in the regulations. The U.S. Department of Education
planned to name negotiators last week, and they will hold hearings over the next few months. If the
department issues final regulations by November, they will take effect in July 2010.
Meanwhile, Mr. Mullowney will review other colleges' approaches to the law. "Like everybody else,
we're going to look into it," he says. "We're kind of figuring out what that means for us."
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The Chronicle of Higher Education
Credit freeze leaves thousands of student borrowers stuck in default
By KELLY FIELD
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Judy Ellis had tried to set things right.
After defaulting on her $40,000 student loan, she had made nine on-time repayments and was on the
verge of having her loan restored to good standing and her credit history cleared. Only one step stood
between her and a cheaper mortgage: the sale of her "rehabilitated" loan to a new lender.
Then the credit crunch hit, and the market for student loans dried up. The freeze has left Ms. Ellis and
thousands of borrowers like her in a financial limbo, unable to put their defaults behind them. Each
month an additional 15,000 students or more join their ranks.
Guarantee agencies, which are allowed to keep a percentage of each loan they sell, are urging the
Education Department to purchase the frozen loans under a loan-rescue law enacted last year. But the
department says it doesn't have the authority to do so, and some Republican members of Congress
are pushing a legislative fix. The change could come as early as this week, in an omnibus spending bill
that Congress is expected to take up for the current fiscal year.
Meanwhile, Ms. Ellis, who earned a master's degree from the University of Maryland, keeps paying her
loan bill each month, wondering why her balance never seems to get any smaller. She says she's
"trying to be responsible," to "woman up" to her debts, but she's getting frustrated. She needs that
clean credit record to refinance her mortgage at the current low rates.
"I've done what I'm supposed to do, and they're holding me hostage," she said. "I want to make this
right, and I want to move on."
A Growing Backlog
The first signs of strain in the rehabilitation market began to show about six months ago, when
investors stopped buying securities backed by student loans and banks began leaving student lending.
But the turning point came in November, when SunTrust, the lone commercial bank still buying
rehabilitated loans, announced that it would no longer do so.
While some guarantors have been able to sell their rehabilitated loans to affiliated agencies, including
state-based secondary loan markets, 19 of the nation's 35 guarantors currently have no buyer for their
loans, says Timothy M. Fitzgibbon, vice president for debt-management services at the National
Council of Higher Education Loan Programs. He estimates that $150-million in debt is added to the
backlog of loans awaiting rehabilitation each month.
The Education Department, which takes over guaranteed loans after they have been in default for five
years, is in the same boat. Department officials say they know the situation is urgent and are working
to find a solution.
But they point out that Congress didn't authorize the department to buy up loans issued before 2003,
and most rehabilitated loans predate that.
Guarantors say the loans could qualify if the department interpreted the rescue law more creatively.
They argue that almost-rehabilitated loans should be considered "new" because the terms and
payment amounts will reset when the loans are purchased. And they suggest that consolidated loans,
which were excluded from the bailout bill, should be eligible if the underlying loans were disbursed
after 2003.
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So far, though, the department isn't buying it. Mr. Fitzgibbon says he understands why the department
wouldn't want to "stick its neck out" at the start of a new administration and acknowledges that "it
would be much cleaner to get a legislative fix."
A Legislative Fix
That fix may be included in an omnibus spending bill that the U.S. House of Representatives is
expected to take up as soon as this week.
Late last year, Rep. Howard P. (Buck) McKeon, the top Republican on the House education committee,
offered a bill that would have expanded the department's bailout authority to cover loans that
become eligible for rehabilitation through July 2010. The bill got stuck in the end-of-session logjam,
but a spokeswoman for Mr. McKeon said he planned to pursue it again this session, perhaps as an
addition to the spending bill.
"We certainly haven't forgotten about it," said Alexa Marrero. "This is still on our radar screen, still on
our agenda."
A spokeswoman for the chairman of the education committee, Rep. George Miller, Democrat of
California, said he looked forward to working with the Obama administration and Secretary of
Education Arne Duncan "to ensure that borrowers have access to the tools available to them in order
to avoid the long-term consequences of defaulting on their loans and to come back into good
standing."
Consumer advocates agree that something needs to be done, even if they think that guarantors too
often push borrowers into rehabilitation over other methods of default resolution, such as
consolidation into direct lending, and too often demand payments that are neither "reasonable" nor
"affordable," as the law requires. Lenders receive a higher payment for defaults resolved through
rehabilitation than through consolidation: 18.5 percent, plus collection charges, versus 10 percent.
"It's a terrible situation" for the borrowers, said Deanne Loonin, a staff attorney with the National
Consumer Law Center. Ms. Loonin urged guarantors to stop collecting on the loans "while this is being
sorted out."
Praying for Relief
Guarantee agencies, which won't receive their payment until the loans are sold, are not likely to do
that. Instead, they are encouraging borrowers to continue making payments until buyers can be
found.
"The last thing we want is for people to pack it in and say, Oh, never mind," said Michael T. Ryan, vice
president of borrower services for American Student Assistance, Massachusetts' guarantor. Under
normal market conditions, the guarantor does $16-million in loan rehabilitations each month, he said.
Right now, it's not doing any.
Ms. Ellis says she has colleagues who have given up on paying their student loans, figuring, "I'm going
to die before this gets paid off." But she keeps chipping away at hers out of a sense of obligation,
believing that "you got yourself into this situation, you get yourself out."
When she gets discouraged, she turns to her faith.
"You just kind of pray your way through," she said. "I know if God has blessed me to get an education,
he's going to bless me to pay for it as well." Until then, the new mortgage will have to wait.
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The Chronicle of Higher Education
Commentary: In rough seas, flagships could use a course correction
By HOWARD H. SCHWEBER
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
When we talk about the future of public universities, we are usually talking about the flagship state
universities. They have greatly increased expenditures in the past decade. A case in point is the
University of Kansas, which has tripled its spending and raised its tuition and fees by a factor of five
since 1988.
That's unusual, but not extraordinary. The goal of the flagship institutions has been to compete with
the best private universities, based on the assumptions that state funds will be plentiful, and that
students and their families will be able come up with the money.
But both state support and tuition are becoming less secure as states face deficits and families find the
cost of college increasingly difficult to meet. Overall, the price of tuition and fees has gone up 439
percent in the last 25 years, while median household income has risen 147 percent (and those gains
were far from evenly distributed). Student borrowing has more than doubled in 10 years. And all of
those developments occurred before the current economic crisis.
