When notified Friday that she was considered a nonessential employee, Selinna Hale started thinking about home projects to tackle during days off work.

But first, she and other staffers in the Kansas University enrollment office were concerned with how to pull off the first summer orientation session for incoming freshmen — set for Tuesday, also the first day of summer classes — with only a skeleton crew.

“That was the one thing that everybody was going to make sure happened,” Hale said. “It was just going to have to be more limited staff.”

It turns out, their contingency plan was not needed.

The Kansas Legislature passed a bill Saturday lifting the immediate threat of mass furloughs of state employees. The move followed days of uncertainty. In preparation for possible furloughs, about 5,270, or 57 percent, according to KU, of Lawrence and Edwards campus employees were notified Friday they were considered nonessential to university functions and should prepare for the possibility of staying home beginning Sunday if no budget was passed.

The Legislature on Monday was still working to pass a balanced budget.

On the KU campus it was quiet — typical for a day between spring and summer classes — but business as usual.

KU announced early on that furloughs or not, summer classes would begin Tuesday as planned. Hale, at her desk in Strong Hall Monday morning, said her office fielded a number of phone calls from students Friday, mostly concerned about whether a furlough would affect the processing of their financial aid.

Hundreds of incoming freshmen and their parents attend each summer orientation, and especially since the day’s events include enrollment, the first session is coveted, said Curtis Marsh, director of KU Info, who also was at his post in the Kansas Union Monday morning.

Marsh, too, was concerned about the possibility of Tuesday arriving with drastically fewer employees on campus — including KU Info staffers, who also were deemed nonessential even though they are the people who answer the university’s main line in addition to KU Info questions.

“We were really worried that we weren’t going to be able to take care of new and returning students,” Marsh said. “I’m just pleased that everyone’s here.”

On Monday morning, KU Info was fielding numerous calls.

Nothing about furloughs, though, Marsh said. Mainly it was the usual: students wondering how to get parking passes and visitors looking for the museum.

For KU student Bailey McGuire, Monday was the first day of her summer job working for KU Info.

She said she was glad to be there after the previous uncertainty.

“It all worked out,” she said.