Remarks from Chair David Bradley
Board of Curators regular meeting
February 3, 2012
Kansas City, Mo.
Accompanying video available at: http://youtu.be/cJHJrbNoldY
Good morning. I’m David Bradley, and it’s my pleasure to serve this year as board chair. I obviously have some big shoes to fill; Warren, thank you again for your leadership in the previous year. I’m glad you’re still on board to help me through this. From the looks of it, it’s going to be another challenging year.
I’m going to keep this short and sweet because I know we have a lot of business to cover today. One theme I’m happy to take over for Warren is the Advancing Missouri campaign.
As you know, the campaign is a way to get at the Big Picture of the University’s impact — our aggregate impact on research, health, education and the state overall. Last year, Warren talked to you about how we’re advancing Missouri’s economy, communities, health and culture — among other topics.
This year, we’ll be continuing the Advancing Missouri theme but with a twist: the focus will shift from showing you what our researchers, faculty and students are doing to advance our state in myriad dimensions…to hearing from individuals, families, businesses and others who have been on the receiving end of the great work and commitment of our faculty, staff and students
In addition, we are going to zero in on people across our state, from the Ozark hills to the northern Missouri plains, from the Bootheel to what’s happening in my neck of the woods—St. Joe and vicinity. Which is where our story begins today.
I’ve been on this board now for a couple of years, but I was amazed to see just how much of an impact the University of Missouri is making in my own backyard.
[LINK OF UMSYSTEM HOME PAGE] If you click on Buchanan County, you will see that 379 students are attending a UM System campus today, and there are 1,430 alumni. In our county’s grade schools, roughly one-third of all of our principals and administrators graduated from one of our campuses.
MU Health Care—the MU Health Care based in Columbia—saw 123 patients from Buchanan County in 2011. UMKC’s dental school provided services to 174 patients. And, MU Extension logged nearly 34,000 educational contacts across my county.
Of course, if you broaden the scope to Northwest Missouri—a roughly 19-county area north of Kansas City and extending to Carroll County to the east—the impact becomes even more impressive. 5,000 students. 19,000 alumni. 1,123 teachers. 335 physicians. More than 140,000 contacts with university Extension.
The numbers show that the University of Missouri’s footprint is formidable in my corner of the state, and I think you’ll be impressed with these stories, which I know are the tip of the iceberg.
This video, shot and edited by our journalism student Dak Dillon, will give you five examples of the university’s impact on our fellow citizens.
- We’ll hear from the executive director the Social Welfare Board of Buchanan County—the oldest continually operating free health care clinic in the United States. This clinic provides free medical and dental care to uninsured residents who are at or below the federal poverty level and do not qualify for Medicaid, Medicare or Veteran’s Benefits.
This clinic has a long history of working with UMKC graduates and would be challenged to staff the clinic without our programs—particularly the UMKC nursing courses offered on the campus of Missouri Western in St. Joseph.
- You’ll learn about a research-driven positive behavior program spearheaded by a Columbia education expert that is making a big difference in St. Joseph schools. The initiative, called the Missouri Schoolwide Positive Behavior Support program, assists educators in implementing proactive research-based strategies (many developed at MU) to reduce overall levels of behavior and discipline problems in schools. The initiative represents a long standing partnership between the University of Missouri, the U.S. Department of Education, and Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. And in addition to reductions in problem behaviors, successful schools have documented increases in achievement, school attendance, school safety, and reductions in dropout rates.
- You’ll also learn about Missouri S&T’s Project Lead the Way, which is helping get St. Joseph middle and high school students get fired up about engineering and the biomedical sciences. Missouri S&T was the first university in the nation to offer teacher training—at the middle, junior and senior high school level—in both engineering and biomedical sciences. The St. Joseph School District is fully engaged in the Project Lead the Way program. Its four middle schools offer the Gateway to Technology program and three high schools offer the engineering program. Hillyard Technical Center offers advanced Project Lead the Way engineering courses. One high school, Lafayette, also offers the biomedical sciences program. The St. Joseph School District began offering the program in 2007 and has continued to expand the program each year.
- We’ll also hear from the patient of Dr. Amy Fitzgerald, a Savannah High School graduate who attended the state’s only optometry school—at UMSL—and now helps Buchanan County residents get the vision care they need.
Dr. Fitzgerald is a true professional and actively involved in community service.
- Finally, you’ll see a story about a Gallitin-based company named WideBand, which was able to expand its business scope thanks to help from University of Missouri Extension.
WideBand Corporation manufactures the only U.S.-made Gigabit Ethernet Switches and it support supports critical networks all over the world. With help from Extension, CEO Joseph Billings was able to expand his business—with particular growth in landing government contracts. Among other achievements, Wideband is a recent recipient of a $729,000 federal National Small Business Innovation Research grant for research and development applications. With 20 employees in the town of about 2,000, University of Missouri Extension has helped this business survive and thrive.
Before I roll the video, I’d like to draw your attention to the Advancing Missouri brochure before you.
This brochure gives the 150,000-foot view of our University System and can help all of us in telling the University of Missouri story—the story about the university’s mission and the impact we’re having in every county, every day.
I also encourage you to visit the companion interactive county map on the system’s website. This map will allow you to see what the University of Missouri is doing in your community, or any other across the state.
Now, without further ado, let’s take a look at these short examples of the University of Missouri’s impact on my hometown.
Reviewed 2019-08-05