Dear Faculty and Staff,

I’ve heard from many of you since Chancellor Girod’s recent announcement. Thank you for your warmth and well wishes. I’m delighted to have been selected as KU’s next Chief Academic Officer / Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor for the Lawrence and Edwards campuses.

In my public forum as a candidate, I shared my deep appreciation – my love – for KU. Like other research-intensive universities, we transform lives through our educational and scholarly offerings. Our distinctive nature – who we are, the work we do, the way we do it and the care and support we share with those around us – is a strength that both guides us and lifts our students.

I look forward to getting to know more of you and knowing what matters most to you as we work to bring KU to its fullest potential. There are both exciting opportunities and difficult challenges ahead of us. Yet I know we, together, are up to the demands that may be required. I know we are capable of doing amazing work together, and that motivates me to serve and support you in your endeavors.

During the spring semester, the Provost's Office will increase opportunities for you to directly share your ideas and suggestions with me. You are always welcome to share them by email or by using our feedback form.

The future of KU is about you and the life-changing work you do. The talents, gifts and hard work you provide as scholars and teachers and administrative and student support staff are the foundation for our shared success.

Thank you for your efforts on behalf of the university.

Sincerely,

Arash Mafi, Ph.D.

Chief Academic Officer / Provost

Executive Vice Chancellor for KU Lawrence and Edwards

Four finalists for the School of Education & Human Sciences dean position will soon visit the Lawrence campus and share their vision for the school’s future. 

The name of each candidate will be announced approximately 1-2 business days before their respective campus visit. The public presentations are scheduled for the following times and locations:

In addition, the presentations will be livestreamed. Members of the KU community are encouraged to attend these public presentations and provide feedback to the search committee. Candidate information, presentation recordings and the online feedback forms will remain open on the search site through March 26. 

Operations units on the Lawrence, Edwards and KU Medical Center campuses have recently been realigned to reflect the One KU model. The realignment includes the following leadership changes: 

More information about the realignment can be found on the Office of the Chancellor’s website. 

From March 17-20, KU IT will perform 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. 

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 less than 15 minutes but could last up to the five-hour maintenance window. If campus units have a process or system that requires an uninterrupted network connection to Price Data Center during this timeframe, please make the necessary preparations by contacting the unit’s IT support team or the IT Help Desk at 785-864-8080. 

The Open Educational Resources Committee at Fort Hays State University has put together a series of webinars centered on Open Education Week. From 2:30 to 4 p.m. Wednesday, the session “Watch Party: OER and Title II Accessibility Compliance: Separating Myths from Facts” will be held online.

As many institutions prepare for the DOJ Title II accessibility compliance deadline in April, a webinar from the Open Education Association clarifies what the new requirements mean in practice, addresses common misconceptions and explores how to advocate for OER for greater accessibility in teaching and learning.

The Wednesday session includes a high-level overview of OER and accessibility by Amanda Larson, program coordinator for the Affordable Educational Resources Initiative at Ohio State University, and an expert panel discussion on how to navigate questions on campus. Participants will watch the recording for the first hour and then have half an hour of guided discussion and Q&A.

The series of webinars are open to all Kansas faculty. Those interested in attending can register online. Attendees are welcome to drop in and out as their schedule allows.

 A KU team will have additional Title II guidance and resources available in the coming weeks. 

Kansas Board of Regents employees looking to strengthen thier financial well-being this spring are invited to attend TIAA’s webinar series. Two helpful online sessions will be held in March that are designed to support employees in planning for retirement and understanding key financial milestones.  

More information and registration can be found on the Human Resources website. 

As part of a statewide tornado drill, KU Emergency Management will test both the KU Alerts mass notification system and the emergency public address system at 10 a.m. Wednesday on the Lawrence Campus.

At the same time, Douglas County Emergency Management will activate the outdoor warning sirens in concurrence with other counties across Kansas. Counties in the Kansas City metro area, including those for the Edwards Campus and KU Medical Center, will activate sirens at 11 a.m.  

This drill is weather-dependent and could be postponed if severe weather is forecast. The statewide drill is part of Severe Weather Awareness Week, an annual outreach campaign sponsored by the National Weather Service to raise awareness of severe weather hazards.   

So far more than 25 percent of KU staff members have shared their experiences through the Great Colleges to Work For survey, part of the newly expanded University Constituent Surveys process. For those who haven’t, the 20-minute survey will remain open until March 9.

On Feb. 23, staff at all KU campuses received a secure email invitation from ModernThink to participate. Staff members who haven’t completed the survey will receive email reminders with a link from ModernThink. The survey is confidential, and ModernThink will only provide KU with aggregate data. Staff feedback plays a key role in shaping an environment where every KU employee feels valued and respected. Refer to the FAQs on the webpage to understand who is invited to participate in the survey.   

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.