TOUGH CHOICES AHEAD

JACKSON -- John Lichtenegger, an attorney from Jackson, was elected to a one-year term as president of the University of Missouri Board of Curators Friday.

Top issues facing the board during the coming year include reducing personnel, balancing spending with resources, and hiring key new leaders, said Lichtenegger, who begins his term in January.

He succeeds Webb Gilmore as president of the board. Sam Cook, a Jefferson City banker, was elected vice president of the governing body of the four-campus university system.

Lichtenegger, a member of the curator's panel since 1985, has chaired all of its committees and has served as vice president under Gilmore.

In addition to naming new board officers, incentives for early retirement and groundwork for possible layoffs were approved by curators, a major step in the process of balancing spending with resources, Lichtenegger said.

The university system is modifying programs at each campus and eliminating staff in an effort to cut costs.

"We realize the people of Missouri have said no to a tax increase, so we are following a path of what we feel Missouri citizens want us to be living within the resources we do have available.

"We are refining and focusing our mission on the four campuses," he said.

The University of Missouri system includes campuses at Rolla, St. Louis, Kansas City and Columbia, and the university extension program.

"These cuts will affect all four campuses," he said. "We will be eliminating some programs and reducing others."

Lichtenegger said, "There will be a great outcry defending particular programs. But everything at the university will be compared to the total value to the university and to the state. Nothing is immune. There are no sacred cows.

"In order to meet these kinds of financial situations, we must focus on what we do best in terms of the mission the job we have to do in educating young people," he said.

The early retirement package is a one-time offer aimed at eliminating up to 750 jobs and could cut some $20 million from the payroll. If the effort falls short of eliminating the desired number of jobs, there will be layoffs, Lichtenegger said.

He said plans calls for reducing the university system's work force by about 5 percent.

"The cost savings, or the net money produced by the reductions, will go back in to strengthen all the programs and courses we will maintain," Lichtenegger said.

"We are doing this to preserve the quality of the institution. We do not believe in across-the-board cuts. You certainly do not enhance the quality by doing that."

Lichtenegger said the curators will receive a report in February on what programs may be eliminated or reduced.

"This is a very time consuming and painful process," he said. "Some of these people have worked a lifetime for the university and they will lose their jobs.

"These are real live people with families and children. It's an unfortunate thing we have to do."

Lichtenegger said transition assistance will be provided to those people who will take early retirement or who will be laid off.

While the budget cuts may capture headlines during the coming year, Lichtenegger said the most important job of the board will be selection of chancellors for university campuses at Rolla and Kansas City and a new extension services director.

"All three of those positions are vacant now. Half of our top leadership positions are vacant," he said.

"We feel selecting the best leadership for the university is one of the most important roles curators play.

"We don't get involved in suggesting what programs are cut or reduced. We have to have confidence in the leadership.

"The president of the curators works very closely with the president of the university," Lichtenegger said. "All his power emanates from our board. We have entrusted in him the authority to manage and direct the university."

The curators have eight scheduled board meetings a year, but he predicted the board will meet many more times this year as it interviews finalists for the chancellorships and director of extension services, and as the program changes are decided.

Lichtenegger said he and other members of the board were very pleased with a report by the new president of the four-campus system, George Russell, who officially took over in November.

"It was fascinating to see the grasp of the whole picture he had after just one month of being president, and the action he has taken. We actually have a plan to deal with our problems."