THE STUDENT VOICE SINCE 1904
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Dole series dives into campaign season
Ceri Holland uses European upbringing to anchor Kansas
The University Daily Kansan
vol. 137 // iss. 18 Mon., Oct. 22, 2018
soccer midfield
Activist who started the #MeToo movement is coming to campus
SEE HOLLAND • PAGE 7
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ArcD board works to move forward after turbulent times CONNER MITCHELL @connermitchell0 After a day of tense discussions over the future of the School of Architecture and Design, members of the Dean’s Advisory Board left a meeting Thursday, Oct. 18 with optimism that change would come to the School in the near future. The 43-person advisory board — which meets twice per year — came to the conclusion that “there hasn’t been enough overcommunicating to allay perception challenges (within the school),” according to Phil Duff, who has served on the board since the mid2000s. The meeting came after months of tumult over a quiet settlement with a school faculty member and the removal of department chairs that faculty members told the Kansan demonstrated a “general recklessness” on the part of Dean Mahesh Daas. Board members saw the situation a bit differently after hearing from a number of students, faculty members and Daas himself during the meeting. The crux of the issue, Duff said, comes down to differences in perception and communication struggles. “There’s a ton of faculty who aren’t running around with pitchforks,” Duff said. “I don’t understand why there wasn’t more dialogue about ‘if people were upset about the department chairs, come
Chance Parker/KANSAN Mahesh Daas, dean of the School of Architecture and Design, talked to students and faculty during an assembly meeting on Oct. 5. to us.’” Interim Provost Carl Lejuez spoke to board members for an hour during the afternoon session of the meeting, and addressed the two
can really understand what’s happening and particularly give a voice to some folks who maybe don’t feel as comfortable doing that,” Lejuez said. The level of “genuine
“I am convinced that the Provost’s recommended course of action with the climate survey is going to identify something that will be changed.” Phil Duff Advisory board member
main steps his office is taking to look at concerns across the board: a school climate survey and an early review of Daas’ position — which Daas said he agreed to. “It may seem to some folks that we’re being laissez-faire here, but what we’re doing is trying to allow for the best and clearest information to come forward so we
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acrimony” and volatility within the school, Lejuez said, require sensitivity when conducting the climate survey and early review — both of which should be completed by the spring semester. “I need to not take sides or make decisions and I need to be open to all the information. I will say it’s similar in the types of issues that we’re struggling
with in academia,” he said. “It’s dissimilar in the way that it has has snowballed into things that are not really about what some of the initial issues were. That’s going to be really important to deconstruct.” Despite some initial reservations, Duff said he and many of the board members are convinced that a climate survey and Daas’ early review will provide the best path forward for the school. “I am convinced that the Provost’s recommended course of action with the climate survey is going to identify something that will be changed,” Duff said. “I am still very concerned about the temperature of the faculty as a whole, but we have to place our faith in the Provost’s process. Today I am willing to say that process is going to yield a result.”
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Senate calls for Daas statement SYDNEY HOOVER @sydhoover17 Student Senate wants Mahesh Daas, dean of the school of Architecture and Design, to provide an update on the state of the school according to a resolution passed Wednesday night. The resolution highlights an investigative report from the Kansan, citing a $125,000 payment to Charles Linn, the former director of external affairs for the School of Architecture and Design. Linn agreed to publicly state his retirement in lieu of a court fight over his disputed termination. Department chairs at the beginning of the summer were also removed from their positions and replaced with staff from the dean’s office. “I think it’s disrespectful that he hasn’t already [given a statement] and that it’s come to this to call for some more official statement from him,” said Sydney Edmonds, student senator for the School. “He is the dean, so I would hope that he would be more likely to offer reasons to his students for why he’s taking certain actions.” A student from the school approached Edmonds via email to voice her concerns following a faculty meeting on Oct. 5, where several students spoke on the issues with the school. She said the student asked how she planned to respond, which motivated her to draft the resolution that was later passed through both the University Affairs Commit-
tee and the Senate general body. “I’m hoping that it not only gets a comment from him but just kind of raises awareness that this is something the whole school is now looking at and not just within our own school,” Edmonds said. The resolution also calls for Interim Provost Carl Lejuez to organize a committee “that serves to explore and make recommendations” regarding the current climate of the school. University Affairs Chair Zach Thomason said he hopes the committee, if established, will be made up of students, faculty and staff campus-wide to address the issues as they relate to the whole University. “This is something that relates to finances and best practice related to human resources, and if it happens in one school, it could happen in other schools, so it really is an all campus issue,” Thomason said. Thomason said he is hoping for a relatively quick response from Daas. Though the resolution cannot force Daas to release a statement, it was mentioned during the meeting that resolutions tend to be effective in University governments. “[The school of architecture and design] is an extremely important asset for this university,” Thomason said. “To let it go relatively unchecked on this matter, from a public perspective I think could potentially hurt student voice, student enrollment even, and ultimately the student experience.”
