From Kmox:

Final grades for the 2008 legislative session are in among Missouri’s university chancellors and presidents. The verdict: a decidedly mixed report card.

The University of Missouri system, which educates 72 percent of students enrolled in the state’s four-year colleges, scored several important victories, notably a 4.2 percent increase in the fiscal year 2009 operating budget.

The system’s St. Louis campus earned a one-time boost of $2.4 million to counter historical funding discrepancies. And for the first time since 2000, the state’s public campuses collected sorely needed money for a host of building projects without having to sell off assets from the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority, as was the case last year.

Still, there was plenty of disappointment to go around, judging from comments made by university leaders last week at a Lincoln University meeting with Rep. Kenny Hulshof, the final of three candidates for governor to meet with college chancellors and presidents in recent weeks.

”Part of the concern is that when these broad-based issues end up in the General Assembly, they have their own ideas,” said University of Missouri President Gary Forsee, suggesting that perhaps ”the leadership in the Capitol doesn’t trust us.”

Read the Rest…