? As many as 70 percent of Kansas University’s 13,751 employees will be furloughed after Saturday night if state lawmakers fail to pass a balanced budget before then, KU officials said Wednesday.

“KU employees will be notified by Human Resources or by their supervisors or unit heads no later than noon on Friday about whether they would be furloughed,” KU Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little said in an email to employees Wednesday.

The potential for furloughs is the result of a stalemate at the Kansas Legislature, where lawmakers have so far failed to pass a budget, or a tax plan to fund it, for the fiscal year that begins July 1.

The furloughs could happen next week because Sunday is the start of a two-week pay period, the checks for which would be issued after July 1.

That means any employee who is considered “nonessential to core functions and limited continuity of operations” will be furloughed as of Sunday.

“I want to emphasize that use of the terms ‘essential’ and ‘nonessential’ for these purposes has nothing to do with the value of an employee or position to the university,” Gray-Little said. “These decisions are made for the simple purpose of keeping minimum necessary services and functions in operation.”

Tim Caboni, KU’s vice chancellor of public affairs, said university officials are still working to determine which employees will be considered nonessential, but he said it would be about 70 percent of the workforce, or around 9,626 people at both the Lawrence campus and the medical center campus in Kansas City, Kan.

One of the factors complicating the selection process, he said, is that a number of faculty members are working on federally funded research grants, which typically require matching funds from the university. Furloughing those employees could jeopardize their federal grants, he said.

Another complication is the fact that the summer semester has already begun for the law school, and summer classes for other schools begin next week. Caboni said the current plan calls for teaching faculty to be classified as essential on the days they teach classes, but they may have to take “furlough days” on days when they do not teach.

Other universities in Kansas issued similar advisories to their staffs this week, including Emporia State University, where interim president Jackie Vietti said the university was awaiting instructions from the Kansas Department of Administration.

“We have been notified by the Department of Administration that instructions for Regents’ universities will be sent to leadership staff from the Board of Regents,” Vietti said in an email to ESU employees Tuesday. “Please be assured we will share with you emerging pertinent information just as soon as we receive it.”

Of all the communities in Kansas, Lawrence would be the hardest hit by a mass furlough because KU employs nearly one-third of all state workers.

There are currently about 35,000 people in the state workforce. Of those, 10,025 work at the KU campus in Lawrence. Another 3,726 work at the medical center in Kansas City.

A large number of people in Lawrence also work for other state agencies in Lawrence and Topeka.