University of Kansas professors have little confidence in the school’s chancellor and chief financial officer, a straw poll conducted by the KU Faculty Senate and University Senate found.
The results, outlined in a memo to Kansas Board of Regents Chair Blake Benson and KU Chancellor Doug Girod, suggest that many faculty and staff are unhappy with top leadership, the university’s finances and transparency.
“Chancellor Doug is out of touch with the needs of the faculty and is prioritizing items that are not related to the core mission of the university,” one faculty member who voted no confidence wrote in an online comment.
The results of the poll — obtained with a Kansas Open Records Act request to the Kansas Board of Regents — show an overwhelming lack of confidence in Girod and CFO Jeff Dewitt.
Out of 2,012 responses, 79.7% voted no confidence. A wide majority in all categories — faculty, staff, students and alumni — expressed no confidence in KU leadership.
KU attacked the poll and the heads of the Faculty Senate and University Senate who oversaw it.
“Two faculty members independently initiated an entirely unscientific, informal straw poll outside of KU’s established governance processes, meaning any results would not be a valid or representative measure of sentiment across the university,” Erinn Barcomb-Peterson, the head of media relations, said in an email to KCUR.
The faculty members KU said acted independently were elected by their peers to represent the faculty’s interests: Misty Heggeness, an associate professor in the School of Public Affairs and Faculty Senate President, and Poppy DeltaDawn, an assistant professor in the School of the Arts and University Senate President.
The Faculty Senate fired back with a statement approved during an emergency meeting Tuesday night. It said the Senate represents most departments and units on the Lawrence campus and the Medical Center in Kansas City, Kansas, and KU should take this feedback seriously.
“We encourage leaders to focus on the topic at hand — valuing academic institutions at the heart of university missions — instead of focusing on disparaging the credibility of our voices through this vote," the statement said.
The faculty and staff continue to call for an outside, forensic audit of KU's finances, although Heggeness stresses they do not believe there is anything "nefarious going on at all."
The straw poll ran from March 2 through March 13.
The no confidence vote comes at a fraught time for KU.
The university just bargained its first contract with the faculty union. State and federal support is in peril. And perhaps the most complicated problem, Kansas Athletics projects a $15 million deficit this year and KU is using its general fund to cover athlete payments. The Athletics Department had a $12 million deficit last year.
Some of the budgetary strain comes from the new rule that allows NCAA Division I schools to pay athletes from a pool of money capped at $20.5 million. Some is due to the $450 million rebuilding of the David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium.
The Faculty Senate, in its memo to the Regents and the chancellor, directly addressed that issue.
“We simply do not believe that funds from a general fund or any academic pool of funds should be expended to cover these costs,” the memo said. The Faculty Senate supports student athletes being paid but the money “should come as a piece of the revenue generating pie of the athletic structure, not from academics,” the memo said.
Heggeness said transparency around athletics funding would go a long way with faculty and staff.
“It's just a little bit frustrating that there's this disconnect that that we as a university have been put in the position to have to try to scrounge around for pennies in other coffers to cover these student athlete salaries,” she told KCUR.
That was reiterated in comments from faculty and staff.
“I understand budgetary pressures are challenging,” one faculty member wrote. “But I have never felt a greater lack of trust or transparency in the KU administration in my 21 years here.”
The straw poll did show Girod and DeWitt with some support. About 20% voted for confidence in leadership. The most support came from staff and alumni, both around 30%, according to the memo.
“Many faculty here have no idea what the Chancellor and CFO do to ensure this university continues to function, even under withering threats from the Federal and state governments,” a faculty member wrote.
A staff member addressed the athletics controversy.
“Failing to significantly upgrade the football stadium would have negatively impacted the University and surrounding Lawrence area on a financial level that these people complaining cannot even comprehend,” they wrote.
Heggeness said she and DeltaDawn hope to discuss the results of the straw poll Monday at their regular meeting with Girod.
