Gov. Jay Nixon’s plan to cut 12.5 percent from higher education would cost the University of Missouri-Kansas City $9.4 million, the chancellor predicted Thursday.
While declining to give specifics on how the campus would be affected, Chancellor Leo Morton said, “There is only so far that you can go, and at some point you have to consider some impact on the work force.”University of Missouri System officials, in a joint statement, also acknowledged that tuition will go up again.“We can’t get there just by cutting spending,” Morton said in an interview. He would not reveal the tuition increase UMKC has proposed to the Board of Curators, which is set to review tuition levels at next month’s meeting in Kansas City.UMKC raised its tuition 5 percent last year, but that was after two years with no increase. In his recent State of the Union address, President Barack Obama suggested cutting federal aid to any college that does not keep tuition in check.“If inflation were factored in, we would be at funding levels from the 1980s; this is not good news for Missourians,” Gary Ebersole, chairman of the system’s intercampus faculty council, said in an email.In a statement released Thursday afternoon, the university leadership warned that the loss of state support in the fiscal year beginning July 1 “likely will mean additional job losses, research program reductions, the loss of faculty to competing schools, further deterioration of our facilities and cutbacks in our ability to extend our teaching, research and service to citizens across the state.”The campus leaders noted struggling through past budgets by cutting administrative overhead, travel and other expenses, finding cost-effective information technology and deferring repairs and filling of vacancies. Morton expressed concern whether the university will be able to maintain the 2 percent merit pay increase it gave employees last year. While Nixon’s budget proposal is not a done deal, he said, “we can’t afford not to plan for this.”Read more News
Posted on Thu, Jan. 26, 2012 11:05 PM
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UMKC chancellor warns of fresh budget pain
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To reach Mará Rose Williams, call 816-234-4419 or send e-mail to mdwilliams@kcstar.com.
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