MU builds to educate, not attract
Published Oct. 6, 2006
Colleges around the country, including MU, have experienced a building boom in recent years to attract students and improve education.
MU has completed construction on 10 projects, notably the Student Recreation Complex, Cornell Hall, Mizzou Arena, the Bond Life Sciences Center and the new residence halls. Campus Facilities Spokesman Phil Shocklee said new capital building projects help the university.
"We want to maintain existing facilities and build new ones to remain competitive with other institutions in recruiting and retaining students," Shocklee said, adding that no buildings are constructed unless they are needed to improve the educational environment at MU.
MU undergraduate enrollment increased from 18,431 to 21,375 students between 2001 and 2005. Other universities, such as six Big 12 schools, have had enrollment decrease during the same time period. This year MU has a record high enrollment while maintaining the same admission standards.
New buildings for some colleges at MU have also increased enrollment numbers. The College of Business moved out of Middlebush Hall, which was built in 1954, and into Cornell Hall after it was completed in 2002.
The college had 3,056 undergraduate students before the move in 2001, compared with 3,824 in 2005.
MU spokesman Christian Basi stressed that the flurry of construction was not done to attract students but to improve the quality of education.
The Life Sciences Center has improved research facilities that enable scientists to do better work and draw scientists that would improve the university's educational quality, he said.
"We are concerned with giving our students the best education and do not build strictly to attract students," Basi said. "It is the quality of education that is going to help students make the decision to come here."
Basi said the reason that MU builds new structures is to accomplish its four missions: to teach students, to research, to serve the state and to be an economic engine for the state.
Coinciding with the building boom, MU improved its four-year graduation rate for first-time college students from 36.7 percent in 2001 to 40.9 percent in 2005, according documents from the MU Registrar's office.
The document said the five-year rate also increased from 60.5 percent to 65.1 percent during the same time period.
But many of these capital projects are financed through funds other than those used on classroom needs. Students voted on an increase in student fees to finance the year-old Student Recreation Complex.
Mizzou Arena was built using money from the athletic department and from a large donation fund. The Life Sciences Center was funded by a federal grant and by the state. Departments such as Residential Life, along with revenue bonds, funded the new residence halls, which include the Southwest Campus Housing Complex and the College Avenue Residence Hall.
There is no end to the construction in sight with four major building projects on campus underway. The campus' master plan also shows more than 20 projects in the planning stages.
