Enterprise Services Partnership

The university — including UK HealthCare, UK St. Claire and UK King’s Daughters — continues to grow to serve more students, patients and communities across Kentucky. At the same time, higher education and health care are facing new pressures and operational changes. As a result, nearly 20 administrative areas across academic, athletics and clinical areas are currently undergoing changes to strengthen coordination, consistency and quality of service delivery. 

Alongside those efforts, the university is evaluating how certain support services are provided across all locations as well — from the academic campus in Lexington to UK St. Claire in Morehead and UK King’s Daughters in Ashland.  

There is a critical inflection point in the coming year – as key contracts with third parties expire, and new facilities are in various stages of development — to unify staff and systems from these services.  

Services being reviewed and considered for possible inclusion in the Enterprise Services Partnership include grounds, maintenance, custodial services, dining and food services, in-patient transport and in-patient sitting services.

These services operate across multiple locations, including the academic campus in Lexington and UK St. Claire in Morehead and UK King’s Daughters in Ashland. 

This initiative to enhance how we provide key services is not about reducing staff.

Employees will continue to have a job with the university, which includes UK St. Claire and UK King's Daughters.

There will be no reductions in pay or benefits. 

Employees will not need to relocate.

For some employees, there could be optional growth opportunities with the partner organization that are not available within our current model.

The goal is to enhance how we provide key services with improved coordination, securing the resources needed for continued growth and supporting staff with consistent systems, tools and standards. 

The university is exploring working with an external company to help design, implement and manage a coordinated, enterprise-wide service model. We have successfully worked with external partners in the past — called Public-Private Partnerships or P-3s — to do more and be more for our community and the Commonwealth. 

Proof of the power of partnership is evident in the physical transformation of our campus: new residence halls, dining facilities, academic and student life spaces, and modern research laboratories — as well as our Smart Campus Initiative — were made possible through partnership.

For an Enterprise Services Partnership, we will soon issue a Request for Proposals (RFP) for potential partners to submit proposals. Many of the details will be determined during this process.

No. No final decisions have been made. The RFP process will inform whether to move forward with a partnership and, if so, with whom.

Already, we work with several partners to deliver certain services, differing by location and service. Current partners are aware of this initiative and will have the opportunity to submit proposals during the RFP process.

In considering how best to proceed, we will include several requirements that will — and must be — part of any partnership we enter into, should we decide to move forward. One of which will be that we will retain employees providing these services as university employees — including UK St. Claire and UK King’s Daughters — with no reductions in pay or benefits. A partner would reimburse UK for the payroll and benefits costs for the UK employees that perform these services as part of the partnership. Additionally, we will support employment opportunities for students, where possible. 

An RFP will likely be released in December with the goal of a final decision on a partnership — whether to embark on a partnership and with whom — in the summer of 2026.  

If we move forward with a partnership, we will implement a new service model thereafter and keep employees informed along the way.  

We will continue to provide updates to employees as we move through this process. 

Employees included in this initiative have been informed and have also been invited to Town Halls to receive more information and have their questions answered. 

This website will stay updated with the latest information and employees can also email servicepartnership@uky.edu with questions. 

To build a stronger, more consistent and coordinated enterprise-wide service model — with more resources — that supports the university’s mission to advance Kentucky and meet the needs of a growing and evolving campus and health system.

In partnership with an external company that would bring more resources to the table, we can create a lasting structure that can improve on the already great work done and, in the future, operate even more effectively and efficiently to meet this moment.