Here is one paragraph from the boilerplate email I received four minutes 
after sending my email to the president, regarding Barb's point:

With another year of flat funding for the university and an increasing 
realization that university resources must be aligned with strategic 
priorities, we made the difficult decision to discontinue our subsidy to the 
press beginning in the 2013 fiscal year. Out of respect for notifying the 
remaining ten employees at the press, this decision was not discussed 
publicly in advance, but please know it was vetted by system and campus 
administration, including vice presidents, chancellors, provosts and 
curators.

His "respect" for the remaining ten employees, down from 20+ in a previous 
cost-cutting move, included not conferring with them at all, never meeting 
them, never visiting their offices, and certainly not telling them the axe 
was about to fall. In the last paragraph of his "letter," he calls shutting 
down the press "phasing out our current model." Woe to the university who 
hires a businessman as president!

John Bird

-----Original Message----- 
From: Barbara Schmidt
Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2012 1:55 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Save the University of Missouri Press--Facebook page and 
Petition

Why are we not hearing how the University Board of Curators weighed in on
this decision? Doesn't the President of the University answer to them? I
would think this decision was made at a higher level than the President's
office. He is taking the heat but what role did the governing body play in
this decision?

Barb