Our Next-Gen K-State strategic plan is heavily focused on ensuring we have a shared focus on academic innovation across the university. This is particularly crucial as we innovate and deliver programs to learners that are aligned with what they want and need and help us reach our strategic imperative goals – including growing our traditional and nontraditional enrollment to 30,000 by 2030.

These changes will help strengthen the capacity of the Provost’s Office to better support the academic organization in meeting the goals of our strategic plan. They represent a significant investment in the university’s academic enterprise and further efforts to drive integrated academic innovation across the institution while building capacity in faculty and academic affairs functions. This includes establishing a clear and well-defined structure to support faculty in how they innovate courses and programs and develop new programs (credit-bearing and alternative credentials) that meet market demand.

This operational excellence restructuring is focused on modernizing and building capacity within our academic organization, breaking down siloes that prevent our faculty and staff from being as effective and impactful as they could be, and amplifying the value and impact of the work our K-State community does each day in serving our learners and communities.

Global Campus will no longer exist as a separate organization. Instead, the Global Campus functions, teams and resources will be distributed across the Office of the Provost in areas that help to amplify the work of those units in a more integrated, holistic way. In addition, the faculty affairs and academic affairs functions currently performed in the Office of the Provost under Institutional Effectiveness will be reallocated and strengthened in this new structure.

A new major unit, led by a Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and Innovation, will lead a portfolio focused on academic affairs, faculty affairs, and academic innovation. This includes K-State Online as our online and distance learning platform, as well as our market research unit, which will be repositioned and amplified as a university-wide resource for colleges, departments, and faculty to fully leverage in aligning programs with what our markets, communities, and learners need. Faculty affairs, academic affairs, and the teaching and learning center will also be repositioned within this new unit as resourced functions for K-State to support all facets of our academic enterprise.

Online advising will shift to the Division of Academic Success and Student Affairs (DASSA), continuing to serve learners throughout the transition. This shift builds on recent efforts to establish more integrated, coordinated university central advising. The military student advising functions focused on serving learners at Fort Riley, currently in Global Campus, and Fort Leavenworth, currently in the Graduate School, will also move to the Military Affiliated Resource Center, the university’s new one-stop military learner support unit within DASSA.

Enrollment Management, Global Campus, and Graduate School marketing and communications functions will be consolidated within Enrollment Management and coordinated with the Division of Communications and Marketing.

Online recruitment will shift to Enrollment Management, along with graduate recruitment, to form a true center of excellence for K-State when it comes to recruitment, matriculation, and enrollment – regardless of modality.

The university has been engaged in discussions about academic innovation and the functions and services of Global Campus for several years, beginning in 2019 as part of the K-State 2025 Refresh discussions. Though paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, these discussions were amplified throughout the Next-Gen K-State strategic planning process. Now is the right time to act as we work to implement our strategic plan to help meet our university's aggressive goals for enrollment growth and academic innovation in our curriculum and program development.

This new framework makes sense for our university – regardless of who serves as Provost. The plan is crucial to accomplishing our strategic imperatives and cannot wait to be implemented, particularly in line with other efforts the university has undertaken over the past year in pursuit of operational excellence restructuring. The new Provost will have an opportunity to review and refine aspects of this reorganization as part of the transition planning that will take place this spring.

In-depth reviews, discussions, planning, and diligence will take place to support the transition to the new structure during Spring 2024. While all changes may not be made at the same time, the new structure will fully go into effect in June 2024, in coordination with the new fiscal year.

A national search for the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and Innovation will be launched in February 2024 in alignment with this transition timeline and process.

This effort will be led by a transition team that includes Lynn Carlin (Special Assistant to the Provost), Karen Goos (Vice Provost for Enrollment Management), Thomas Lane (Vice President and Dean of Students), and Karen Pederson (Dean of the Global Campus). This team, which will report to the Provost and Executive Vice President throughout the transition, will work collaboratively to facilitate this transition, with support from leadership in K-State's Human Resources, Budget, Space Planning, and Communication and Marketing units.

Two charts outlining the functional redesign of the Provost’s Office structure with new and highlighted academic innovation functions are available here. More detailed organizational charts will be shared as they are developed. The expectation is that all new organizational charts will be identified and shared by May 2024.

As we move forward with this transition, we will conduct in-depth reviews of business operations, technologies, data, systems, and other functions that involve the Office of the Provost and Executive Vice President. This analysis will be focused on assessing potential needs for additional staff or other resources that help to further elevate and position the university’s academic enterprise for long-term success.

This reorganization will be funded with existing resources, including the repurposing of existing positions and vacancies and the reallocation of Global Campus and Provost Office funding.

Of utmost importance is continuing to provide services to our learners, faculty, and staff while managing the change that comes with any transition.

