The lack of support in recent years from the Kansas Legislature hasn’t given Kansas University faculty members much reason to stay on Mount Oread.

A couple of news items in Tuesday’s Journal-World should catch the attention and perhaps raise the concern of people who care about the future of Kansas University or just about any other public university in the United States.

On page 1B was an announcement that Fine Arts Dean Toni-Marie Montgomery will leave KU in July to take over as dean of the School of Music at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. It was a wonderful and relatively rare opportunity, she said, but that wasn’t the only deciding factor. “I’m not going to deny our budget situation had something to do with it,” she added.

Turning to page 3B, readers saw an announcement that KU Pharmacy Dean Jack Fincham is on the short list of candidates to become the provost at the University of Louisiana-Monroe. Fincham said he wasn’t actively pursuing other jobs but thought the Louisiana job was something he should look into.

Fincham didn’t specifically mention KU’s financial situation, but many years of lackluster raises and state support for the university easily could have been a factor in his decision to “take a look” at another job opportunity.

It’s not unusual for deans and other university faculty members to come and go from time to time, but the current funding situation in Kansas Ãi¿½” and many other state universities Ãi¿½” may be raising some red flags in terms of faculty retention. KU has been concerned for some time that its faculty salaries were falling further behind salaries paid by its peers.

KU has benefited for many years from extraordinarily loyal long-time faculty members who chose to stay in Lawrence despite being offered attractive jobs elsewhere. Many of those faculty members are reaching retirement age and are being replaced by teachers who may be more dedicated to their own careers than to KU.

The best of those teachers will receive the most offers from other universities. What’s to keep them at KU? Faculty members received no salary increases this year, and the prospects of the state ever making good on the faculty salary commitments made in the Higher Education Coordination Act seem dim. Tight funding also has an effect on support services that help teachers with classes and research.

Going into the next session of the Kansas Legislature, state university funding probably will take a back seat to what many Kansans see as more urgent needs to help K-12 schools or provide important social services. State lawmakers also realize K-12 schools touch more voters than higher education and, consequently, they will pay more attention to where more votes are rather where the most pressing financial need is. It doesn’t paint a positive picture for a faculty member trying to decide whether to stay at KU.

Greener pastures may be hard to find, especially at another public universities. KU certainly isn’t the only publicly-aided university facing financial challenges. But people who believe in the role public universities play in America should be concerned. Kansans are proud of the high-quality education public universities provide to our young people, but unless the state starts placing a higher priority on supporting those schools, that quality could easily fall behind. The growing willingness of KU deans and other top faculty members to look elsewhere to further their careers is not a hopeful sign.