Mun Choi Became the New Face of the University of Missouri System

11.30.17 // FREE EVERY THURSDAY PRIDE AT HOME Improvements in legislation, municipal services and law enforcement help CoMo top an LGBTQ equality index PAGE 4 HOLIDAY OVERHAUL Enjoy a twist on your favorite Christmas classics with these holiday productions PAGE 16 MOMENT In the wake of upheaval at MU, Mun Choi became the new face of the University of Missouri System. He brought with him a complex past that molds his ability to lead. PAGE 6 BY RENEE HICKMAN MUNWhat the University of Missouri SystemCHOI president’s past means for the future of MU 6 VOXMAGAZINE.COM | 11.30.17 ILLUSTRATION BY ALEXANDRA WOZNICZKA BASED ON PHOTO BY EVAN COBB detail and devotion to student concerns. on the decision, and he says the search MUN CHOI is trying But as Choi settles into his role, which committee realized the importance of its began this past March, he has begun mission to find the right person to lead to eat lunch. Outside making decisions he will be judged on; the university system for many years. it’s cold, drizzling decisions that include funding cuts and WHEN THE CALL FINALLY CAME “What you always worry about is a failed and dark for 11 a.m. layoffs, which can ultimately lead to less search,” Graham says. The 16-person flattering coverage. committee spent hundreds of hours Inside, it’s bright After the Chamber of Commerce THAT HE HAD THE JOB, CHOI WAS reviewing application materials, including in the green and meeting, Choi stands in his large and background checks and references, from gold conference room warmly lit office on Stadium Boulevard candidates all over the country. Graham for this interview. Earlier, he met with STANDING IN A TAILOR SHOP IN says the committee was excited that a at the Daniel Boone Fitzpatrick and sent him on to view number of people were highly qualified, Regional Library Missouri’s prized research reactor, WILLIMANTIC, CONNECTICUT, TO DROP but he says the board felt Choi was the where the Columbia an emblem of the direction in which right candidate for the position. Choi hopes to take the UM System. A When the call finally came that he Chamber of Commerce direction that is focused, among other OFF A SUIT. HE KNEW HE WANTED had the job, Choi was standing in a is meeting. Choi sits things, on advancing research in the tailor shop in Willimantic, Connecticut, sciences. He would like to see MU to drop off a suit. He knew he wanted in a chair at the students winning prestigious national THE POSITION AND TOOK ONLY 10 the position and took only 10 minutes front of the room science awards at the same rate as before accepting. “I knew it was a while holding one of students at the University of California, university that had undergone some Berkeley, a school of a similar size. MINUTES BEFORE ACCEPTING. significant disturbances,” Choi says. the Honeybaked Ham Choi’s background as an engineer Then he pauses. “Disturbances is the lunch boxes provided is clear based on both the initiatives at Princeton University to complete an administrator, there were other wrong word. Significant challenges.” for the meeting. he advocates for and the books on his master’s and doctoral degrees. After limitations to deal with — human ones. He remembers first reading about shelf. Posing for portraits in his office, the reaction to the August 2015 cuts in He takes a bite, finishing his Ph.D., he went on to teach “They didn’t actually teach us much he grabs The Prize by Daniel Yergin, at the University of Illinois at Chicago, about psychology,” he says. “When we graduate student health insurance in maybe two, before one of his favorites that many consider a Drexel University and the University deal with optimizing systems, there’s The Chronicle of Higher Education and someone walks up to definitive history of the oil industry. He of Connecticut. He was then appointed always the human element.” It was the the many discussions that ensued among Mun Choi began his presidency this past spring following his role as provost at the University of Connecticut. His appointment to becomes animated when talking about dean of engineering at UConn and interactions as a teacher with students fellow administrators. “It appeared from say hello and shake the position makes him the 24th president in the history of the University of Missouri System. the outside that there were some deeper the book and about anything having to later took on the position of executive and colleagues that taught him how that do with science. Oil is everywhere, he forces at play,” Choi says. “It wasn’t his hand. Then it vice president and provost, which he piece of the puzzle worked. says as he points at objects in the rooms, just the student protests, but it related happens again. He It’s been a little more than two years Choi doesn’t like that piece very much. been proactive in trying to restore the held for just over four years. As provost, The challenge of solving problems including the plastic in his shoes. to how the senior leaders interacted since Choi’s predecessor Tim Wolfe Now, he’s listening intently to state relationship between the UM System he was the university’s chief academic led Choi to apply for the position of takes another bite Choi chose engineering through with the university community.” He resigned as president of the University Rep. Scott Fitzpatrick, chairman of the and the legislature. “I look forward officer and was responsible for allocating UM System president after he saw it before he spots of Missouri System amid a wave of Missouri House Budget Committee, to continuing to work with him and a process often used in science: calls the boycott by the football team elimination. He was squeamish about resources, providing administrative advertised through Isaacson, Miller, “eye-opening” as an administrator. He student protests against racism on as he details funding priorities for the putting the UM System back into a someone across the blood, so he wouldn’t be a doctor. He oversight and directing schools and the Boston-based firm hired to lead the simply had never seen students go to campus. Sitting at the helm of the UM next year. Fitzpatrick, a republican from place of prominence,” Fitzpatrick says. room, puts down the couldn’t imagine himself arguing in colleges across the UConn system, search. The search committee conducted similar lengths. System, Choi is facing steep budget Shell Knob, Missouri, is a man with Soon after Choi took the position sandwich and goes court, so he wouldn’t be an attorney. among other tasks. two interviews with him, which were He asked himself whether he could cuts, a drop in freshman enrollment of considerable influence over the future of president, the editorial board of But he was fascinated with figuring out In some ways, being an administrator held in airport hotels. address those deeper forces but was to speak to them. It more than 30 percent in the two years of the system. And there is considerable the St. Louis Post-Dispatch postulated how things worked. As a child, he liked is like being an engineer. There are many Chairman of the Board of Curators buoyed by the lessons taught by his happens a few more since the protest and ongoing negative uncertainty about the system’s future. that he might have the hardest job putting things together, such as model parts, and they must work together. Maurice Graham had been on other mother, who grew up in what is now times. It takes a publicity, which has most recently been Earlier this week, Fitzpatrick said in Missouri. But Choi looked like a airplanes, so engineering made sense. There are always problems to solve. search committees before, including for South Korea. Choi was born in South embodied by The New York Times piece it’s too soon to say what the university beacon of hope to many, as he enjoyed He first studied the subject as an “As an engineer, we’re always trying to a college president, but says this was his Korea as well, and as a young boy, he long time to finish titled “Long After Protests, Students budget will look like in the near future. flattering coverage from the state’s undergraduate at the University of optimize; to arrive at the best solution first time on a search committee for a moved to the U.S. where he worked at that sandwich. Shun the University of Missouri.” Overall, he says he thinks Choi has press in stories praising his attention to Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and later given constraints,” Choi says. But as system president. There was a lot riding his family’s business in Chicago. He says The UM System Choi outlined budget Throughout the rest of The UM System The Missouri Land Grant The UM System ended its executive strategies that sought the summer, budget plans invested in the Compact was signed announced plans to start performance incentive to cut more than $100 continued to roll out that image of the schools and will cover tuition an incentive grant program program after a state million from the UM included the closing of the by hiring branding for thousands of MU so more faculty members audit found about System. A few of $10 million MU International agency 160over90. students starting next University of Missouri System President Mun $2.3 million in bonus move toward open-source the short-term and Institute of Nano and The $1.27 million, fall.

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