photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

University of Kansas Chancellor Douglas Girod speaks at the FBI and KU Cybersecurity Conference on April 4, 2025.

The University of Kansas is among 45 universities that the U.S. Department of Education is investigating related to admission practices that use racial preferences, but KU’s chancellor is confident the university did nothing wrong.

“We are not at all concerned about being on that list,” Chancellor Douglas Girod told the Journal-World on Friday, referencing the list of 45 schools that the Department of Education publicly released last month. “Our activities were fine. There is nothing illegal, inappropriate, or in violation of policy about it.”

The 45 schools — a mix of public and private institutions, but no others from Kansas — were alleged to have partnered with The Ph.D Project, an organization that the Department of Education said assists students in obtaining doctorate degrees, but selects which students receive the organization’s assistance based on race.

KU’s School of Business website, until recently, listed KU as a “proud member of The Ph.D. Project.” That listing no longer appears on the department’s website.

In a brief interview with the Journal-World on Friday, Girod said the organization never played a significant role in any of the university’s operations, saying KU had a “casual” relationship with the organization that provided guidance and networking opportunities to minority students who were considering the pursuit of a doctorate degree.

But Girod did acknowledge the university participated in some activities with the organization.

“We had some people attend a conference, and we helped sponsor a conference,” Girod said of KU’s involvement with The Ph.D. Project. “That is what we did. I think it was fewer than five people.”

Girod said KU will respond to the Office for Civil Rights within the U.S. Department of Education, spelling out what interaction the university had with The Ph.D Project. Girod wasn’t sure when the university may hear more from the OCR about the status of its investigation.

“We still have OCR things open from seven years ago,” Girod said. “They are not real good about following up.”

Universities that violate civil rights laws or policies could lose federal funding. Girod didn’t indicate that KU was preparing for any such loss. Rather, KU — as we reported last week — is implementing new hiring practices in reaction to potential funding cuts the federal government is trying to implement with universities that research federal research dollars.

KU and other research universities have been concerned about a new policy at the National Institutes of Health that would place new caps on how universities could spend federal research dollars. The policy — which has been challenged in court and has not yet been implemented — would limit how much schools can use federal grants to cover indirect research costs, which include maintenance of labs, payment of utilities facilities and a variety of personnel costs for administrative staff that support research projects.

KU has estimated the new policy would create a $30 million to $40 million budget problem for KU, if the policy is confined just to NIH funding. However, Girod has said he expects the policy — if it is allowed to move forward — would extend to other types of federal grants, increasing the budget impact to KU.

Changes at the U.S. Department of Education — including an effort to dismantle it — could hit KU harder than most other universities. Various rankings have shown that KU is one of the largest receivers of federal research funding from the U.S. Department of Education.

With those funding threats in mind, Girod last week announced that KU was adding an extra layer of review to its hiring process. While short of a hiring freeze, KU is requiring that any hiring decisions first be vetted by the “University Cabinet,” which includes the chancellor, the provost, the chief financial officer and other top executives from across the Lawrence campus and the Medical Center campus.

On Friday, Girod said the parameters of the program were still in development for the Lawrence campus, with the Provost’s office leading the effort. He said the intent of the program, currently, is not to determine whether layoffs need to occur on the campus, but rather to be thorough in evaluating any brand new positions proposed for the campus, and also to give further review anytime a position becomes vacant.

However, Girod said the university wasn’t taking the position that departments will be prohibited from filling positions that become vacant.

“We always have vacancies, and you can’t stop operating,” Girod said. “And we don’t want to slow (the hiring process) down because that hurts the organization. We want to be careful but efficient.”

Girod said university leaders will be watching the federal budget process closely over the next several months. He said he was relieved to see Congress pass a continuing resolution that keeps current funding levels in place through the end of September. However, university leaders will be watching for President Donald Trump’s budget proposal for 2026 to emerge soon.

Some national research leaders already have alerted KU that the budget proposal will look very different from what is in place today.

“We are going to see a new budget proposal come out very soon, and it will be jarring,” Shelley Hooks, vice chancellor of research at KU, said in a video chat with Girod that was released Friday. “But just remember that it is a proposal and there will be ongoing negotiations and back and forth until we get a new budget in place in October.”

Girod said KU needs to expect the next federal budget will be different than the current one, but he’s also urging KU officials to take advantage of the federal funding that still does exist during this existing budget. Girod said there are still federal research grants available, and KU needs to apply for them when it makes sense.

The continuing availability of federal dollars runs counter to many of the headlines, where numerous universities have been told by the federal government that they are losing massive amounts of federal funding due to either cancelled grants or alleged violations of federal policies related to diversity, equity, inclusion or other matters.

Girod said the number of grants that have been cancelled at KU continue to be a “smattering.” As for punitive cancellations of federal funding, Girod said KU hasn’t perceived that the university is likely to face that situation, but he acknowledged that all matters related to university/federal relations can change rapidly. Thus far, many of the universities that have been subject to hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding cuts have been some of the most prestigious private universities in the country, which also had large amounts of unrest during last year’s Palestinian/Israeli protests.

“There are universities that do know they are in the crosshairs,” Girod said. “The rest of us don’t really know. We are taking it day by day.”