Soon, the building that now houses a laundromat and food mart will be torn down to make way for green space.

“We will work to determine the best permanent use of the space and given that it is within the residence hall district, that will be the priority consideration,” said UofL President Kim Schatzel. “This project will redefine Cardinal Center and benefit the entire neighborhood while completing an inviting student epicenter.” 

���Ǵڳ�’s housing demand was marked by a record-breaking 97% occupancy rate in fall 2024, with more than 3,900 housing assignments. Of these, nearly 1,900 first-year students unpacked their belongings in their new college homes, contributing to the unprecedented demand for on-campus housing.

The university has considered this property for 20 years, as the new use of the land aims to transform the Belknap Campus.

This purchase falls within ���Ǵڳ�’s overall which establishes a comprehensive vision that guides future development and transformation on the Belknap Campus and Health Sciences Center to support the university’s mission, vision and strategic plan. The Campus Plan serves as a 20-year framework, strategically strengthening ���Ǵڳ�’s distinct identity as both a top-tier research and community engaged university.

Mark Running, a professor of biology in the College of Arts and Sciences, was at the meeting to accept the 2022 University of Louisville Trustees Award. The UofL Board of Trustees established the $5,000 award in 1989 to honor faculty who individually impact the future of our students. The award is the highest honor a UofL faculty member can receive.

Read more about 2022 Trustee Award winner Mark Running in UofL News.

Also present at the meeting was Senior Associate Athletic Director Marvin Mitchell, recipient of the George J. Howe Distinguished Staff Award. Mitchell received the award for his contributions as an extraordinary UofL staff member who exemplifies the traits of its namesake George J. Howe (humility, generosity and excellence in leadership) as well as the . The Howe Award is the highest honor bestowed upon a UofL staff member.

Read more about 2022 George J. Howe Distinguished Staff Award winner Marvin Mitchell in UofL News.

Student success was also on the meeting docket. Senior Vice Provost Gail DePuy was on hand to provide an overview of the university’s . Thirty-seven students across the four mentored scholarship programs will graduate this May: McConnell Scholars (10), Grawemeyer Scholars (10) Brown Fellows (10) and MLK Scholars (7). In addition to monetary awards, these scholarships have significant programming components which can include travel, leadership, service, research and more.

In other business:

Trustees approved revisions to the Parental Leave Policy following input solicited from the Commission on the Status of Women, the Commission on Racial Diversity and Equity as well as the Faculty and Staff senates. The policy grants six weeks of paid parental leave in connection with the birth or adoption of a child of the employee or of the qualifying adult. The revised policy allows for regular full-time or regular part-time employees whose status is at least 0.40 FTE to be eligible for the benefit upon the date of hire.

Board Chair Mary Nixon announced that WittKiefer is the firm that will facilitate the search for a new university president. The firm will work with the 13-member presidential search committee, which was also formally named at the meeting. The committee, chaired by Trustees Vice Chair Raymond Burse, is comprised of the following individuals:

• Jerry Abramson, Trustee
• Scott Brinkman, Trustee
• Raymond Burse, Trustee, Chair of Search Committee
• Riece Hamilton, Staff member, President of Black Faculty and Staff Association
• Alice Houston, Louisville Community Representative and Business Owner
• Dr. Christopher Jones, Professor in Dept. of Surgery, Physician at UofL Health
• Diane Medley, Trustee and Alumna
• Ugonna Okorie, Trustee and Student Representative
• Diane Porter, Trustee
• Jim Rogers, Trustee and Alumnus
• Aaron Rollins, Professor & Chair in Dept. of Urban and Public Affairs
• David Schultz, Trustee and Faculty Representative
• John Smith, Trustee and Staff Representative

Interim Provost Gerry Bradley provided an update on the timeline to fill vacant dean positions. The search for the new dean of the College of Arts and Sciences will take place in the summer of 2022, and the search for the new dean of the Raymond A. Kent School of Social Work and Family Science will take place in the fall of 2022.

Senior Associate Athletic Director Marvin Mitchell and Hana Ryskova, a junior who plays on the women’s golf team, asked the trustees for their feedback on who should be the university’s next athletic director. Mitchell and Ryskova serve on the athletic director planning committee and organized several listening sessions on the matter for the university. In response to questions about expectations, challenges and qualifications, trustees noted the necessity to efficiently manage a high-profile, tier-one athletic program amid impending NCAA investigation results and do so with a strong moral compass as well as an understanding of the ever-changing landscape of college sports.

