Agenda and Meeting Notes

Council of Academic Leaders – Oct. 10, 2025

  • Overview of changes in professional development programs
  • College Rising and other student scholarship programs
  • Classroom policies and safety
  • Paperwork reduction
  • Collective bargaining updates
  • Tenure bill 

Meeting Notes

Overview of changes in professional development programs 

 Mary Banwart, Associate Vice Provost for Faculty Development, Mentoring, and Growth, provided an overview of Faculty Affairs professional development program changes over the past few years. Overall, more opportunities have been developed for various faculty over their career lifecycle. Development of these programs is viewed through the lens of needs, priorities and outcomes; audience and delivery model. 

Over the past year, the Office of Faculty Affairs has built up new faculty programming and expanded that into early career programming (for faculty in their first five years at KU). Other programming includes:  

Faculty in Conversation Series – collaborative learning, connections to faculty and unit experts, faculty facilitation on relevant topics and faculty coming together for exploration on a core topic: 

  • Faculty Learning and Writing Circles
  • Faculty How to at KU
  • The Faculty Idea Exhange (new this fall)
  • The Faculty Collaborative (coming this spring) 

Workshop Series – providing “deep dives” into topics that support faculty and faculty leadership in growing their knowledge, skills and capacities to be successful in their roles: 

  • Faculty Development Academies Week
  • New Associate Deans, Chairs & Directors Orientation
  • Associate Deans, Chairs & Directors Workshop
  • New Faculty Orientation
  • Graduate Mentoring Workshop Series 

Leadership Development – supporting faculty leadership and professional development 

  • Senior Administrative Fellows 

More exploration will take place in Leadership Development and inclusiveness of various faculty types.  

College Rising and other student scholarship programs 

The group raised questions about Endowment funding tied to graduate scholarship programs and how this can be bolstered, so the impact is less intense for units. The Provost will invite a representative from Endowment as well as KU Finance and Enrollment to next month’s meeting so more specific questions can be asked of how Endowment funds flow. 

Classroom policies and safety 

The Council discussed recent events and how instructors on the Lawrence campus can be safe and take precautions, while still keeping their scholarship intact. There was a request for more regular communication at the university level to reinforce instructors' rights and share ideas on keeping a safe learning environment. Outside of the classroom, community-engaged research was brought up and that these types of de-escalation techniques are needed in these spaces as well. 

Paperwork reduction 

The Provost shared that while it is important for the university to report on many metrics for accreditation purposes, she recognizes that there are redundancies and outdated systems for some of this work. Conversations are taking place to move some resources closer to units, remove some redundancies in the best way for the OneKU model, and prioritize and streamline revenue generating activates.  

Collective bargaining updates 

Most recently, the bargaining units met for an eight-hour session and have several more meetings scheduled through the fall. Recent session details and tentative agreement information is updated constantly on the Faculty Affairs Collective Bargaining website. 

Tenure bill 

This bill is expected to come up during the spring legislative session. KBOR is currently working with campus leaders across the state to strengthen reporting on workload and create a better reporting structure on tenure and post-tenure reviews. Many states already have these systems in place. These updates will better clarify the tenured faculty role for the institution and the faculty member.