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University of Missouri mulls enrollment cap

The University of Missouri's flagship campus in Columbia, Mo. Curators of the University of Missouri system are discussing a possible cap on enrollment on the system's four campuses.
(via Flickr/Adam Procter)
The University of Missouri's flagship campus in Columbia, Mo. Curators of the University of Missouri system are discussing a possible cap on enrollment on the system's four campuses.

Years of steady enrollment growth and declining state support has University of Missouri leaders discussing limits on the number of students who attend the system's four campuses.

There are no immediate plans to cap enrollment. But acting system president Steve Owens and university curators say the move deserves serious consideration.

Their comments come after Gov. Jay Nixon recently cut the university system's budget by an extra $4.4 million in response to a 5.5 percent UM tuition hike that exceeded the state's suggested boost.

The university system's 8.1 percent budget cut is greater than the budget cuts at other public universities that didn't increase tuition and fees more than 1.5 percent. That's the limit set by a three-year-old law that caps tuition at the consumer price index barring special exceptions.