President Choi’s testimony to the House Subcommittee on Appropriations – Education

President Choi testified on Jan. 26 in front of the House Subcommittee on Appropriations - Education. His remarks can be found below:

Chairman Black, Vice Chair Shields, Rep. Burnett and committee members
Let me begin by thanking you for your strong support of public higher education
Because of your support, we can educate students for the workforce, perform meaningful research and create economic impact in the state.
Despite the many challenges of 2020, we kept our focus on achieving excellence in these missions.
I’ll begin with some highlights of student success.

Student Success

Enrollment this past fall for the UM System.
For example at MU, at 30,849, was up 4% from the prior year (~1,200 additional students).
Our spring enrollment is up 3% from the prior year (~900 additional students)
Our professional programs, which are unique to the UM System, have been very productive.
Each year, we graduate more than
200 MDs (MU and UMKC)
130 Pharmacists (UMKC, Springfield, Columbia)
2,100 Engineers (BS, MS and PhD from all campuses)
110 VMDs (MU)
500 PhDs (All campuses)
These graduates are critical for the healthcare, technology and economic development priorities of the state
We are the only public research universities in the state that can do this.
We’re very pleased to report that despite the pandemic,
Our graduation rates, the most important factor for student success, are at an all-time high for all 4 universities.
Just last night, USN&WR released their rankings for 2021 best online programs:
- S&T’s engineering master’s ranked #18th in the country.
- UMKC’s Master of Nursing ranked #23rd in the country.
- Mizzou’s bachelor’s programs ranked #14th in the country.
- And UMSL ranks #16th in the country for social mobility.
We’ll continue to achieve excellence so that students can receive an unmatched education.

Research Success

As you know, we’re only public research universities in Missouri.
- As such, we take this mission very seriously.
Each year, our universities perform more than $450M in R&D in a variety of fields.
The impact is simply immense:
- At S&T, Professor Laura Bartlett and her colleagues are creating advanced metals for armor and hypersonic planes through a $20M Department of Defense Grant. (this ties into the phenomenal $300M Kummer Gift to S&T)
- At UMKC, Professor Holly Hagle and her colleagues are developing new prevention and treatment programs for opioid addition through a $13M grant.
- At UMSL, Professor Shea Kerkhoff and her colleagues are producing new research to increase literacy in Missouri through a $2M grant.
- At MU, Dr. David Robertson and his colleagues just signed a long-term partnership with a Novartis company to create new treatments to treat breast and prostate cancers.
There are thousands of projects like these.
And through our research, we are literally saving lives.
The cancer project is a key component for NextGen Precision Health
Your support for NextGen is greatly appreciated.
This example shows the impact of NextGen can be,
- more than 70,000 people in the world with liver cancer have been treated using Therasphere (our breakthrough from 20 years ago that involved technologies from S&T and MU.)
The goal for NextGen is to accelerate the biomedical discoveries to improve and save lives right here in Missouri.

Engagement and Outreach

During the pandemic, our role as the Land Grant university made an impact to every region of the state.
Our faculty, staff and students:
- Produced COVID PPEs that were in short supply in many regions of the state.
- Supported rural healthcare needs through more than 1,000 telemedicine visits per day.
- Created mass COVID testing programs for citizens throughout mid-Missouri.
- Increased access to rural broadband by supporting the efforts of electric co-ops.
- Assisted farmers and small business with access to government PPP loans to sustain their businesses
- Worked with veterans to get much-needed benefits that they were entitled to.
Our mission as Land Grant universities is simple.
- We will wake up each day and ask how our work can support Missourians and improve their lives.

Response to our budget crisis

It is often said that our universities receive more state support per student than any other university.
- That is true……But, we’re also asked to do far more… and we deliver.
In many ways, we go above and beyond what is expected of a typical university because of our RESEARCH and EXTENSION mission and the mandate to provide professional degrees like medicine and engineering.
In many states, these important missions are carved out from the core to reflect their importance to the state.
When these mission differences are considered,
- we are funded at around $4,000 per student
- This is not only the lowest in the state of Missouri but one of the lowest in the United States.
During the past 4 years, we’ve transformed our university to address the financial challenges.
- For example, we’ve cut nearly $300M from our budget and reduced 1,500 administrative positions.
- But, further cuts will have a lasting effect that are deleterious.
In my mind, there is no more important investment than in public higher education
- - The investment for workforce training, research, extension and professional degrees create economic benefits for the state.
  - In 2018, we measured $5.4B in economic impact to Missouri through our work.
  - That is a staggering 13 to 1 in return on investment for the state.
    
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In closing, I leave you with our request for FY22:
We are requesting $428 million to maintain our core funding
as well as the $10M for NextGen Precision Health to be rolled into the core so that we can continue to improve and save lives in Missouri.
I want to thank you for taking the time to bring us here today

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President Choi’s testimony to the House Subcommittee on Appropriations – Education

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