photo by: Mike Yoder

University of Kansas Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Barbara Bichelmeyer speaks during an interview March 4, 2020.

The beginning of Barbara Bichelmeyer’s tenure as the University of Kansas’ first permanent provost since April 2018 has been a whirlwind.

Bichelmeyer’s return to her alma mater — where she earned four degrees — has been packed with meetings and briefings on campus issues. Several times, in an interview with the Journal-World last week, she jokingly referred to them by how far into her tenure they took place: A campus conversation on the university’s strategic plan was “day 5, hour 6.”

It’s a lot to keep track of, but the new second in command of KU’s Lawrence campus — the first person to hold the position permanently since Neeli Bendapudi left the university nearly two years ago — said she isn’t fazed by it.

“I’m still learning,” Bichelmeyer said, paraphrasing Albert Einstein. “And I have a lot to learn. And I know I have a lot to learn, so I appreciate the education everybody’s going to provide me.”

One of Bichelmeyer’s biggest takeaways from meeting with KU stakeholders was that faculty, staff and students were all hungry for clarity about what the administration saw as KU’s strengths and eager for recognition of what the university does well.

“At the same time, they also know that the world is changing, and they’re trying to make sense of those changes and what we need to do differently as a result of that,” she said. “So people are asking a fair amount about ‘what’s the vision?’ And to me, that’s really (a question of) ‘what is our theory of action, and where do we think we need to go?'”

Those changes Bichelmeyer was referring to — $20 million in budget cuts, a faculty buyout program that caused campus departments to lose decades of experience, and a lack of substantive raises for faculty and staff over the last decade — will assuredly bring about questions she is now tasked with answering.

How does the mission of the university adapt during a time of such limited resources?

How can a university of KU’s size keep tuition hikes low for students who are already more financially strapped than they’ve ever been?

How can the institution recruit the best faculty talent when it struggles to pay a competitive rate?

Those aren’t easy questions to answer, and while Bichelmeyer said she plans on taking an adaptable and multifaceted approach to the role, she boiled down her view of the provost position simply:

“I think my job as provost is to help our faculty and our staff do the job of being successful in serving our students,” she said.

Budget questions

One of the first big decisions Bichelmeyer will have to make in the coming months is how to address a tuition hike that will almost certainly be required for the 2020-2021 academic year.

Kansas lawmakers signaled in February that they wouldn’t approve nearly enough higher education funding in their budget recommendations to allow KU to keep tuition flat. KU did keep its tuition flat for the 2019-2020 school year for the first time in recent memory.

Once the Legislature approves a final operating budget, KU will have a better idea of how much of a tuition hike it will need to propose to the Kansas Board of Regents. But until then, Bichelmeyer said she couldn’t answer with much certainty questions about how much tuition could go up in the coming year — or whether the university would be able to stick to the 2.5% tuition increase cap that Interim Provost Carl Lejuez made part of his budgeting model.

“We have to do our best to keep any tuition increase as low as it possibly can be,” she said. “Because I’m well aware that the University of Kansas has a student population that is very strained in terms of what they spend.”

It’s going to take adaptability on the university’s part to keep increases low, and the answer to higher education budgeting challenges in 2020 can’t simply be “let’s just raise tuition,” Bichelmeyer explained.

KU, she said, could improve on its student retention rate and keep those dollars in-house just by keeping students who start at the university there through graduation. The university also needs to improve its recruitment of students in fields that the state workforce has shown a need for, such as engineering.

“We can’t simply say that the answer to the challenges in higher ed, or the challenges that our students face in covering the cost of their academic program, is, ‘We’ll keep doing the same thing and just charging you more,'” Bichelmeyer said. “We need to try to do things differently in a way that makes it easier for students to succeed.”

Regarding Lejuez’ budget model, Bichelmeyer said she and Chancellor Douglas Girod have agreed that for the first year of its implementation, the best course of action is to let it operate as intended before making tweaks.

“Beyond that, I think there’s a fair amount in the details,” she said. “It’s coming up with a coherent plan for each (academic) unit that benefits the whole university.”

Sexual misconduct and transparency

Leaders of KU’s student government asked Girod in December to reopen a task force dedicated to examining the current climate around sexual misconduct. He turned them down in February, saying that while he appreciated their awareness of the issues, Bichelmeyer needed to settle into the job before finding the best way to address sexual misconduct on campus.

Only a week into the job, Bichelmeyer said she is still reading various media reports on KU’s campus climate and familiarizing herself with current university policies.

That said, she made it clear the university has “much to do” in terms of fostering a respectful culture.

“And that’s only one aspect of it,” she said. “The worst possible outcome of poor campus climate is sexual misconduct and sexual violence — which is absolutely intolerable in any, any number other than zero.”

Going forward, Bichelmeyer said she would confer with Girod to decide KU’s best path forward to addressing the concerns student leaders raised in requesting a new sexual assault task force.

In terms of addressing transparency around the issue of sexual violence — long a source of conflict at KU — Bichelmeyer said she was committed to openness.

But without yet being well-versed in KU’s policies, she couldn’t say much about what she would do to improve transparency. She couldn’t give a definitive answer, for example, on whether KU could commit to releasing the names of faculty members credibly accused of misconduct, as the University of Texas announced recently it would do.

The university as a whole doesn’t yet appear keen on making changes on that level. A day after the Journal-World’s interview with Bichelmeyer, KU denied a request from the newspaper under the state Open Records Act for records of faculty disciplined for sexual misconduct, saying personnel records were exempt from release.

photo by: Mike Yoder

University of Kansas Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Barbara Bichelmeyer speaks during an interview March 4, 2020.