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Field Observation

Derrick Sherman
Georgia Southern University
EDLD 7431
July 9, 2015

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Legislative and Budget Meeting at Pittsburg State University

Earlier this week there was the Legislative and Budget Meeting at the new Bicknell
Family Center for the Arts on the campus of Pittsburg State University. This building opened in
October of 2014 and cost upwards of 35 million dollars. Ironically, this was the home for a
discussion about the Kansas higher education budget and the 50 million dollar deficit currently at
hand.
The meeting that took place after a 113 day legislative session at the capitol for the
purpose of briefing faculty and staff of what was accomplished during the record long session.
The meeting featured Pittsburg State University President Steve Scott, Director of Government
and Community Relations Shawn Naccarato, and Legislative Liaison Riley Scott.
The meeting was very organized and had a very informal feel to it. Each administrator
had their chance to speak, all of them full of life and energy now that the four-month-long
deliberations were over (at least for now). The meeting ended in more of a discussion with
faculty members having the opportunity to ask questions about any other issues that they felt had
not been covered in the meeting, or just for clarifications. After all, its impossible to squeeze 113
days of meetings into 120 minutes.
In the state of Kansas, higher education is governed by the Kansas Board of Regents, a 9
member, bi partisan group appointed by the governor. The Board of Regents is responsible for
the six state universities in Kansas, Pittsburg State being among them. Higher education in the
state of Kansas has been in very tough circumstances finishing the 2015 fiscal year 50 million
dollars in debt. Thats before adding on the 22 million dollars of debt accumulated in the first

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month of the 2016 fiscal year. In June of this year, all state university employees within hours of
being furloughed were basically told not to come to work because there is no money to pay them
with. Luckily, the legislative meeting was in session and, in the final hours, the governor decided
that 50 million dollars from the 2016 fiscal funding would be cut at some time at his discretion.
This decision came after the legislature agreed on a flat budget, the same budget as the previous
year in exchange for a tuition cap. Administrators expressed their frustrations with the final
decision but also added that this was a huge victory compared to the 6.8 percent budget cut that
was projected.
There were two bills that passed during the legislative session that these administrators
were very enthusiastic about. First, the Board of Regents, which controls most of the operations
of the state universities, gained authorization of leave of university support staff. This may
seem small or insignificant, but it was very important to President Steve Scott to be able to offer
equal leave benefits to university support staff. Prior to this ruling the government handled the
leave benefit for these employees and did not offer the same amount as all other employees. The
Board of Regents did not have authorization prior to this session because the university support
staff was not a classification at the time they gained control of all other employee benefits. For
Kansas, the Board of Regents has many powers and responsibilities unlike some other states so it
was only a matter of time before they gained authorization.
The second bill that passed was a land exchange with the city of Pittsburg and Pittsburg
State University. This was very interesting to listen to because it was the first I have heard of it,
but it seemed like a great opportunity for both sides and each party couldnt be happier. With
Pittsburg being an older town in need of some modern upgrades with its historical tradition and
Pittsburg State experiencing its largest enrollment numbers and the need for expansion, this bill

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just seemed like the right thing to do and the legislature approved it. The exchange will allow
Pittsburg State to extend the campus; removing some older homes in the town in exchange for
renovating other parts of the city of Pittsburg. The jubilation could be heard through the
Presidents voice and the cheers from members of the community who were in attendance.
The President was the last to speak and it was extremely interesting to watch his tone
change throughout his address. He went from speaking on different issues which were talked
about and passed during the session while trying to be as transparent as he possibly could. Then
he went on to speak about our particular university and how we can use all of the help that comes
from Topeka (Capitol of Kansas) and Washington DC, but how we could not simply rely on
them. Before taking questions, as if in some sort of rally, he began to thank and encourage all in
attendance to continue to give especially in this time in which tuition has been capped and unable
to get the dollars needed to operate as efficiently as before. Ive only been a part of the university
for a very short time, but I quickly recognized what makes this university great: administration,
faculty and community all working together.
Attending this meeting gave me insight and perspective on what it takes to run a
successful institution, and the issues that institutions must overcome. Also, I realized that voting
for budgets for higher education may be the most difficult thing to vote on because they are so
extensive. Like the President of the university said, its easy to find something wrong with a
budget but virtually impossible to come up with a budget that everyone completely agrees on and
is satisfied with. This brings me to the most interesting information from the meeting, which is
the number of people that are in the legislative meetings and the number of votes it takes to get
bills passed. It takes at least 63 votes from the House of Representatives, 21 votes from the state
Senate and, ultimately, the vote from the governor. This puts everything in perspective and made

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me understand all of the hard work and collaboration it takes for higher education in Kansas to
grow and evolve, and this is before we talk about specific programs and the actual teaching of
our students.
I believe this meeting was very organized and it accomplished its goal to create
momentum going into the next fiscal and academic year. The speakers offered a lot of
information as well as energy. Completely took control of the audience and ultimately gave
everyone the confidence that the legislative session in Topeka, Kansas that lasted a record 113
days was actually a victory for the Pittsburg State University family.

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References
Board of Regents Approve University Tuition Rates. (2015, June 18). Retrieved July 8, 2015,
from http://www.kansasregents.org/about/news_releases/2015_news_releases/597-boardof-regents-approve-university-tuition-rates