KU Remembers Ola Faucher, HR Director Emeritus

The Human Resource Management team and the KU community are saddened by the passing of HR Director Emeritus Ola Faucher on March 28, 2024. Ola, who retired in 2019 after 47 years at KU, was a valued colleague and friend to KU employees across the university. Our heartfelt condolences go to her family, her friends, and the thousands of people she positively impacted throughout her life.

A lifelong Jayhawk, Ola advocated for students, faculty and staff throughout her more than four decades on campus. She helped establish the Rosalie Lanier Gray KU Staff Assistance Fund, which provides emergency assistance to staff members who are struggling financially due to a natural or personal disaster. In addition, she helped create the Watkins Hall Alumnae Scholarship (she was an alumna of Watkins Scholarship Hall). Along with student organizers and campus partners, Ola helped establish gender-neutral bathrooms on campus and lead the implementation of Tobacco Free KU to create a more healthy campus environment for students, faculty, staff and visitors. Ola often spoke about KU’s spirit of collaboration as our greatest strength, and how much she loved connecting with the KU community. In return, her friends and colleagues in HR and across campus appreciated Ola’s ability to make each person feel heard and valued.

Ola earned bachelor’s degrees in English and French and a master’s in public administration at KU. She began her career in 1972 in the KU Libraries, and in 1976 she moved to what was then called Central Personnel Services. She held positions of increasing responsibility within human resources for the next 22 years and was promoted to HR Director in 1998.

As director, she led significant change within Human Resource Management (HRM). She played a key role in transitioning KU away from the state civil service classified system, providing the university greater flexibility to improve pay and working conditions and remove barriers in managing job titles. In 2009, Ola sponsored the modification of the university’s Nondiscrimination Policy to include gender identity and gender expression as recommended by the Student Senate. And, she led KU’s first-ever job classification and market study to develop an equitable, consistent and competitive classification and compensation plan to ensure internal equity between positions and achieve competitive pay for each position relative to the job market.

Ola also was a leader in the effort to implement technology and move HR systems from paper and manual processes. She oversaw the implementation of the first online State of Kansas and KU HR computer systems in the 1980s, and the network-based PeopleSoft/Oracle HR computer system for all KU campuses in 1995. When the KU PeopleSoft/Oracle system was launched, Ola was assigned employee ID number 2 (former KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway was assigned employee ID number 1).

Ola helped create KU recognition programs, including the Chancellor’s Holiday Reception and the annual Employee Recognition program. In 2018, she was recognized as an Employee of the Year for her long tenure and contributions to the university. Ola’s legacy of service to KU will continue through the many faculty and staff who knew her, and directly through her son Andre and her son-in-law Jeremy DeBoard who are current KU staff members.

Memorial contributions in honor of Ola can be made online to KU Endowment for the benefit of the “School of Public Affairs & Administration Scholarship (07859)” and “Ola Faucher” as the person who is being memorialized.  Alternately, checks made payable to “KU Endowment” can be sent to KU Endowment Memorials, P.O. Box 928, Lawrence, KS 66044.

An obituary is posted on the Warren-McElwain website.