University program uses $5 million to create jobs
Forsee revealed the program in his State of the University address.
Published Jan. 29, 2010, last updated 6:31 p.m., Nov. 13, 2010
KANSAS CITY — UM system President Gary Forsee announced the system will establish a three-year, $5 million plan to create more jobs across Missouri.
The plan, called the Enterprise Investment Program, was announced at the Board of Curators meeting Friday in Kansas City.
Forsee focused a good amount of his State of the University speech on the economic concerns affecting the system and the state. He said the UM system must be proactive in creating new jobs to bring in money for the university and the state.
"We need to fully do our part in the state to help build sustaining revenue growth and job growth," he said. "We need to recognize that role education has played in our state's past and will play in our future."
An outside advisory panel representing various business sectors will be formed to review funding applications and recommend funding awards. The panel will review business plans and their proposed use of funds. It will begin this summer, and the system hopes to award its first funding by the fall.
Curator Warren Erdman of Kansas City said the university's goal to create economic ventures has developed well since he joined the board in 2007.
"It's come light years," Erdman said. "I'm particularly proud our university is willing to establish benchmarks. When we go to the legislature and make our case, it's strengthened by the fact that we're willing to move forward."
MU already houses the Life Sciences Business Incubator at Monsanto Place, which aims to form and recruit new companies and graduating them as self-sustaining companies. Forsee said businesses coming out of the incubator or other enterprises, such as Newsy or the Tiger Institute for Health partnership with Cerner, are examples of ways the UM system can create jobs to aid the economy.
Gov. Jay Nixon is gunning for a jobs plan this legislative session that could help revive the state's economy. The Missouri First program would make businesses that have been in Missouri for more than five years eligible for certain incentives. Another program, the Missouri Science and Innovation Reinvestment Act, aims to create jobs in science and technology, and a third program would allow for $12 million in job-training programs at community colleges.
Despite the proposal of various economic development programs at the statewide level, Forsee said it's important for the UM system to help where it can. He admitted $5 million is "not a lot of money" from the university's $1 billion operating budget and added creating jobs is part of the core mission of the university.
"It's not just teaching and learning," Forsee said. "We've been criticized in the past for not doing enough."
Some faculty and staff have used comment boards to criticize the move, saying the money should have gone to improving MU's faculty salaries, which rank 33 out of 34 of schools in the Association of American Universities. But Faculty Council Chairwoman Leona Rubin said that wouldn't have been much of a solution.
"Sad as it may seem, $5 million dollars would not put a dent in our salary woes," she said in an e-mail.
Rubin said the university's role in external activities, such as job creation, could reflect on its mission to educate students through research.
"This activity has the potential to benefit both faculty and students in the short term through research and entrepreneurial activities," she said. "If we consider that our primary mission is to educate students to be productive members of society and the workforce, the university as a whole needs to be concerned with more than just its core teaching responsibilities."