MU CURATORS MOVE TO REDUCE WORK FORCE

ST. LOUIS The University of Missouri Board of Curators voted Friday to eliminate 604 faculty and staff positions from across the four-campus system over the next five years.

A voluntary early retirement program, implemented by the board in December, will result in the retirement of another 705 faculty and staff.

In all, about 1,300 jobs are being eliminated or about 10 percent of the total work force in the university system.

The reduction in the work force is part of a plan to reallocate $125 million over the next five years to pay for various improvements, including repair of school buildings, higher salaries, more student aid and better libraries.

"I know of no other college or university in the United States that has had that kind of reallocation take place in such a short time frame," said John Lichtenegger of Jackson, president of the board.

"We are going to continue to provide a strong core curriculum at all four of those campuses, but we are going to operate it leaner and more efficiently," he said Saturday.

An attorney, Lichtenegger was unable to attend Friday's board meeting because of a trial he had in Cape Girardeau.

The daylong board meeting was held on the campus of the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

Lichtenegger said the board is committed to reviewing every program and degree offering in the four-campus system. "Everything we do at the university is in the process of being reviewed.

"I think all colleges and universities do that to a degree, but I know of none engaged in the process of scrutiny as closely as we are," said Lichtenegger.

George Russell, president of the University of Missouri system and a native of Southeast Missouri, said Friday that the cuts in personnel are part of "right-sizing" the four campuses.

"At the right size and the right balance and with properly prepared students," he said, "both undergraduate teaching and inquiry will flourish as they now do at the best institutions in this nation."

As part of the reallocation effort, the curators Friday eliminated two programs the community development department, and undergraduate and selected graduate programs in the health and physical education department at the Columbia campus and made budget cuts throughout the University of Missouri system.

Officials said elimination of the two programs by fiscal year 1997 would save the university system $574,000 annually.

The campus cuts included $6.4 million at Columbia, $6.53 million at Kansas City, $4.8 million at Rolla, and $580,000 at St. Louis. In addition, $450,000 is being cut from the university's extension system.

Of the 705 people taking early retirement, 252 are faculty or University of Missouri Extension personnel. The other 453 are staff members, university officials said.

The early retirement program will result in a payroll savings of nearly $23 million, officials said.

Of the 604 faculty and staff jobs being eliminated, 419 are staff positions. In all, 177 staff and faculty jobs are being cut at the Columbia campus, 141 at Kansas City, 114 at Rolla, 34 at St. Louis, 33 from the Extension system, and more than 100 from the university system administration.

Lichtenegger said the faculty and staff reductions will mean a savings of $23 million to $24 million.

On top of that, the university is implementing a tuition hike over five years that will be generating an additional $44 million in revenue by the fifth year.

Curator Sam Cook said the restructuring effort and personnel cuts "are decisions which are both thankless and gut-wrenching."

Cook said that during economic expansion, universities nationwide expanded staffs and programs.

"There seems to be a natural law during periods of expansion whereby excessive layers of bureaucracy, organizational fat and non-directional growth are produced, which may dilute or even obscure the central purposes and objectives of a company or an institution," he said.

In contrast, during tough economic times, he said, "management is forced to redefine its mission and to reorganize for both greater efficiency and better quality."

In other business Friday, the curators named John Park, 57, as chancellor of the Rolla campus. Park had served as interim chancellor at the school since last June when former chancellor Martin Jischke became president of Iowa State University.