Recent higher education enrollment trends have made educators increasingly aware of
the need to anticipate possible needs for budget and staff reductions (known commonly
as retrenchment) by developing orderly procedures for making such reductions. Like
governing boards in many other states, the Kansas Board of Regents recognized that
advance planning for such contingencies would serve the best interests of everyone
in the academic community; it adopted the following definition of financial exigency
for the Regents system. (Kansas Board of Regents Policy Manual, Chapter II, Section C, Item 5)
Definition
Financial exigency is the formal recognition by a Regents institution that prior reductions
in budget or authorized number of positions have required the elimination of nontenured
positions and operating expenditures to such a point that further reductions in these
categories would seriously distort the academic programs of the institution; hence,
further budget or position reductions would require the nonreappointment of tenured
members of the faculty or the failure to meet the standards of notice for nonreappointment
of faculty. It is not a requirement of financial exigency that all nontenured positions
throughout the University be first eliminated.
Procedure
It shall be the responsibility of the chief executive officer of each Regents institution,
in consultation with appropriate campus groups, to develop a plan for reductions in
personnel as necessitated by conditions of financial exigency.
In the event that financial conditions at a Regents institution may warrant the declaration
of financial exigency, the chief executive officer shall notify the board of that
fact and shall provide a complete statement of the circumstances that may warrant
the declaration of financial exigency. The statement shall also include a review of
all reasonable alternatives to financial exigency. If the board and the chief executive
officer concur as to the existence of a financial exigency, it shall be the responsibility
of the chief executive officer to so declare.
