MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG
Mo. Digital News
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Mo. Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG
Mo. Digital News
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Mo. Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
JEFFERSON CITY - Mission enhancement funding was the main topic of the agenda in the House Appropriations committee for Education and Public Safety.
More than half of the mission enhancement money recommended by Gov. Mel Carnahan for higher education would go to the UM system.
UM System President Manuel Pacheco presented his plans for distributing the funds for specific purposes at the four campuses. He broke up the allocation into four categories for improvement life sciences, undergraduate education, graduate research and meeting critical state needs.
MU would gain from the $4.5 million allocated to improving life sciences that include the animal and plant sciences, biology, chemistry, veterinary medicine and genetics programs. This money would come to MU to develop a Comprehensive Cancer Center as well as being distributed to other programs on three campuses.
"Plans for a Comprehensive Cancer Center expand with Mission Enhancement funds," Pacheco said. Such a program would bring in money from the National Institute for Health, he said. "There is not a community center to research cancer in Missouri or any of its bordering states."
Another application of the funding looks to benefit undergraduate and graduate students by adding more tenured faculty, alleviating the need for graduate teaching assistants at MU.
"Funding used formally to pay graduate teaching assistants will be directed toward fellowships to help get graduate students started on research," Pacheco said.
UM system lobbyist Jim Snider said the addition of faculty members will not only help graduate students, but undergraduates as well.
"We want to reduce the number of graduate teaching assistants," he said. "We want to try to get these graduate teaching assistants out of the classrooms teaching the introductory courses in their first year."
Although part of the $2.2 million and $2.3 million allocated for undergraduate and graduate student improvement will go to hiring more faculty at MU, it is possible that few departments will benefit from this enhancement.
"The mission enhancement money is pretty limited in the way it is directed toward programs, associate provost Lori Franz said. "It isn't a situation of saying where is there a need."
Franz said departments will make proposals for spending the funds. The proposals will be submitted to a committee that will review the proposals and allocate money to where it feels the money can best be applied to making improvements and developing programs of excellence. Among the spending, Franz said some of the money allocated to the life sciences programming will be used to hire more tenure-track faculty.