On Tuesday, eight graduate students from the KU Lawrence campus and five from the KU Medical Center participated in the 23rd Annual Capitol Graduate Research Summit.  

Held in the Kansas Capitol, the summit gave graduate students from KBOR institutions a platform to demonstrate the quality and value of graduate research performed in the state to government leaders, education officials and the public. 

Along with the public poster presentation, students participated in a competition that judged their ability to communicate their scholarship visually and orally to a general audience. Winners were selected for each KBOR institution. 

From the Lawrence campus, the winners and their field of study were Christopher W. Carter, curriculum and instruction; Julia Doderer, pharmacology and toxicology; and Saba Faghirnejad, civil engineering.  

Other Lawrence campus participants were Clement Feyijimi, mechanical engineering; Thomas J. Gonzales, chemical and petroleum engineering; Aaron Lindberg, design; Mohd Mamoon, computer science; and Travis M. Miller, educational leadership and policy studies.  

The students’ poster titles and abstracts can be found online.   

Three KU professors are among the 2025 class of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) fellows.  

AAAS recently announced K. Christopher Beard, senior curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Biodiversity Institute and Foundation Distinguished Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology; Jianming Qiu, professor of virology; and Michael Wolfe, Mathias P. Mertes Professor of Medicinal Chemistry; are among the new group of scientists, engineers and researchers to earn the distinction. More information about their accomplishments is at KU News. 

Chancellor Douglas A. Girod said “AAAS Fellows are among the world’s top scientists, and to have three more University of Kansas researchers named fellows demonstrates KU’s strength as one of the nation’s leading research institutions.” 

Achieving fellow status is a detailed process that honors members who advance science or its application or are scientifically or socially distinguished. AAAS has 24 sections that include a broad range of fields from agriculture to statistics. 

A recording of Thursday’s town hall is available to view behind KU single sign-on. Charli Bankart, vice provost for International Affairs and senior internationalization officer, hosted the meeting. Associate Vice Chancellor of Federal Relations Kyle Christian provided updates on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security shutdown and student loan caps. 

Amy Mendenhall, vice provost for faculty affairs, discussed the next steps for ratifying the agreement between KU and the United Academics of KU, resources for complying with a federal requirement to make websites and course content accessible, and the upcoming Faculty Development Academies. 

Bankart stressed the importance of registering international travel with the university and the U.S. Department of State. He also provided guidance on what to do if unexpected visitors or federal law enforcement officials visit campus, classrooms, workspaces or residence halls. 

Senior Vice Chancellor and Chief Research Officer Matthias Salathe provided an update on federal research funding and information on the One KU Research Pivot Awards. 

Misty Schieberle, Frances L. Stiefel Teaching Professor of English, is the 2025 recipient of the Byron T. Shutz Award for Excellence in Teaching. She will present “Medieval Mysteries: Archival Challenges and Classroom Discoveries” at 5:30 p.m. April 20 in the Big 12 Room of the Kansas Union.  

The lecture is open to the public, and attendees may register to attend in person or via livestream.  

In her presentation, Schieberle will showcase how analyzing archival materials — such as unique copies of literary texts and historical documents — can yield new, field-changing discoveries. She will connect these methods of inquiry to the classroom, demonstrating how literary and material evidence encourages students to discover what might otherwise remain unexplored. 

Read the full article on the KU News website. 

The deadline to apply for the 2026-2027 Office of Faculty Affairs Senior Administrative Fellows Program is April 6. Senior Administrative Fellows have the opportunity to meet face-to-face and learn from those with administrative roles at KU, develop their personal leadership skills and understanding, engage with challenges that leaders face in academia, and consider leadership pathways in higher education.   

This program is ideal for tenure-track faculty who are ready to take the next step in their leadership development at KU. Application information, time commitment, and meeting dates for the 2026-2027 academic year can be found on the Senior Administrative Fellows page.  

Faculty and instructors are invited to join the Center for Service Learning to explore how to incorporate service learning into their courses. This session will be held from 3 to 4 p.m. April 8 in Summerfield Hall, 201. 

The session will cover the following topics:  

Register for the workshop by today.

The updated supplier registration process announced earlier this month is active. All new supplier registrations and supplier updates must now be submitted using the streamlined Finance Service Portal form. Confidential information (e.g., W-9/W-8BEN/W-8BEN-E, IRS forms, Social Security Cards, banking information, etc.) should no longer be submitted with supplier maintenance requests. New suppliers will receive an email with a registration link to submit required documents directly and securely.  

