Floyd presents reorganization proposal to mixed reception

ST. LOUIS -- The feeling has lingered for years among faculty and staff at the University of Missouri-St. Louis -- the campus lacks the clout needed to pull in money for instruction and research.

So when Elson Floyd, president of the four-campus University of Missouri system, told them Friday about a possible administrative shake-up aimed at cutting costs, they listened politely, then fired back searing questions.

Floyd suggested Thursday that in addition to his own job, he could take on the chancellor's role at the system's flagship campus in Columbia when Richard Wallace retires from that post in August 2004.

But he seemed to step away from that Friday after St. Louis faculty and staff said they already feel shortchanged and undervalued by decisions they feel favor the Columbia campus.

Add the weight of the president's office to that of the Columbia chancellor, and they won't stand a chance, they argued.

"There is a fear ... that with the president playing a stronger role in the Columbia campus, that the hands will not be played fairly," Van Reidhead, chair of the faculty senate, told Floyd before a packed room of roughly 200 faculty and staff. "It is a question of equity."

Reidhead went further, and asked whether some savings from recent consolidation might be reallocated to the St. Louis campus.

Floyd said Thursday that Wallace's retirement, coinciding with the state's budget crisis, led him to think about reorganizing the university's administration as a way to save money and divert those resources to instruction and research at the campuses in Columbia, St. Louis, Kansas City and Rolla.

He has called for a systemwide study of ways to consolidate the administration of the Columbia campus with that of the system, whose offices are also in Columbia.

Floyd reiterated Friday the system's current setup, with a chancellor at each of the four campuses reporting to the president, is ideal. "But these are far from ideal economic times," he said. "The dollars saved must go back into the heart of all four institutions. All are suffering."

He expected the review to take about a year, less if it seemed unworkable. Still, he said, it's worth trying, and he argued there aren't many other places to cut.

Floyd said the university already has consolidated in several areas, including procurement, information technology and instructional research. But this latest approach is brand new, an opportunity that opened with Wallace's retirement.

He could not say how much might be saved if such a plan is pursued. Nor could he say whether it would be a permanent change.

Floyd did say it is not his intention to be the chancellor of the Columbia campus, but rather president of the university. The position of chancellor in Columbia would be eliminated, "nothing more," he said.

"That certainly sounds better," said Lawrence Barton, a chemistry professor at the St. Louis campus since 1966. Barton said the St. Louis campus has 28 percent of the system's students, but only 12 percent of its budget. "It would be difficult to redress this if the president was also Columbia chancellor."

Asked who would represent the Columbia campus, Floyd said that would depend on the setting, but certainly the campus' provost, for example, could fill that role.

One woman in the audience asked Floyd why he hadn't considered assuming the role of the St. Louis campus chancellor, a position vacated by Blanche M. Touhill in December.

"That's a good question," he said to cheers from the audience. "I could not get a buy-in with that approach." He said the two-hour drive between Columbia and St. Louis made it impractical.

He also said the St. Louis campus is "real close" to getting a new chancellor. He wouldn't elaborate.

Most of the crowd seemed satisfied with Floyd's answers. On Monday, he'll head to Kansas City and Rolla to deliver the same message.

"This is a man who keeps his word," Reidhead, the faculty senate chair, said. "He keeps reiterating he understands what we need to be a truly comprehensive urban research center."