Advancing our One KU initiative

Colleagues,

I hope you enjoyed a restful holiday season with family and friends.

As we begin the new year, I’d like to update you on our “One KU” initiative, which strives to better align our campuses and positions us to work more collaboratively in pursuing our mission of education, service and research.

You will recall One KU is something we’ve worked toward since I became chancellor in 2017. Last August, we took a major step forward in this initiative by creating a new leadership structure that gives key leaders oversight for their function across all KU campuses, not just Lawrence or just KU Medical Center. Additionally, the new structure strengthened KU’s partnership with The University of Kansas Health System.

Since then, this new group — which we will refer to as the University Cabinet — has been meeting every Monday and making good progress in key areas. First, we have been finalizing the transition to this new structure, which has entailed adding new members to the group, including KU Endowment President Dan Martin and KU Alumni Association President Heath Peterson. As crucial partners in our strategic endeavors, we are thankful for their voices at the table.

In addition to finalizing the composition of the University Cabinet, we have updated the titles and position descriptions of University Cabinet members to reflect their new responsibility for strategic leadership of their functions across all KU campuses. University Cabinet members and their titles are as follows:

• Douglas A. Girod – Chancellor
• Barbara Bichelmeyer – Chief Academic Officer, Provost, and Executive Vice Chancellor for Lawrence
• Jeff DeWitt – Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice Chancellor
• Travis Goff – Director of Athletics and Vice Chancellor
• Kim Grunewald – Chief Legal Officer, General Counsel and Vice Chancellor
• Karla Leeper – Chief Strategic Communications Officer and Vice Chancellor
• Dan Martin – President of KU Endowment Association (added since August)
• Julie Murray – Chief of Staff to Chancellor Girod and Vice Chancellor for External Affairs
• Heath Peterson – President of KU Alumni Association (added since August)
• Matthias Salathe – Chief Research Officer and Senior Vice Chancellor
• Steve Stites – Chief Health Sciences Officer and Executive Vice Chancellor for KU Medical Center
• David Vranicar – Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice Chancellor
• Chari Young – Chief Human Resources Officer and Senior Vice Chancellor

Additionally, our University Cabinet has been developing a new strategic decision-making framework and identifying opportunities and challenges that KU can now address in a university-wide manner. In the coming months I also anticipate evolving our Office of Analytics, Institutional Research & Effectiveness into a One KU office with the addition of KU Medical Center’s Office of Enterprise Analytics.

While still in the early stages of this new structure, we are already seeing the benefits of it, which is a testament to our leaders’ willingness to embrace change. Without exception, each member of the University Cabinet has approached our Monday meetings with specific ideas and excitement about the opportunities that exist under this new structure. I especially want to thank Barbara Bichelmeyer and Steve Stites for their leadership as we’ve worked through the details of this new structure. As the executive vice chancellors of their respective campuses, Barbara and Steve will continue to serve as the leaders of their campuses and will continue to guide institutional strategy, financial management and operational excellence.

One KU resources

We’ve shared several videos about the One KU leadership structure. As referenced above, I first introduced it in a Chancellor’s Weekly Update last August, followed by a video discussion with Provost Bichelmeyer and a video with Dr. Stites. Earlier this month, Dr. Stites hosted a town hall meeting on the topic with various University Cabinet members. You can expect additional videos in the weeks ahead that will further introduce you to University Cabinet members and the work we are advancing.

Looking ahead

As I explained in August, our new One KU structure may not directly affect you right away. But the intention is that in the not-so-distant future, this new structure will pave the way for faculty and staff to be more collaborative and to adopt a university-wide perspective that will benefit their work and our collective success.

I harbor no illusions that this will happen overnight or that our University Cabinet has all the answers! In fact, this initiative relies on you — our talented faculty and staff across the university and its affiliates — to provide input along the way. I know I can count on you to lend your wisdom and expertise to this initiative. And with your help, I am confident a One KU approach will position us for success and enhance our status among the nation’s top research institutions.

Thank you for all you do for KU.

Respectfully,

Doug

Douglas A. Girod
Chancellor
University of Kansas