Shared Governance Ongoing Progress | 2023-Beyond
Effective shared governance requires commitment to the principles of collaboration. The FY2023 Shared Governance Advisory Group identified a variety of ways for all members of the KU community to participate in fostering shared governance, at levels ranging from individual units to the entire university.
Two crucial elements of this collaboration are transparency and holding each other accountable for the commitments we've made. The recommendations detailed in the Advisory Group’s final report and the resulting progress made by the designated groups have been collected below. Separated by the phases identified in the original charge, the core recommendations are listed on the right and progress items on the left, with links to corresponding webpages, documents, and videos below. The progress items include notes indicating whether a recommendation has been "completed" or not. While this is a useful tool for assessing KU's progress towards the FY2023 recommendations, many of the items will need to be renewed and revisited each year. Shared governance is never "complete."
We welcome members of the KU community to utilize this progress tracker to check in on the shared governance components that are most important to you and seek movement in those areas. We must all hold each other accountable to the principles of collaborative decision-making and shared responsibility in running KU.
Phase 1: What Does it Mean to Be an Exceptional Learning Community?
- COMPLETE: FY2023 Shared Governance Advisory Group developed a Culture Charter, which was later adopted by the Office of the Provost
- INCOMPLETE: Pair charter with professional development opportunities
Phase 2: Roles & Responsibilities
- COMPLETE: University Senate reorganized its membership via a policy amendment to reflect equitable representation of the three constituent senates
- INCOMPLETE: Clarity around roles and responsibilities across different administrative levels, especially around potential overlap and with involvement of non-administrative leaders
Phase 3: Decision-Making Processes
- INCOMPLETE: Communication advisors in every, both academic and non-academic
- COMPLETE: Chancellor Girod held a State of the University on Oct. 4th and Provost Bichelmeyer held a State of the Campus on Oct. 24th
- IN PROGRESS: State of the School presentations are ongoing, while some schools are relying on other formats that include pertinent "State of" content to communicate with faculty and staff.
- Architecture & Design: schoolwide retreat at beginning of academic year
- Business: regular meetings with faculty and staff several times throughout each semester
- Education & Human Sciences: schoolwide assembly in December
- Engineering: presentation on Nov. 7th
- Journalism & Mass Communications: presentation on Oct. 24th
- Law: regular written communications with faculty, staff, and constituents
- Liberal Arts & Sciences: presentation planned for January
- Libraries: presentation planned for mid-March
- Music: schoolwide retreat at beginning of academic year, often repeated in the spring; monthly faculty meetings
- Pharmacy: presentation being planned for February
- Professional Studies: update at beginning of each semester; regular faculty meetings throughout the year
- Social Welfare: schoolwide retreat at beginning of each semester; monthly faculty meetings with dean; schoolwide meeting 4x/year
Phase 4: Financial Transparency & Community Engagement in Jayhawks Rising
- COMPLETE: University Governance hosted a public forum with CFO Jeff DeWitt on Nov. 6th
- COMPLETE: Provost Bichelmeyer invited governance leaders to serve as objective leaders within the Jayhawks Rising Strategic Plan