Agenda and Meeting Notes
Council of Academic Leaders – September 2, 2025
- Introductions & review of the Council’s purpose
- Current financial context – Council topic
- Split appointments and title changes – Council topic
Meeting Notes
Council members shared introductions and the initial charge and vision for the group was shared. The Council of Academic Leaders is a new advisory body to campus leadership composed of representatives from the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, the professional schools, Libraries, and research centers at the KU Lawrence & Edwards Campuses. The purpose of the Council is to provide a formal venue for individuals in leadership roles to engage directly with university leadership and provide informed feedback and recommendations on topics that are critical to the university’s mission and strategic goals.
Current financial context
The council brought several questions to Provost Bichelmeyer regarding the recent 6.5% cut in operational expenses in units, which included: changes to Athletics' structure and impacts on a department/unit level. It was also brought up that new faculty are curious and have an interest in the financial history of KU and that the news about cuts was hard as KU had just worked hard to balance its budget.
Provost Bichelmeyer responded that KU successfully completed its goals during the last four years by making strategic cuts, increasing enrollment and balancing its budget in FY25. Following FY25, plans were to increase salaries, however, factors outside of the University’s control (e.g. federal government funding, changes to Athletics) have made maintaining this progress much more difficult. It is hard to provide competitive wages with these changes and only two unrestricted pools of funding (enrollment and state appropriation), but that is still the ultimate priority. Provost Bichelmeyer encouraged units across the University to look at ways of partnering and being more strategic with how we offer educational services. Further conversation took place among the Council on addressing the shortfall.
Split appointments and title changes
The Council’s main questions about title changes involved potential changes to split appointments and specifically the scientist and research professor titles. There is uncertainty about the potential impact of these changes on individual faculty members and the units in which they are appointed. Provost Bichelmeyer and Amy Mendenhall, Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs, shared that the goal of these proposed changes is to provide clarity about these types of appointments and responsibilities between units, with articulation agreements that are clear from the beginning (allocation of effort) and moving forward. Formal agreements between two academic units or an academic unit and research center must be clear for all parties. Based on feedback the Council heard from their units, a dialogue took place on the faculty role within academic units and research centers, general confusion across departments with split appointment positions, and faculty objectives for taking a split appointment role.