The Univ of MO Press closure plan has run into a few obstacles, as reported 
 at 
_http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2012/05/29/opposition-closure-u-mi
ssouri-press_ 
(http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2012/05/29/opposition-closure-u-missouri-press) 
 
You don't need to go there--here's what it reports:
 
When the University of Missouri System announced on Thursday that _it  was 
shutting down the University of Missouri Press,_ 
(http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2012/05/25/u-missouri-press-will-be-shut-down)  initial 
response was  muted. Employees of the press did not return calls, and the 
university said that  it could not identify the faculty advisory committee for the 
press. The  university said that it couldn't continue to subsidize the 
press, which  currently receives about $400,000 annually. 
Over the holiday weekend, however, opposition started to materialize. A  
Facebook page -- _Save the  University of Missouri Press_ 
(http://www.facebook.com/SaveTheUniversityOfMissouriPress)  -- appeared Monday. One post there: 
"As an  alumnus of the University of Missouri, I am disappointed and angry 
to learn that  you have decided to close the University of Missouri Press. 
Where are your  priorities? What has happened to the school’s standing as the 
state’s flagship  university? Is the institution to be known more and more 
only for its athletic  programs? Will Truman State become known as Missouri’s 
university most  interested in academics?" (Truman State has a university 
press.) 
_Letters  to the editor_ 
(http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2012/05/25/letter-editor-university-missouri-press-essential-missouri/)  are also 
appearing in local publications, questioning why a  $400,000 subsidy would be 
out of the question at a university that pays its head  football coach $2.7 
million. 
P.S.: The Twain papers read at the American Literature Assn. conference 
last  weekend in San Francisco were all well attended and all of interest. I 
had the  pleasure of being the final Twain speaker on Saturday, following 
Shelly  Fisher-Fishkin's, and Selina Lei's fascinating ventures  into 
translations of Huck Finn and its Americanisms and Dialects into  other languages. 
Bob Stewart.