Reporting from KCUR's Dan Verbeck used in this report.
The word “inevitable” is being teamed with “job-losses” if the University of Missouri system is unable to work its way out of an expected 12.5 percent cut in state funding for 2013. The statement comes from the University Curators interim president at the end of its meeting in Kansas City.
A reduction in jobs was not part of the formal agenda for the two-day meetings during which tuition hikes were addressed and tabled until a special meeting later this month. Interim president Stephen Owens was asked about job cuts as a measure to lighten losses ordered by the Governor.
“Given the recommended magnitude of the cut, if it stays in place, it’s inevitable there will be job losses, there will be positions that go unfilled, there will be program reductions and there may be some use of reserves," Owens said. "‘ System wide? Well, probably so.’ ”
Owens says he guesses each campus will have to have a mix of job cuts, leaving vacancies as-is and cuts in educational programs. And it would differ from campus to campus.