For example, the state of Wisconsin has a $5.4-billion budget deficit this year, and next year's is
expected to be worse, so appropriations to higher education will most likely be severely limited.
Meanwhile, the cost of tuition at Wisconsin's public four-year colleges was 24 percent of household
income for families in the middle economic quintile; for those in the lowest two quintiles combined, it
was a whopping 44 percent. The average debt of a graduating college senior in the state in 2007 was
more than $20,000.
America's public universities are already underfunded and will become only more so. Something has to
give. Some actions that public flagship institutions might take to alleviate their financial distress
include:
Find more money. The federal government makes money the old fashioned way — by printing it.
States don't have that option. They can increase tuition, raise taxes, or issue bonds, none of which is
an attractive option for the near future. The stimulus package that is under discussion in Congress
includes money for higher education in the form of expanded Pell Grants, tax breaks, and science
fellowships. But those are only partial responses at best. Federal intervention is a short-term response
to the lack of state support, not a substitute.
Reconceive the mission. The mission of flagships is commonly described as research, teaching, and
service. Two themes are at work: serving the people of the state through education and training, and
excelling academically. The problem arises when the costs of pursuing excellence begin to interfere
with the possibility of providing education and training. If Wisconsin families cannot afford to attend
Madison, the university that consumes half of all of the state's appropriations to higher education, can
we still justify the pursuit of excellence for its own sake?
Suppose we abandon the ideal of the public Ivy. Suppose we limit the mission of flagship state
universities to teaching state residents and attracting economic investments. Flagships like the
University of Wisconsin at Madison eat up state funds, but they also compete with the richest private
colleges for top faculty members and resources. From the state's perspective, money invested in a
flagship is not necessarily lost; the federal money that flows in translates into jobs, investments and
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expenditures, and tax revenues. In 2005, Madison employed 9,100 in university research; 218
companies had direct ties to the university, and faculty members brought $764-million in research-
and-development spending to Wisconsin.
But those direct economic benefits accrue from a specific set of research areas, primarily in the natural
sciences. In those areas, there is obviously no economic argument for reconceiving the institutional
mission. What would be the consequences of treating research as secondary to teaching in other
areas? Such a reconceived mission would mean paying faculty members less, insisting that they teach
more, making promotion depend on teaching and service as much as on research and publication, and
perhaps weakening tenure to enable institutions to get rid of highly paid but unproductive faculty
members. Above all, it would mean getting out of ruinous bidding wars for "star" faculty members,
unless their presence is expected to generate enough revenue to justify the expense of hiring them.
Lowering the competitive standards of programs that do not produce significant amounts of
nontuition revenue would free up resources. But then states would be getting out of the business of
supporting top-level liberal-arts scholarship. The best students in the social sciences and humanities
would, presumably, no longer want to attend flagship state institutions. Professors — except, perhaps,
for eccentric idealists — would divide themselves even more quickly. Many, if not most, marketable
faculty members would probably migrate to private institutions or to more-competitive public
institutions in other states. The differences among the educational tiers of American higher education
would become even more sharply defined than they are now.
Keep the mission, but shrink the institutions. A different way to reallocate resources is simply to
make the flagship universities smaller. That means not just fewer students, but fewer programs.
Madison's 30,000 undergraduates can choose from among 161 majors and 35 certificate programs.
Those programs offer wonderful educational experiences that enrich the lives of students. Many also
have small classes with lots of seminars. Nonetheless, it may be argued that 161 majors is a luxury.
Flagships could continue to compete with the best private colleges, but in fewer research areas and
with fewer students. The specific decisions would have to be left to institutions, a kind of educational
federalism. I would hate to be on the committee that makes those decisions, but certainly the criteria
would have to include something about efficiency: How many students are served by how many
faculty members with how much staff support and using how much space?
Meanwhile, more students could be served by expanding the less-expensive campuses in the system.
Even now those campuses are facing record applications and the deepest cuts in state appropriations.
There is something to be said for the argument that the colleges that provide the training that lift
people out of working poverty, turn a future of jobs into a future of careers, or provide the training
that makes a modern work force competitive, ought to be at the top of the list of public priorities.
Share the pain. Pay cuts for everyone! Keep the mission the same, but declare that those who want to
pursue careers at an august and prestigious flagship will have to do it for (even) less. Average salaries
for faculty members already are not particularly high. Nonetheless, if the choice is between making
even less money or seeing programs cut, hiring freezes, and junior faculty members dismissed,
perhaps enough tenured faculty members would be willing to make a sacrifice. (Those are the sorts of
concessions that 50-year-old autoworkers are being asked to make to keep their industries in
operation.)
An alternative is to leave salaries alone but freeze hiring, increase the teaching load, and wait to save
money by attrition through retirement and departure. (More than 15 public and private institutions
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have publicly announced hiring freezes in the past month or two, and many more have quietly stopped
hiring.) Other people in academe are reconsidering the health-and-retirement benefits that come with
public employment. It is worth noting that increasing employees' contributions for health-care
coverage, like a hiring freeze, is an approach that falls most heavily on the most vulnerable among us:
junior faculty members, graduate students, and staff members. Our current plight will test the
willingness of those at the top to make sacrifices for the sake of those at the bottom.
Cutting salaries, like lowering research standards, would increase the divide between public and
private institutions. A good number of the best and most-senior faculty members would leave, and
some would take labs and grants with them. And the gap in attractiveness between working at a public
university and working at a private institution would grow.
Change nothing. That might mean hiring fewer faculty members and paying them less, but otherwise
not acting. Departments that are understaffed would remain understaffed; departments that are top-
heavy with senior faculty members would fare better. After a few years, course offerings would begin
to be affected, meaning that some students might be unable to pursue certain majors or find it
difficult to complete their degrees in a reasonable period of time. Tuition would continue to go up, and
more and more state residents would forgo college altogether, while others attend two-year colleges
instead. Someday the economy would get better, but until then, well, it's just too bad.
At a certain point, of course, flagships' finances could get so bad that they have no choice but to act.
At that point, the opportunity for careful planning and weighing of options will very likely to be lost.
Now is the moment to think about the future of public higher education. What is our mission, and
does it justify spending public money? What are our priorities? The ideas sketched here are only
starting points for a conversation. Other ideas are worth considering, including three-year bachelor's
degrees, restricting flagships to the third and fourth years of study for students who have already
completed two years on another campus, outsourcing remedial programs, and expanding professional
master's programs in lieu of Ph.D.'s. There is no doubt that many of those proposals will draw howls of
outrage, and in some cases rightly so. But it is time we started having that conversation.
