MIZZOU NEWS

Deaton Appointed
Interim Chancellor

Note: This is an excerpt of a story published originally in the April 29 issue of Mizzou Weekly, a publication for faculty and staff of the University of Missouri-Columbia.

As Provost Brady Deaton prepares to step into the role of interim chancellor Sept. 1, he will draw on more than a decade of experience in the central campus administration. As provost and executive vice chancellor he helped design many of the academic initiatives and strategic planning that have kept MU moving forward in the face of state funding shortfalls.

At an April 22 news conference, Deaton pledged to provide the continuity and stability necessary for that progress to continue. “Chancellor Wallace has led a planning effort that we all are harnessed into and just feel great about. We’ve had an enunciation of the values of this university and those values are embedded in our planning and in our program development,” Deaton said.

“I feel a tremendous responsibility to everyone involved in that set of programs to ensure that they go forward, that they do not get sidetracked or dislodged from the major initiatives we have under way.”

Chancellor Richard Wallace will retire Aug. 31. Before then, Deaton said, he will be talking to constituents across campus and with UM System President Elson Floyd “to ensure that we have the appropriate leadership in place across the entire spectrum of the campus administration.”

Deaton said he was interested in the permanent position, and didn’t see a conflict in serving as interim chancellor during the search. “I think that’s a very common process in administrative positions at universities and elsewhere,” Deaton said. For instance, Wallace served as interim chancellor while he was in the running for his current job. “The critical thing,” Deaton said, “is that you’re doing what’s best for the University.”

He acknowledged that while MU is making dramatic progress on a number of fronts, it does face important challenges. As state appropriations have dwindled, the University has had to make up some of the difference through higher student tuition and fees.

That makes student financial aid even more important, Deaton said. Several months ago he asked staff to look at the campus financial aid policy “to ensure that relatively low-income families have greater access to this university,” he said. “What we were finding was that Stanford or Harvard could offer them full-ride scholarships when we could not, and I don’t think that’s an acceptable policy.

“There are proposals being developed right now that will provide more support for low-income families, because we are concerned,” he said. “We are a major land-grant university, a public research university, and the lowest-income families in this state ought to have full access to this university if students from those families have the capability to succeed here.”

More than $50 million of the $600 million “For All We Call Mizzou” comprehensive campaign is targeted to endow student scholarships. “Scholarships are critical to the potential of this university; it is a major goal of the campaign,” he said. “Private sector giving is fundamental to the future of this university.”

Faculty and staff salaries are another critical issue, Deaton said. “We are committed to ensuring that salaries at this campus are commensurate with the best of our competition.

“Earlier we had a goal of trying to target our salaries at the median of AAU public universities. Whatever level we set our target at, we have to ensure that the productivity of our faculty, in measures of scholarship, in measures of teaching and service, also meet that median level.

“As the quality of this campus grows, as we garner new resources from the public and private sectors, we have to be committed to salary goals that ensure that we maintain the quality of faculty that we need to achieve our mission. I will continue to be very aggressive, as I have been in the past, to try to ensure that salary goals are met for faculty as well as for staff.”

Also critical is the need to cultivate closer relationships with the state legislature. “Those relationships are vital, because we must enable the people of the state to be informed about the value of this institution to them,” Deaton said. “I am dedicated to promoting a closer relationship, a closer dialogue and better understanding of the fundamental importance of higher education to our legislature and to the public at large.”

Although some issues that MU faces can be complex, the final goal is straightforward, Deaton said. “Ultimately, we’re trying to make the University of Missouri the best university in the world, and all of our effort and devotion are toward that goal.”

Archives | Comments | Home

SUBSCRIPTIONS
Subscribe | Change Your Address | Unsubscribe

Copyright © 2007 — Curators of the University of Missouri
DMCA and other copyright information.
All rights reserved. An equal opportunity/ADA institution.
Published by the Mizzou Alumni Association
Questions? Comments? E-mail comments@mizzoualumni.org

Last Update: November 15, 2007