The proposed changes come following last year’s Senate Joint Resolution 98 and are intended to streamline policymaking, as well as give equitable weight to student and staff voices.
UK’s Senate Council responded by passing a resolution outlining their concerns, which include worry that governance changes could weaken faculty input around academic programs. They also requested more transparency and to be directly included in the decision-making process.
In an email to the campus community, President Capilouto said he had spoken with over 200 people who brought him their feedback. He said he was able to identify four primary concerns - calls for more voices, more clarity, more local control, and more understanding.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
WUKY’S CLAY WALLACE
Last week, you sent out an email addressing concerns over proposed changes to UK’s governance structure. Can you give some background on those conversations that you’ve been having?
UK PRESIDENT ELI CAPILOUTO
I feel so fortunate to be able to have conversations with well over 200 people. As always, I'm inspired by their commitment to this place and to our Commonwealth. Our strategic plan, we like to say, is about advancing Kentucky in everything we do. We want a healthier, wealthier, and wiser Kentucky than we are today.
Everything I hear from faculty, staff, students, and administrators reinforces my belief about what we can do together; that has been tremendous, uplifting, and inspiring.
There are work groups that the board has asked us to assemble to do more and be more for Kentucky. This more responsiveness group looked at external rules and regulations that we operate under, as those are being considered at the state level, and the work group did a great job.
Then they looked at our internal rules, and some themes emerged for me. Certainly, some people think what we’re doing works well. Some people think we should have improvement, and, of the voices I heard, I was able to say those communications fell in four categories.
So, the first: more voices. Especially our staff. They don’t see themselves represented in a University Senate. They are one of the constituency groups, but they don’t hold positions from which they could cast a vote.
One of them mentioned to me last Friday afternoon, “It’s not about my class, it’s about my role,” and went on to say it’s the “expertise I could bring to the table.” Not just in shaping something we might do, but in a more significant way. And I think that’s so important because we have some 20,000 employees here who are exceptional. They’re on the front lines in many things.
Our students felt like, even though they are represented in a small number of seats in the Senate, what are ways they could be better heard? And they understand that the faculty have the responsibility to develop the curriculum and teach the courses, but in a whole host of other things we do associated with educational policy, they’d like to have a voice.
I heard what I described as a call for more clarity. Our University Senate has over 300 pages of rules that are not searchable. So we, in many ways, have these extensive guidebooks that some people think expresses affection and show attention to what we’re doing, but many others think we lose the forest for the trees, that we should have a greater sense of the big picture instead of spending a lot of time on detailed rules that exercise a lot of control over things that we do.
More local control. I heard people say, “You know, for matters that only pertain to my particular college…”
I think we should work to engender more trust to those who are closest to these matters to be able to make some of the decisions that now have to go up through all the Senate committees, to the Senate council, and to the Senate.
And, then, more understanding. While what we’re talking about has sparked some doubts and concerns - and fears, in some cases - it’s not what I want. And I hope through these dialogues, we can promote deeper understanding about what we do, our intentions, and together figure out how we make it better.
WUKY
Can you speak a little bit about kind of the background leading to the proposed changes to UK's governing structures, specifically the primary goals and motivations?
CAPILOUTO
Sure. In 2021, our board unanimously adopted our strategic plan, the UK-PURPOSE. Within that plan, they specifically talked about the essentiality of addressing the bedrock principle of shared governance among faculty, staff, students, and administrators.
In October of this last year, [the board] prepared for the retreat, did extensive readings, and interviews were conducted to understand what they wanted to know more about. They came to the retreat, heard some excellent speakers, and suggested what subject matter they’d like to know more about. They adopted a plan to do more and be more for Kentucky, and do it with a sense of urgency.
I like to say they gave us five mores to do.
First, a more educated Kentucky - do a thoughtful, smart growth plan; prepare students for lives of meaning and purpose, and for jobs that Kentucky is going to need.
Second was more preparedness - that is, the core curriculum is a foundational set of courses; it’s a precious 30 hours. We hadn’t looked at the core curriculum in over a decade. Given the way things are changing so quickly, with the expansion of knowledge, the introduction of artificial intelligence and so forth, it was time to pull together faculty, staff, students and administrators to begin work on those foundational courses.
Then, there was more partnerships. We’ve done a lot of things at the University of Kentucky because we selected partners (and they selected us) through shared values, where we could each bring talents and competencies to the table that the other one didn’t have. Just this past week, the leadership of the more partnership group and the more educated Kentuckians group met with the leadership of our community and technical college system. We share a mission, although we have different responsibilities.
We have more recruitment; more retention. That group has launched some serious efforts in looking at our benefit package. Right now, we have one-size-fits-all. And what our employees face today in terms of their different family situations, you can have someone who has the responsibility for a child, grandparent, and parent. So: Do we have opportunities to provide more flexibility in our benefit packages, so that we can recruit and retain what is an exceptional workforce? I think the successes we’ve had over the last decade or so are a tribute to them.
And then, lastly, is what I would call an enabling work group. If we’re to do these things with a sense of urgency, let’s make sure that our rules are met. Guidebooks and guideposts allow us to make progress effectively and efficiently.
WUKY
How do you envision that a new governance structure, a strengthened shared governance structure, would foster improving those themes you identified, like better collaboration and local control?
CAPILOUTO
I would say, right now, those are observations. I can’t tell you what this would exactly look like. I’m still listening. Every day, I hear ideas worthy of consideration and thought.
So, give us a little more time.
WUKY
How are people able to share their thoughts and have conversations with decision-makers?
CAPILOUTO
I had what I would call a big table - 15, 20 people at a time. We met at my home on campus. I encouraged people to be frank and candid. After a while, I realized I didn’t need to do that, because they certainly were.
I found these to be very rich conversations. You can learn so much in a face-to-face small group discussion. I found them to be enormously valuable.
We also have a website where people are posting comments. Those, too, are valuable.
I have smaller meetings and talk to folks. Some of the people said things at those meetings that I think I could learn more from, so I may give them a call.
WUKY
What are the next steps in this process? Is there any sort of timeline?
CAPILOUTO
Yes. We said early on, our board wanted us to work toward substantial progress by June. I said from the beginning of this, after the board charged me, that it was our expectation to listen. Hopefully by the end of the month, if we have something worthy of consideration, we would present that to the campus, get more feedback, and have something ready to present to the board at their next meeting.
WUKY
Are there any other thoughts you’d like to share, or things that might help the conversation move forward?
CAPILOUTO
Our board and our administration believes in our people, that sharing our responsibilities and duties is the only way we can advance Kentucky, and we look forward to being worthy partners in all of this.