Howard H. Schweber is an associate professor of political science and law at the University of
Wisconsin at Madison.
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The Chronicle of Higher Education
Survey of chief academic officers raises concerns about diversity and longevity
By PETER SCHMIDT
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Washington – The top academic post at colleges—chief academic officer—tends to be a fairly short-
term job and is not nearly the steppingstone to the presidency that it should be, says a report issued
on Monday by the American Council on Education.
The report, released here at the council's annual conference, is based on the first-ever comprehensive
census of the nation's chief academic officers, or CAO's, who generally use the title "provost" or "vice
president for academic affairs." More than 1,700 such administrators responded to the survey,
offering insights into their backgrounds, their responsibilities, their relations with other key players in
college administrations, and their ambitions.
Peter D. Eckel, a co-author of the report and director of programs and initiatives at the council's
Center for Effective Leadership, said in an interview that his organization undertook the study last
spring after concluding that "we still don't know much about these leaders as a group," even though
CAO's play a crucial role on campuses and more first-time presidents arise from that position than any
other.
With about half of college presidents being more than 60 years old and close to retirement, the report
says, "anticipated leadership needs are tremendous" and chief academic officers "may be the best
poised" to step up and provide it. Yet just a fifth of CAO's now move up to the presidency. They are
nearly as likely to return to the faculty and slightly more likely to simply retire.
The report contains especially bad news for those seeking to diversify the top ranks of college
administrations. Women and members of minority groups are not only underrepresented among chief
academic officers; they also appear to be having an especially difficult time rising to presidencies.
Many minority CAO's with hopes of moving up "are not taking important steps to prepare themselves
to be viable presidential candidates," the report says. They are much less likely than white CAO's with
similar ambitions to have sought diverse professional responsibilities, broadened their administrative
portfolios, or spoken with search consultants or mentors, the survey found. Among those who
reported lacking any desire to become a college president, minority CAO's were more than four times
as likely to report feeling uncomfortable with the search process.
"There is still a lot of work to do in developing the pipeline," Mr. Eckel said last week.
Women present a distinct set of challenges to those seeking to increase their representation in top
posts. They account for 48 percent of tenure-track faculty members, but just 40 percent of chief
academic officers and only 23 percent of college presidents, suggesting that many of those in the
pipeline to leadership positions are not making it nearly as far as they could. Compared with male
CAO's, they are about a fourth less likely to express ambitions for the presidency and, when asked
about their career paths so far, are more than three times as likely to report having altered their
careers to care for dependents, parents, or a spouse or partner. Those women who have risen to
become president or CAO are much less likely than men in those jobs to report being married or
having children.
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Inside Jobs
The survey found that the typical chief academic officer is about 57 years old and, before taking that
position, had spent 12 years in administration and 12 years in the classroom. Although CAO's rise to
the top academic post through an assortment of routes, they are most likely to have previously been
the dean of an academic college.
More than half of CAO's report having been hired from positions within their own institutions, making
them more than half again as likely as college presidents to have been internal candidates for their
job. In the past few years, however, colleges have become more likely than before to give the job to
people who have worked at other institutions, as well as to those who have held administrative
positions like dean or senior academic officer.
"In the past, institutions seem to have preferred to hire campus insiders with deep understanding of
the institution and a familiarity and relationship with key campus constituencies. They may have been
part of the faculty they were hired to lead," the report says. Now, it says, "those doing the hiring seem
to be looking more intentionally for individuals with experience in central administration or who were
responsible for whole colleges. They also seem to be looking for individuals who have experience at
multiple institutions and bring with them an outside perspective."
Chief academic officers remain unlikely to jump from one sector of higher education to another,
however, suggesting "the skills developed and experience gained at one type of institution may not
translate seamlessly into a similar position at another type of campus," the report says.
Chief academic officers spend an average of 4.7 years in office—compared with 8.4 years for college
presidents—and seven out of 10 report having held the job under only one president, suggesting that
turnover in the presidency of colleges produces turnover in the top academic position.
The report says its findings imply that college presidents, tending to be hired from the outside, often
look to chief academic officers and other administrators hired from within to help them gain an
understanding of their institution and its academic leadership. Presidents generally shoulder much
more of the burden of dealing with outside constituencies than their chief academic officers and, at
most institutions, do not ask people in that position to spend much time raising money or attending to
other external responsibilities. The exceptions to the rule are doctorate-granting universities, where
presidents may have too much on their plates to avoid delegating to their top academic official a
substantial share of responsibility for external relations.
Most chief academic officers report clearly being the second most important administrator on their
campus, but the likelihood of their feeling this way varies significantly by sector, with those at
doctorate-granting universities being much more likely than those at associate-degree colleges to
believe they hold the No. 2 spot.
Happy but Torn
Although nearly two-thirds of chief academic officers report being "very satisfied" with their jobs, the
position comes with its share of challenges. Nearly half of the respondents reported that one of their
top frustrations was never having enough money available to them to carry out their jobs, even
though the council conducted its survey last spring, before the economy began the worst of its
downward slide.
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"If you think you have enough money, you are not being ambitious enough," Kumble R. Subbaswamy,
provost of the University of Kentucky, said on Monday during a panel discussion arranged by the
council to discuss the report's findings.
Large shares also said they were frustrated in their efforts to cultivate leadership in others and by a
perception that others on the campus believed they should always be available.
Many chief academic officers reported feeling torn between the conflicting expectations of their
president and their faculty. They are most likely, however, to say their toughest relations are with
chief financial officers and other vice presidents. And the top frustrations associated with the job did
not appear to dissipate over time, as more-experienced chief academic officers were every bit as likely
to cite them as newcomers.
When asked whether they have any desire to become president, two-thirds said they found the nature
of the work to be unappealing. About one in four said they were concerned about the time demands
imposed on presidents, and an equal proportion said they did not want to live the "fishbowl" existence
they associate with the presidency.
Diverse Paths
The survey found that the representation of women among chief academic officers varies greatly by
sector. They account for half of the people in that position at two-year colleges, but less than a third at
doctorate-granting institutions.
