Approval of Previous Minutes —

Meeting minutes from Sept. 22, 2023. Motion to approve by Nils Gore. Seconded by Whitney Juneau. Motion passed unanimously.

Unfinished Business —

Jin Feng shared that there is still uncertainty regarding the broad planning committee of Specific Charge #2a. He, Caty, and University Senate President Kristin Villa have had trouble figuring out whether such a committee already exists.

Discuss Gateway District Project

1. Jin Feng introduced three new guests attending the committee meeting: Kirk McClure, Felix Meschke, and Karla Leeper.
2. Kirk McClure is a retired faculty member, former Faculty Senate President, and former member of the P&R Committee. His academic expertise is in real estate investment analysis. He shared his concerns regarding the Gateway District and Crossing building projects, specifically regarding financials and market analysis.
   1. Kirk is concerned that there is little public information about the project’s financials and that it is difficult or impossible to acquire further information. He is concerned regarding whether KU will be backstopping the debt acquired by KU Athletics, which arose as an issue during his time within Governance. Kirk is also concerned regarding who will benefit from project revenue.
   2. Kirk is concerned that there is a history of other hospitality, retail, and convention projects in Lawrence that have failed and that a new hotel would be in direct competition with the Oread. He is concerned that there does not seem to be evidence that these projects would be successful and not over-compete with other Lawrence entities.
   3. He thinks that the P&R Committee should be investigating these issues on behalf of KU faculty.
3. Karla Leeper is the Vice Chancellor for Strategic Communications and Public Affairs. She shared challenges that her unit has faced with communicating about the Gateway District.
   1. KU began communication much earlier than is typical for a private building project, so there is a lot more that is unknown at this stage than what people might be accustomed to.
   2. There are several separate pieces to the project. Each will likely have its own funding model, so Karla encouraged committee members to be cautious about referring to Gateway District funding as a whole.
      1. Phase 1 is funded by donations, grants from the state, and revenue bonds. This contains the stadium and conference center, which are combined to be more efficient. The size of the conference center is based on conversations that KU has had with the City of Lawrence, as well as findings from the Hunden Report. KU has hired a consultant to advise on what elements would be additive to the community rather than competitive. They suggested a size that would be complementary, not duplicative. This size opens up Lawrence to a new scale of conference. Folks from Discover Lawrence and some other local hospitality entrepreneurs are excited about filling an observed Monday-Friday business gap.
      2. Phase 2 will be funded by developers and what they think will benefit KU. Feedback from the Hunden Report has influenced the sketches and ideas that are currently on the website. This is what could be possible in these additional spaces. There have been conversations with the city about why the Oread struggled.
   3. Karla shared that they have been meeting regularly with the neighborhoods and are about to kick off the official meetings that their community agreements require. Phase 1 is fairly fleshed out, while Phase 2 still requires a lot of planning and brainstorming. KU will meet with developers and address many of the questions that Kirk raised regarding market feasibility.
   4. Q: Can you speak about the debt ownership element?
      1. A: The committee should speak with the CFO regarding financial details and debt ownership, as this is not Karla’s area. Karla said that she has heard from Jeff DeWitt that this project will not impact KU’s ability to increase pay.
   5. Q: What about the revenue from the project? Does this only go back to Athletics, or does it also go to KU overall?
      1. A: As far as Karla knows, facility revenue is part of the funding process.
   6. Comment: It seems that people sincerely interpret agreed-upon data in radically different ways regarding the future course of action. A lot of the engagement feels performative, since even though this may be early communication compared to other building projects, many elements have already been finalized.
   7. Comment: It seems that communication regarding the project needs to be much better to benefit the university community and reduce friction.
      1. Karla said that she is open to hearing any suggestions and comments. The upcoming community meetings will be open. She wants to learn more about the purpose and charges of the P&R Committee, as she was unfamiliar with this body before now.

New Business —

1. Upcoming Public Forum with the CFO (Nov. 6th, 2:30-4:30 p.m.)
   1. Jin asked whether committee members have any questions or suggestions for the forum itself, or whether there are any questions that they want to ask as a committee.
   2. Q: Is the public forum open to all topics, or is it reserved for questions regarding campus building projects?
      1. A: It is open to all relevant topics. Jeff DeWitt specifically encouraged questions about salaries and pay. We have already received questions via the online survey about salaries, scholarship funding, Jayhawk Global, and the large freshman class.
   3. Jin asked committee members to send any questions to himself and/or the Governance Office.
2. Jin suggested the committee have at least one in-person meeting each semester. There was no objection to this suggestion. The Governance Office will work on scheduling this.