Proposed state funding could bring new academic buildings and expanded programs focused in high-need areas to Lincoln University and State Technical College of Missouri.
Gov. Mike Parson proposed historic investments during his State of the State address Jan. 19, including $468.9 million in capital improvement projects at each of the state's institutions of higher education and increased core funding for public colleges and universities.
Jessica Duren, assistant commissioner for communications and outreach at the Missouri Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development, said capital improvement projects are top priority projects chosen by the colleges and universities at the request of the Governor's Office.
For Lincoln University, that would mean funding a $40 million Health Sciences and Crisis Center to house its nursing, pre-med and STEM programs, as well as the newly proposed Security Science Institute, which includes the LU Law Enforcement Training Academy and certification and licensing programs in cybersecurity, emergency management, geospatial information services and criminal justice.
State funding would go toward constructing a 40,000 square-foot facility in or near Elliff Hall, which currently houses the nursing department at 709 E. Dunklin St.
Interim LU President John Moseley said the university has talked for many years about expanding to increase the size and capacity of its nursing school.
"The question is whether or not we could build into Elliff and potentially do some renovations in Elliff of the existing space or whether it would be completely new construction," Moseley said.
Nursing is one of Lincoln's top academic programs with more students passing the National Licensure Exam than the national average and 100 percent of graduates finding a job after graduation.
More space would allow the university to increase enrollment within its bachelor of science in nursing program, fully implement its LPN to RN program and create a masters of science in nursing program.
In addition to benefiting nursing, Moseley said the facility development would create lab space for life science programs, like biology, chemistry and physics, and house the Security Science Institute.
The Security Science Institute would build on Lincoln's success with the only police academy at a historically Black college or university.
The university would begin offering several new certificate and license programs in an effort to become a state and regional leader in law enforcement and security, Moseley said.
"We're not aware of any other campus that houses an emergency operation training center similar to the bunker-style that's utilized by SEMA (State Emergency Management Agency) during emergencies," Moseley said. "So we see that being valuable for our students but also agencies throughout the Midwest to potentially come to our campus to train."
The Health Sciences and Crisis Center would offer virtual and "real-world" training in collaboration with local and state agencies, and could act as a backup emergency operations center.
"We believe this is a project that benefits this university, this city, this region for many years to come," Moseley said.
At State Tech, the state would fund expansion of at least six programs to incorporate supply chain automation education and 90,000 square feet of new facilities.
"COVID and the pandemic have exposed some pretty serious issues in the supply chain," State Tech President Shawn Strong said. "As a result, over the next decade we're going to see a lot of automation take place in the supply chain."
In response, Strong said the state's only technical college began reviewing what programs could be automated or help in the automation process, and created plans to expand them.
State Tech's electronics and electrical programs, drafting and design program, precision machining program and welding program, among others, would be expanded to include supply chain automation.
The expansion of academic programs means the college will need more space, Strong said, so the funding would also support construction of a 60,000-square-foot lab between the existing Engineering Technology Center and Welding Technology Center buildings, a 30,000-square-foot lab in front of the Nilges Technology Center and an additional 90,000 square feet of renovation within current facilities.
"As a result, we should be able to grow the campus from 2,000 students to 3,000," Strong said.
Strong said the college has grown more than 60 percent in the last five years and the challenge now is finding space to house programs, particularly the lab-intensive programs State Tech specializes in that require a lot of space for equipment and machinery.
In total, the project will cost $40 million, Strong said.
For all capital improvement projects, the state is contributing half and requiring education institutions to produce a local match of at least 50 percent.
Strong said producing the match could be a challenge as State Tech will need to draw from reserves, save a portion of its operating budget over the next few years, and, likely, borrow some funding.
Without state funding, Strong said the expansion won't be possible.
Parson is proposing both capital improvement projects be funded on top of increased core funding for public colleges and universities.
For fiscal year 2023, Parson is suggesting an additional $51.6 million to the more than $950 million appropriated this year -- bringing the total proposed core funding to just more than a billion dollars.
Duren said the core funding increases include $42,863,026 divided among the state's public universities and $433,640 for State Tech.
"Obviously, it's welcome at a time when costs continue to go up," Moseley said.
He said Lincoln would likely be using the increase in core funding to pay for increases in the Missouri State Employees' Retirement system and increases in health insurance and other employee benefits.
"While tremendous in its help, there's just so many needs across the landscape right now," Moseley said.
Strong said the increase in core funding would go toward helping State Tech maintain operations, particularly with the rate of inflation rising in the past few months.
Core funding to Missouri colleges and universities has been restricted almost every year since 2017 -- fiscal year 2019 is the exception -- leading to a 9 percent reduction in funding for community colleges, 5.6 percent reduction for public universities and less than 1 percent reduction for State Tech, MDHEWD notes in its 101st General Assembly Overview.
Since 2010, core funding per full-time equivalent student has decreased 26 percent.
"Tuition and fee revenue has risen 9 percent over a similar period," the department's overview states, "But institutions have had to forego vital institutional repairs and improvements."