Of the chief academic officers who responded to the survey, 85 percent were white, 6 percent black, 4
percent Hispanic, 2 percent Asian-American, and roughly 1 percent American Indian. Those belonging
to minority groups were disproportionately found at minority-serving institutions and, with the
exception of Asian-Americans, least likely to be found at doctorate-granting universities.
Black chief academic officers differed from others in that they were about half as likely to have spent
their administrative careers at a single institution and nearly three times more likely to have held
positions outside higher education. With 48 percent wanting to be presidents, they were more likely
than others to have aspirations for that job. (White CAO's were the least likely to desire the
presidency, with 28 percent having such ambitions. Just over a third of Hispanic and Asian American
CAO's wanted to make such a career move.)
Asian-American CAO's differed from others in that they were far more likely to have advanced degrees
in engineering than in education or higher education. They also were substantially more likely than
others to have served as dean of a college before taking the chief-academic-officer job.
Hispanic CAO's stood out from others in that they were more likely to have come to their jobs through
another position in academic affairs than through a post as a dean.
The new report comes on the heels of a similar report on college presidents published by the
American Council on Education a year ago (The Chronicle, February 16, 2007). Mr. Eckel said the
organization tentatively planned to do another survey of chief academic officers in five years.
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The Chronicle of Higher Education
Career centers see more students and fewer recruiters in tight job market
Counselors advise seniors to make connections with alumni and be satisfied with offers that fall
short of their dreams
By STEVE KOLOWICH
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
David Kohn figured he was in good shape to land a job after graduating from the University of
Southern California. The senior business-administration major not only had a 3.75 grade-point average
but also boasted a five-star résumé, complete with an internship this past summer as an analyst for
Wells Fargo's real-estate group.
But as the subprime mortgage crisis metastasized in more sectors of the economy and Wells Fargo
failed to follow up on an unofficial job offer, Mr. Kohn began feeling anxious. So he logged on to the
university's career Web site to look for other jobs being advertised to business-administration majors.
"There were three jobs listed, total," he says. "That's when I started to realize, 'Wow, nobody's hiring.'
The year before there had been, like, 50. It was kind of scary. I called my mom and dad and said, 'I
need to look at other options here, I need to find something else.'"
Southern California's career-services center is working overtime to drum up potential jobs for soon-to-
be graduates. But, like many colleges, it has seen even some of its most reliable recruiters disappear.
Colleges in areas like Southern California and New York that typically send hundreds of students into
the real-estate and financial sectors face a particularly daunting task.
"When this just started to happen, I gathered the staff together and said, 'We're in for it,'" says Trudy
Steinfeld, executive director of New York University's career-development center.
At the university, on-campus recruiting is down 10 percent to 15 percent across the board from last
year. Meanwhile, the average number of students attending one of the two-hour walk-in sessions held
daily at the career center has soared from around 20 to almost 100. Ms. Steinfeld says her staff is
routinely working 12-hour days, and she has asked the provost's office for additional staff to help deal
with the extraordinarily high volume of students.
According to a recent survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, these are
common symptoms in the downturn.
Of the 50 or so colleges and universities the group surveyed this fall — representing a diverse sample,
if not a scientifically precise one — more than half reported an increase in career-center traffic, while
only 20 percent reported a decrease. The survey also revealed a drop in the number of companies
participating in campus job fairs, interviewing students on site, and posting openings on career-center
job boards. And though many college administrations have been wary of hiring new staff in a time of
fiscal angst, the flood of distressed students has prompted a number of career centers to request
reinforcements.
And it is not just current students who are availing themselves of college career centers; some
institutions reported that many young alumni who have lost their jobs are soliciting advice and
resources as well.
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Southern California, which began getting requests from recent graduates as early as last May, has
started to dispatch staff members to major cities nationwide to organize seminars to connect alumni
with employers.
Elon University, in North Carolina, has also seen a marked increase in the number of young alumni
seeking guidance. "Some of those folks are really needing some help," says Tom Vecchione, executive
director of career services there.
As students and alumni have turned to the centers for help, companies have been turning away from
them. Last month at the University of Georgia, a job fair that attracted 200 firms last year drew only
145 potential employers, the lowest number in several years, according to Scott T. Williams, executive
director of the career center there. Conversely, student attendance at the fair was up.
Over all, employers plan to hire 8 percent fewer new graduates in 2009 than they did last year,
according to projections from the Collegiate Employment Research Institute at Michigan State
University. The researchers at the institute also found that many employers tried to wrap up their
hiring early, so this semester may be particularly tough for job hunters.
That seems to be the case at the University of California at Berkeley. Tom Devlin, director of the career
center there, says recruiting was robust this fall, but he expects to see half as many recruiters this
spring. Farther south, the University of Southern California has seen perennial recruiters from area
mortgage brokerages, real-estate companies, and property-management firms bow out, as did
recruiters from many boutique financial-services firms.
Mr. Williams, who was working for the technically-oriented Carnegie Mellon University when the tech
bubble burst in 2001, says this crisis has "a different feel."
"That impacted one sector in our economy," he says. "This cuts across many."
Finding the Side Door
To woo employers, some colleges have suspended fees for companies participating in campus job fairs
and are reaching out to new companies, emphasizing the importance of tapping personal connections,
and appealing to the loyalty of successful alumni in stable industries.
Networking, a tactic that centers have promoted for years, has become the watchword of recession-
era career counseling. As the applicant pools deepen, career counselors are encouraging students to
circumvent the regular channels by searching for side doors.
"Let's say a company has an opening," says Steve Schroeder, director of the business career center at
the University of Wisconsin at Madison. "With this many people looking for jobs, they may get 1,000
résumés, and they may be hiring three people. Anything that you can do to get your name on that
interview list is obviously going to be a good thing."
For Mr. Schroeder, coaching students on how to network effectively has involved a lot of instruction
on etiquette. "Some of these students, they're used to the Facebooks and MySpaces of the world, but
when you're connecting to an alum you haven't met, a proper introduction is necessary," he says. "If
you want someone to call you back or answer your e-mail, it needs to be respectful, it needs to be
professional, and it can't be three pages long."
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To help students make a polished introduction at networking functions, the career center shared by
Haverford and Bryn Mawr Colleges, in Pennsylvania, issued 50 business cards to each senior, listing
their names and fields of study. Carleton College, in Minnesota, meanwhile, recently began an
immersion program in which students are matched with alumni, with whom they live and go to work
for one to four weeks. The goal is to give students a taste of a particular industry while developing
strong personal connections with their hosts.
