photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Blake Benson, chair of the Kansas Board of Regents, is pictured at the board's Sept. 17, 2025 meeting. In addition to the regular meeting, the board celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Kansas Board of Regents, which oversees public higher education in the state.

Higher education in Kansas definitely is becoming more conservative in one regard — with its request for state funding.

The Kansas Board of Regents on Wednesday agreed to submit a budget request to state lawmakers and the governor that seeks $4.6 million less in funding than what the higher education system received this year.

The Regents –which oversee the state’s public universities, community colleges and most technical colleges — are asking for $1.19 billion in funding in fiscal year 2027, which begins in July. The specific request amounts to $4.59 million less than what the system currently is receiving. While that amounts to only about a 0.3% reduction, it is rare that the Regents ever make a budget request that is less than the system received in the past.

However, Regents have been hearing from state lawmakers that a more traditional budget request would be viewed negatively by many in the GOP-controlled legislature, and they’ve also heard that the governor’s office is looking for a tighter-than-normal budget next session.

Regent John Dicus, who chairs the Regents fiscal affairs committee, said he and other Regents had heard from lawmakers that last year’s large funding request from the Regents was “out of line with what their expectations were.”

“They’ve given an indication to us that we need to be more back into the reality of what the potential is for the state budget going forward,” Dicus said on Wednesday at the Regents’ fiscal affairs committee meeting.

State reserves are estimated to fall in the coming years, which has lawmakers concerned that they won’t be able to meet current spending levels, unless they raise taxes.

The slightly smaller budget request from the Regents doesn’t necessarily mean the University of Kansas and other universities will face grave budget problems in 2027. Each budget year, the higher education budget includes a number of one-time funding items from the legislature. For instance, the KU Cancer Center received $75 million in one-time funding in 2024. The Regents most recent budget request largely doesn’t seek to replace many one-time funding requests with new requests.

The budget request is seeking increases in base funding that are used to support general operations of the universities. It also is highlighting about $40 million in projects that it says are critical or are important new investments to make into the system. Those projects include:

• $16.3 million in student success initiatives that include improvements to student advising services, transfer programs, and other projects aimed at helping keep students in school and improve their on-time graduation rates.

• $5.5 million for the Blueprint for Literacy program that is working to instruct elementary teachers on new methods for teaching students how to read. Two years ago the project received approximately $10 million in state funding to launch the program, but then did not receive state funding this year. The program has remained operational on carryover funds from the initial $10 million amount, but additional funding has been deemed critical for the literacy program’s success, several Regents said Wednesday.

• $5 million each for KU, Kansas State and Wichita State to conduct new research programs related to the future energy needs of Kansas. KU seeks to use the funding to establish a Kansas Center for Energy Production, while KSU would use its funding for nuclear research and WSU for alternative energy sources.

• $2 million for a program that would seek to reach Kansas residents who have some college education but have not received a degree. The program would seek reasonable ways to re-enroll those individuals into a degree program or certificate program that could increase their earning potential.

In other business on Wednesday, the Regents:

• Unanimously approved a request from Kansas State to remove the word “diversity” from its mission statement. The one-word change was designed to comply with a state budget proviso approved earlier this year that sharply limits how the idea of diversity can be applied in state agencies. The change replaced the phrase: “The university embraces diversity,” with the phrase “The university embraces all.”

Regents approved the change on a quick vote and didn’t make any comments about the matter.

• Awarded 20 university employees from across the state with Faculty of the Year or Staff of the Year awards. KU had two winners recognized: Vitaly Chernetsky, professor in Slavic, German & Eurasian Studies won the tenures KU Faculty of the Year Award; David O. Johnson, associate teaching professor in electrical engineering and computer science, won the non-tenure track KU Faculty of the Year award.