The Univ. of Missouri System Board of Curators is preparing to slash $40 million for the 2026 fiscal year. Mun Choi is both UM System president and chancellor of the flagship campus in Columbia.
“We don’t like to cut programs because we believe everything that we do is important, but it’s really time for us to prioritize,” Choi said. “Just at Mizzou, we’ve had a $40 million reduction in expenses, and we did that in a very short time frame.”
University leaders say funding challenges are the reason for the cuts and reallocations to the $5.3 billion budget for FY 2026, which begins July 1.
During the Board of Curators meeting Thursday in St. Joseph, Choi said they look at three key objectives when deciding where to make cuts.
“One is student success, second is research breakthroughs, and engagement with the state,” he said. “We asked the question of the leaders in central administration, as well as the deans and the department chairs, to identify projects that were worthwhile to do in the past. But given the budget challenge that we’re going to face, how do they align to those three key mission objectives?”
Specific cuts to programs were not identified. The UM System contains the University of Missouri’s main campus in Columbia, along with the University of Missouri-St. Louis, the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and Missouri S&T in Rolla.
Brent Martin, of Missourinet affiliate KFEQ in St. Joseph, contributed this report.
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