Gov. Matt Blunt Signs Senate Bill 389 at Truman

Gov. Matt Blunt was in the Truman State University Pershing Building on May 24 to sign Senate Bill 389. Blunt was joined by Sen. Gary Nodler of Joplin, chairman of the Senate Education Committee and chief sponsor of SB 389, and Rep. Gayle Kingery, chairman of the House Higher Education Committee.

Senate Bill 389 was the omnibus higher education legislation that passed the General Assembly this past session and authorized both the Lewis and Clark Discovery Initiative (LCDI) and the Access Missouri Scholarship program. As a result of the LCDI, Truman will receive approximately $21.6 million for the renovation and expansion of Pershing Building, which will house Truman’s health and exercise sciences programs, including athletic training, the nursing program and the communication disorders program. The planned facility improvements will expand the available instructional space for these programs by about 50 percent and will significantly improve classrooms, teaching laboratories, student-faculty research spaces, and other support spaces.

Senate Bill 389 also established the Access Missouri Scholarship, a new need-based program that will greatly expand financial access to Missouri students enrolled in either public or private institutions. At Truman alone it is estimated that nearly 1,300 students will receive about $2.6 million in assistance – an increase of more than 600 percent over the current programs. Access Missouri will replace the former Gallagher and Missouri Advantage Scholarship programs.