Truman State University’s Board of Governors gathered for its first meeting of 2018 this week.
University President Sue Thomas addressed the governor’s recent proposal to reduce funding to all of Missouri’s public universities, including Truman, and what this means for the 2018-2019 academic year. She also announced Truman expects to meet all six of the performance goals set by the state Coordinating Board for Higher Education. This would enable Truman to receive all core state funding under the proposed budget. Were Truman to not meet all six goals, parts of the institution’s core funding would be withheld. In addition, Thomas said the Sesquicentennial Presidential Celebration is coming up in April to celebrate all 16 of Truman’s presidents. Thirteen of the 16 presidents will be represented at the event and a few living presidents will also be able to attend.
Also during the meeting, senior Kyra Cooper, Student Senate president, and senior Sarah Holtmeyer, Student Senate vice president, shared Student Senate accomplishments since August. These include changes to the University’s Liberal Studies Program, creating domestic violence prevention posters and the addition of the Purple Fridays committee to the Senate. They also presented plans for the spring semester of 2018, which include a renovation of the library pit, a list of Kirksville resources for students new to the area, and the creation of multilingual maps and emergency procedures.
Laura A. Crandall, Board of Governors vice chair, presented three action items for the board to vote on. The first two were the inclusion of new online graduate degree programs at Truman, a Master’s of Mental Health Counseling and a Master’s of School Counseling. Crandall said there are few programs conducted completely online in the nation for these subjects, and the courses would be great for students currently at Truman.