It wasn’t what Janet Murguia had hoped.

Hired a year ago, Murguia was hired to improve Kansas University’s image. Instead, she spent much of her time helping the university keep its head above water during a rough budget year.

And she did that while watching her father battle a heart condition, then die in December.

“Looking back on the year, it’s bittersweet, both professionally and personally,” she said. “It’s been challenging, but it’s great to be back here in Kansas.”

Murguia left humble beginnings in Kansas City, Kan., to become a high-ranking official in President Bill Clinton’s administration and Al Gore’s presidential campaign.

She returned last July 1 to Kansas, when KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway hired her as the university’s first executive vice chancellor for university relations.

She oversees university relations, governmental relations, trademark licensing, the KU Visitor Center and Kansas Public Radio.

But with state budget cuts threatening many university programs last legislative session, the governmental relations portion of her job clearly took the majority of her time during her first year.

“It became an immediate focus for me when I started,” she said. “It ended up taking a lot of my time. I think it was time well invested.”

Murguia said the basics of working with the Legislature were the same as working with Congress  “you have to make a strong case, and you have to do so in a bipartisan way if you’re going to be effective.”

But she said the split in the Kansas Republican Party makes for much different dynamics in the Statehouse.

“There’s a pretty hard line between the conservatives and the moderates,” she said. “Here, you’re almost dealing with three parties.”

One voice

Murguia credited this year’s university budget, which required fewer cuts than some proposals during the session, to cooperation among the six state universities.

“When I got here, I’d heard rumblings that KU hadn’t been working well with the regents institutions,” Murguia said. “I felt like we worked well together and created a unified front for higher education.”

She cited three events when she felt they really came together  the Legislative Research Day, when legislators boarded buses for presentations on regents research facilities at Kansas State University; an event at Silver Lake Elementary School, where university mascots and leaders visited with school children to promote education funding; and a media event in Wichita with the Kansas Chamber of Commerce and Industry, in which business leaders pushed for increased taxes for education funding.

Dick Carter, director of external relations for the Kansas Board of Regents, said Murguia was an important part of that unified front for higher education.

“Any time you’re thought of as competing for the same piece of the pie, no one can come out a winner,” he said. “If everyone is committed to growing that piece of the pie  if everyone is sending the same message  they’ll see higher education in the same light. If you’re saying the same things over time, people remember that.”

Public connection

Murguia said she wished she had more time for interacting with the public. She often talks about the need to “tell the KU story” to more people.

She’s given dozens of speeches in the past year  to such diverse groups as Girls State, Rotary clubs and a leadership conference for Hispanic women.

She also toured central and western Kansas with Athletics Director Al Bohl.

“I think it’s important to have someone in addition to the chancellor sending a positive message about KU,” she said. “He can’t do it all. In some respects, I’m carrying the banner for the university.”

Hemenway gives Murguia high marks during her first year.

“I’ve been very pleased with the impact Janet and University Relations have had on the university,” he said. “We’re doing a much better job of speaking with one voice since Janet has come on board. I think we’ve been effective with the Legislature and state government. She’s doing a good job of getting KU’s story out in the state.”

He said now more than ever public sentiment and Legislative support are intertwined.

“People expect us to be doing positive things,” he said. “If we’re not telling people about what we do, some people find out about those things, and others don’t.”

Carter also praised Murguia’s work.

“I think Janet has started out with some big challenges to overcome,” he said. “I think she’s made a significant impact at KU in a short time and has laid the groundwork for future success.”

Centralized communication

One of Murguia’s goals in the upcoming year is making university public relations and marketing workers  who she dubbed “KU communicators”  more centralized. Now, many schools and departments have their own communications departments.

She said there is a need to share information, including with the KU Alumni Association and Endowment Association.

“That doesn’t happen here a lot,” she said. “A lot of people just go off on their own. This is a very decentralized operation by its very nature.”

She said working together creates common themes and could help the bottom line, if departments go together to purchase advertising packages.”It’s important to leverage resources,” she said. “It helps us to coordinate overall efforts and themes.”

As part of that effort, University Relations will begin organizing special events such as the Wheat State Whirlwind tour, Homecoming, the state fair and football Band Day.

Murguia, who is paid $195,000 per year, hired an associate executive vice chancellor last winter. Kevin Boatright, a former vice president for communications at the University of Wisconsin system, makes $82,000 per year.

Murguia’s office also has a secretary and an administrative assistant. She said she thought the public relations effort could require more staff.

“But the budget dictates that,” she said. “I’ve been given a large task.”