Column: Library budget cuts show disregard for higher ed.
Published Nov. 2, 2007
I was reading The Maneater recently — not something I would do regularly, I assure you — and I came across an interesting article. It had to do with the woeful state of Ellis Library. And I'm talking about finances, not the bathrooms. It would appear as though the prime reserve of knowledge on campus (besides me, of course) is operating with a $600,000 budget deficit. In fact, as costs have gone up, the library's budget has not, and Ellis has been forced to cut staff.
I suppose cutting staff is excusable. Although some services could suffer due to a lack of employees, it's not like the books will burst into flames because Johnny McFreshman lost his work study. But then I saw something really alarming: The library will cut back on book purchases. What the fuck? How on earth can you have a proper library without books? Does the university expect me to get all my knowledge from Wikipedia.org?
The library has indicated that most, if not all, of the cutbacks will involve scholarly journals. You know, the things that people really need for research. Yep, those. Now, I know that most students won't be impacted by a dearth of The Journal of Etymology, but this fiscal crisis is indicative of a larger problem facing MU and Missouri as a whole: a blatant disregard for education.
It was revealed that MU professors are some of the lowest paid in the nation and other universities have been sending recruiters to MU to poach our best and brightest. The lack of money, coupled with the lack of scholarly resources, will no doubt play heavily upon the minds of targeted professors and will contribute to centrifugal tendencies. After all, most professors are devoted to research. Do you actually think professors have their jobs so they can lecture a bunch of drunken half-wits at 9 a.m.?
I can't say I blame the MU administration completely. Waste and graft are readily apparent at MU, but this is true of any large university. What is really troubling about attending Missouri is that despite our relatively high tuition (highest in the Big 12), we seem to be just scraping by. This thriftiness is made necessary, by and large, by the actions of the Missouri legislature.
Missouri ranks No. 47 in per-capita spending on higher education. Over the past two years, higher-education spending has increased by a miniscule amount, not even enough to keep up with inflation.
This refusal to invest in higher education is preposterous. The Republican-controlled legislature seems to have nothing but contempt for higher education in Missouri and often seeks to play politics instead of promoting Missouri's colleges and universities. (Look no further than the proposed bill to strip MU of funding for buildings where stem-cell research could take place.) To be sure, MU has friends in the legislature but not near enough. This is the reason for the For All We Call Mizzou campaign to raise $1 billion to add to the university's endowment. It is a sad state of affairs when legislators are so callous toward their constituents that they are satisfied with granting their public universities funding worthy of a second-rate institution.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture lists 16 counties in Missouri as in a state of "perpetual poverty," meaning 20 percent or more of that county's population lives below the poverty line, according to reports from the Kansas City Star. Economically successful states long ago embraced higher education and appreciated it for what it was: a magnet for intelligent, dynamic young people and a boon to the economy.
As long as the legislature refuses to fully fund higher education and as long as Missourians keep reelecting such foes of knowledge, Missouri will remain a relative backwater, steeped in poverty.
avtty5@mizzou.edu