Murray State President Bob Davies will deliver his first “state of the university” address November 9. He spoke with Todd Hatton on what he plans to cover, ranging from the state’s significant pension liability to university funding and even the ongoing 16th St.discussion.
Kentucky Pension Woes' Effect on MSU
Davies says the Commonwealth’s recurring funding cuts to education and its pension liability are significant university concerns. Kentucky currently faces about $30 billion in unfunded pension liability; MSU’s share stands at $234 million.
Davies says while the entire amount isn’t due immediately, the university may have to cover a portion of that price. He says that, combined with lower state funding, means MSU could have to be creative in how it makes money.
“We have positioned ourselves as a strong, low-cost provider of education. Verging on the word 'cheap,' I will say,” Davies said. “We need to be thinking about how we position ourselves with value added and think about new revenue streams that we will need to garner beyond state appropriation.”
Tougher Admission Standards and Rewarding High-Achieving Students
As part of MSU’s strategic plan, beginning with the fall 2016 semester, the university will impose stricter admission standards. That includes a minimum 18 ACT composite score.
Davies says in years past, potentially unprepared students were admitted with exceptions that included mandatory remedial courses.
“Admitting 100 or 200 or so students that aren’t going to be successful, statically speaking, presents a dilemma to us in terms of ethics - taking their tuition dollars, but they’re leaving us after a year or two of work without a diploma, without success, and also a transcript that is in hard shape,” Davies said.
Davies says he expects a temporary enrollment dip when those new standards take place, but numbers should come back up within a year or two. He also says the university’s working with area community colleges to ensure all students seeking higher education find their place.
“We’ve actually started a process to maintain contact with them as they go through the community college so that that transition to Murray State, once they’ve got that academic rigor and are prepared, that they can come to Murray State, they can thrive and move forward,” Davies said.
At the same time, Davies says he’s interested in rewarding incoming freshman that demonstrate college readiness.
“We are also talking about the financial aspect too, making sure that we have a robust scholarship program to reward students who come to us academically prepared, as well as students who come to us -maybe they’re not receiving academic scholarships as a freshman- but they hit their stride while they’re here,” Davies said. “Right now, we don’t have a mechanism to reward them financially.”
The 16th St. Discussion
For months, Murray officials along with MSU representatives have been undecided on how to improve safety while maintaining traffic flow through 16th St., which cuts through the university campus. In September, the city commissioned BFW Engineers of Paducah to draw up potential modifications that included a bridge and an alternate route.
While the project has been shelved for a couple months, Davies says it’s still an important topic.
“If Murray State was on an island, the ideal thing would be to close 16th Street,” Davies said. “There are too many near incidents [and] incidents that occur. We’ve got students and faculty and staff crossing there multiple times throughout the day, we’ve got cars going up and down. But, we’re not on an island.”
Davies says one often-discussed idea includes a temporary closure to examine the impact on traffic flow. Davies also says he is opposed to building a bridge over the street, as he believes it would cost too much and could disrupt the university’s layout.
“This is a city street and ultimately, it’s a city decision,” Davies said. “While we’re not the only stakeholder, we’re a pretty big stakeholder on this and we need to do something that’s beneficial to Murray State and also to the city.”
