St. Louis Public Radio Harris-Stowe State University, like other public colleges in Missouri, is adapting to fewer students and less state funding. The pandemic has accelerated both challenges. The coronavirus pandemic is accelerating worrying trends across higher education that could reshape the scope of public colleges and universities in Missouri and Illinois. Public colleges and universities were already making do with fewer students and less state aid before the pandemic. Both of those dropped faster than expected in 2020. Administrators at several of those schools are planning to reorganize as leaner institutions, accepting that the demographic and political realities of the future are not in their favor.