New UM president makes campus tours

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Incoming University of Missouri President Elson S. Floyd pledged Thursday to "make partnerships" in winning citizen and legislative backing as well as private financial support for higher education.

Floyd, whose hiring was confirmed Wednesday, was traveling to all four campuses in a single day -- and he pledged to visit the four corners of Missouri.

"My primary goal is to become better acquainted with the university. I'm going to visit 114 counties and talk about the outreach extension and how the university does make a significant impact on the quality of the lives in the state," Floyd, 46, said during Thursday's first stop at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

The new president is on a sharp learning curve about the state's shrinking higher education spending. Floyd visited Jefferson City within hours of Wednesday's announcement of his hiring, meeting the governor and hearing the incoming House budget chief forecast zero growth in state financial support for the 60,000-student system.

'Critical role'

Floyd said he wants to "make partnerships with the General Assembly and the governor's office and recognize the important role the private sector can play. Private money determines the margin of excellence for this university. I'm going to be very passionate in this critical role of the university in that context."

Floyd will be the first black president in the university's 163-year history. He said improving diversity among faculty, staff and students is important for all four campuses. "We need to make sure that the faces students see throughout the institution, are the faces that they see back," Floyd said.

Floyd was also flying Thursday to news conferences on the Columbia, Kansas City and Rolla campuses.

He comes to the Missouri job from Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, where he has been president since 1998. He is a North Carolina native with bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was executive vice chancellor before going to Western Michigan.

Budget worries

Interviews with university students and faculty members in Missouri repeatedly reflected budget anxieties. Damon Smith, 22, a political science major from Kansas City, paused in the University of Missouri-Columbia's Black Culture Center to express admiration about the curators' selection of the system's first black president.

"But we have a budget crisis and it doesn't matter if the new president is black or brown or purple -- money is green and that's the most important color we need to be thinking about at our university," said Smith, who is black.

At the Kansas City campus, student government president Chad Blessing was eager to welcome Floyd and size up the new president's leadership ability amid what Blessing called "a budget crisis."

The current university allocation from the state is $44 million less than the prior budget year. The university offered early retirement buyouts to several hundred employees, reduced programs on all campuses and raised student fees.

"It can't be just one person who can accomplish funding relief, but as president of the University of Missouri system, he represents everybody," Blessing said. "So I look for him to take a strong stand not only for the University of Missouri system but for higher education being a priority in our state."

Floyd arrived in Missouri on Wednesday as his hiring was publicly confirmed by the university's Board of Curators. He takes over Jan. 6 from Manuel Pacheco, the university's first Hispanic president, who is retiring.

Among Floyd's first stops was a private meeting with Gov. Bob Holden. The governor said afterward that Floyd is "personable, highly qualified and appears to demonstrate the leadership qualities needed to make some very hard choices during tight budgetary times."

Slumping state revenues and a sluggish economy have prompted reductions in state spending across the board. The state portion of the university budget, $443 million in the last fiscal year, was reduced to $399 million this year.