Agenda and Meeting Notes

All Team Agenda – Nov. 4, 2025

  • Emergency Management 
  • Center for Teaching Excellence Initiatives 
  • Student Success Design

Meeting Notes

Emergency Management

Kristen Kolleda, Director of the Office of Emergency Management, shared an overview of the office and discussed a One KU approach to emergency management and response. Kolleda’s role involves providing a comprehensive emergency management program and collaborating with external partners, including Douglas County, Wyandotte County, state emergency management divisions, and international organizations. There are six critical areas of emergency management (communications, resources and assets, safety and security, utilities, information technology, and student and employee support) with four phases: planning and training to ensure readiness; robust response capabilities; recovery efforts; and mitigation strategies to prevent or minimize future emergencies.

Kolleda noted that communication is the most common failure during emergencies. As of November, only 20% of employees are enrolled in the Rave emergency notification system. To address this, KU will transition to an opt-out model, automatically enrolling employees in the Rave system unless they choose to opt out. The system will soon allow targeted messaging for the Edwards Campus, which is currently grouped with Lawrence.

Kolleda outlined the KU OEM strategic goals roadmap and updates to the preparedness planning documents. Updates include hazard-specific plans for events such as bomb threats, functional annexes, and extreme weather events such as tornadoes and earthquakes. KU conducted its first earthquake drill in 2025; the next drill is a statewide exercise scheduled for March 2026. Emergency response protocols now align with the National Incident Management System (NIMS), which improves coordination and communication across departments, organizations, and governments. 

Kolleda also discussed implementing a business continuity program, an organization’s ability to maintain critical business functions during and after an incident, at KUMC using the Riskonnect platform. Best practices from this effort will inform the development of a continuity strategy for the Lawrence campus within the following year. She highlighted planning efforts for the upcoming World Cup, which include creating a KU unified command structure and working closely with local jurisdictions, LMH Health, and the University of Kansas Health System. Another member from her team is leading KU’s planning efforts.

Additional discussion addressed mental health integration into emergency management. Kolleda referenced a psychological first aid guide developed by a graduate student at KUMC and expressed interest in continuing this work, noting that burnout and mental health are critical considerations in disaster management. Responding to a question about 911 call routing, Kolleda clarified that calls from the Lawrence campus go to KU Police, Edwards campus calls route to local jurisdictions, and the Medical Center uses the phone number printed on employee badges. Kolleda also mentioned efforts to include affiliates such as KU Endowment and the KU Alumni in emergency planning.

Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) Initiatives

Dea Follmer, Director of the Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE), discussed CTE’s past, present, and future roles in supporting KU’s educational mission. Founded in 1998 as a space for intellectual exchange about teaching, CTE has grown into a multi-layered structure with 10 staff members. At its core, CTE exists to provide instructors and graduate teaching assistants with opportunities for growth and support to make student learning possible.

Current priorities for CTE include advancing AI-ready education by preparing faculty and students for emerging technologies, adapting to new student needs through research and pedagogical partnerships, and rethinking grading and assessment to prioritize student growth over point accumulation. 

Looking ahead, CTE plans to reimagine itself as an institute for educational excellence and innovation to better align with campus priorities. Follmer noted that this transformation will enable CTE to do several things:

  • Innovate: Serve as a campus hub that advances faculty-led pedagogical innovation and scholarship that directly improves KU education.
  • Partner: Work with schools, departments, and aligned units to identify educational priorities and collaboratively address curricular and instructional needs and challenges.
  • Elevate: Position KU as a national leader in transformative higher education pedagogy.

Concluding the discussion, Provost Bichelmeyer emphasized the importance of continuing conversations with faculty about the need to change and innovate how KU educates students.

Student Success Design Presentations

Gautam Sundaram, Principal Urban Design Practice Leader at Perkins&Will, and Mark Reiske, Director of Facilities Planning and Development, presented KU’s future approach to a student success design initiative. 

The initiative began with stakeholder interviews, student engagement sessions, and workshops, with initial conversations focused on understanding what students need and how they define success. Summarizing workshop discussions, Sundaram highlighted several key themes: accessibility and navigation, collaboration and cross-unit engagement, inclusive and inviting environments, holistic and proactive support, and the “Jayhawk Journey,” which envisions lifelong engagement beyond graduation. 

From these discussions, six student success priorities were developed:

  • Student-centered Design: Make success more accessible and inclusive for each student.
  • Holistic and Integrated Support: Address the whole student through interconnected services.
  • Environment as Strategy: Physically support and reflect student needs and identities.
  • Communication and Navigation: Provide clear wayfinding and contacts to guide students to the right place.
  • Culture of Collaboration: Build synergies where everyone has the opportunity to contribute.
  • Continuous Improvement: Evolve based on changing needs while celebrating progress.

Sundaram also shared the student success framework, which is built around three core nodes of student success: wellness, academic, and financial. The framework details services involved in each area and where these nodes are located on campus. Wellness emerged as a critical element, with strategies to bring students closer to health and well-being services. Academic support will remain anchored around the library but distributed across campus, with more visible resources and centers. Financial success will involve expanding financial literacy education and budgeting resources. Finally, the framework emphasizes lifelong connections through career and professional development, life skills training, and alumni network building.