December 2008 Archives

All S&T students, faculty and staff received the following email from President Forsee, Chancellor Carney and the chancellors of the other three UM campuses on Friday, Dec. 19.

Dear University Colleagues:

Yesterday we responded to the Missouri Department of Higher Education's request to provide budget scenarios reflecting a potential 15, 20 and 25 percent cut in state funding for our FY 2010 operating budget. Our response, which you can see at www.umsystem.edu/budgetnews, provides a broad overview of what potential funding cuts of between $60 million and $100 million could mean to our four campuses and our health sciences center.

Following up on President Gary Forsee's memorandum of Dec. 10, 2008 (see below), I want you to know that I am working with President Forsee and the other UM Chancellors, as well as our students, faculty and staff, to develop possible scenarios for dealing with a potential 15-25 percent budget reduction in our state appropriation.

Missouri S&T and the University of Missouri System are powerful economic engines for this state and our nation, creating a 5-to-1 return on every state dollar Missouri taxpayers have invested in us.  I assure you that Missouri S&T is committed to fulfilling our mission of solving the problems of the technological world, and we will do everything in our power to ensure that the quality of our core mission is protected as we weather this economic storm. President Forsee and I agree that the worst possible action the State could take during this time would be to reduce its investment in public higher education.

I welcome your insight and suggestions.  Please use this website to submit your constructive ideas for reducing the budget and managing the financial crisis.  Missouri University of Science and Technology is an outstanding institution and great resource for the State of Missouri and the nation.  We must ensure that we retain this distinction.

John F. Carney III, Chancellor

We all are reminded daily of the seriousness of the country's financial situation in all that we read, see and hear--and these same fiscal challenges are confronting our university.

Last week we learned that our state is facing an estimated $340 million shortfall in its budget through June 2009.  We have been asked to prepare scenarios describing how we might operate with drastically reduced state appropriations that could range between 15 and 25 percent for FY2010.   We typically receive more than $400 million in state funding, so these scenarios will reflect between $60 million and $100 million in potential budget cuts across our campuses.