The Board of Regents held their first meeting of the academic year on Wednesday and Thursday, September 15-16 in Topeka. Two major issues were discussed during the Thursday session of the board.

Health Care and Covid

Regent Mark Hutton has proposed a study of the costs of student health care and whether state universities are getting the value from services delivered. Hutton wanted to/ establish a task force to look into the quality of care delivered and whether the costs were in line with that. Students are paying $14 million in health fees. After some pushback by President Richard Myers (K-State) and Steve Scott (Pitt State) about the necessity of doing this type of investigation during a pandemic, the regents agreed about a need for such an investigation, but decided to revisit it and any final implementation of it until their November meeting.

The Big Ask—Regents Ask Governor for $161 million for Higher Ed

It's being called the “big ask” by media. After hearing a report on the board of regents’ unified state appropriations request, the board proposed a $161 million request for funding in the governor’s budget for FY 2023.  $130.7 million would go to the state universities, with $26 million for additional state investments in university operations, $14.9 million to hold tuition level (a trade off if tuition increases are not approved—if the money is not appropriated, expect that the universities will be able to raise tuition by that amount), $10 million for need-based scholarships, and $25 million for capital renewal of infrastructure on campus. There is also a request to restore $4.7 million in funding to FY 2021 levels.

The potential elephant in the room? If a Maintenance of Effort (MOE) contingency waiver is not granted by the federal government (the governor’s office will seek one), then $53 million would have to be appropriated for Kansas to secure and keep over $1 billion in federal education spending as part of the 2021 stimulus spending.  Would that amount then be reduced from the request? Stay tuned.

For press coverage of the regents meeting, see the following link:

The big ask: Higher education seeks $161 million budget increase from lawmakers | Kansas Reflector

For the Board of Regents meeting (streamed and available to watch), see:

Board Meeting Live Stream (kansasregents.org)

The board will tour the University of Kansas Medical School and Lawrence campuses in October. Emporia State will host the next board meeting on November 17.