Mo. Rev. Stat. § 172.020
Pursuant to Sections 9(a) and 9(b) of Article IX of the Missouri Constitution, the state university is hereby incorporated and created as a body politic and shall be known by the name of "The Curators of the University of Missouri", and by that name shall have perpetual succession, power to sue and be sued, complain and defend in all courts; to make and use a common seal, and to alter the same at pleasure; to take, purchase and to sell, convey and otherwise dispose of lands and chattels, except that the curators shall not have the power to subdivide, sell or convey title to any portion of any parcel of land containing in excess of twenty-five hundred contiguous acres unless such transaction is approved by the general assembly by passage of a concurrent resolution signed by the governor. The curators shall not sell, trade or otherwise convey or permit the severance of timber, minerals or other natural resources, unless the curators comply with bidding procedures established by rule that mandate notice of the transaction be provided in a manner reasonably calculated to apprise prospective purchasers. Such rule or rules must at a minimum require at least one notice of the transaction be published in a newspaper of general circulation where the resources are located. The curators may act as trustee in all cases in which there be a gift of property or property left by will to the university or for its benefit or for the benefit of students of the university; to condemn an appropriate real estate or other property, or any interest therein, for any public purpose within the scope of its organization, in the same manner and with like effect as is provided in chapter 523 relating to the appropriation and valuation of lands taken for telegraph, telephone, gravel and plank or railroad purposes; provided, that if the curators so elect, no assessment of damages or compensation under this law shall be payable and no execution shall issue before the expiration of sixty days after the adjournment of the next regular session of the legislature held after such assessment is made, but the same shall bear interest at the rate of six percent per annum from its date until paid; and provided further, that the curators may, at any time, elect to abandon the proposed appropriation of property by an instrument of writing to that effect, to be filed with the clerk of the court and entered on the minutes of the court, and as to so much as is thus abandoned, the assessment of damages or compensation shall be void.
§ 172.020, RSMo