MISSOURI HIGHER EDUCATION COMMISSIONER TO STAY ON JOB

Charles McClain will stay on as Missouri's commissioner of higher education for another year at the urging of Gov. Mel Carnahan and the Coordinating Board for Higher Education.

"The governor asked me to stay on for another year while the board was in a state of transition," McClain said Wednesday from his Jefferson City office.

McClain, who has served as commissioner since 1989, announced last September that he would step down within a year.

But he agreed last week to remain on the job through the 1994-95 academic year.

"At this crucial juncture in higher education, Charles' exemplary leadership will ensure continuity within the organization and foster the smoothest transition possible," the governor said in a statement.

McClain said there are three relatively new members to the board and at least two more will be named this summer.

"I think it is important that the board that is going to be around awhile be the board that appoints a new commissioner," McClain said.

The coordinating board had appointed a search committee to look at hiring a new commissioner. The committee included Southeast Missouri State University President Kala Stroup, representing the four-year public colleges and universities.

McClain said one of the factors in his decision to remain as commissioner for another year was that the coordinating board failed to settle on a successor.

McClain, who previously served as president of Northeast Missouri State University in Kirksville, sat in on the selection process. "I sat in on the meetings and I gave them my professional opinion."

But he said he doesn't want to be involved in the new search. The search committee looked at about 40 applications. "They narrowed it down to about 10," he said.

The list almost was whittled to three, but the search process never got to the interview stage, McClain said.

There was speculation that former Southeast president Bill Stacy, who now heads up California State University at San Marcos, might apply. But McClain said Stacy never applied for the post.

Mary Findley of Poplar Bluff, the newest member of the coordinating board -- who was appointed earlier this year -- said she and her fellow board members are glad that McClain's staying on for another year.

"We are very pleased that Dr. McClain has continued and given us time to search for a new commissioner," she said. "We want to be sure that we find a person whose philosophy fits the views of the new board."

She said the board, at its meeting in St. Louis last Thursday, unanimously agreed with the governor to keep McClain at the helm.

Findley said that while no successor has been found, some of the applicants have strong credentials. She added that she hopes some of the candidates reapply.

"I would not want to give the impression that there was not a qualified candidate there," said Findley.

As to higher education itself, McClain said he's worried more about future funding of on-going operations at the state's public colleges and universities than he is about the riverboat gambling issue.

Carnahan had proposed using riverboat gambling revenue to pay for capital improvement projects on the state's college campuses. But Missourians rejected a riverboat gambling measure earlier this month.

McClain said that while such capital projects are needed, a more serious concern is the possibility of Hancock II, a new tax limitation measure that's been proposed.

Such a measure, he said, could result in drastic budget cuts in higher education. "One scenario is that higher education could lose as much as $150 to $200 million, which would be about a third of its general revenue appropriation," he said.

"That would just devastate higher ed," said McClain. "It would be draconian."

He said Missouri's public colleges and universities in recent years have focused on their missions -- streamlining operations and "getting their houses in order."

Said McClain, "I think they are on the right track generally. They need a pat on the back and a bump in the treasury rather than a kick in the rear."