Mizzou president Gary Forsee completes first year

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Gary Forsee didn't expect to spend much of his first year as University of Missouri president digging out from what many consider the country's worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

But given that scenario, the former chairman and chief executive of Sprint Nextel Corp. finds himself on familiar ground. Instead of antsy shareholders, however, he must now reassure faculty and staff worried about job security and students and parents struggling to pay for college while watching their financial nest eggs shrivel.

"Market factors were always constant. That was the nature of what [publicly traded] companies go through," Forsee said. "Hopefully I can bring to bear my experience in that dynamic. I was used to it."

Wednesday marks Forsee's first year in charge of the four-campus Missouri system. While he lacks the charisma of his predecessor, Elson Floyd, and admits to being more comfortable in the board room than the classroom, Forsee has earned high marks for his cool demeanor, grace under pressure and financial acumen.

"Before he came on board, we had very high expectations," said Columbia banker Bo Fraser, chairman of the university's board of curators. "He has exceeded those high expectations. ... We're very fortunate to have his leadership guiding us at this difficult time."

University of Missouri System President Gary Forsee speaks to lawmakers about the importance of funding higher education during a seminar for state senators Thursday morning, Jan. 22, 2009, in Jefferson City, Mo. Forsee, a former chairman and chief executive of Sprint-Nextel, will mark his first full year as president on Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2009. (AP Photo/Kelley McCall)

Some of the changes enacted by Forsee have been subtle, such as requiring visitors at curator meetings to wear identification badges. And the road leading to Providence Point, the university's home for the president and his wife, now has a security gate to deter intruders.

Other changes are more drastic. In a State of the University speech delivered earlier this month, Forsee outlined an agenda for the coming year that includes working with the state's top employers to ensure that graduates of the Missouri system leave school with the necessary skills for the modern workplace.

'Game on'

He plans an outside performance audit to keep the university accountable to taxpayers and lawmakers. Describing his response to a similar request for public accountability made in a St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial, Forsee replied, "Game on."

And this week, he has taken his message about the university's financial struggles -- which led to a hiring freeze late last year, several sharply worded campuswide memos to reduce spending and a request to curators for the authority to furlough employees if necessary -- to the St. Louis, Kansas City and Columbia campuses.

Similar meetings will take place in Rolla and at the system's Columbia offices in the next several weeks.

"In the most challenging of times, for me to be out there and visible is important," he said.

Forsee, 58, wasn't the curators' first choice to succeed Floyd, who left in April 2007 for the presidency at Washington State University. The preferred candidate, at least initially, was New Jersey businessman Terry Sutter. Kenny Hulshof, the former congressman, was also a finalist.

But Sutter turned down the job offer and instead became chief operating officer of a Florida steel manufacturer. A new round of confidential interviews ensued, culminating in the December 2007 hiring of Forsee.

The Kansas City native knows the state well, moving often for his father's job with the Social Security Administration and later as a young telephone industry executive. He grew up in Moberly, St. Joseph and Cape Girardeau, where he graduated high school. In 1972, he graduated from was the University of Missouri-Rolla, which is now Missouri University of Science & Technology.

Forsee later lived in Hannibal, Joplin, Springfield, Charleston and St. Louis as well as Atlanta and overseas as he climbed the telecom ladder. A 35-year career in the industry included top executive jobs in this country and abroad with AT&T, BellSouth and GlobalOne before he took over Sprint in 2003.

That job didn't turn out as Forsee had hoped -- he resigned under pressure from board members and shareholders unhappy with declining stock prices and customer losses after the 2005 merger of Sprint and Nextel. For his troubles, Forsee received a $55 million severance.

Tuition and budget cuts

In October 2008, Forsee and his wife, Sherry, tapped some of that personal wealth and donated $1 million toward a new distance education technology network that will link the four university system campuses. He is paid $400,000 annually, with an additional $100,000 in performance-based incentives.

Forsee has also impressed lawmakers in Jefferson City, where one of new Gov. Jay Nixon's first policy moves was to craft a deal to spare the university system from budget cuts in exchange for a promise by Forsee and other public higher education leaders to not raise tuition. That measure still requires legislative approval.

Nixon is also expected to take the unusual but not unprecedented step of reappointing former board of curators chairman Don Walsworth to a second, six-year term as curator -- largely as credit for the Marceline businessman's role in hiring Forsee.

Not everyone on campus is as enamored with Forsee. When Forsee raised the idea of furloughs, and convinced curators to require employees to contribute to their retirement plans, some faculty groups grumbled that he hadn't sufficiently consulted them ahead of time.

Forsee responded with the manner of a man accustomed to leading large organizations, even slipping in some corporate-speak as he referred to faculty and staff on the four campuses.

"In a perfect world, all 26,950 of our associates would have had a personal conversation with me," he said. "That's not going to take place. That's not practical."

The financial challenges ahead are not unique to Missouri's higher education system. In Chapel Hill, N.C., home to one of the nation's top public universities, officials are also considering furloughs and layoffs while asking departments to cut discretionary spending.

And in Tennessee, Board of Regents Chancellor Charles Manning has proposed a two-tiered system to save money, with discounted tuition available to students who pursue online learning free of faculty involvement other than grading.

Brady Deaton, chancellor of the Missouri system's flagship Columbia campus, said Forsee's business-minded approach is not only necessary but vital.

"It represents a corporate view of the things that are needed right now in our best judgment to keep the university on a stable and secure path to the future," Deaton said.