Topeka ? A pair of reports to the Kansas Board of Regents from Kansas University Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little and Kansas State University President Kirk Schulz on Wednesday were some of their most obscure yet — by design.

“You’re going to be amazed at the lack of concrete content,” Schulz promised before delivering his. “A lot of that is because of the nature of the work.”

Both university leaders gave required annual updates and requested approval of resolutions for top-secret U.S. Department of Defense research projects going on at their schools.

Because security clearance is required for access to the classified research information and facilities, the resolutions delegate project management authority from the Regents to a specially designated Security Executive Committee at each school.

The Regents originally adopted K-State’s resolution in 2009 and KU’s in 2013, but the resolutions must be updated each time someone on the Board of Regents or university staff changes, said Julene Miller, an attorney for the Regents.

That security clearance is exhaustive.

KU just went through the process to add its new vice chancellor of research James Tracy to the Security Executive Committee, and Gray-Little said it was quite a task.

James Tracy is Kansas University’s new chancellor for research.

The process takes weeks and requires responding to a 127-page security questionnaire, “which federal agents then use to conduct a comprehensive review of criminal, civil, credit, local agency checks, education verification, employment verification, Social Security identity verification and other reviews to determine any dependencies or involvement with persons or entities deemed to be a potential threat to U.S. intelligence,” according to a regents memo on the issue.

At KU, according to the memo, the Department of Defense has determined that the Security Executive Committee must include the chancellor, provost and executive vice chancellor, vice chancellor for research, vice provost for administration and finance and facility security officer.

The classified research projects at each school are not numerous, but obtaining and maintaining the security clearance has larger significance, university leaders said.

“We can compete for classified projects, and that means if one is awarded, then we have the infrastructure in place to help our faculty, grad students and staff manage that particular project,” Schulz said. “It’s expensive to maintain that. This is not something that you do one time and walk away from.”

Gray-Little said the Department of Defense has billions of dollars available for research and development KU could not apply for without the security clearance.

For now KU has one classified Department of Defense contract that involves enhanced remote sensing technologies such as radar and sonar, Gray-Little said. She said all classified research at KU happens in a secure area of Nichols Hall on West Campus.

K-State has three contracts with a fourth pending, Schulz said.

Schulz said though K-State’s resolution relates to the Biosecurity Research Institute the research doesn’t necessarily involve infectious diseases. He said K-State’s classified projects were largely out of the College of Engineering.

In response to a question from Regent Dave Murfin, Schulz said examples of security measures might include secure research spaces where no data would be allowed in or out, via memory sticks, disc drives or other means. He said K-State also has secure communications with other places working on similar projects nationally.

And that, Schulz said, was about all he could share.

Other business

In other KU related business, the Board of Regents:

• Formally authorized KU to raze McCollum Hall and Stouffer Place Apartments.

Demolition costs — which include asbestos abatement at both — are expected to be $2.8 million for McCollum (planned for within the bonding for the McCollum replacement project) and $2 million for Stouffer Place (funded as part of KU’s Central District improvements), according to a board memo.

• Approved KU’s request to offer a Bachelor of Arts degree in Jewish studies through the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. According to a board memo, a Jewish studies minor offered since 2005 has been popular at KU, more than 2,000 Jewish undergrads attend KU, and no other Kansas university offers a minor or major in Jewish studies.

As far as demand and need, the memo said, “The area of Jewish Studies is pertinent to all undergraduates at KU, not only because of Jewish influence in the development of early Christianity and Islam, and in world culture, but also because of the present world attention on the Middle East.”