BOLIVAR — Southwest Baptist University (SBU) pushed past another budget milestone May 8 when trustees established a $51.2 million goal.
The budget includes a 1 percent salary increase effective June 1 for all employees, according to SBU President C. Pat Taylor, and factors in hopeful enrollment indicators. Taylor said the objective is to reach 1,582 students on campus (11 more than last year) and to top last year’s total of 3,633 students overall, which represented the third-largest figure in SBU history.
“I’m hoping for a small increase,” he said.
With another record budget that has rocketed past the current $48.4 million level, Ron Maupin, SBU vice president for administration, worked trustees through a somewhat unpredictable flow of variables that will lead to the acceptance of a final, firm number in October. He did state that graduate education revenue may be conservatively estimated within the current budget goal.
Maupin also emphasized the importance of SBU continuing to build up its endowment as a sure method of generating more scholarships and further stabilizing future budgets — a point that Taylor has repeatedly made in previous trustee meetings. After bottoming out a few years ago at $14 million, the endowment continues to rise and has grown to $21.5 million.
Dollar amounts in the budget goal are not the only large things in Bolivar these days. The university is just coming off another huge graduation. During the May 19 spring commencement, 475 students were presented with diplomas.
In the spirit of enhancing its long-standing partnership with the Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC), SBU will be presenting some trustee-approved charter changes at the fall annual meeting of the MBC in St. Louis.
One major change is the addition of a conflict of interest policy that reads as follows:
“Loyalty to the university is imperative and is an integral part of the fiduciary duties of a trustee. Any conflict of interest or appearance of a conflict of interest must be avoided. It is therefore the affirmative duty of each trustee to notify the Board of Trustees should any actual or perceived conflict arise during his or her term as trustee. Upon being made aware, from any source, of a conflict or perceived conflict, the Board shall, in executive session, determine the appropriate action to address any such conflict including, but not limited to, possible removal as a trustee. A two-thirds majority vote of the entire Board of Trustees is required for removal, such vote to occur by secret ballot.”
Another addition to the charter involves the prohibiting of sale or lease of the Shoffner and Stufflebaum campuses in Bolivar without the approval of the Executive Board of the MBC or the Convention in annual session.
The revised charter also would include gender-neutral language.
Having secured the approval of his trustees, Taylor will now take the changes to the MBC Executive Board in July for a final review before St. Louis.
Trustees also voted to discontinue the university’s MBA program because it does not meet their mandate that every graduate program be self-sustaining. The twin realities of low enrollment and the need to hire more faculty members due to accreditation requirements are proving to be problematic. Though the program will be discontinued, current students will be allowed to finish their degrees.
Taylor noted that this may not be the last goodbye to MBA.
“This is a very difficult decision,” he said. “We came to the conclusion that we just cannot make this thing work right now. Part of the problem is too much competition.”