Lejuez discusses options to ease budget cut woes LARA KORTE @lara_korte At the third budget town hall meeting on Wednesday, Interim Provost Carl Lejuez addressed ways that the KU Endowment Association and Kansas Athletics could lessen the burden of the University’s $20 million budget cuts. However, Lejuez said previous requests by faculty leadership to have the corporations shoulder half of the 6 percent cut were unlikely to be fulfilled. “There is a sense that just because we have this cut does not necessarily mean that other corporations should absorb that cut,” Lejuez said. “Maybe the Union should absorb that cut, maybe the Alumni Association should absorb that cut. There are multiple corporations here.” Early in the semester, Faculty Senate President Kirk McClure sent an email out to campus outlining possible changes to Athletics and Endowment that could ease the budget woes placed largely on academic
departments. “My fear is that the full brunt of the 6 percent ($20 million) budget cut will be borne by faculty, staff, and academic programs if steps are not taken immediately to adopt these suggestions to reconfigure the budget,” McClure said in the email. After two months of meetings, Lejuez laid out the possibilities that could be pursued with Athletics and Endowment. Last year, Endowment had $191 million available to it. Only about $2.5 million (1-2 percent) are made available to the Provost’s Office as discretionary funds. Most of Endowment’s money is locked up in predetermined obligations. Discretionary funds typically go toward scholarships and faculty/staff development, Lejeuz said. “In terms of discretionary funds being available, we either have to pull them from the existing things that I just mentioned, that could go to the budget cut,” he said. “But then it would mean it would be taking it
from those things.” Lejuez raised five ways Endowment could help alleviate budget woes, but said not all of them are viable. The University could borrow money, but that would hurt future students and cost more in the long run, Lejuez said. Endowment could also fundraise for the deficit specifically — like it would for a department or school — but best practices say this is not a successful strategy. Other possible avenues include revisiting fundraising efforts for existing buildings, something Endowment is already moving forward with, Lejuez said. Endowment could also fund raise for more traditional targets allowing reallocation of state money. “If we can fundraise for some of the costs we have now in the buildings, that would provide a lot of opportunities to think about how else we are going to use those funds,” Lejuez said. Athletics, however, presents a different situation. The main criticism from
the faculty has been that the University gives $1.5 million in direct support to Athletics annually, while Athletics gives $50,000 directly to the University. Lejuez explained that Athletics provides over $30 million in indirect funds to the University, including things like faculty/staff support, parking services purchased and improvements to University assets. Athletics could provide more than $50,000 of direct support, Lejuez said, if Athletics revenue itself increased. “I talked to (Athletics Director) Jeff Long, he said there are definitely some schools that provide more support ... in most cases, in fact he believes in every case, these are schools that have an athletics budget of over $150 million,” Lejuez said. Kansas Athletics’ current budget is just below $100 million, according to Lejuez’s data. Moving forward, Lejuez said Athletics and the University could revisit a number of financial structures, including the possibility
Kansan file photo University administrators and faculty discussed with Intern Provost Carl Lejuez ways to recuperate budget cut losses at a town hall on Oct. 17. of increasing Athletics’ administrative overhead fee from the current $55,000, and looking at how student fees and ticket sales factor into the financial relationship. After an hour, Lejuez invited onlookers to ask questions, which ranged from specifics about the possible funding avenues and obligations the University has to partner corporations. One faculty member, English professor Joe Harrington, approached the microphone with one ques-
tion. “Where’s Doug?” he asked, referring to Chancellor Douglas Girod, who was not present at the meeting. Lejuez said that the Chancellor’s role was more external and that, if his schedule allowed it, he would be at the meeting. “The chancellor stands behind, he said last time he was here, everything that I say,” Lejuez said. “If his schedule aligned with this, he would be here today.” The next town hall discussion is on Dec. 5 at 3:30 p.m. in Budig Hall 120.