Trustees approved the Endowment Match Program (a.k.a “Bucks for Brains”) combined 2020 and 2021 Annual Report. Since 1998, funding from the Endowment Match Program has been used to support 89 endowed chairs and 18 endowed professorships. Additionally, 54 fellowships and mission support projects have been created under the program to support research at UofL. Endowment Match Program executive summaries are located on the . Highlights from the annual report include:

• Matching public dollars with private donations, the program generated a total of $234.4 million at UofL, providing a perpetual source of funding for UofL research activities.
• During fiscal year 2020-21, awards of external research grants and contracts resulted in a $169 million contribution to the Kentucky economy.
• During fiscal year 2020-21, there were 19 endowments supporting graduate fellowships. As a single endowment may support multiple student awards, 127 graduate students received support from endowment proceeds.

University of Louisville Research Foundation officers were elected for 2022-23. They are: James Rogers (chair), Diane Porter (vice chair), Diane Medley (treasurer), Larry Benz (secretary) and Jake Beamer (assistant secretary).

University of Louisville Research Foundation Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer Keith Sherman presented the foundation’s financials for the eight months ending Feb. 28, 2022. Sherman reported that the foundation’s fiscal health remains strong. Total assets of the foundation remain more than $1.1 billion with the main endowment pool’s market value at $864 million. The foundation has recorded more than $74 million in total revenues during the eight-month period, which has exceeded its budget by 15%.

Dan Durbin, ���Ǵڳ�’s executive vice president of finance and chief financial officer, gave a financial update for Fiscal Year 2022 through Feb. 28, 2022. Revenues and expenses were up compared to February 2021. So far, revenues for FY 2022 are $116,510,000 more than expenses with an increase in net position of $30,576,000 compared to February 2021.

UofL Health CEO Tom Miller reported that the health system continues to meet its objectives and is financially sound. Operating revenues are currently at $1.392 billion (14% above the previous year), and net income is $66,902,210 (63.4% above the previous year). Miller also reported that the number of COVID-19 patients decreased from its highest number (262) in January to about 20 patients per day. The decrease has prompted the change in visitation policies to get back to normal operations. Finally, since the UofL tuition remission was extended to UofL Health employees in January, there have been 87 applicants to the program.

“We expect to have as many as 500 team members take advantage of this program,” said Miller. “This benefit differentiates our health systems from others.”

James Begany, vice provost for enrollment management, Carrye Wilkins, associate director of the UofL Resources for Academic Achievement (REACH) program, and UofL student Rawan Saleh presented an overview on the benefits of REACH. The program serves as the university’s centralized academic support unit for undergraduate students. Its goals are to enhance or improve students’ academic performance, help students transition to college life and support the university’s retention of undergraduate students. Saleh, a first-generation immigrant from Jordan, credits the program’s many resources for her ongoing academic success.��

Minutes to the UofL Board of Trustees meetings are available on the .

“Today’s litigation settlement announcement enables the University of Louisville community to move forward and focus on our bright future. With the challenges of the recent past firmly behind us, the university is well positioned for future success,” said Foundation Board Chairman W. Earl Reed III. “The events that caused the litigation served as a wake-up call and ultimately as a catalyst to enact significant governance reforms, implement tighter financial controls and develop a more robust infrastructure. We are grateful to the many individuals who have worked tirelessly to implement these reforms the past few years. Their actions are already yielding positive financial and operational results that will serve the University and Foundation for years to come. The University of Louisville is stronger than ever—a positive outcome for all students, faculty, staff and Cardinal stakeholders.” 

The foundation has achieved its strongest financial position in history since being formed in 1970. As of June 30, 2021, the main endowment was valued at $824 million; total assets are more than $1.3 billion. Both are at the highest level in history. Since December 2016, the foundation’s focus on strategic reforms and engagement with a new investment advisor has led to substantial market returns. Due to these efforts, there are no longer any endowment accounts that are below water.

“We are grateful to President Neeli Bendapudi and the Board of Trustees for the close relationship and their faith that we have truly righted the ship, while ensuring the appropriate checks and balances are intact. We also have simplified our organization by eliminating eight subsidiaries, clearing the way for transparency for our Boards and creating an environment where the boards and campus community can understand our full operations and ask informed questions,” Reed said.

