By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
A joint project between Missouri Western State University and North Central Missouri College has gotten a big boost from the legislature.
The $50 billion budget approved by the General Assembly contains $2.5 million toward the funding of the Convergent Technology Alliance Center.
Missouri Western President Elizabeth Kennedy says much thought has gone into the project, including asking local business leaders what type of training is needed to prepare students for the real world.
“Traditional models of higher education would have been, we’re going to build this building and look what we’ve bought and don’t you like it,” Kennedy tells host Barry Birr on the KFEQ Hotline. “And now, what we’re saying is, hey, how should we build this? What should be in it? What equipment? And, can we think about different ways so that we’re not spending a ton of money on technology that we all know in five years is going to be completely different?”
The $10 million project will be located next to the Kit Bond Science and Technology Incubator. It will be a 20,000 square foot building. Missouri Western is soliciting money from the City of St. Joseph, Buchanan County, as well as private businesses.
The center will concentrate on manufacturing and construction technology, industrial maintenance, cyber security, and robotics; offering both two-year and four-year degrees.
Kennedy says the center will offer training for the high-skill labor jobs open throughout the area.
“I’m excited, because I believe it’s the first of its kind project where you have a two-year school coming on a four-year campus to really deliver education, both credit as in degree programs and certificates, but also non-credit for the workforce,” Kennedy says.
Missouri Western, along with other four-year universities in Missouri, is set to get a 7% increase in its core budget to offset rising costs due to inflation.
The budget sent to the governor also contains $3 million to upgrade the Kansas City Chiefs’ training facility on the Missouri Western campus.
Kennedy says the budget process can be a draining process.
“It’s an interesting experience,” Kennedy says. “Budget, even if we’re not talking Chiefs, budget in higher education, it really starts to hit the ground running in January even though you’ve had a lot of conversations up to that point. But you really have to watch kind of the sausage being made all spring and then you hope in June that what you see is what you’ll get.”
Kennedy points out nothing is finalized until Gov. Mike Parson signs the budget bills. Missouri law does allow the governor to veto line items in the state budget submitted by the legislature.