Our View: Everyone will lose if budget is slashed

By: The Standard Editorial Board

Posted: 2/9/10

One quick read of Department of Higher Education Commissioner Robert Stein's letter to presidents and chancellors of state universities would probably leave most people with a sense of impending doom. Read it twice, and it seems a little over the top.

Some of the key words were in that bulleted list of cost saving ideas: all athletic programs could be eliminated. Really? Cut all of the athletic programs?

After a year like this in sports for this University, it's hard to even fathom that idea.

Stein also mentions in his letter to supplement for the decrease in state funding state universities and colleges would need to increase private fundraising, meaning private donations.

Private donations are often made to academic programs as well as athletic programs. So while athletic programs bleed money, they also bring in money. To eliminate them may not be much help to any university, Missouri State included.

Yes, 2011 looks scary, and 2012 looks even scarier. However, this letter gets a bit Henny Penny on the future. University presidents across the state are surely shaking in their wingtips.

Undoubtably, this letter will spur some conversation and heated debate.

Some likely changes to expect are increasing class sizes and faculty workloads. President Nietzel previously mentioned these ideas in his town hall meetings.

Beyond that, the future is bleak, but the sky is not yet falling.