Chancellor's Founders' Celebration Message

On Feb. 11 each year, the University of Missouri-Columbia celebrates its founding. The state was not quite 20 years old in 1839 when the General Assembly passed the Geyer Act to establish the University. In the 166 years since then, Missouri and its state university have grown and prospered together.

That was our lawmakers' original vision. At the time, MU was the first and only public institution of higher learning west of the Mississippi River -- an investment that Missourians made in their future. Its mission then was straightforward: to educate the state's citizens and to promote higher learning throughout Missouri.

As the University has grown, its mission also has grown in size and complexity, but some things haven't changed. We still provide Missouri's young men and women with an exceptional education, and we work hard to make MU a place where all qualified students, no matter what their income level, can be successful.

As part of our strategic planning process, we continually set new goals for our university, and each year we take a hard look at whether we've met those goals. On Founders Day it is appropriate to take a look at how well MU has met the goals Missouri's citizens set for it back in 1839. By any measure, it has exceeded the expectations its founders set 166 years ago.

  • Mizzou is among those American universities that offer the most educational opportunities and the highest level of instruction. MU is one of only 34 public U.S. universities, and the only public institution in the state, selected for membership in the Association of American Universities (AAU), the most prestigious grouping of top-tier universities in the country.
  • Mizzou trains Missouri's leaders and professionals. More of the state's physicians received their medical degrees from MU than any other university, and our academic medical center treats patients from every county. Two-thirds of Missouri veterinarians are MU graduates and 20 percent of the state's attorneys were educated at MU's law school. Mizzou trains the educators who teach our children and run our schools. MU programs help our farmers keep Missouri agricultural products competitive in the world marketplace, and our businesses create and market new products.
  • We attract many of the brightest students in the state. Once at MU, they are nurtured and challenged through award-winning education programs such as Freshman Interest Groups; the "writing across the curriculum" program; rigorous general education requirements; and unparalleled opportunities for undergraduates to work with faculty mentors on the latest research. Those programs and others have become national models embraced by other universities.
  • Through MU Extension and other outreach programs, we provide Missourians the most up-to-date knowledge. Extension has a true commitment to reaching the entire population of the state, no matter the location, income level or occupation of those served. In recent years, the Missouri General Assembly has called upon our expertise again and again to help state and local leaders tackle some of Missouri's toughest problems, from health care to education to the state's infrastructure.

The fact is that at a major research university like ours, we have a different role and different responsibilities than other teaching institutions. We're in the business of producing knowledge, and we have an obligation as a land-grant university to disseminate that knowledge to the people who can best use it. Our ultimate goal is to elevate the quality of life.

Being a research university also means basing our work on the absolute latest, best research. My own philosophy is that a university must be developing new knowledge at all times and in all fields. It's our responsibility to be tapped into the best thinking in the world and convey that in the work we do across the state and nation.

Over the last decade, Mizzou ranks second among all AAU public institutions in the growth of federal research funding. This includes multi-million dollar research grants in cancer imaging, biosafety, arthritis, cardiovascular disease, nanoscience, soybean biotechnology, comparative medicine and math education. Radiopharmaceuticals invented by our medical researchers at the MU Research Reactor have been used to diagnose and treat various types of cancers in tens of thousands of patients.

Since 2000, MU has been one of the nation's top 15 universities in life sciences funding and top 10 in plant genomics funding from the National Science Foundation. MU attracts 72 percent of the federal research dollars flowing into Missouri's public universities. That money doesn't just stay on the Mizzou campus. Last year, our research had a $380 million economic impact on Missouri -- $200 million more than our state appropriation -- and that economic activity created more than 8,000 jobs.

As the state's flagship university, Mizzou has a special responsibility to the citizens of Missouri. It also faces some special challenges. As the state's financial support for higher education has declined, we've had to be even more creative and more nimble to fulfill our most basic obligation: to provide excellent academic programs, including graduate education, for Missouri 's young people. In fact, while weathering budget reductions totaling $61 million, we have educated more students than ever before thanks to a very dedicated faculty and staff.

Faced with those budget pressures, we have refused to compromise the quality of our educational programs. The University of Missouri has had to ask students and their families to pay more of the cost of that education. In fact, last fall was the first time student fees made up a bigger share of our campus budget than did state dollars. But MU remains a great value. Our fellow AAU member in Missouri charges $31,000 in annual tuition, compared to $6,662 at MU.

We've had to face some difficult decisions to make up that shortfall in state funding. The University has reorganized administrative functions to streamline operations, consolidated positions, and left others unfilled. Our most serious challenge, however, is maintaining faculty salaries at competitive levels; we must address this head on to maintain our excellence.

Mizzou's generous supporters have helped offset budget cuts while investing in excellence. To date, more than $524 million has been raised toward the $600 million goal in the For All We Call Mizzou fundraising campaign. As we launch the faculty and staff portion of the campaign, I invite you to join me in helping to make MU even stronger.

This week we pay homage to the past as we step forward on the global stage as a University of the Future. The spirit and vision of our founders continues to be represented at MU by the strength of the Columns, the enormous talent of faculty and staff, the great promise of our students, our partnership with community and state leaders, and the devotion of our alumni and friends. Here's a health to thee, Mizzou, on your 166 th birthday.

Brady J. Deaton
Chancellor