Please let suppliers know to expect an email from supplier@ku.edu with instructions on how to register. To see an example of the email and an overview of the registration form sent to suppliers, go to the attachments section of the Finance Service Portal. More information on the new process is available in the March 11 announcement. Please contact the Supplier Management Team at supplier@ku.edu with questions. 

When a KU Information Technology system or service — such as ku.edu, email, Wi-Fi or HR/Pay — isn’t working, faculty, staff and students can check the IT Alerts Status page to see if a known issue exists. The page can be bookmarked for easy access and monitored for real-time updates.   

Additionally, faculty and staff can choose to receive email updates when major campus tech services are disrupted. To manage alerts, visit the Group Subscriptions page, find IT ALERTS - DL, and use the toggle to add or remove yourself. 

The Science DMZ Network and the Research File Server (ResFS) will be down each night between April 8 and April 10 for about 30 minutes between 6 p.m. and midnight for required maintenance. 

Those who manage a system or process that requires an uninterrupted network connection to the science DMZ and/or ResFS should prepare by pausing any tasks or jobs that require this connection during the outage window. Those who need assistance with preparation should contact their IT support team or the IT Help Desk at 785-864-8080.  

Those who experience any problems with these services following the changes should contact the KU IT Help Desk at 785-864-8080. 

This Wednesday, KU IT will perform another round of network maintenance between 10 p.m. and 3 a.m. within the Ellsworth and Price data centers on the Lawrence campus. Interruptions to systems and services will occur during this time. An additional work contingency window has been set for 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. Friday, if needed. 

Campus-hosted applications, such as Automic, Enroll & Pay, HR/Pay, ImageNow and Maximo will be affected, as well as the Central File Server, Enterprise File Server, hosted databases, onsite hosted servers, international traveler remote machines and KU websites.  

Systems and services that will not be affected are internet connectivity, KU email service, network connectivity within a building, OneDrive cloud storage, Microsoft applications, Research File Storage and telephone services.   

Interruptions are expected to last for the five-hour maintenance window. If campus units have a process or system that requires an uninterrupted network connection to the Price Computing Center's data center during this timeframe, they will be contacted directly by the IT Networking Team with preparation and next steps. Those with questions can contact their IT support team or the IT Help Desk at 785-864-8080. 

The Haworth Greenhouse will hold tours and a plant sale from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Visitors are invited to tour research rooms and the greenhouse’s teaching collections of tropical plants, cacti, carnivorous plants and other unique species.  

A selection of plants will also be for sale, only cash or Venmo accepted, with proceeds going toward expanding the plant collection.  

Those attending the event should park in Lot 37 and enter through Haworth Hall’s north door. The greenhouse is in room 3014.  

KU Operations is conducting a brief survey to learn more about staff and faculty experiences with its departments and services.  

The survey can be completed online and should take less than 10 minutes. The survey will remain open until 5 p.m. April 8.  

Participation is voluntary, and the results are confidential. Survey results will help shape recommendations for changes to KU Operations’ services and practices. For more information, refer to an email that was sent to faculty and staff on March 25. 

Take a break on April 8 and head over to the KU Employee Wellness Fair in the Kansas Union Ballroom. From 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., the drop-in event is expected to bring together 400-plus faculty and staff and more than 50 wellness vendors and campus partners.  

Enjoy live music from KU students, healthy snacks, and plenty of chances to win prizes and swag. Free parking is available in the Mississippi Street Garage.

Last week, faculty members received an email from University Governance with instructions for voting in the Faculty Senate elections.  

Faculty can vote for up to 13 of the nominees with the link provided in the email. The candidate information can be reviewed on the University Governance website. Faculty can only open the ballot and vote once. No save and continue option is available. Voting closes on April 9. For assistance, contact govern@ku.edu. 

Your KU email account is the official channel for important university communications.

The University of Kansas prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, religion, sex, national origin, age, ancestry, disability, status as a veteran, sexual orientation, marital status, parental status, gender identity, gender expression, and genetic information in the university's programs and activities. Retaliation is also prohibited by university policy. The following person has been designated to handle inquiries regarding the nondiscrimination policies and procedures and is the Title IX Coordinator for all KU and KUMC campuses: Associate Vice Chancellor for the Office of Civil Rights and Title IX, civilrights@ku.edu, Room 1082, Dole Human Development Center, 1000 Sunnyside Avenue, Lawrence, KS 66045, 785-864-6414, 711 TTY. Reports can be submitted by contacting the Title IX Coordinator as provided herein or online and complaints can be submitted with the Title IX Coordinator or online.

The University of Kansas is a public institution governed by the Kansas Board of Regents.