In addition to coaching students on cultivating professional contacts, a lot of colleges are taking their
own advice and broadening their strategic relationships.
One popular strategy, says Edwin W. Koc, director of strategic and foundation research at the National
Association of Colleges and Employers, has been for career centers to reach out to the parents of
students in addition to their alumni networks. Another has been to appeal to alums' sense of loyalty.
At Southern California, the career center has teamed up with the alumni office on an effort called
"Trojans Hiring Trojans," aimed at getting alumni to post new openings on the university's job boards
before listing them anywhere else.
William C. Hiss, vice president for external affairs at Bates College, in Maine, asked the institution's
envoys who are trying to raise funds to also ask successful alumni whether they have any positions for
Bates students at their companies.
And, like job applicants, some institutions have sought to leverage attributes that might give them a
leg up on their peers in attracting recruiters.
"One of the things we do here is see what our competitive advantage is to employers and what we can
offer them so that they can come and recruit the students," says Velma Arney, director of career
services at the University of Texas at Austin's McCombs School of Business. At McCombs,
undergraduate business majors do not wait until the end of their sophomore year to declare a
business major, and Ms. Arney has been trying to sell that point to firms seeking to cultivate young
talent through internships.
Ms. Steinfeld, of New York University, says she began calling up New York City-based firms as early as
last spring and pointing out that they could save time and travel expenses by recruiting locally. "We've
really gotten some traction from that," she says. "I can't even name how many employers we've done
that with."
Adjusting Expectations
Despite their best efforts, career-center officials cannot fully curb the impact of a recession on their
students' job prospects. So they're carefully warning students against unrealistic expectations.
"They've been in a seller's market, employers competing over them, rather than them competing
among themselves for jobs," says Mr. Koc, the association researcher. "It's going to be something
they'll have to adjust to."
Mr. Schroeder says he has needed to teach students to be less discriminating when weighing job
offers. Undergraduate business majors have commonly had two to five offers to choose from upon
graduating. "Now, when students are getting one, we're meeting with them and encouraging them to
give that offer serious consideration," he says.
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Mr. Schroeder also encourages flexibility in terms of location. "That student who is bound and
determined to move to New York City upon graduation," he says, "we're now telling them that they
might want to think about Chicago, or Atlanta, or wherever."
Mr. Hiss, who oversees the career center at Bates College, has even cautioned students against
expecting to find full-time work at all. "My colleagues and I say the six-month internship is the new
entry-level job," he says.
Mr. Vecchione, the Elon career-services director, says he emphasizes that a college degree does not
entitle students to their dream job; it is merely a ticket to play the game. "The finance, I'm-going-to-
New-York vision has been reassessed," he says. "Some of them have been so narrowly focused that
they've never thought of anything else. ... We've needed to return to Square 1 and ask, 'What else are
you interested in?' and 'Let's see where else your skills might apply.'"
'They Need That New Talent'
At the same time, counselors are trying to avoid inciting an unwarranted level of anxiety among soon-
to-be-graduates. Despite the occasionally apocalyptic tone of the media coverage, they are quick to
point out, not all companies have slammed the door on bachelor's-degree holders.
According to data compiled by the association, there are a number of fields in which companies and
organizations are looking to fill vacancies with recent graduates — most notably teaching, information
technology, and health care. Even the financial sector is not devoid of openings. "Although they are
reducing their undergraduate hiring, they're not eliminating them," says Ms. Steinfeld.
Several career-center directors pointed out that even if recruiting is down 10 percent or 20 percent, 80
percent or 90 percent of recruiters are still trolling for future employees.
Diane Martin, associate director of employer relations at the University of Washington career center,
says that on the same day that Microsoft reported layoffs, representatives from the company, based in
nearby Redmond, Wash., showed up at a job fair on the university's campus, in Seattle. "They said, 'It's
not that we are laying off and not hiring,'" she says. "They need that new talent. That's what we're
trying to get across to our students."
Ms. Steinfeld says that in some cases an unfavorable job market actually benefits students by forcing
them to think hard about their career path. "We've had many students tell us they were going after
something with status and a large salary, but in their heart of hearts, they always wanted to do
something else," she says. "I think it's sort of given them permission to follow what they really want,
and not what they're getting peer or parental pressure to do."
Mr. Kohn, the Southern California senior, considered a number of far-flung options — including
working with AIDS orphans in Mozambique — before finally deciding to apply to Teach for America. He
did it mostly on his own, with some light advising from the university's career center. He says it is
crucial that career counselors be vigilant in talking to students about their job searches.
"There's going to be a lot of students who are intimidated by it and who are worried and don't know
what to do," he says. "They need to come to us this time. That's what needs to happen."
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The Chronicle of Higher Education
Banning weapons on campuses: The battle is far from won
By SANDRA J. MCLELLAND and STEVEN D. FRENKIL
Thursday, February 12, 2009
At the close of 2008, many of us involved with higher education breathed a sigh of relief — however
briefly — as legislation that would allow people with concealed-weapons permits to carry guns on
campuses failed to pass in 17 states. Protecting students, faculty members, and administrators from
gun violence is not something that colleges should be barred from accomplishing.
But much of the legislation will undoubtedly be reintroduced, as legislators and pro-gun groups persist
in pushing their agendas and attempting to impose their views about the best way to protect
campuses. Along with those legislative efforts, lawsuits involving two large universities indicate the
legal obstacles that institutions may encounter in attempting to ban weapons.
Utah is the only state that prohibits its state institutions from barring guns on its campuses. The
University of Utah fought that statutory requirement vigorously in court, but the interests of pro-gun
groups prevailed. In 2006 the Supreme Court of Utah held that the university lacked the authority to
issue firearms policies, including barring concealed weapons, because such policies were contrary to
the state's statute. As a result, the university is prohibited from enacting or enforcing any policy that
restricts the possession or use of firearms.
Last December, the grass-roots organization Students for Concealed Carry on Campus and three
individuals — two students at the University of Colorado and one alumnus — filed a complaint in state
court against that university's regents, two chancellors, and two campus police chiefs. The individual
plaintiffs are members of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus and licensed to carry concealed
weapons. The Mountain States Legal Foundation, which describes itself as a "public-interest law firm
dedicated to individual liberty" and "the right to own and use property," represents the plaintiffs.
