While administrative compensation has skyrocketed, the purchasing power of faculty and academic staff salaries at KU has declined by almost a fifth. Girod sits inside his cushy office, separated from the rest of the university by a passcode lock, while the departments he oversees make enormous sacrifices to make ends meet.
During a special session that lasted less than ten minutes, the Kansas Board of Regents (KBOR) approved raises for the presidents of six Kansas state universities, including a 12% raise for University of Kansas (KU) Chancellor Doug Girod, whose total annual compensation now exceeds one million dollars.
This comes amidst tuition raises at universities across the state, the threat of economic austerity due to Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill, and continued stagnation of state funding for higher education.
When the Graduate Teaching Assistants Coalition (GTAC) requested a similar raise of 10% from the Kansas Board of Regents in 2024, they were met with a limited 2.5% increase, down from 5% the year prior. The student hourly minimum wage remains similarly deflated at $10.25 per hour with proposals for individual pay rates greater than $20 per hour requiring approval from KU HR.
While administrative compensation has skyrocketed, the purchasing power of faculty and academic staff salaries at KU has declined by almost a fifth since 2010. Faculty and academic staff are often forced to “work multiple jobs and struggle to afford basic necessities.” The university administration continues to refuse to sign a fair contract for better pay and safer working conditions with the United Academics of KU (UAKU) who have been engaged in collective bargaining for over a year since they won their union election in April 2024.
Despite rallying calls from the union, the university is also going forward with cuts to department budgets and increases in tuition and fees to address its mounting deficit. KU pays millions per year servicing its various debts, which total over $600 million. The institution is in over $100 million worth of athletics-related debt, hundreds of millions of dollars in debt to Edgemoor through a public-private partnership (P3), and holds over $1.1 billion in total liabilities. KU is also projecting an additional $20 million deficit in fiscal year 2026 after having all but eliminated an operating deficit of $50 million.
To add injury to insult, KU also has over $750 million in deferred maintenance on its roach-infested mission critical buildings alone. That figure more than doubles when including all KU affiliate buildings, such as the moldy dorms operated by KU Housing, the exorbitant KU Athletics facilities, and buildings without classrooms or lab spaces. Despite this staggering backlog that is literally causing the university to crumble, the Kansas Board of Regents earmarked only a little less than $25 million to fund deferred infrastructure projects at KU. Across the state, the Educational Building Fund operated by the board generates only a third of the funds necessary for our universities.
The KU Student Senate was also underfunded by the Kansas Board of Regents with student fee adjustments capped at an annual increase of 2%. This forced the senate to reduce service for campus buses, Safe Ride, and the University Daily Kansan since the rate of inflation was last below 2% in February of 2021.
Defending the pay raise, regents chairman Carl Ice focused on the role of university CEO's stating,
Leaders matter. Leaders set … visions that are compelling.
Girod, who became chancellor in 2017, continues to be subject to criticism from pro-Palestinian students and the KU Students for Justice in Palestine for refusing to disclose university investments. Girod put out a press release decrying the voice of organized labor on campus after the Graduate Teaching Assistants Coalition condemned Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians. In May of last year Girod also allowed roughly 80 officers from Baldwin City, Eudora, Lawrence, KUPD and the Douglas County Sheriff's Office on campus to arrest three KU students, despite their adherence to university policy and to the law.
Other eligible state university presidents received raises between 4% and 7%, with their average annual compensation now totaling $483,800. As universities across the state face challenges similar to KU, many, like Emporia State, find themselves in particularly dire economic circumstances, engaging in massive cuts to programs and personnel to stay afloat.
Like an executive at a private firm, Doug Girod sits inside his cushy office, separated from the rest of the university by a passcode lock, while the departments he oversees make enormous sacrifices to make ends meet. At this moment of great tribulation for higher education, one can only wonder what motivations Girod and the Kansas Board of Regents hold when they focus on recruiting and retaining CEO's instead of faculty and students.
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