An update on the FY 2027 Budget Transformation framework

Dear colleagues,

As the spring 2026 semester comes to a close, we have officially reached one of the most critical junctures in our Budget Transformation journey to date: implementing the FY 2027 framework, the result of months of rigorous planning, extraordinary collaboration and thoughtful discussion.

Budget transformation background and core financial objectives

In February, President Linton outlined a Budget Transformation vision, informed by the efforts of five working groups over the fall 2025 semester.

From there, the institution stood up our current budget governance committees:

• The Executive Budget Committee, or EBC: The team responsible for final decision-making around our Budget Transformation framework.
• The Advisory Budget Committee, or ABC: The body responsible for developing, testing and refining budget framework recommendations for EBC approval.
  • ABC subcommittees were also launched to develop mechanisms supporting individual budget levers and to create underlying implementation frameworks.

The efforts of the budget governance committees were rooted in the institution's defined core financial objectives, while also considering factors applying budgetary pressures to the university. Taken together, these help articulate the "why" underpinning the Budget Transformation Initiative.

As charged, the committees have adhered to an ambitious timeline during spring 2026, also ensuring 2026 legislative actions were considered in their efforts.

As your Advisory Budget Committee co-chairs, we have been committed to communicating progress regularly through a variety of means, including the 2026 Winter Open Forum and 2026 Spring Open Forum, along with regular engagement with Faculty Senate, the Student Governing Association, President's Cabinet, academic deans and department heads, and the Academic Leadership Council via First Tuesday Roundtables and more.

With the ABC advancing numerous recommendations to the EBC over the last several weeks, we are now ready to share the full suite of final EBC decisions used to inform FY 2027 budgetary allocations.

FY 2027 Budget Transformation implementation

For FY 2027, the EBC has approved high-level implementation mechanics for a combination of six key budgetary actions and practices that serve as the foundation of a new budget framework. Taken together, these budgetary actions and practices support the institution's overarching core financial objectives through new budgetary strategies and reallocations to produce the following FY 2027 benefits:

• One-time performance bonuses to be applied in fall 2026 based on calendar year 2025 performance evaluations.
• Phase I of the Compensation Study Implementation, below-market adjustments by Nov./Dec. 2026.
• Establishing centralized investment in start-up packages and ongoing research infrastructure investment, including core facilities.
• Supporting enrollment management efforts, student success and scholarships — including student athlete scholarships — through tuition revenue growth.
• Addressing and investing in our technological infrastructure — namely, reserving funding to address our Enterprise Resource Planning, or ERP, systems (i.e. HRIS, KSIS, FIS).
• Continuing to address our facilities and deferred maintenance needs.

We encourage you to review the FY 2027 budgetary framework available online (K-State eID/password required), which details the high-level mechanics designed and recommended by the Advisory Budget Committee and ultimately approved by the Executive Budget Committee.

What's next

On Friday, May 15, the university's vice presidents and deans received their FY 2027 allocation notices, which included the details of the FY 2027 budget framework linked above. From here, these leaders and their budget fiscal officers will operationalize the institutional FY 2027 Budget Transformation framework within their major unit allocations, ultimately reaching across all units.

The Budget Transformation Initiative has proven to be an exercise in courage for our community. It has required us to face budgetary pressures head-on, to listen to each other and gather critical input, to dialogue in new ways together, and to trust our governance committees to create a new framework built for the realities of both today and tomorrow.

We want to acknowledge that courage will continue to be necessary at the college and major-unit levels as these leaders move forward with implementation. This is not easy work — but it is forward-focused and aligned to our institutional goals as a Next-Gen land-grant university.

As we've always shared, the Budget Transformation work is not a "set it and forget it" endeavor. The budget governance committees will continue to design and build out the mechanics that inform additional non-allocation-dependent budget levers, and both the ABC and EBC will review how FY 2027 progresses in real time to ensure the budget framework is doing what it is intended to do.

If it is not, we will adapt. That's exactly what building a flexible budget framework should allow us to do.

We want to take a moment to thank all members of the EBC, ABC and ABC sub-committees. Additionally, we must thank our University Budget Office and the budget fiscal officers across the institution who operationalize our budgets each year.

And finally, thank you to all who have participated in discussions and conversations with us over this past semester. Your input has been important to us — and it will continue to be as we move forward together.

Go 'Cats!

Jesse Perez Mendez
Provost and executive vice president

Ethan Erickson
Vice president for administration and finance