Dear Fellow Jayhawk,

The Kansas Legislature is entering a critical stage of budget deliberations and important decisions affecting KU and other universities will be made early this week. We need your voice to be heard in Topeka.

As you know, KU has already implemented a cut of 4 1/4 percent this year. We've continued to streamline our already efficient operations so we can lessen the impact of this cut on teaching and other core University functions that are vital to the state's future.

Now we are facing a threat of double-digit cuts for next year.

The Senate Ways and Means Committee has crafted a budget that would cut KU's budget by an additional 12.7 percent next year. This cut not only is disproportionately large compared to other areas of state government, but it also would seriously damage our ability to fulfill our mission of preparing students to contribute to the Kansas economy.

A double-digit cut would lead to further layoffs, resulting in larger class sizes and fewer course offerings. This would make it harder for students to graduate in a timely fashion. We also would likely see reductions in the number of students admitted to academic programs critical to our state's future, such as those that educate new health professionals.

Fortunately, the Kansas House has taken a more reasonable approach, proposing a cut to our budget of just over 8 percent. While this reduction would still harm the University, it is clearly more manageable than the deeper cuts proposed by the Senate.

Kansas legislators need to hear from Jayhawks on this issue. Please contact your state senator today (click here) and ask that the deep cuts in the Senate budget be rejected.

Thank you in advance for contacting your senator; we appreciate your ongoing support of higher education and KU.

Sincerely,