The lawsuit challenges the university's policy of prohibiting the possession of "firearms, explosives, or
other dangerous or illegal weapons on or within any University of Colorado campus, leased building,
other area under the jurisdiction of the local campus police department, or areas where such
possession interferes with the learning and working environment." The policy, adopted in 1994,
declares that it is intended to establish a standard of conduct for employees, students, and visitors.
Colorado passed the Concealed Carry Act in 2003, allowing permit holders to carry concealed
weapons, except in locations prohibited by federal law, in elementary and secondary schools, in public
buildings with metal detectors, and on private property. Colleges and universities are noticeably
absent from the list of places where the right to carry concealed weapons may be prohibited. In
response to the legislation, the University of Colorado regents asked the state attorney general
whether the university could enforce its policy. The attorney general issued an opinion stating that,
because Colorado's constitution and statutes authorize the regents to govern the university's internal
affairs — a mandate not pre-empted by the Concealed Carry Act — the weapons policy was
permissible.
In the lawsuit against the university, however, the plaintiffs assert protection of the right of self-
defense. Martha Altman, the only female individual plaintiff, has alleged concern over reports of
sexual assaults at the university and asserts the need to exercise her right to carry a weapon there to
ensure her personal safety. Besides challenging the weapons ban on statutory grounds, the lawsuit
also claims that the policy violates Colorado's constitution, because the policy broadly denies the right
to bear arms and makes no exception for self-defense. The university's response to the complaint is
the next step in what will most likely be a lengthy dispute.
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Underscoring the chasm between those who want to ban guns on campuses and those who oppose
such bans, a January 1 essay by the president of the Mountain States Legal Foundation on the
foundation's Web site asserts that students at University of Colorado campuses believe that "one of
the most dangerous settings they will encounter [is] 'a gun-free zone.'" It is difficult to imagine how
colleges can provide safe environments if most constituents have the right to carry concealed deadly
weapons. Adding guns to the normal conflicts that arise, or to alcohol, drugs, competitive sports, or
depression, is a recipe for disaster.
The stated agenda for Students for Concealed Carry on Campus is to "push state legislators and school
administrators to grant concealed-handgun license holders the same rights on college campuses that
those licensees currently enjoy in most other unsecured locations." Following its first national
conference in Washington last August, the organization conducted an aggressive media campaign in
November, promoting its cause to students, professors, administrators, legislators, and media outlets
across the country.
In light of the lawsuit against the University of Colorado, the legislation that is likely to be proposed or
reintroduced in many states, and the challenges from organizations like Students for Concealed Carry
on Campus, the Mountain States Legal Foundation, the National Rifle Association, and local pro-gun
groups, administrators should carefully consider the following:
State laws. Do your state statutes, regulations, or constitution restrict your ability to prohibit or
restrict weapons on campus?
Legislative efforts. Are you aware of pending or recently introduced legislation in your state regarding
weapons on campuses? Over the past two years, nearly half of the state legislatures have introduced
legislation, in many instances seeking to expand the rights of concealed-weapons permit holders to
possess weapons on campuses.
Policies. Do your weapons policies comply with your state's laws? Are the state laws broad enough to
allow your institution to impose and enforce restrictions where necessary? If you are not already doing
so, now is the time to work with your government-relations experts to introduce legislation and
regulations that better promote and protect the safety of your institution.
Special-interest groups. Are you aware of the activities of the weapons special-interest groups on and
around your campus? Pro-gun rights groups are active not only in influencing state legislation, but also
in mobilizing support among students and faculty members. Supporters of gun control on campuses —
like the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and the American Council on Education — seek to
protect the rights of colleges to ban weapons.
College administrators are acutely aware that policies and legislation cannot prevent all of the dangers
associated with weapons-related violence. But adopting safety initiatives and weapons-related policies
can be a significant part of eliminating the risks of violence. Now is the time to know your state laws,
to be aware of any proposed legislative or policy proposals that seek to permit weapons on campuses,
and to support any efforts to block such dangerous proposals.
Sandra J. McLelland and Steven D. Frenkil are lawyers at Miles & Stockbridge, in Baltimore, where they
represent colleges in employment law and other matters.
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The Chronicle of Higher Education
What a music service’s demise says about campus downloading
By JEFFREY R. YOUNG
Thursday, February 12, 2009
For online music services, an endorsement from colleges is the kiss of death.
This month the victim was Ruckus Network, which more than 200 colleges had signed up with to
provide a free and legal alternative to unauthorized file swapping.
Without warning, the online jukebox stopped playing last Friday afternoon. The moment reminded
some officials of two years ago when another company, Cdigix, abruptly announced the end of its
college-focused music service.
The Chronicle tracked down a Ruckus official, who confirmed that the company has played its last
tune. “We did shut down the service, and we are closing down the company,” said the official, who
spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid angering his superiors. “We had a pretty good audience,
but ad dollars are much fewer and farther between than they were six months ago, and with an ad-
supported music service like ours, it became an equation that wouldn’t compute.”
The recording industry has long pressured colleges to hook up with Ruckus, or something like it. When
Cary Sherman, president of the Recording Industry Association of America, testified in 2007 at a
Congressional hearing on “Piracy on University Networks,” he named Ruckus specifically as something
colleges should provide.
In fact, the industry liked it so much it bought the company. Last year Total Music—which was created
by Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group—purchased Ruckus. Total Music was
reportedly working on a music store that would compete with iTunes, Amazon, and other online music
retailers, but that project is also dead, according to a blog post by Jason Herskowitz, an executive who
led the short-lived project. (An official for Sony reached by The Chronicle this week said that the
company refused to comment on Total Music.)
But while the music industry failed to create a legal alternative to file swapping, it did succeed at
something else: convincing Congress that colleges had to do something about music piracy. A new
provision in the Higher Education Act renewed by Congress last year requires colleges to offer
alternatives to illegal downloading—though exactly what that means is still unclear. Will pointing to
the iTunes store be enough to satisfy the requirement? The U.S. Department of Education is just
beginning to draft specific regulations (The Chronicle, February 13).
Compliance Challenge
An agreement with Ruckus would most likely have been an easy way for colleges to comply. “If the
regulations say you have to offer a service, what if there is no service?” asks Kenneth C. Green,
director of the Campus Computing Project, which issued a report in October on the cost to colleges of
dealing with online downloading. “OK guys, you said, Go here,” he said of the music industry, “but it’s
no longer here—give us a little bit of guidance.”
