UMKC will cut about 30 jobs to counter drop in state support

University of Missouri-Kansas City officials have announced that about 30 jobs are being cut in an effort to shave 3 percent from the campus budget.

The staff reduction — expected to be fewer than 30 posts — is in response to an announcement last month from University of Missouri System President Mun Choi. He said the four campus system needs to cut 8 to 12 percent of its budget for fiscal year 2018 if it was going to manage an expected drop in state support.

Earlier this month the Missouri legislature passed a budget with a 6.58 percent decrease in core funding for universities statewide. That’s after a 7.6 percent withholding announced by the governor in January.

At the University of Missouri Columbia campus, lost revenues would also come from a dramatic drop in enrollment. Earlier this week MU announced it would cut 400 positions.

When asked for more details about whether jobs UMKC is cutting meant people were being let go or whether just positions being eliminated, spokesman John Martellaro said the university would not say more than what was in a statement released prior to the layoff announcement Thursday.

A statement released May 9 from UMKC leaders, including Chancellor Leo Morton, said the university’s plan to reduce spending would occur “over the next two years to produce the estimated $20-$30 million in savings that will be required by recent cuts to state funding and other pressures we face in the highly competitive environment of higher education.”

The statement said that as the university institutes its strategy to reduce spending, “some positions will remain unfilled. Others will stay open for at least 60 days to accrue savings.”

The only positions that would be considered for approval to be filled will be those that are “mission-critical and 100 percent grant/externally funded positions.”

UMKC leaders also asked campus department heads to look for other ways to save, including cutting unnecessary travel and memberships, and searching for efficiencies in services and purchasing.

UMKC and the other three campuses in the system will turn in their budget strategy to the UM System president next month. But UMKC leaders said that after that discussions about savings will continue for the foreseeable future.

This story was originally published May 19, 2017 at 12:22 PM with the headline "UMKC will cut about 30 jobs to counter drop in state support."