Memos

Questions have come to the Provost’s Office the past few days regarding the state budget situation and its impact on the university, so I am taking this opportunity to briefly review where we stand.

Reductions for the current year
As instructed by the Kansas Board of Regents, the university has collected from the schools and other major units 3 percent of our FY 2009 state general use funds to return to the state’s coffers. Administrative units took the brunt of this cut. You may have heard talk that there will be further reductions this year; we won’t have definitive word until after the Legislature convenes in January. Until then, anything you hear is speculation.

Reductions for next year
The Regents have sent to the governor an appeal of the state budget director’s recommendation for a 7 percent cut next fiscal year, FY 2010. The governor will review the appeals as she produces the official state budget for the Legislature in January. We will follow closely the legislative debate and decisions that will follow. The economic condition of the state is grim, with an estimated $1 billion shortfall for the budget year that starts July 1, 2009. Every single option to address the shortfall will be “on the table” at the Statehouse, but we won't know the final outcome until the session concludes in late April or early May.

The principles we follow
The Governor is required by the Kansas Constitution to submit a balanced budget to the Legislature. We cannot sugarcoat the unknowns of the state revenue picture that will influence the Legislature’s difficult decisions. However, Chancellor Hemenway and I pledge to you that we will continue to follow these principles:

• Protect the university’s core mission. This means teaching and research. This is why our students are here;
• Avoid harming research endeavors. The university is an economic engine for the state. Our faculty’s federal and privately funded research efforts help us achieve a 3-to-1 return on the state’s investment;
• Protect scholarship funds, library acquisitions and utility funds; and
• Give campus units the flexibility to make decisions about how to reduce spending, rather than simply cutting across-the-board. Authority has been distributed to the vice provosts and deans, and from them to department heads because we believe you know best where reductions will cause the least harm.

A renewed call for efficiencies
Although we began this fiscal year facing skyrocketing fuel and energy costs, they have abated somewhat. While utility needs during winter remain unknown, some pressure on our utilities budget has lessened from what we anticipated in August. Nonetheless, we will continue to aggressively seek ways to improve our energy efficiency.

We also continue to roll all efficiencies into solid savings that have helped us manage the budget. At the December Regents meeting the university will report on an impressive collection of efficiencies. Please continue to look creatively in your area for additional ways we can be diligent stewards of state funding and tuition dollars. During the next few months, expect to hear more about units economizing in ways small and large.

If you have suggestions for steps we can take to be more efficient, please email them to me, and know that I appreciate greatly all of the efforts across the university to help us hold the line on costs and to respond responsibly to what the coming months may bring.

Rumors will abound. There are no plans to close whole schools. Faculty will be promoted and tenured by the same criteria as always. Pay no heed to speculation. If you have questions, please put them to me. It is important that we stay in communication in times of difficulty.

Thanks for your steadfastness and for your focus on our core mission: the teaching and research for which KU is justly famous.

Richard W. Lariviere
Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor