Approval of Previous Minutes —

Approval of minutes from November 7, 2025: Anna Abernathy motions to approve. Matt Tidwell seconds. Minutes approved without objection. 

New Business —

Student athlete travel during stop day and finals week:

• Susan has been submitting a Calendar Committee Request for Exception prior to each semester for review and approval of student-athletes that may be competing or traveling to competition during stop day and finals week for Big 12 and NCAA sponsored activities. 
• It’s not clear which student-athletes will be impacted at the time, so the request is for the exemption to extend to all student-athletes who are traveling and competing during this time. 
• The academic counselors in KU Athletics will work with the students to inform each instructor in advance of any conflicts or missed class. 

Is it possible for there to be a standing exception? The most recent calendar exception request included Fall 2025, Spring 2026, and Fall 2026. 

While university events fall under the excused absence policy, there is concern about Stop Day, and the Friday and Saturday following. To have everything covered, Susan has submitted requests ahead of time for the Calendar Committee to review. 

• Vote: The Athletic Committee voted  to request that the “Calendar Committee grant a permanent exception for Stop Day and the following Saturday and Sunday, allowing student-athletes that are traveling to athletic competitions to participate in athletic activities during that period.” 
• Approved unanimously 

Sub-committee Updates: 

Shu’s Update : 

• We completed the Progress Toward Degree (PTD) certification process using the Stellic Planner for the first time. 
• It seemed to go well. Will continue to use Stellic and monitor how it’s going, and if improvements are needed. 

Austin’s Committee Update e-mailed with the agenda: 

1. Support the overall well-being of student-athletes, including nutrition, physical and mental health, and safety. 

• Same as the last update... still an ongoing process. All of these areas are paramount to the student-athlete experience, and one in which Travis (and our entire department for that matter) have been intentional about having these services available and with the highest standard of staff in these roles. 

• With all the personnel changes KA went through in the spring, this area continued to be of focus to ensure we have the staff to support our student athletes in all facets of their health and wellness.

   

2. Review Student-Athlete Advisory Committee programs and recommend ways to increase student-athlete engagement in campus and community activities. Use insights from KAI exit interviews and university surveys. 

• Same as the last update... still an ongoing process. KU Leads continue to be great leaders for out student -athletes in this space, including collaboration with many different programs on campus to come and talk to our student athletes about a variety of topics. This will continue to be a focus as we go through the academic year.

3. Track developments in college athletics and assess potential impacts on the University of Kansas, and asses potential impacts on the University of Kansas. 

• Ongoing process, change is always being monitored to see what impacts these may have on our department and student-athletes. 
• Kansas Athletics just went through the January transfer portal cycle FB- 46 newcomers, 12 of those are frosh. 30 of those student athletes applied in January.

4. Monitor transfer portal trends and assess their impact on student-athlete retention. Share solutions as needed. 

• The transfer portal has certainly impacted student-athlete retention. However, with the support our student-athletes receive academically most (nearly all) of our student-athletes who elect to enter the portal and transfer out are doing so while being academically eligible. 
• With the football transfer portal changing to January, we are putting plans in place now to prepare for the influx of new student-athletes at the start of the year. On the opposite side of spectrum, 50+ fb student-athletes either graduated or entered the transfer portal. 
• Currently there are proposals being reviewed to look at the football calendar as a whole, with the current January transfer portal being one of the topics to review. Many of our other team specific portal windows start to open beginning in April and run until July, with Baseball being the next big portal window in terms of transfers in/out during the summer.

Ryan commends the significant efforts from Admissions and Office of the Registrar regarding the athletes admitted in January. The fast turnaround required a lot of coordination from the two offices. 

Next meeting is April 17, 2026, at Noon in Wagnon Conference Room. 

Meeting adjourned.