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President Choi testified on Jan. 26 in front of the House Subcommittee on Appropriations - Education. His remarks can be found below:

• Chairman Black, Vice Chair Shields, Rep. Burnett and committee members 
• Let me begin by thanking you for your strong support of public higher education
• Because of your support, we can educate students for the workforce, perform meaningful research and create economic impact in the state.
• Despite the many challenges of 2020, we kept our focus on achieving excellence in these missions.
• I’ll begin with some highlights of student success.

Student Success

• Enrollment this past fall for the UM System.
• For example at MU, at 30,849, was up 4% from the prior year (~1,200 additional students). 
• Our spring enrollment is up 3% from the prior year (~900 additional students)
• Our professional programs, which are unique to the UM System, have been very productive. 
• Each year, we graduate more than
• 200 MDs (MU and UMKC)
• 130 Pharmacists (UMKC, Springfield, Columbia)
• 2,100 Engineers (BS, MS and PhD from all campuses)
• 110 VMDs (MU)
• 500 PhDs (All campuses)
• These graduates are critical for the healthcare, technology and economic development priorities of the state
• We are the only public research universities in the state that can do this.
• We’re very pleased to report that despite the pandemic,
• Our graduation rates, the most important factor for student success, are at an all-time high for all 4 universities.
• Just last night, USN&WR released their rankings for 2021 best online programs:
  • S&T’s engineering master’s ranked #18th in the country.
  • UMKC’s Master of Nursing ranked #23rd in the country.
  • Mizzou’s bachelor’s programs ranked #14th in the country.
  • And UMSL ranks #16th in the country for social mobility.
• We’ll continue to achieve excellence so that students can receive an unmatched education.

Research Success

• As you know, we’re only public research universities in Missouri.
  • As such, we take this mission very seriously.
• Each year, our universities perform more than $450M in R&D in a variety of fields.
• The impact is simply immense:
  • At S&T, Professor Laura Bartlett and her colleagues are creating advanced metals for armor and hypersonic planes through a $20M Department of Defense Grant.  (this ties into the phenomenal $300M Kummer Gift to S&T)
  • At UMKC, Professor Holly Hagle and her colleagues are developing new prevention and treatment programs for opioid addition through a $13M grant.
  • At UMSL, Professor Shea Kerkhoff and her colleagues are producing new research to increase literacy in Missouri through a $2M grant.
  • At MU, Dr. David Robertson and his colleagues just signed a long-term partnership with a Novartis company to create new treatments to treat breast and prostate cancers.
• There are thousands of projects like these.
• And through our research, we are literally saving lives.
• The cancer project is a key component for NextGen Precision Health
• Your support for NextGen is greatly appreciated.
• This example shows the impact of NextGen can be,
  • more than 70,000 people in the world with liver cancer have been treated using Therasphere (our breakthrough from 20 years ago that involved technologies from S&T and MU.) 
• The goal for NextGen is to accelerate the biomedical discoveries to improve and save lives right here in Missouri.

Engagement and Outreach

• During the pandemic, our role as the Land Grant university made an impact to every region of the state.
• Our faculty, staff and students:
  • Produced COVID PPEs that were in short supply in many regions of the state.
  • Supported rural healthcare needs through more than 1,000 telemedicine visits per day.
  • Created mass COVID testing programs for citizens throughout mid-Missouri.
  • Increased access to rural broadband by supporting the efforts of electric co-ops.
  • Assisted farmers and small business with access to government PPP loans to sustain their businesses
  • Worked with veterans to get much-needed benefits that they were entitled to.
• Our mission as Land Grant universities is simple. 
  • We will wake up each day and ask how our work can support Missourians and improve their lives.

Response to our budget crisis

• It is often said that our universities receive more state support per student than any other university.
  • That is true……But, we’re also asked to do far more… and we deliver.
• In many ways, we go above and beyond what is expected of a typical university because of our RESEARCH and EXTENSION mission and the mandate to provide professional degrees like medicine and engineering.
• In many states, these important missions are carved out from the core to reflect their importance to the state. 
• When these mission differences are considered,
  • we are funded at around $4,000 per student
  • This is not only the lowest in the state of Missouri but one of the lowest in the United States.
• During the past 4 years, we’ve transformed our university to address the financial challenges.
  • For example, we’ve cut nearly $300M from our budget and reduced 1,500 administrative positions.
  • But, further cuts will have a lasting effect that are deleterious.
• In my mind, there is no more important investment than in public higher education
  • • The investment for workforce training, research, extension and professional degrees create economic benefits for the state.
    • In 2018, we measured $5.4B in economic impact to Missouri through our work. 
    • That is a staggering 13 to 1 in return on investment for the state.
      
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• In closing, I leave you with our request for FY22: 
• We are requesting $428 million to maintain our core funding
• as well as the $10M for NextGen Precision Health to be rolled into the core so that we can continue to improve and save lives in Missouri.
• I want to thank you for taking the time to bring us here today