“The university community is pleased to put this issue behind us,” Bendapudi said. “My team and I have been focused on building community, strengthening our financial standing, implementing our strategic plan and ensuring that UofL is a great place to learn, work and invest. For UofL, the best is truly yet to come.”

“The university trustees and UofL Foundation board members felt that it was time to put this chapter behind us,” said Trustees Board Chairwoman Mary Nixon. “This decision indicates our commitment to moving forward, but it should not be understood as representing anything beyond that. I am grateful for the partnership with the foundation leadership and that we all agree the time has come for us to fully focus our collective time and resources on the university’s true mission of student success, groundbreaking research and engaging with the community to make it a better place for all.”

As of April 30, the Foundation’s main endowment pool was valued at almost $785 million, while the value of its total endowment assets (some assets are managed separately) was $897 million. The combined value of ULF endowment assets and those of the UofL Real Estate Foundation was almost $1.3 billion, also a record.

Even more significantly, said foundation Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer Keith Sherman, all endowment accounts are now above water, meaning they are worth more than they were when initially established.

The foundation’s success is vital to the university’s operations. The higher the value of its endowments, the more money it can provide annually to support student scholarships, endowed faculty salaries and support for general operations. In fiscal year 2022, the foundation will provide the university with more than $50 million of support. That amount is expected to increase in future years since accounts that have been brought above water will begin seeing full spending policy distributions in fiscal year 2023. This is because spending policy distributions are calculated based upon each endowment’s value as of the prior December 31.��For example, the spending policy for this July was based upon December 31, 2020 values.

Planning, performance, discipline led to recovery

The recovery has taken several years of reforms, changes in management’s approach, establishment of a more conservative spending policy, rigorous compliance to ensure donor intentions are fulfilled and extraordinary investment performance, Sherman said. In addition, since 2018 ULF infused more than $24 million in cash from the sale of non-strategic assets into the underwater accounts.

“The accomplishments made on behalf of our donors and the university were not simple fixes that could happen overnight,” he said, adding that the foundation is “in its strongest financial position in well over a decade.”

Two of the world’s largest credit agencies, Moody’s Investor Services and S&P Global Ratings, have noticed. Moody’s upgraded the foundation’s credit rating to Baa1 stable, while S&P affirmed its A+ stable rating.�� The agencies cited significant improvement in the foundation’s financial policies, management credibility and fiscal oversight as factors in the strong ratings.

The ratings “continue to prove that the foundation’s strategic plan is working,” said Earl Reed, chairman of the ULF Board of Directors. “We have worked hard to arrive at our current financial position – our strongest financial position in a decade – and these ratings prove that it is being noticed. The steps we have taken to ensure ULF’s fiscal health, compliance and transparency have been remarkable, and we have kept much of our focus on ensuring responsible oversight of funds into the future. We are excited and energized to keep working diligently to move things forward in the right way.”

Lewis answered questions about the incident for about 10 minutes after a staff senator at the meeting in Chao Auditorium texted him that senators were expressing their concerns about public safety on campus.

The chief said the message appeared on all university telephones in the late afternoon because of an IT error and had not originated with ULPD. ULPD was quickly alerted to the problem and, after confirming no threat existed, sent a text message via the RAVE warning system that the telephone message was sent in error.

Lewis said the evacuation message appeared to have originated from a campus telephone and IT was investigating the incident.

He added that ULPD was planning to hold a tabletop exercise with senior leadership to address public safety in an emergency.    

Staff senators were also given an update on the state of the UofL Foundation’s investments by Keith Sherman, the foundation’s executive director and COO. Sherman used a PowerPoint, “Reforms Pave Way for a Sustainable Future,” to show how changes made since 2017 are helping to restore the university’s endowment after years of poor management.

He said the university’s endowment as of Dec. 31, 2019, totaled $637 million. Stricter spending rules have been imposed that will gradually replenish the endowment, he said.

“We don’t overspend,” Sherman said.

Sherman pointed out that the foundation is not responsible for fundraising – that falls to University Advancement – but noted that donors who had stopped honoring pledges are once again making payments. “Donors are getting more comfortable and realizing it really is a new day,” he said.

