University Governance

Planning & Resources FY2009

From: Joe Heppert, Chair, 2008-2009 Planning and Resources Committee
To: Lisa Wolf-Wendel and John Stratton
Re: Final Report for P&R for AY 2008-2009

The Committee met five times during 2008-2009: September 30th, October 22nd, December 11th, January 27th and April 10th.  Several additional meetings scheduled throughout the semester were canceled due to a lack of business. Early during the year, we learned that KU is in the silent phase of its next capital campaign. The University took several steps over the past year to try to reduce the uncontrolled increase in the university’s expenses. These strategies included locking in the pricing on half of the University’s natural gas needs for 2008-2009.

Reports by Dianne Goddard and Deb Teeter on the State’s financial situation and legislative proposals for state funding cuts were the most constant theme of meetings over the past year. Dianne and Deb were as forthcoming as possible about this situation, considering that they were frequently guessing about the likely outcomes of the processes. During this year, the University’s tuition advisory committee recommended and the Chancellor accepted a 6% proposed tuition increase for entering compact students. That proposal was increased to a 7% tuition change prior to final consideration by the Board of Regents.

The compact process for establishing unit budgets started with a different feeling this year, because there was a general consensus that the University would not have the resources to fund program enhancements. The Provost asked all units to come to their compact meeting with an analysis of future plans and priorities. These meetings started in April but quickly ran into serious delays. The decisions of both Provost Lariviere and Acting Provost Steinmetz to leave the University added further delays the process.

The final meeting of the year involved meetings from Associate Provost Anderson and Vice Provost Warren about plans to implement recommendations arising from the Initiative 2015 planning process.

Associate Provost Anderson commented the teaching and learning task force. A major recommendation of this group was to better define and document learner outcomes. Proposals are being considered to collect samples of student work to document outcomes. The University is planning to pilot a Collegiate Learning Assessment as a strategy for gathering further information on student outcomes.  The University plans to interview faculty about the effectiveness of general education. The plan is to identify opportunities to implement changes in teaching general education. The institution is also in dialog with Latino students to determine how we can improve undergraduate education to benefit underrepresented groups. The university has been working on strategies to enhance contacts with community colleges. Improving the transfer experience for community college students is a major objective of this effort.

Vice Provost Warren reported on the progress of the discovery and innovation task force. The University is examining future infrastructure needs in areas including information technology, core resource facilities for research and basic (building) infrastructure. The University is examining strategies for promoting more interdisciplinary research and help faculty exploit opportunities for entrepreneurship. The graduate program is studying the overall size and quality of a range of graduate programs. The availability of funding for graduate students is integral to the future of our graduate programs.  Efforts are underway to identify major sources of sustained fellowship funding in order to recruit outstanding graduate students.

Detailed reports on the progress of these task forces is included on the Innovation 2015 Planning website at http://www.chancellor.ku.edu/2015/.