Greetings faculty colleagues,

The Office of Faculty Affairs provides faculty and academic staff with the tools and opportunities needed to succeed at all stages of their careers.  And we appreciate the numerous faculty contributions as session facilitators, panelists, and program designers in our programming efforts. As we look ahead to the fall semester, we are excited to grow and expand our offerings to better support your professional journey. 

In May, we welcomed Katie Williams to our team as our Program Coordinator. Additionally, our three faculty development program fellows have curated dynamic programming opportunities that reflect their unique areas of expertise—adding even more depth to our portfolio. 

Whether you are new to KU or part of a leadership team, we hope you are able to see yourself in our offerings and join us in building a vibrant community of learning this fall. Our new faculty will soon be on the Lawrence campus for New Faculty Orientation, and this fall we will continue to support them in their new roles with our New Faculty Mentor Groups and Early Career Foundations Fall Development Day. New and Early Career Faculty will receive invitations to attend both of these events in the coming weeks. 

This fall, we will also focus on tools and resources to help you achieve success in whatever your goals may be. Our Faculty Learning Circle, Academic Productivity: Balancing Time to Get Things Done, will explore a productivity framework to help you engage more effectively with tasks and commitments, create more mental space, and focus on what matters most. And if writing is your priority, join us as we partner with NCFDD for a 14-day Writing Challenge after fall break — details are outlined below in our NCFDD section.  

For those new to leadership roles at KU, earlier this week we hosted a New Associate Deans, Chairs and Directors Orientation, and in September, we will host our Fall Associate Deans, Chairs and Directors workshop, bringing timely topics to the broader leadership community. And for those looking to expand their leadership, please consider applying for our Senior Administrative Fellows Program in early spring. Our 2025-26 Senior Administrative Fellows cohort is just getting started, and we are excited to see where this program will take them! 

We are looking forward to a year of growth, collaboration, and shared learning. While challenges may arise, we believe that coming together as a community is the best way to meet them. We hope you’ll join us this fall as we learn and grow — together. 

With gratitude, 

Mary Banwart

Associate Vice Provost for Faculty Development, Mentoring & Growth

Professor, Communication Studies

5 days of focused learning and collaboration took place during Faculty Development Academies Week 2025! Over 31 hours of programming, with 92 faculty and staff participating, representing 29 units went into the week. See more photos from this event and go ahead and block May 18-22, 2026 on your calendars now for next year's Academies Week! 

Faculty work has been affected in recent years by various external circumstances, including those related to COVID-19 and to actions on behalf of the federal government that have impacted funding for scientific research. In order to enable faculty members to document impacts arising from these events, the Office of Faculty Affairs, with feedback from United Academics of KU (UAKU), has provided guidance on how to address disruptions to faculty work in evaluation processes. This guidance applies to all types of faculty evaluation including Annual Evaluation, Instructional Faculty Comprehensive Review and Promotion, Progress Toward Tenure Review, Promotion and Tenure Review, and Post-Tenure Review. You can find this guidance on the Guidance on Disruptions of Faculty Evaluations page.

As you prepare your fall coursework, please review the syllabus policy and the recent email sent from Academic Affairs regarding syllabi submissions to Simple Syllabus. Additionally, please review the syllabus policy's required elements as the KU Statement on Diversity and Inclusion has been retired from the Policy Library and is no longer listed among the required elements in the policy.  Please remove any link to the Diversity and Inclusion Statement from your syllabus or course materials. If faculty would like to include information about KU's values in their syllabi, they may choose to include a link to the IRISE culture charter page if they wish.

Finding time to write can be a real challenge, but we know that time is valuable for the work we do as faculty. That’s why, this fall, we are partnering with NCFDD to offer a 14-day Writing Challenge to keep you going strong after fall break. Watch for a link to sign up in our September newsletter — we hope you can join us! 

As a reminder, KU is an institutional member of NCFDD, which ensures all KU academic faculty and staff can register for an NCFDD membership at no additional cost. To join the NCFDD community, be sure to sign up here.   

All dates above apply to full semester courses. Some deadlines may exclude certain schools and colleges. See the entire Fall 2025, Summer 2025 and Fall 2025 calendar on the Registrar’s website.  

Congratulations, Sean Hill - July KU Employee of the Month!

Our very own Sean Hill was recognized recently as a July KU employee of the month! Sean serves as a faculty appointment coordinator in the Office of Faculty Affairs, where he is responsible for managing executive-level leadership searches as well as faculty appointment data and timelines, and requests and approvals in partnership with with numerous units across campus. Read more about Sean's work. If you see him around, be sure to congratulate him!

KU Faculty Members Awarded Keeler Intra-University Professorship

Four faculty members have been awarded a KU Keeler Family Intra-University Professorship, which was established in the early 1980s to support faculty in their pursuit of collaboration across disciplines. The 2025-2026 Keeler Professorship recipients are Alyssa Appelman (William Allen White School of Journalism & Mass Communications), Meredith Bagwell-Gray (School of Social Welfare), Luis Corteguera (Department of History), and María Velasco (Department of Visual Art). Learn more about the professorship plans in the 2025-26 academic year.

KU Professors Awarded Big 12 Faculty Fellowship for Upcoming Academic Year

Six University of Kansas faculty members have been selected to participate in the Big 12 Faculty Fellowship program during the summer and upcoming academic year. The 2025-26 recipients are: 

Read about the scholars' plans for their fellowships.

KU Faculty Awarded Distinguished Professor Status

Congratulations to five University of Kansas faculty members, who were recently named University Distinguished Professors.

More details on the 2025 University Distinguished Professors can be found here.

New Accessibility Tool in Canvas

KU has transitioned to a new accessibility tool, YuJa Panorama, now integrated directly into Canvas. Panorama automatically scans your course materials and provides feedback to help make content, including PDFs, Word documents and PowerPoints, more accessible to all students. Read more here.

Faculty Academic Year Pay Reserve for Summer Disbursement now Available

Enrollment in the Faculty Academic Year Pay Reserve for Summer Disbursement program for the 2025-26 academic year is now available. Eligible faculty members can enroll in the program at HR AY Reserve until 5 p.m. on August 22. If you participated last year and want to participate in this coming academic year, you must sign up again. The Summer Disbursement program reserves a portion of after-tax pay from every full pay period during the academic year and then evenly disburses those funds to the participating faculty member during the summer. It is open to all academic year faculty, tenured and tenure-track faculty, unclassified academic staff and lecturers hired for the 2025-26 academic year.

Teaching Resources Available for Integrating KU Common Book

Find teaching materials and curricular support on the KU Reads Resources for Educators Website to integrate this year's KU Reads" A Common Book Experience selection into your coursework.   

New Report Showcases How KU Drives Economic Development in Kansas

Lightcast study quantifies KU's annual statewide impact at $7.8 billion, supporting nearly 88,000 jobs (one in every 23 jobs in the state). This study measures the activity of all KU campuses, including Lawrence, Edwards, and KU medical Center's locations (Kansas City, Wichita, Salina), as well as The University of Kansas Health System. Visit impact.ku.edu to see additional metrics and the full report.

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