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Greitens taps Layman, Farmer and Chatman to become new MU Curators

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Gov. Eric Greitens submitted three names for the Missouri Board of Curators to the Senate for confirmation Wednesday morning.

Darryl Chatman, Jamie Farmer, and Jeff Layman will replace outgoing curators Donald Cupps and Pamela Henrickson, whose terms have expired. Gov. Jay Nixon’s last appointee to the board, Jon Sundvold – made in the closing days of his term of office– had his nomination rescinded by Greitens earlier this month.

In a statement, Greitens said the new appointees would bring real world experience to the board. Nixon received criticism for many of his choices for the board because most of them were lawyers which critics said led to a lack of occupational diversity.

“We have the potential to make Missouri’s higher education system a national model. Our state has excellent students, talented teachers, and a people committed to education,” Greitens said. “There are also many areas where higher education can be improved. We can encourage more intellectual diversity and become the best state in the country at preparing students for rewarding careers.”

Layman worked on Greitens’ campaign as his finance chairman, and he currently works as an executive and wealth manager with Morgan Stanley in Springfield. Farmer owns Capital Sands Proppant LLC in Jefferson City; the company sells sand for fracking operations. Chatman continues the tradition of hiring lawyers, but he also served as the deputy director of the Missouri Department of Agriculture under Nixon.

The new members of the board will go into Columbia during a time of recovery for the university system, which was heavily criticized for its handling of the ConcernedStudent1950 protests in the fall of 2015. Those events led to the resignation of UM System President Tim Wolfe and the demotion of former Mizzou Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin. In November, Mun Choi was selected to become the new chancellor.