A group of students identifying itself as Rock Chalk Invisible Hawk takes the stage and reads a list of diversity and inclusion related demands for Kansas University during KU's town hall forum on race Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2015, at Woodruff Auditorium in the Kansas Union, as KU Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little, far right, who was moderating the forum, looks on. Sign language interpreter Kim Bates, left, translated throughout the event.

The first classes of 2017 start today on the University of Kansas campus — welcome back to campus. What’s in store this year at KU? Will it be as newsy as last year?

I can predict some of the big stories that will happen at KU in 2017. The university will get a new chancellor. Major construction will continue, and some new buildings will be completed. Concealed guns will be allowed on campus starting July 1, unless the Legislature changes the law first. Several Title IX related lawsuits against KU will continue through the courts, if not be resolved.

But lots of the biggest news stories are unpredictable, at least that was the case in 2016 at KU.

Here’s a look back at my picks for the top KU stories of 2016. There’s a combination of things we saw coming (new provost, more gun policy work) and unexpected news (someone cut the internet cable to the whole university — whoops!). I narrowed it down to a baker’s dozen:

13 — Carlton Bragg arrest, freedom: KU basketball fans were refreshing their screens all day when KU basketball player Carlton Bragg was arrested and charged with battery after a dispute with his girlfriend. But within days Bragg was exonerated based on a security video, and the girlfriend ended up charged with battery instead.

12 — Diversity demands: KU’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Advisory Group released its recommendations, which are prompting some ongoing action at KU. The group’s report included scathing criticism of KU’s Student Senate, honors program, required curriculum, international student recruitment and attention to students, faculty and staff from underrepresented domestic groups.

photo by: Sara Shepherd

A group of students identifying itself as Rock Chalk Invisible Hawk takes the stage and reads a list of diversity and inclusion related demands for Kansas University during KU's town hall forum on race Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2015, at Woodruff Auditorium in the Kansas Union, as KU Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little, far right, who was moderating the forum, looks on. Sign language interpreter Kim Bates, left, translated throughout the event.

11 — State budget cuts: The Journal-World’s newsroom staff picked the state’s fiscal problems as the top local story of 2016. Offshoots it produced include multi-million dollar cuts to KU’s budget.

10 — Andrea Quenette out: The assistant professor who shot into national news when she was suspended after using the n-word during a class discussion on race was essentially fired by KU. While KU’s investigation of the incident found Andrea Quenette did not violate the university’s nondiscrimination or racial and ethnic harassment policies, she didn’t pass muster on the progress toward tenure review she underwent around the same time.

9 — Cheerleader Snapchat scandal: Four KU cheerleaders were suspended from the squad for a Snapchat photo featuring three of them in ‘K’ sweaters with the caption “Kkk go trump.” None is cheering anymore; three resigned and one graduated in December. This story also had a lot of national news outlets suddenly looking at KU.

Tweets from the official University of Kansas and KU Athletics Twitter accounts are shown from Nov. 21, 2016. A KU cheerleader has been suspended from cheering after a photo was posted on her Snapchat account linking the Ku Klux Klan with President-elect Donald Trump.

8 — Gender buttons: Employees in several KU units started wearing nametags or buttons displaying their preferred gender pronouns, one of a few gender inclusivity efforts going on at KU. In December, a story I wrote about gender buttons at KU Libraries went viral (like, even Cosmopolitan published something about it).

photo by: Sara Shepherd

Buttons featuring preferred gender pronouns are part of the University of Kansas Libraries “You Belong Here” marketing campaign, targeted at attracting undergraduates and making sure they feel welcome, including those who are transgendered. The buttons are worn by library employees who wish to.

7 — Campus carry policy created: KU and the other state universities worked all year on their policies to implement the impending campus concealed carry law. The Kansas Board of Regents approved the policies in December.

photo by: Sara Shepherd

No guns allowed signs are posted on doors leading into Wescoe Hall on the University of Kansas campus on Monday, Oct. 17, 2016. Jayhawk Boulevard and Strong Hall are reflected in the glass.

6 — The great fiber cut of 2016: On March 29, construction crews inadvertently cut through a critical section of fiber between the Price Computing Center and the Ellsworth Data Center on Daisy Hill. The cut shut down the Internet at most of the Lawrence campus and the Edwards Campus in Overland Park; in some buildings the outage lasted for days; no KU websites worked; and it even shut down schoolchildren’s access to KU server-based state testing in more than a dozen states.

5 — Nobel Peace Prize: Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, a KU graduate, won the Nobel Peace Prize.

photo by: Nick Krug

Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos, right, laughs alongside Bill Lacy, director of the Dole Institute of Politics, as Santos recounts a story Monday from his days as an undergraduate at Kansas University. Santos, a 1973 graduate of KU, was in Lawrence to receive the Alumni Distinguished Achievement Award.

4 — New provost: The university hired School of Business Dean and KU grad Neeli Bendapudi as its new provost to replace Jeff Vitter. Bendapudi started in July.

3 — Sexual assault lawsuits: Two women who said they were sexually assaulted by the same football player in Jayhawker Towers both sued KU in 2016 under Title IX. A Kansas Consumer Protection Act suit by the same women and their parents claimed KU was misleading the public by representing campus housing as safe. The suits continue to get national attention.

2 — Chancellor leaving: Bernadette Gray-Little, the school’s first black and first female chancellor, announced in September that she’ll step down after this school year. The search for a new chancellor has begun.

photo by: Richard Gwin

Bernadette Gray-Little

1 — KU construction and new buildings: In my opinion, while it might not be the most scandalous or clickable, this is the biggest and most permanently transformative story going at KU right now.

Construction began in 2016 on the $350 million KU Central District redevelopment project, thought to be the university’s largest-ever construction project and a target of criticism by some lawmakers for its novel funding model. By the end of the year, a new science building, student union, residence and dining hall, apartment complex and parking garage were all starting to take shape.

In addition to Central District buildings, construction continued on the $78.5 million Earth, Energy and Environment Center. Construction was completed on $70.5 million Capitol Federal Hall and the $21.7 million DeBruce Center. And the Spencer Museum of Art also reopened following an $8 million, year-and-a-half-long renovation.

Six new buildings underway, two completed and one majorly renovated — that’s a whole lot for one year.

photo by: Nick Krug

The KU Central District Project, pictured Wednesday, July 20, 2016.

If I forgot something you think was a major KU story of 2016, please share it in the comments below. And happy new semester!

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• I’m the Journal-World’s KU and higher ed reporter. See all the newspaper’s KU coverage here. Reach me by email at sshepherd@ljworld.com, by phone at 832-7187, on Twitter @saramarieshep or via Facebook at Facebook.com/SaraShepherdNews.