The UM System Board of Curators will have five vacancies when they meet for their Feb. 9-10 meeting unless recently-elected Gov. Eric Greitens appoints people to the position between now and next weekend.
Since two curators will stay past their designated term limit until the new members are appointed and confirmed, there will be six members sitting at the upcoming meeting. UM System spokesman John Fougere said that next Thursday the Board will discuss how to deal with the recent round of state budget cuts, as well as discuss — and potentially set — the tuition rate for next year.
The Board of Curators is a nine-seat committee. Currently, there are four sitting members who were appointed by former Gov. Jay Nixon and confirmed by the Missouri Senate, and there is one member who was appointed by Nixon during legislative recess and has yet to be confirmed. Two of the curators who will be at the meeting had terms expire at the end of last year, but will be serving until Greitens chooses their replacements, and two members who were formerly on the board resigned last year, so their seats are open. That leaves four seats open, and one that is filled but has yet to be confirmed.
Fougere said the Board will also likely discuss the report released by the UM System Review Commission last December, which made several recommendations regarding tuition and administrative changes. They will also vote on revisions made to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion rules and regulations and discuss information from the Total Rewards Advisory Committee, which deals with faculty recruitment and retention through the System’s human resources division.
Gov. Greitens will be appointing at least four curators — two to replace members whose terms expired at the end of 2016 and two to replace curators who resigned their seats. Former Gov. Jay Nixon’s last appointment, Jon Sundvold, will be at the next meeting but has yet to be confirmed by the Missouri senate.
Fougere said the Board will be able to hold a meeting because there will be more than five curators there, which is the minimum number of members to make the proceedings of the meeting valid.
Gov. Greitens’ office could not be reached for comment on whether he will be making appointments before Feb. 9.
_Edited by Kyle LaHucik | klahucik@themaneater.com_