The University of Missouri system is rethinking the future of its university press—again.
In May, Missouri announced it would phase out the press for budgetary reasons. This summer, it said that Speer Morgan, editor of The Missouri Review, would take charge of a new publishing operation with a focus on teaching and on digital output. On Tuesday, Missouri reversed course on that plan, announcing that the press’s current staff, including the interim director, Dwight Browne, had been asked to carry on in their roles.
Missouri also said it would form a committee “to provide advice and counsel” as the University of Missouri system shifts oversight of the press to the campus at Columbia. That administrative move takes effect right away.
Richard L. Wallace, the university’s chancellor emeritus, has been tapped to help lead the press-transition team. He confirmed in an interview that Mr. Browne would continue as interim director and that a search would be conducted for a permanent director. Mr. Morgan will not have a direct hand in managing the press but will continue to edit The Missouri Review.
“Speer is likely to have some leadership role in an area that we’re calling ‘media of the future,’” Mr. Wallace said. “It’s not a direct responsibility for the press, but it’s a recognition that the way in which we communicate worldwide is changing rapidly.” (The Chronicle was not able to reach Mr. Morgan or Mr. Browne for comment on Tuesday.)
As for the press itself, “we’ll continue to do print books” as well as digital books, Mr. Wallace said. “Right now I just want people to know we’re going to have a quality press. Our starting point is what we’ve got. That’s our foundation, and we’re going to go forward from that.”
A Campaign to Save the Press
The news comes too late for some editors and authors who had been affiliated with the press. Its editor in chief, Clair Willcox, lost his job after the May announcement. A number of series editors have jumped ship since then, and 50 of the press’s authors have said they want the rights to their books back.
News of the press’s impending doom triggered a coordinated campaign to save it, with protest letters from authors and alumni donors and a petition and a Facebook page. Tuesday’s statement acknowledged some of the opposition.
“My goal is to develop a press that is vibrant and adaptive, but I realize that change is often difficult,” the Missouri system’s president, Timothy M. Wolfe, said in the statement. “I have been listening to the support and dedication the community and others have shown the press and make every assurance that university administration is working to create the kind of press of which the academic community and those that it serves can be proud.”
Mr. Wallace only just got involved in the situation, so he missed the worst of the outcry. He acknowledged that there had been “one heck of a lot” of opposition, and said he wished the decision to put the press under the Columbia campus’s control had been made earlier.
“We need to bring people back on board as quickly as we possibly can, and begin to move forward as quickly as we possibly can,” he said. Protests or no protests, though, the campus’s top leaders “know what a university press is all about,” he said. “They know what scholarly communication requires. They understand the importance of our being a part of that.”
‘Bittersweet’ Victory
On the “Save the University of Missouri Press” Facebook page, organizers described the latest news as “tremendous” but “bittersweet,” calling it a Pyrrhic victory. University of Missouri administrators “can reverse their decision, but they can’t reverse history,” the organizers wrote, citing the exodus of authors and editors. “They have broken Humpty Dumpty. They have been reckless at Pottery Barn and now own a bunch of broken plates.”
Bruce Joshua Miller, president of Miller Trade Book Marketing, has been one of the most active voices in lobbying to save the press. He reacted cautiously to the latest announcement. “If it is true that the nine remaining staff members are keeping their jobs, I am very happy about that,” he told The Chronicle by e-mail. “However, we still need to hear how the administration plans to rebuild the press.”
The first order of business is to assemble the advisory committee, Mr. Wallace said. Missouri’s four campuses will be represented, along with outside experts, authors, and other interested parties. “We’re reaching out pretty broadly to the constituencies that care and can make a difference,” he said. He hopes the committee will be ready to have its first meeting in mid-September.
Mr. Wallace said the press would be stronger for its affiliation with a specific campus. Beforehand it “was an island unto itself,” he said. “They were basically out of place. They needed to be located closer to the scholarship, the teaching, the research. There would have been a better understanding over the years of what the press needs to be high quality and to survive.”
