The University of Missouri made the only choice it could when faced with a classic management challenge: the need to spend money to shore up core academic programs while already cutting in other areas.

The “Mizzou Advantage” initiative will be funded with $4 million to $6 million a year, money that in part comes from a hiring freeze and reductions in administrative spending. The effort is being launched at an important time for the university system and its flagship campus.

The last few years have not been kind to the institution’s national reputation. One of the most widely watched college rankings, published by U.S. News & World Report, recently dropped University of Missouri-Columbia out of its Top 100. The ranking has declined three straight years, from 88 to 102.

“Stature means a lot in higher education,” Provost Brian Foster told The Associated Press, explaining the link between perceptions and reality. It can weigh heavily in securing research grants and on such matters as recruitment of faculty and students.

Foster says a faculty group developed the new program over several years. He says it is not a response to the specific declines in national rankings, but the message is the same: “To increase our status in higher ed, but also to increase our impact.”

The university is focusing on five areas where it already has national standing:

* Food-related research

* New media

* Human and animal health

* Sustainable energy

* “Transformational” technologies

The new funding will be used to substantially boost salaries for 25 planned faculty hires in these targeted areas and to hire four leading scholars each year — members of the National Academy of Sciences or Pulitzer Prize winners.

Another $60,000 a year will pay for an event coordinator tasked with attracting up to 30,000 new visitors to campus each year for academic conferences. The thought is these visitors will return to their institutions with a renewed appreciation for Missouri’s quality.

A third emphasis will be on how the various disciplines work together. For instance, in the “Foods for the Future” initiative, plant scientists will collaborate with agricultural economists and nutritionists — leveraging the strengths of three outstanding programs.

These strategic efforts promise to boost the university’s reputation, but more importantly to boost the quality of what goes on there.