Leaders at the University of Kansas have been working on ways to absorb more than $10 million in state budget cuts. On Wednesday, the Lawrence campus announced more than $1 million in targeted spending reductions. KU Provost Neeli Bendapudi says the goal was to avoid staff reductions and minimize the impact on students.
“It’s obviously not an easy thing to do, but we tried to look at everything that we could do to keep the core academic function of the university as protected as possible,” Bendapudi says.
KU’s targeted spending reductions include $300,000 cuts for international programs and the Kansas Geological Survey. Kansas Public Radio and the Kansas Audio Reader Network will each take a $100,000 cut.
Some open staff positions across campus will also be left unfilled.
Cuts to academic units and some other parts of the university have not yet been finalized.
Governor Sam Brownback cut higher education by $30 million in May as he slashed spending to balance the state budget.
