Newspaper Article

Downtown again faces period of uncertain change

Cooper, Chip

2013

Overview

  After years of slow decline, a big change started in 1985 with the opening of the Columbia Mall. In the two years after the mall's opening, more than 80 downtown businesses were shuttered. A few years later, MU began seriously considering a change of mission to be the \"elite\" campus for the University of Missouri System. As I recall, then-Chancellor Charles Kiesler talked of cutting enrollment to around 16,000. Needless to say, there was deep concern for our downtown. Few could have envisioned that future in 1935. Today, enrollment at MU is more than 34,000, up more than 10,000 in the past decade because of MU policy. Stephens College and Columbia College are thriving once again. Downtown, at the bustling hub of this student boom, also is thriving. Worries about the impact of online education, escalating education costs and a declining middle class nag at us, but we don't understand the threat much more than the citizens of 1935 knew what awaited them. It's hard to predict the future. * Downtown's look and feel is changing again, as it has periodically since Columbia's founding. Don't fear the change, and don't think we are smart enough to dictate it.

• Publisher: Columbia Daily Tribune