4.35 / Financial Exigency

Effective: July 01, 1997Last Revised: August 04, 2000

  1. Financial Exigency Background

    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)

  2. 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.

  3. Procedure

    1. 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.

    2. 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.

  4. Policy

    In response to the Regents action, the faculty of Wichita State University adopted a document entitled, "Policies and Procedures for the Reduction of Unclassified Staff for Reasons of Financial Exigency" on September 15, 1980.