photo by: Screenshot // Kansas Board of Regents
The Kansas Board of Regents voted unanimously in its Feb. 17 meeting to amend a controversial policy on tenure and extend the deadline to submit a framework for the policy to July 1.
The Kansas Board of Regents voted Wednesday to extend the deadline for its controversial policy that could temporarily eliminate faculty tenure protection at universities.
The University of Kansas requested that the Board of Regents grant KU until July 1 to decide whether it would submit a framework under which it could pursue the policy. Previously, universities had to decide by March 6 whether they would submit such a framework.
Faced with the prospect of having the decision made for them, the Kansas Board of Regents on Wednesday voted to commit to spending a proposed $10.3 million discretionary fund, if approved by the Kansas Legislature, on much-needed maintenance and upgrades for aging university facilities.
As part of her proposed budget for the 2022 fiscal year, Gov. Laura Kelly partially offset a $37.4 general fund reduction for state universities with a proposed $10.3 million allocation to the regents to distribute at their discretion. The $10.3 million allocation was calculated as the budget increase university funding would have seen, if university employees had otherwise been included in Kelly’s plan to give state employees a 2.5% salary increase.
Explore graduate student research with implications for Kansas
The 18th Capitol Graduate Research Summit kicks off today, Thursday, Feb. 18, featuring 10 Kansas State University graduate students whose research address topics with important implications for issues in the state of Kansas. Presentation topics include agricultural engineering, chemotherapy, student mental health, economics, crop management, and health communication.
The statewide summit includes current research from graduate students at Kansas State University, Emporia State University, Fort Hays State University, Pittsburg State University, University of Kansas, the University of Kansas Medical Center, and Wichita State University. Kansas legislators have been invited to view the students presentations to learn about the value of research conducted at our institutions.
Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector
photo by: Noah Taborda/Kansas Reflector
Rep. Sean Tarwater, a Republican from Stilwell, says state universities let students down in the COVID-19 pandemic. He won House committee support for an amendment requiring universities to pay students a 100% tuition refund for online courses and 50% tuition rebate for every day the academic year was shortened.
TOPEKA The House Appropriations Committee voted to insert in the budget for state universities a mandatory tuition rebate to students based on the number of classes taught online and the academic days dropped from the calendar during the COVID-19 pandemic.
At the same time across the street in Topeka, the Kansas Board of Regents was involved in meetings to discuss how the six public universities would deal with a pandemic-driven revenue collapse by dropping academic programs, terminating employees or making other spending adjustments. The Board of Regents agreed to a request from the University of
Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector
photo by: Screen capture/Kansas Reflector
Rep. Barbara Wasinger, R-Hays, is convinced budget problems at public universities in the Kansas Board of Regents system are tied to bloated academic programs and declining enrollment.
TOPEKA Rep. Barbara Wasinger peppered state university administrators with assertions that campuses across Kansas were a morass of academic program duplication, dwindling student enrollment and unreasonable consumption of tax dollars.
Her perspective not universally shared by her Republican and Democratic colleagues carried weight as vice chairwoman of the House Higher Education Budget Committee. The panel was responsible for sifting through budget requests on behalf of six public universities managed by the Kansas Board of Regents as well as Washburn University, community colleges and technical colleges within the board’s jurisdiction. A comparable budget process has been occurring in the Kansas Senate, and both cham