Staff Senate President John Smith said during his report that the Board of Trustees had approved new bylaws giving the university president veto power over the UofL Athletic Association board. The move will “give us a lot more institutional control,” Smith said.

The Bylaw Revision Committee presented its first reading and received comments.

Christopher Tillquist, anthropology associate professor, reported that Faculty Senate is looking into the issue of free speech on campus. He encouraged staff senators to read the university’s policy on speech and literature distribution, last revised in 2011.

More committee reports are . The next Staff Senate meeting is March 9 on the HSC campus.��

The suit filed in Jefferson Circuit Court claims that during the period from 2008 to 2016, Ramsey and others conspired to divert millions of dollars from the Foundation’s endowment into speculative and unauthorized ventures, putting the Foundation at risk. The suit further charges that these individuals depleted the endowment through complicated – and often unauthorized – transactions designed to avoid scrutiny and circumvent the Foundation’s approved rules and annual budget.

The suit also claims that Ramsey and his chief of staff, Kathleen McDaniel Smith, colluded to pay excessive compensation to themselves and others. It further states that they intentionally concealed the improper expenditures and compensation, and that their actions caused the Foundation to lose millions of dollars.

Also named in the suit are former finance officers Michael Curtin and Jason Tomlinson; former Foundation Chair Burt Deutsch; and law firm Stites & Harbison, which served as the Foundation’s legal counsel.

“Millions of dollars of donations originally intended for the benefit of the University and its students instead were used to pay excessive compensation,” said UofL Trustees Chair David Grissom. “Other funds were directed toward risky and inappropriate investments, and spending regularly exceeded the Foundation’s own policy.”

“We have implemented new controls at the Foundation to insure this never happens again,” said UofL Foundation Chair Earl Reed. “Now it is time to turn this mess over to the lawyers for clean-up, while the rest of us focus on turning a new page at UofL and the start of an exciting chapter of growth and excellence. We owe it to our students, the Cardinal Nation and our generous donors to hold these individuals accountable and to recover as much of the misspent funds as possible.”

Report: Mordean Taylor-Archer, vice provost of diversity and international affairs, provided an overview of the newly-released UofL Diversity Plan, which was created in response to a CPE policy developed in 2016. There are three focus areas in the plan: opportunity, success and impact. The framework was developed for all state-supported colleges.

Opportunity includes enrollment initiatives. Success references retention and graduation, and impact includes a climate of inclusion and workforce numbers.

���Ǵڳ�’s undergraduate student profile right now is 11.1 percent African American, 4.4 percent Hispanic/Latino, and 4.8  percent other (e.g. American Indian, Pacific Islander). These numbers are expected to steadily increase through 2020.

“Kentucky is one of the only states, if not the only state, that must make progress on their diversity plans or they can’t develop new academic programs,” Taylor-Archer said.

She also noted that the report examines not only race and ethnic groups, but also low-income students. Some strategies put into place to meet goals include Living-Learning Communities, summer bridge/early arrival programs, flight plans, and a goal to mandate mid-term grades.

Taylor-Archer asked for the Staff Senate’s help on developing plans for the impact component.

“How do we create a campus climate where everyone feels welcome? We are expected to provide cultural competency training for faculty, staff and students. This is new. How do we best make this happen?” she said.

The Campus Climate Survey results will be released soon and Taylor-Archer said an action plan will be developed shortly thereafter, focusing on the areas that need work.

The entire Diversity Plan is .��

Report: Patty Payette, executive director of the Delphi Center, provided senators with an update on the QEP (Quality Enhancement Plan) program, a required part of the university’s reaffirmation with SACS. The program is aimed at improving student learning environments and a new course will be piloted in the spring semester.

“We have to make sure we are always looking at student data to see where the gaps are and how we can enhance our students’ experience,” Payette said.

Notably, students who drop out tend to do so between their second and third years, so the program is geared toward that demographic specifically.

“The sophomore slump is not uncommon at universities. The newness of being in college is gone and support systems that are there during the first year aren’t there anymore. We are focused on helping these students get the support they need and better understand why they’re here,” Payette said. “We are going to help them navigate where they belong.”

The sessions being piloted in the spring include:

• Gen Z: Who Am I and How Do I Communicate
• Emotional Intelligence: How Do Emotions Shape My Thinking, My Decisions and Everyday Life

The goal is to increase the number of sessions in the QEP program throughout the next five years. The Student Success Center in the new Academic Building, opening in the fall 2018, will provide a home for this program. More information is .��

Report: Keith Sherman, UofL Foundation’s interim executive director/COO, provided an update about the foundation since the state and forensic audits were completed.

