My Decision to Step Down as Provost & EVC


Barbara A. Bichelmeyer, Chief Academic Officer, Provost & Executive Vice Chancellor
Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025, 2:30 p.m.
KU Lawrence Edwards Faculty, Staff and Affiliates

Dear Colleagues, 

Serving you as Chief Academic Officer/Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor of the University of Kansas has been the greatest honor of my career. I have had the rare privilege to serve in this role at my alma mater, and to share this experience with most all of my extended family who live in the Greater Kansas City and Eastern Kansas regions. We have accomplished amazing things during the past several years, and in the firm belief that KU is in a better situation than when I arrived, I am choosing to leave the role. 

I came to the position with clear goals and never imagined the additional surprises in store for me. 

I am proud to say that we – all of us – achieved record enrollments, record retention and completion rates, and have had the most diverse student populations in the history of the university. 

We made significant investments in research, while working in partnership through the One KU initiative to re-organize and modernize systems and processes for research administration between Lawrence-Edwards, KU Medical Center and The University of Kansas Health System.

We did the hard work to improve our curriculum and help students to better navigate through their academic programs with degree maps and through improved academic advising. We implemented KU Core 34 and other initiatives of the Kansas Board of Regents, and we have improved the level of engagement and interaction between faculty and students in our courses. We are creating innovative approaches in higher education through competency based education.

I am just as proud to say we have created new systems, structures, policies and processes at Lawrence and Edwards that bring the leadership team together to create strategic alignment of our academic and administrative organizations and that has significantly improved the effectiveness and efficiency of our operations. These structures will support and sustain the university long beyond my time as Provost, and we have elevated and brought in great people who will help us navigate any challenges before us. Ultimately, we have redefined university administration through the One KU initiative.

Perhaps most importantly, we have strengthened our focus and support for our people through dependent tuition benefits, new programming for professional development and personal health and wellness and we’ve made progress and remain committed to improving wages for our staff, faculty and student employees.

I am so very proud of what we have accomplished together, and I am deeply grateful to you for your partnership in this work. 

Chancellor Girod and I have agreed that I will stay in the role until the search for the next Provost is completed. I am deeply grateful to the Chancellor for the opportunity and support he has provided me as I have served in this role. 

I am so thankful to you all for all you have done for me, as well as for KU. It is knowing you will carry on in this great work that gives me immense hope and confidence in the future of the University of Kansas. 

I am, and will forever be, a Jayhawk.

Rock Chalk!

Barb

Barbara A. Bichelmeyer

Chief Academic Officer/Provost

Executive Vice Chancellor