The University of Missouri will cut 185 jobs and trim $45 million in costs in its budget for the upcoming school year, university officials announced Thursday.
Chancellor Alexander Cartwright said only 30 of those jobs are currently filled, while the rest were already vacant. The 30 individuals being laid off were largely staff positions. The job cuts alone are estimated to save $11 million in the fiscal year.
The cuts are an effort to bridge a $49 million gap in the 2019 fiscal year budget, a gap largely driven by new or increased investments in certain areas, such as $8 million more for scholarships and graduate student support, bringing the total for such programs to $100 million, Vice Chancellor for Finance Rhonda Gibler said.
An additional $6.2 million has been budgeted for merit- or performance-based pay increases for faculty and staff, Gibler said.
The cuts are being made to areas supported by state allocations, although the Legislature this year approved a budget that makes no further cuts to the university’s allocation. The university expects $204 million from the state for the new fiscal year, which is still about $16 million less than the state appropriated three years ago.
Schools seeing the biggest cuts include Agriculture, Food & Natural Resources; Education; Health Professions; Medicine; Nursing; and Veterinary Medicine.
The administrative departments of provost, advancement, chancellor, human resources, campus resources, and finance are also seeing cuts of 10 percent or more, according to a document provided by university officials.
While the university expects a larger freshman class this year, overall enrollment will drop because of the size of the previous graduating class, a university spokeswoman said. The incoming freshman class is anticipated to be 14 percent more than the previous school year, but the total of 4,600 freshmen is still much lower than the record 2015 freshman class of 6,200.
Mizzou saw its enrollment drop following the fall of 2015 when student civil rights protests led to the resignation of the former system president and chancellor.
Other budget cuts include a “significant reduction” of travel budgets for schools and colleges; the elimination of courses with low enrollment or areas where there is a reduced emphasis on certain academic programs; reductions in departments’ sponsorships of community and campus events; and the elimination of several print-based campus publications that will instead be online only.
New investments across campus include the installation of new technology in learning spaces on campus and the expansion of wireless internet access in the Student Center; new video conference equipment to support distance-education courses; expanded clinical services in pediatric psychology, physical therapy and occupational therapy at the School of Health Professions.
There also are plans in the Department of Student Affairs for the expansion of testing space for students with disabilities, and the department will also hire a new coordinator for connecting students with campus resources.
In May, Mizzou announced it was cutting 12 graduate programs and forming a new interdisciplinary college for 2019. Days later, the University of Missouri System announced a 1 percent tuition increase for in-state undergraduate students, adding about $244 per year in tuition costs.
Other students will see a 2.1 percent tuition increase. The MU School of Medicine students will see a 6 percent tuition increase in the fall, and in-state tuition at the MU School of Veterinary Medicine will go up 4.1 percent.
The news follows budget and personnel cuts across the UM System that were made last year. In 2017, state budget cuts led to a 9 percent reduction in funds across all public campuses in the state and led to the elimination of about 500 jobs across the four UM System campuses.
All of the newly announced changes go into effect July 1, when the school’s fiscal year begins.
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