“Our sole purpose is to fund scholarships and endowments for faculty and staff. The goal is to do this in perpetuity, but we weren’t doing that,” he said.

The ULF has been under an audit for nearly 900 straight days.

“I assure you there is no granular of sand that hasn’t been looked at and we have a clean bill of health,” Sherman said.

Changes that have been made to clear the investigations and restore donor and stakeholder confidence include:

• New leadership from top to bottom
• Revised bylaws
• A separation of the UofL president and the president of the foundation
• Transparency and compliance with open records requests
• New independent executive
• Specific board resolutions
• Established compliance process to ensure funding to the university is consistent with donor intent
• A more robust conflict of interest policy
• Changed auditors and law firms

In addition to reigning in spending, Sherman added that the foundation is looking at other ways to grow the endowment. This includes an end to the deferred compensation plan, an end to “tax gross up” payments to staff, the development of the first ever line-item budget, a review of all real estate holdings to determine their value, and more.

Sherman said the changes have been noticed and September marked the best month for donations in a year.

“We’re not the same foundation we were a year ago. It’s time to change and be a better partner for the university,” he said.

Sherman’s presentation is .��

Report: Lee Smith, interim COO, provided some updates from his area, including a newly adopted two-factor authentication system that was put into place to make ���Ǵڳ�’s systems more secure. The product, called Duo, will first be used in HR and will eventually expand to other areas.

Employees will need to sign up for a Duo account and then choose how to authorize their identity.

“The university is under attack daily from phishing schemes. The goal is to protect your sensitive information better,” Smith said.

He also provided an update about a committee put into place to add feminine hygiene products to about 25 buildings across all three campuses. The products will be available in the spring and they will be free.

Smith said UofL has received a grant to improve lighting around campus, particularly along the L Trail and under the viaducts. Other safety improvements are underway as well, including more curb cuts for those with disabilities and more and better security cameras around campuses.

There are currently about 560 cameras on campus and more will be added. These efforts, Smith noted, are not cost saving, but rather reinvestment efforts.

Concerns have been raised about pedestrian safety at Cardinal and Brandeis avenues and officers are issuing warnings both to jaywalkers and vehicles turning illegally on red to try and eliminate these risks.

Finally, a capital plan has been submitted to Frankfort to secure money for deferred maintenance work around campus. Smith said more than 50 percent of buildings on the Belknap campus are over 50 years old and many still have their original HVAC systems in place.

Other reports

In other Staff Senate action, a resolution was passed on the Presidential Search. It reads in part:

“That the Executive Committee of the University of Louisville Staff Senate on behalf of the Staff Senate, in accordance with the Redbook, strongly urge the Board of Trustees to adopt a shared-governance model in the search process for a new president to include opportunities for input from a cross-section of the university community, alumni and other stakeholders throughout the search …

… To entail at least that the finalists for the new president position be publicly announced and that open forums be arranged with the university community …”

All of the committee reports are .

Chair Will Armstrong’s report is also .��

There will not be a Staff Senate meeting in January. The Staff Senate will meet for its next regular meeting on Feb. 12, 2:30 p.m.

Sherman, who has been in the role for less than a year, provided an update about the foundation since the state and forensic audits were completed.

“Our problems were simple – the foundation spent more than it made. That is a bad equation for sustainability,” he said. “Our sole purpose is to fund scholarships and endowments for faculty and staff. The goal is to do this in perpetuity, but we weren’t doing that.”

The ULF has been under an audit for nearly 900 straight days.

“I assure you there is no granular of sand that hasn’t been looked at and we have a clean bill of health,” Sherman said.

Changes that have been made to clear the investigations and restore donor and stakeholder confidence include:

• New leadership from top to bottom
• Revised bylaws
• A separation of the UofL president and the president of the foundation
• Transparency and compliance with open records requests
• New independent executive
• Specific board resolutions
• Established compliance process to ensure funding to the university is consistent with donor intent
• A more robust conflict of interest policy
• Changed auditors and law firms

“I know this has been painful for a lot of areas on campus. But if we didn’t reign in our spending, it would have further unintended consequences,” Sherman said. “We are looking at the next 200 years, not the next 24 months.”

