Chancellor Robert Hemenway said the Kansas University 2001-2002 academic year had been all about priorities.

The budget cuts that followed this year’s legislative session forced administrators to make tough choices about program funding. And the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks reminded everyone about their reasons for being at the university.

Kansas University Chancellor Robert Hemenway pumps his fist in May to the class of 2002 at Memorial Stadium.

“I think you saw students grow up overnight,” Hemenway said of the attacks. “College is sometimes thought to be a carefree place. The attacks reminded us that life is not a carefree matter. As a university, it focused our responsibility to inform a global society that doesn’t understand itself fully. It gave us a general seriousness of purpose for students and faculty.”

Despite the challenging year, Hemenway said KU was continuing toward his often-touted goal of being a top-25 research university. He cites increasing research earnings, a growing freshman class with better academic credentials and the number of campus construction projects to support his claim.

“We ought to be improving the university every year,” he said, “so the degree you got this year is worth even more five years from now because of the success the university is having.”

Budget woes

KU’s is undergoing an unprecedented tug-of-war on its budget.

At one end, the university had a $7.1 million shortfall in its funding from the state this year, leading to cuts in staff and elimination of several programs.

At the other, KU is increasing funding from other sources. Tuition for students will increase 25.2 percent this fall, and the KU Endowment Association is in the middle of its $500 million “KU First: Invest in Excellence” campaign that runs through 2004. About $340 million has been raised so far.

And research funds earned by professors continue to increase, up 16 percent during the 2001 fiscal year to $224 million.

Ironically, the KU First campaign was publicly announced just four days before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, which are widely blamed for the state’s economic slowdown.

“When the history of the university is written, the KU First campaign will be seen as an important part of the university’s growth in excellence,” Hemenway said. “Just as pivotal was that the 2001-2002 school year was a time of serious economic entrenchment for the state and the country.

“That presents a new series of threats. I have confidence we’ll find a way out, using the creativity and diligence of the university and the commitment to education in the state of Kansas.”

The first step toward that commitment could come this November at the ballot box, Hemenway said.

“That’ll be a question we ask many of those running for office ‘Do you support education?'” he said.

Hemenway said tuition increases were necessary to reach his goal of becoming a top-25 university. But he said maintaining a diverse student body also was part of that goal.

“We’re going to do everything within our power to maintain the student profile at the University of Kansas and improve upon it making it more accessible to low-income people and promoting a diverse student body. You can’t be a top-25 university without having a diverse student body. You’ve got to embrace people of all cultures and colors.”

Research focus

Hemenway has heard the criticism about KU’s focus on research. Some students have complained that the research will take away from classroom teaching.

But the chancellor remains confident better researchers make for better teachers.

“If that person teaching the class is creating new knowledge for that field, you’re having an opportunity to be taught by a world expert in that field,” he said. “There’s a real benefit a true scholar brings to the classroom. Students see that readily when they get in the work world, whether they had a faculty member who writes the textbooks or reads the textbooks.”

Hemenway said research would play a major role in the university’s interaction with the state by creating jobs and improving the quality of life for Kansans.

“Progress in society will be more dependent on what happens at the university,” he said. “We’re not isolated.”

‘Continuing education’

Hemenway, 60, has been at the helm of the state’s largest university since 1995.

He’s almost always at his Strong Hall office by 7 a.m., carrying a typed schedule in his shirt pocket. The schedule is generally packed with meetings with Endowment Association officials and administrators and trips to the KU Medical Center. The meetings often last until evening.

Hemenway will have some additional responsibilities the next three years as he serves as chairman of the NCAA Division I board of directors. He also will be on the five-member committee working to hire a new NCAA president.

He said he always answered his e-mail before he went to bed even if it’s in the wee hours of the morning. He also enjoys reading mystery novels, surfing the Internet and reading four or five newspapers a day.

Hemenway said he enjoyed many of the amenities of living in Lawrence such as the Farmers Market, Lied Center programming and KU’s picturesque campus and said those amenities kept many faculty members at KU who might otherwise leave for other universities.

And Hemenway said he loved his job.

“I like to be around bright, creative people every day,” he said. “I like to be around the youth and idealism in our students. I’m thrilled by the free continuing education course I get every day because I get a chance to interact with these people. I learn so much every day.”