Cara Duckworth, a spokeswoman for the recording industry, said the group is still pondering what it
will recommend next, but she noted that there are plenty of legal music stores. “The shuttering of one
online music service should not be a justification for schools to get lax on the promotion of legal
services,” she said.
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She blamed illegal downloading on campuses for killing Ruckus. “It’s difficult to compete with illegal
free services,” she said.
But the Ruckus official told The Chronicle that the company’s biggest competitors turned out to be
other free but perfectly legal options, including online radio services like Pandora and free music
videos on YouTube.
Or maybe students just didn’t like the Ruckus service, which some college officials called overly
restrictive. “The truth is it was never a very good service,” said Gregory A. Jackson, vice president and
chief information officer at the University of Chicago, which chose not to use Ruckus because he said
the music could not be moved to iPods or burned to CD’s, and the service did not work on Apple
computers. “They were sort of living as if the market was two or three years ago, but the market has
moved on.”
At this point, it’s safe to say that the whole business model for campus music services isn’t working,
and it’s time for something completely different.
One radical new idea was discussed at a meeting last year of the Joint Committee of the Higher
Education and Entertainment Communities, which, as the name suggests, mixes college officials and
music-industry executives.
The group was told that record companies, including Warner Music Group, are considering a system in
which colleges would pay into a voluntary collective license based on how much music was being
downloaded on each campus, says John C. Vaughn, executive vice president of the Association of
American Universities and a staff member on the joint committee. Essentially, the record companies
would legalize file trading. “There are systems out there that allow you to track the movement of
these copyrighted works, and each time it’s downloaded,” a fee could be assessed, he said. Unlike with
services like Ruckus or Cdigix, students would be able to do whatever they’re now doing with music—
except someone would be paying the bill for them (or a college could pass it along in a student fee).
Colleges wouldn’t be telling students where to get their music.
This may never happen—but Mr. Vaughn said that college officials are most excited about such new
approaches.
“Universities are eager to find something,” he said, “because despite what critics say, university
officials are not comfortable with unauthorized activity going on on their campuses and would like to
find a workable legal alternative.”
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CNS News
Standardized tests: Fair of unfair?
By MARY GRABAR
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
When the nation’s largest organization of college admissions professionals unveiled its report on
the “use of standardized tests in undergraduate admissions” last fall, national newspapers like
The New York Times and education journals like Inside Higher Ed interpreted the conclusions as
validation for the end of the use of standardized tests.
The report, by the National Association for College Admissions Counseling (NACAC), was directed
by Harvard University’s dean of admissions and financial aid, William R. Fitzsimmons. It gave a
certain imprimatur to the notion that the SAT, formerly known as the Scholastic Aptitude Test,
much sweated over by high school juniors, is unnecessary.
The report’s muddled language and contradictory conclusions certainly lend themselves to such
interpretations, especially by those already hostile toward standardized testing or toward
objective evaluative judgments in education.
Oddly, today’s attitude toward the SAT sharply contrasts with the one that motivated another
Harvard figure, former President James Bryant Conant, some 60 years ago. Conant and
Educational Testing Service developed the test to reward those with intellectual merit, but
without social standing, with the chance for admission to the elite colleges of the day.
The NACAC report makes no specific charges but claims that a “‘one-size-fits-all’ approach for the
use of standardized tests in undergraduate admission does not reflect the realities facing the
nation’s colleges and universities.”
The authors encourage “institutions to consider dropping the admission test requirements if it is
determined that the predictive utility of the test or the admission policies of the institution (such as
open access) support that decision and if the institution believes that standardized test results
would not be necessary for other reasons such as course placement, advising, or research” (italics
retained).
This tortured qualification provides further permission to the growing number of schools making
the SAT optional for purposes of college admission. While admissions professionals promote test
optional policies as beneficial to students, schools also enjoy their benefits. By 2007, 28 of U.S.
News and World Report’s top 100 liberal arts colleges had become test-optional.
But advertised test scores rose among 27 of those, when they advertised mean or average scores
only from students who opted to submit their test results for purposes of admission. (Only one of
those schools fully reported the scores of all students, including those who submitted test scores
after enrolling.)
Jonathan P. Epstein, a researcher with the education consultancy Maguire Associates, expresses
concerns about such artificially inflated scores.
In the firm’s May 2008 newsletter, he revealed that “SAT scores for non-submitters are 100-150
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points lower than submitters; therefore eliminating those scores for 25 percent to 50 percent of
enrolling students increases the institution’s average SAT score between 25 and 75 points.”
The higher average SAT score helps inch the school up in the highly competitive US News & World
Report rankings. But Epstein worries that such inflated scores may discourage qualified students
from applying. He further notes that the practice “may completely disorient prospective students
and families” and concludes that such disorientation in the market “is not in the best interests of
any institution or higher education in general.”
What may be the most puzzling – and revealing – statement in the NACAC report is found on page
43 where the authors, referring back to the SAT’s early years, acknowledge its value as a tool for
measuring the “academic potential of seniors at public high schools from all over the country who
had not been specifically prepared” for admission to the nation’s top colleges.
Inexplicably, the same test used for admission to public colleges today is said to create a
problem. If such tests were fair measures of the ability of applicants to elite colleges in the past,
why are they not seen as fair for public institutions today?
The sentence that follows is telling: “In addition, *the tests+ have been interpreted by some as
indications of the mental capacity of the individual test-taker ….” “Mental capacity” is not
defined, but one can presume that this is meant as a measure of intelligence and knowledge.
As one evaluative factor along with grades, class rank, etc., as recommended by NACAC, such a
purpose would seem legitimate. Again, if such tests are lauded for their equalizing effect in mid-
century America, why not now?
The NACAC report contradicts itself also on the issue of grade point average. The Commission
notes that GPA is generally “the most reliable predictor of first-year academic performance in
college.” Yet within the same paragraph the authors admit that the varying quality of high schools
make GPA-based assessments difficult. This seemingly provides further support for standardized
testing.
Citing its own survey, the NACAC Commission expresses alarm over the increasing importance
placed on standardized tests. But their survey results seem to contradict their own claims. For
example, the survey shows that the percentage of admissions officers who say “considerable
importance” is placed on admission tests rose to 60 percent in 2006 from 46 percent in 1993.
Yet, a similar rise in importance was also seen in “Grades in all courses” – up to 51 percent in
2006 from 39 percent in 1993. It seems that admissions professionals are doing exactly what the
commission has recommended.