In addition to reigning in spending, Sherman added that the foundation is looking at other ways to grow the endowment. This includes an end to the deferred compensation plan, an end to “tax gross up” payments to staff, the development of the first ever line-item budget, a review of all real estate holdings to determine their value, and more.

Sherman said the changes have been noticed and September marked the best month for donations in a year.

“Donors are starting to come back because they see the reforms,” he said.

Sherman’s presentation is .��

Lee Smith, interim COO, provided an update from his area, which includes about 800 employees across campus in facilities management, business services, public safety, IT, performance improvement and business analytics.

When the $48 million budget shortfall was announced, Smith’s area was tasked with saving $20 million in operations and procurement.

As of today, savings of $4.5 million in operations has been identified, and $3.4 million in procurement. These savings have come from energy, software/hardware licensing changes, reduction of off campus leases, improved contract negotiations and more.

“For example, for software, we found that products across campus in aggregate cost more than an enterprise system, so we’re continuing to look at these types of cost reductions,” Smith said.

Smith’s team has identified five goals to achieve across the unit:

1. Optimize resources by maximizing cost efficiencies and strengthening fiscal controls. This means moving some systems online, for example, to save both time and paper.
2. Increase revenue streams. There are three major RFPs underway to help: banking, managed print and wireless services.
3. Improved customer service. More training and surveys will be put into place to achieve this goal.
4. Protecting the university’s infrastructure. IT, for example, launched a new Phishbowl resource to identify phishing scams. This also includes improved disaster recovery capabilities and prioritizing deferred maintenance.
5. Focus on data-driven decision making and, as a result, producing user-friedly reports.

Senate votes to suspend Paralegal program

In other Faculty Senate business, the Academic Programs committee put forth a proposal to suspend the university’s paralegal program, which is an associate’s degree program. The program is housed in the Political Science department, which has been affected by the budget crisis. The Paralegal program is the only associate’s degree program at UofL and it requires American Bar Association accreditation. This accreditation will be lost the program does not have a devoted director, which the department is unable to hire at this time because of the budget.

In consultation with the A&S Dean’s office and the Provost’s office, a 5-year suspension of the program was recommended. This was done to provide more time to see if any other departments want to pick up the paralegal program, such as Law or Criminal Justice. It is rare for this type of program to fall in the Political Science department.

Department Chair Rodger Payne said the impetus behind this proposal is completely driven by budgetary issues. There is a teach out plan that runs for the current students through 2018. The program averages anywhere between 11 and 28 students a year.

Joe Gutmann, who teaches courses in the program, provided a gentle rebuttal on why UofL should keep the paralegal degree. The program began in the 1980s, so UofL has a nearly 40-year investment, and there is strong job growth in this field, especially for women and minorities. The biggest competitor in the city is Sullivan and “their program is thriving,” according to Gutmann.

A motion was brought forward to suspend the program and that motion was passed.

Other reports

The Student Government Association report is . The group suggested that course fee evaluations be placed on syllabi or online so students know where their fees are going.��

Also, the SGA is looking at ways to centralize the advising system so it’s more consistent across campus.

Faculty Senate Chair Enid Trucios-Haynes provided the Chair’s report, noting that the presidential search discussion will continue in the next Board of Trustees meeting later this month. The presidential search process is expected to include listening tours at some point, and Trucios-Haynes said she has been ensured that the senate will be involved in that planning process.

She also released a general statement to some media outlets disagreeing with the lack of transparency involved in the presidential search.

“The concern for me is we are a community, not a business. But we have to let the process move forward and the process of doing this work is important,” she said.

The Provost report from Dale Billingsley is .

The President’s report from Greg Postel is .��

The Redbook committee held a first reading of new bylaws that included “cleaned up” language and clarifications. A second reading and vote will be held during the December meeting.

Additionally, the discussion item on the presidential forum and suggested priorities has been delayed until the December meeting, which is scheduled for Dec. 6, 3-5 p.m., Chao Auditorium.

UofL officials provided the following statements about the audit:

J. David Grissom, Chairman, UofL Board of Trustees

“Today the Board of Trustees received the forensic investigation of the UofL Foundation. That report has now been released to the public. We appreciate the hard work and dedication of Alvarez and Marsal in conducting a thorough investigation of the Foundation.

