CHANGE IN UNIVERSITY LEADERSHIP DRAMATIC

The first seven years of John Lichtenegger's service on the University of Missouri's Board of Curators were filled with frustration.

And then the leadership of the university system changed. Peter McGrath was replaced by George Russell as president. Russell, a farm boy from Bernie and former rocket scientist, had served as chancellor of the University of Kansas City for 10 years prior.

Lichtenegger calls Russell the finest university president in the United States today.

After Russell's appointment, Lichtenegger said the university took a "dramatic and instantaneous change for the better."

Lichtenegger got to know Russell well. The new president started in November, and Lichtenegger took over as board president that January. It was a position he held for two years.

After the disappointing defeat of Proposition B, it was clear that Missourians didn't want to infuse more money into higher education. So a five-year plan was developed to help the university system live within its means, says Lichtenegger. Soon after his arrival, Russell put the plan into action.

Under the plan, the university has cut its work force by 10 percent, which is about 1,400 workers. They also worked to bring salaries up as a way to recruit and retain top-quality faculty members.

The plan also addressed about $110 million in deferred maintenance on the campuses. The university is now two-thirds of the way to completing long-overdue maintenance. The plan also addressed upgrading computer labs and equipment, the university's library system, and reducing the size of huge first-year classes -- some as big as 200 students.

Lichtenegger looks back on his decade of board service with pride. His is one of the longer terms on the board. Ironically, one of the few longer terms was another area lawyer, Jim Finch of Cape Girardeau, who went on to the Missouri Supreme Court.

The University of Missouri system has toughened its admission standards, including requiring two years of foreign language and four years of math for entrance beginning in fall 1997.

"I had to be persuaded this was something good in terms of preparation of students to do work at the college level," he says.

A few years ago the university system averaged a graduation rate between 50 and 60 percent. Lichtenegger feels as students are better prepared the graduation rate could rise to 90 percent.

But as the university tightens standards, Lichtenegger would like to see the university expand enrollment opportunities. If students meet all the core curriculum requirements, he feels they should be admitted. Now, the cutoff typically depends on class rank or college admission scores.

"I would like to see the university organize to handle fluctuations in enrollment rather than a pre-set limit," he says.

The high school pool, which had shrunk in recent years, is again expanding. Mizzou already has 9,000 freshman applications for the fall.