Even if the charge that an inordinate emphasis was being placed on test scores were borne out,
the practice would conflict with the organization’s own professional goals. They state,
“standardized admissions tests (SAT and ACT) are not the most important factor in college
admission decisions.”
Certainly, if colleges are deviating from professional standards, then reform or censure is called
for. NACAC, instead, proposes doing away with minimum cut-off points for test scores, thus
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eliminating one of several—and “not most important factors in college admissions decisions”
already.
Based on this rationale, would the next logical step entail eliminating the minimum grade point
average?
What emerges from the NACAC report is an unevenly justified complaint of a social nature
propelling a slow but steady movement toward test optional policies. But other forces work
behind the test optional push and the demonstrated confusion in the NACAC report and its
recommendations.
The factors are many, but a wizard pulling the levers emerges. His activist organization has long
promoted the elimination of standardized tests.
The National Center for Fair and Open Testing, more colloquially referred to as Fair Test, has been
in the vanguard of efforts to eliminate standardized testing from college admissions since its
founding in 1985. Based in Boston, Massachusetts, its spokesman, Robert Schaeffer, the
organization’s “public education director,” is sought out widely as an authority on this issue.
In spite of Schaeffer’s admitted paucity of higher education expertise, his statements appear
ubiquitously in national newspapers as well as in education journals—not to mention in NACAC’s
own reports. Schaeffer calls Fair Test a “national leader” and a “watchdog” on the abuses of
testing. Yet an examination of the group’s efforts suggests that Fair Test’s ultimate goal is to do
away with the SAT and ACT tests.
One could be forgiven for thinking it odd that a presumably academic organization like NACAC
relies on activist agitation as much or more than on peer- reviewed research or meta-analyses
produced by competent education professionals.
Perhaps even more unusual is what’s revealed in an examination of the credentials and funding
behind Fair Test. These should give pause to those engaged in higher education or otherwise
advancing educational goals as traditionally understood.
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Inside Higher Ed
Gordon Gee’s call for ‘reinvention’ of higher ed
By SCOTT JASCHIK
Monday, February 9, 2009
WASHINGTON — Noting that the United States created land-grant colleges in the middle of the
Civil War, E. Gordon Gee told his fellow college presidents Sunday evening that the current
economic crisis is no reason not to consider bold and far-reaching reforms of the institutions. "I
am calling for intentional upheaval at our colleges and universities just when fiscal chaos already
places us on the edge," Gee said here at the annual meeting of the American Council on
Education.
The choice for higher education, he said: "reinvention or extinction."
Gee didn't dispute the seriousness of the economic crisis facing colleges, calling it an "ever
worsening fiscal quagmire." But he said that higher education must resist the "first instinct" of
such situations, "to hunker down, hide out, take refuge in the fox hole, and wait for the storm to
pass." The situation is sufficiently dire, he said, that colleges need to "reconfigure ourselves,"
rather than simply trying to restore lost funds.
Specifically, Gee suggested that colleges abandon their traditional devotion to disciplines, rethink
the way faculty members are hired, and embrace a more central role for community colleges in
higher education.
On disciplines, he said that the idea was to "move from thinking vertically to thinking
horizontally." Gee cited a retreat the university held with trustees, administrators and selected
faculty members and students. "Any guesses who tossed out the notion of blowing up —
completely eradicating — departments? A trustee? A student? No. The suggestion came from the
chair of one of Ohio State's largest and strongest academic departments," he said.
Ohio State isn't about to eliminate all of its departments, Gee said. But the university is placing
much more emphasis — in hiring and supporting research — on interdisciplinary clusters. In
addition, he said that faculty members need to be rewarded for contributions broadly, not just
those that advance their own fields.
On hiring generally, Gee said higher education must "look well past the traditional qualifications
and expected career paths" that have been used over time. As an example, Gee cited Ohio State's
recent hiring of Christine
Poon as dean of the business school. Poon has worked for 30 years in the health care industry,
running up a long list of accomplishments in the business world. But she doesn't have traditional
experience for a dean. "Has she taught a class? No. Does she have a doctorate? No," Gee said. He
predicted that she would — without those traditional requirements but with a wealth of
experience — "enliven an already strong college."
With regard to community colleges, Gee noted that despite his career leading research
universities, many of the most important issues are based on the two-year sector. "Truly, the
drivers of our future will be this nation's community colleges," he said. That means that research
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universities need to go beyond traditional ways of supporting community colleges — such as
articulation agreements — and to think more ambitiously.
As an example, he cited a program Ohio State will be announcing today in conjunction with the
College Board and Columbus State Community College in which selected students will be
admitted to medical school or other health professions programs at Ohio State while still doing
work at Columbus State. While a number of medical schools have programs in which students
may be admitted to medical school as undergraduates, these programs generally involve elite
undergraduate institutions, not community colleges. Students in the program will receive special
academic guidance and a special curriculum to guide them from the two-year college through
medical school.
While Gee said he was proud of the program, he said that it was but one effort, when many
universities should have much more of a sense of true partnership with community colleges.
Gee was highly critical of higher education for being tradition-bound, but he also said repeatedly
that he believes colleges are uniquely suited to help the United States rise out of the country's
economic mess. "This will be the century of the American college and university, if we but have
the courage to make it so," he said at the end of his speech, which received a standing ovation.
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The Chronicle of Higher Education
Financial and psychic costs of college slow community-college students' progress
By ELYSE ASHBURN
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
A new report suggests that students at two-year institutions learn more slowly than those in four-
year programs because higher education exacts greater financial and psychic costs from people in
community colleges.
The report, “The Other College: Retention and Completion Rates Among Two-Year College
Students,” acknowledges that student characteristics like family income and academic
preparation explain some of the differences in the rates at which two- and four-year students stay
in college and graduate on time. But those characteristics don’t completely explain the gap, and
the authors hypothesize that differences in relative costs might.
For example, community-college students may struggle more with college-level work, causing
college to exact a greater psychic cost from them. Two-year students, particularly if they are
attending a community college less than half-time, also tend to have more limited access to
financial aid than their counterparts in four-year programs.
The authors — Molly F. McIntosh, an analyst at the nonprofit CNA, and Cecilia E. Rouse, an
economics professor at Princeton University — conclude that more research is needed to test the
theory and possible policy solutions. They call for an appropriation of federal money to do so, and
Ms. Rouse may have the ear of President Obama, who recently named her to his Council of
Economic Advisers.
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