Gerik Parmele photo

Gary Forsee listens to a reporter’s question yesterday during a news conference on his first day as president of the University of Missouri system at the Old Alumni Center on the MU campus. The former chairman and CEO of Sprint Nextel emphasized the importance of keeping tuition down while raising faculty salaries.

University of Missouri System President Gary Forsee took a break from his first day on the job to answer reporters’ questions ranging from off-court trouble in the basketball program to campus security and how he would keep the cost of tuition down.

"I’ll take a few more questions," he said 25 minutes into the news conference yesterday afternoon at the Old Alumni Center near University Hall, batting away a UM official’s announcement there was time for only one more question.

Forsee had spoken without notes as he outlined his top goals coming into the university. He then opened the floor to questions from the small gathering of about a dozen television, radio and print reporters from Mid-Missouri, sipping a glass of Diet Coke in between answers.

"We have to be sure that our business model - if I can use that term - our funding model is going to serve us in the future as it has in the past," Forsee said in a theme he repeated. He also said the university must "look to the future to be sure that there are models out there that would allow us to develop new sources of revenue and to develop new opportunities to grow the university."

Forsee praised Gordon Lamb’s guidance and said Lamb’s new role as executive vice president would allow the former interim president to help in the area of economic and business development. Lamb also would take on distance education, a relatively untapped revenue source Forsee has mentioned on multiple occasions.

The former chairman and CEO of Sprint Nextel said he has requested sessions with faculty and students on each of the four UM campuses so that he could have the chance to "engage with them" so they can see his initiatives are "not just words."

Forsee equated the importance of keeping tuition down with raising faculty salaries, saying, "Students have to value coming here as a good deal."

He also said that what neighboring states are doing doesn’t necessarily matter as long as UM stays competitive. He praised Gov. Matt Blunt for his support of scholarships and said he also would consider seeking revenue from nongovernmental organizations such as the Kauffman, Danforth and Stowers foundations.

The Kansas City-based Kauffman Foundation has an asset base of $2 billion and awards grants for entrepreneurship and children’s education. The Danforth Foundation awards grants exclusively to metropolitan St. Louis with an objective of economic development. The Stowers Institute for Medical Research is a Kansas City-based group whose mission is to promote genetic research to prevent, treat or cure disease.

In mentioning the foundations, Forsee reiterated a message of spurring economic development and seeking new revenue sources through work in life sciences at the institution.

Responding to concerns about campus security, Forsee said he had asked for a review of emergency response on the four campuses and said he again raised the issue during his first staff meeting yesterday.

"Are we prepared to respond?" Forsee asked. "The alert system is only as good as participation."

Systemwide, UM’s new high-tech alert system has registered emergency contact information for just a fraction of students, faculty and staff, who must agree to supply that personal information.

Forsee also addressed recent off-court transgressions of some MU basketball players, which resulted in the suspension of four players and the removal of one from the team for missing class two weeks after a Jan. 27 scuffle outside Athena Night Club.

Forsee said such events amounted to "a setback in terms of image," branding the university. He also said he supports Coach Mike Anderson’s disciplinary actions.

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