UMC HAS ROUGH TIME KEEPING TABS ON ITS RESOURCES

Recent news out of the University of Missouri-Columbia has been somewhat less than reassuring where the management of some resources is concerned. At the Journalism School, they have something called the Center for Advanced Social Research, which is in the business of surveying public opinion. In only two years, the center has made enough bad decisions to plunge into debt to the tune of $460,000.

The decisions that led to this debacle included buying all kinds of new computers, new furniture, hiring more employees and the rental of a new, $35,000 building to house the expanded unit. Bidding procedures seemed the work of rank amateurs. One telling example: A two-year project for the School of Medicine was bid at $14,000, but the contract was canceled when costs reached $98,000 the first year.

Now the center has cut staff, moved out of its expensive new quarters and is, according to administrators, no longer losing money.

These revelations come on the heels of other disturbing financial embarrassments in recent years. A university employee went to prison last year for embezzling more than $600,000 over an extended period of years. State Auditor Margaret Kelly uncovered university funds' being used to subsidize the private University Club at the school's alumni center to the tune, she claimed, of $2.25 million. Wrong, said university officials, who admitted to "only" about $1 million in such subsidies. Well.

In President George Russell, MU has one of the toughest managers in the nation when it comes to getting the most out of their higher-education dollars. Missourians can bet Dr. Russell is embarrassed and that new and better controls will be swiftly implemented to guard against any more such events.

Missouri taxpayers have every right to expect tight fiscal management of the resources they turn over to higher education at our state's leading public institution. These taxpayers are watching to make sure that MU's leadership puts in place sufficient financial controls to guard against future embarrassments.