December 12, 2018
Kansas Board of Regents December meeting agenda items
Dear K-State Community,
The Kansas Board of Regents will meet Dec. 12 and 13 at the Curtis State Office Building in Topeka. The board will consider the following agenda items during the meeting.
The Regents will act on Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, or EPSCoR, proposals. The federal program encourages university partnerships with industry. Juergen Richt, Regents distinguished professor and KBA eminent scholar, requests funding from the National Institutes of Health to establish a Center of Biomedical Research Excellence on Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases. The university requests $100,000 toward the purchase of a laser capture microdissection instrument.
The Educational Building Fund is the primary source of state funds for maintenance of mission-critical buildings constructed prior to FY 2008 at the Regents' institutions. The Regents will act on the allocation of Educational Building Funds for fiscal year 2020. K-State's proposed fund allocation is $13,156,000.
Kansas State University requests Juergen Richt continue to serve as a Regents distinguished professor. The Kansas Legislature appropriates funds to the Kansas Board of Regents to be used for the Regents distinguished professorship to attract the best and brightest established faculty scholars to Kansas to ultimately benefit the economic and industrial development of the state. Richt has served as a Regents distinguished professor in August 2008. He is the principal investigator and director of the Department of Homeland Security's Center of Excellence for Emerging and Zoonotic Animal Diseases.
The Regents will act on K-State's request to name the College of Engineering for an alumnus. The proposed name will be announced during the Academic Affairs Committee meeting.
The Regents will vote on the housing and food service rates for the 2019-2020 academic year, which are effective July 1, 2019. K-State's typical housing rate for the 2019-2020 academic year will increase by a proposed 1.9 percent, which is an increase of $100. The typical rate is based on a double room in the residence halls. K-State's typical dining rate the 2019-2020 academic year will increase by a proposed 4.2 percent, which is an increase of $170. The typical rate is based on a 14-meal plan for residence hall residents.
Kansas State University requests approval to amend the capital improvement plan and to accept the program statement for the construction of the multicultural student center. The center will provide a central space that encourages intercultural interaction and engages students, faculty and staff from around the world. The building will be adjacent to the K-State Student Union. It will include a welcome area; gathering, meeting and performance practice space; student and multicultural student organization group spaces; a kitchen; office space and core support space, such as lactation room and student organization storage space. The estimated project cost is $5.5 million and will be funded from private gifts. As of October 2018, $4.2 million has been raised to fund the project.
The board adopted a theme related to faculty development at its September 2017 meeting. President Myers will update the Regents on Kansas State University's progress toward university faculty reward structures.
The Regents will act on K-State's nonbudgetary legislative request to sell property adjacent to the Grain Science Complex to the KSU Foundation as part of the North Campus Corridor development. The Regents will have first read of an additional nonbudgetary legislative proposal to amend a statue to allow the Regents to purchase cybersecurity insurance for the board office through the collaborative process being utilized by the state universities.
Gov. Colyer issued Executive Order No. 18-19 on Nov. 21 to provide a new parental leave benefit to certain executive branch employees. The executive order was written so as not to apply to state university employees; however, it specifically encouraged universities to adopt comparable policies for employees. The Regents will receive information on the executive order and recommend a process to evaluate if a similar policy should be adopted for universities.
On Thursday, Col. Michael Harlan will update the Regents on Army University. Since 2016, staff from Army University, the Kansas Board of Regents and postsecondary institutions have collaborated to create educational opportunities for service members and veterans.
The Regents prioritized the review of concurrent enrollment as one of its 2017-2018 goals. The Regents will receive information on the costs of delivering concurrent enrollment programs. The median expenditure per credit hour for all dual enrollment courses is $76.
If you have any questions about these agenda items, please contact me at cab@k-state.edu or 785-532-6226. For live updates on all Kansas Board of Regents meetings follow @ksregents on Twitter. Agendas and complete meeting minutes also are available online.
Sincerely,
Cindy Bontrager
Vice president for administration and finance