“We asked for the forensic investigation in order to help uncover any activities that may not have been in the best interest of the Foundation, the University or the many supporters of the University. The report paints a disturbing picture.

“Let me be perfectly clear: The activities highlighted in this forensic investigation happened under previous university leadership and under a previous Foundation board. The new leadership and new board have committed to open and honest action and communication, and we already have taken steps to review our policies and procedures.

“The Board has not yet determined what legal actions, if any, should be taken as a result of the forensic investigation conclusions. However, I would anticipate that the Board, after consulting with counsel, will, within the next couple of weeks, make that determination.

“As the Board of Trustees has just seen this report for the first time and because the forensic investigation speaks for itself, we will refrain from further comment until we have had sufficient time to digest its findings. We will discuss the forensic investigation more fully at our regular Board meeting on June 15.

Greg Postel, MD, President, University of Louisville

“As Mr. Grissom has stated, this audit reflects activity that happened under a previous administration and a previous Foundation board. This report should answer many questions about the past and close the door on a sad chapter in the university’s history.

“As I have said since I took this position in January, I am committed to being transparent and to operating above board. I also am committed — and I think our recent actions confirm this — to returning this university to solid financial footing. The steps we are currently taking will position us well for the future.

“I think it’s important to note that, while this audit and media coverage over the past months has been a distraction, it has not taken away from the outstanding education our students are getting at the University of Louisville. This is a tribute to those students and to the hard-working faculty and staff who have made sure all of us are keeping our focus on the students.

“Our students, faculty and staff are looking forward. I’m asking all our alumni, donors and friends to do the same. Let’s work together to continue our mission to make the University of Louisville the best metropolitan university in the United States.”

A video of these statements is available below: 

The $1.238 billion budget includes $512 million in general funds, which support most of the university’s instructional and operational activities. Those funds come primarily from tuition and fees and from state appropriations. Non-general funds, primarily produced through affiliated corporations such as the UofL Research Foundation, the UofL Athletic Association and the UofL Foundation, will total about $726 million.

The budget addresses four priorities:

• Resolving a structural imbalance in the operating budget. The budget emphasizes efficiency in administrative operations, trimming travel expenses and implementing a hiring “frost” to more closely scrutinize the need to refill vacant positions.
• Keeping college affordable. The budget keeps tuition flat for all students and increases overall financial aid by $1.3 million. It also includes $2.5 million for the Credit for Credits program, in which students who complete at least 30 hours in an academic year receive a $526 credit toward the next year’s tuition. Students in the program will pay less in 2017-18 than they did last year.
• Strategic allocations. Using a $12 million reallocation pool from a 3 percent across-the-board budget cut in the past year, the university will direct funding toward targeted areas including academic quality and student recruitment.
• Establishing a firm financial foundation for future years. The budget includes a revised forecast of revenues and expenses, as well as savings realized through administrative efficiencies and capture of vacant salary lines.

Postel noted that while the budget is tight, it will enable the university to continue moving forward.

Interim CFO Susan Howarth told the board that the university has taken actions to offset a projected $48 million shortfall in 2017-18. Those actions included reducing operational costs by $9 million to $10 million, realizing $10 million in efficiencies and economies of scale in the university’s procurement practices, saving $10 million through the hiring “frost” and using $17 million in one-time funds from the university’s partnership with KentuckyOne Health. The KentuckyOne funds will be replaced through operational efficiencies as a result of the transition of management of University Hospital and the James Graham Brown Cancer Center to University Medical Center.

Also at the meeting, Kentucky Council on Postsecondary ����ֱ�� President Robert King provided an orientation session on board membership. King stressed that trustees’ loyalties must lie with the institution rather than with any particular university leadership. He also weighed in on ���Ǵڳ�’s current SACS probation, stating that he is “confident that all the things you’re doing … will take you off probation.”

In other action, the board approved:

• Creation of an ad hoc committee on tenure and nepotism policy
• Construction of a television production studio. Athletics will fund construction of the $8 million facility, which is required as part of ���Ǵڳ�’s membership in the ACC
• A long-term ground lease and development of the Churchill Park property near the Lynn Soccer Stadium. The property will be used for soccer practice fields.
• A motion to empower Postel to negotiate terms of a revised Yum! Center lease with the Louisville Arena Authority.