Additionally, this process will require high levels of communication and collaboration. Leadership from Global Campus, Enrollment Management, Academic Success and Student Affairs, the Division of Communication and Marketing, and the Office of the Provost will be working closely with each other and meeting regularly over the coming months. Most importantly, the university is moving to an environment and work style that emphasizes collaboration over siloes. Employees should prepare for work to be done through cross-unit teams throughout this process, which is evident in the cross-functional teams we are establishing to guide this transition process.

Decisions and changes will be communicated through updates to this webpage, through unit staff meetings, and through emails directly to staff in the impacted units. In addition, the university community will receive updates through articles in K-State Today.

Employees may experience a change in their direct supervisor, work teams, and position descriptions. This restructure is about investing in and building out the capacity of the academic enterprise while ensuring everyone is in a position that best and most effectively utilizes their skill set. The restructure is not an exercise in downsizing – we expect there to be a place in the new structure for every current employee.

No. It will not be necessary for employees to reapply for positions they currently hold.

Employees will be informed of reassignment to the units in the new structure: the Provost Office, Academic Affairs and Innovation, Enrollment Management, or Academic Success and Student Affairs in early April. Employees who have been reassigned will meet with leaders in their new units to discuss their position reassignment and duties during April and May. All staff reassignments will be finalized as part of the annual contract renewal process.

There are no immediate plans for current employees with remote work agreements to relocate to in-person or hybrid working environments. Employees may expect that remote work arrangements will be evaluated by new leaders as part of the transition planning and that any changed expectations regarding remote work will be discussed with them.

The university will honor all current Global Campus working arrangements through December 2024. In the event any changes to working arrangements are ultimately deemed necessary, these decisions will be communicated to employees no later than May 2024. More information about the university’s remote work policy may be found in PPM Chapter 4045.

Employees can discuss this as an option for in-person or hybrid work with their unit leaders. If the position duties require in-person or hybrid work on the Manhattan campus, working fully remotely on another campus may not be an option.

The university and units are continually evaluating campus workspace needs. As with any restructure, assessment of workspace needs will be part of the transition planning, including workspace needs for the hiring of new employees and co-locating teams. The university will begin a new campus master plan initiative later this spring and workspace needs for the units reporting to the Provost will be part of that planning.

The university encourages a flexible work environment that supports our employees while meeting university needs. Supervisors are encouraged to work with employees and outline expectations regarding work schedules based on the nature of the position and the unit’s business needs to fulfill our land-grant mission. Employees may experience adjustments in work schedules as reassignments occur.

Yes. Employees will be notified of their reassignment within the new Provost Academic Innovation framework to the Provost Office, Academic Affairs and Innovation, Enrollment Management, or Academic Success and Student Affairs in early April. Those employees and unit leaders will meet to discuss the position reassignment and review current position descriptions and duties. Supervisors will work with employees to complete updated position descriptions no later than the beginning of the fiscal year.

There are no plans to change the appointment types of current employees as part of this transition.

No. The intent is not to eliminate positions or reduce salaries, but to build the staffing capacity needed to drive operational excellence and provide effective and efficient services in support of our students, faculty, and staff across the university as we drive academic innovation and grow enrollment to 30,000 learners by 2030.

Part of the transition planning will include Human Resources conducting a review of all position descriptions along with an equity review of similarly situated positions across the affected units. Such reviews typically do not lead to salary reductions but strive to create alignment among positions who will be situated together in a unit.

The comp time will be transferred to the new unit.

Employees and current supervisors should set 2024 goals as they normally would. Once employees are moved to their new unit, those goals should be revisited with their new supervisor during the summer and adjusted, if appropriate.

Employees will be evaluated for calendar year 2024 by their new supervisor, with input from their previous supervisor for the first half of 2024. This is consistent with annual performance evaluations for any university employee changing supervisors or positions during an evaluation year.

These expectations are yet to be determined and will likely evolve as transition planning continues for units and teams in Enrollment Management.

As the university embraces becoming “One K-State” and pursues operational excellence to promote both efficiency and effectiveness, all employees are being called upon to learn new processes, tools, and systems. The goal is for unit leaders and employees to work together across our silos to determine and adopt the best tools to accomplish the work. Decisions about what those tools are will continue to evolve at the university level and across the Provost units.

Professional growth opportunities are critical to our employees and their career growth is vital to building and sustaining a next-generation land-grant workforce at a major university. Employees across the Provost units will continue to have such opportunities.

Employees are encouraged to share questions and concerns with transition team members, including Karen Goos, Thomas Lane, Karen Pedersen, Lynn Carlin, and Shanna Legleiter. These concerns will be considered as part of the transition planning. Available resources to support employees as they navigate change include the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) available 24/7 at 1-888-270-8897.