September 9, 2020
Kansas Board of Regents September meeting agenda items
Submitted by Communications and Marketing
The Kansas Board of Regents will meet Sept. 9 and 10 at the Curtis State Office Building in Topeka. A livestream will be available for individuals to listen remotely.
On Wednesday, Sept. 9, the Regents will meet with the Kansas State Board of Education. Reports on reopening plans for all education levels will be presented. The boards will discuss aligning spring breaks for the entire Kansas public education system.
On Thursday, Sept. 10, the board will consider the following agenda items related to Kansas State University during the regular Kansas Board of Regents meeting.
Consent agenda
K-State requests approval to seek accreditation for the Master of Science in physician assistant studies program with the Council of Higher Education Accreditation. The total cost of initial accreditation is $32,000.
K-State requests approval to enter into a five-year lease agreement with the KSU Real Estate Fund LLC, a subsidiary of the KSU Foundation. The lease is for office space in the KSU Foundation headquarters building. The Office of Military and Veteran Affairs requests a one-year lease for 1,076 square feet for a total cost of $26,953.80.
Kansas State Polytechnic requests approval to enter into a three-year lease agreement with the Salina Airport Authority, or SAA. The SAA will provide Polytechnic office and hangar space at the Interim Applied Aviation Research Center in Salina. The first-year lease payment totals $77,195.
K-State requests approval to accept ownership of the Foundation Tower, part of the Unger Complex at 2323 Anderson Ave. in Manhattan. The Regents approved a five-year lease-purchase agreement with the KSU Foundation in October 2015. Payment has been made in full and the university requests acceptance of the property from the KSU Foundation.
K-State requests approval to finalize the sale of approximately 4.4 acres of land near the International Grain Science Industry Complex to the KSU Foundation. Three appraisers established the value of the parcel at $1,160,000. The university recommends selling the property to the KSU Foundation for the appraised value. Proceeds from the sale will be deposited into the university's restricted fees fund.
Discussion agenda
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many measures of institutional performance could be negatively affected for academic years 2019-2020 and 2020-2021. The Regents will act on proposed changes to performance agreements funding guidelines. To be eligible for any new funding appropriated by the Legislature and approved by the governor, each institution annually submits a performance report that updates the board on an institution's progress toward meeting the indicators in the performance agreement. The performance report provides the board a basis for awarding any new funding based on the following three outcomes for the indicators in the performance agreement: maintaining the baseline, improving on the baseline or declining from the baseline. The Board Academic Affairs Standing Committee recommends removing the limitation of moving up only one funding tier for institutions that do not qualify for the 100% or 90% funding tier if more than one indicator was affected by an unforeseen emergency, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
K-State requests approval to charge a reduced out-of-state tuition rate that is equivalent to the resident tuition rate effective fall 2021 to full-time, domestic, undergraduate students — first-time freshman or transfer — from the state of Missouri. The reduced rate will be available to students pursuing any undergraduate major at K-State and the initial eligibility criteria will be a 3.25 overall high school GPA and composite score of 22 on the ACT — 1100 SAT — for first- time, full-time freshmen and a 3.25 college GPA for new transfer students. The proposal is an initiative of the Strategic Enrollment Management plan to grow our enrollment, increase the geographic diversity of the student body and increase net tuition revenue.
Current board regulations preclude online-only students from eligibility from the board's student health insurance plans. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the potential for universities to limit participation in face-to-face classes, the Regents will act on permanent regulation amendments to ensure continued student eligibility for the board's student health insurance plan.
Agendas and complete meeting minutes are available online. For live updates on all Kansas Board of Regents meetings, follow @ksregents on Twitter.