Kansas University Chancellor Robert Hemenway on Thursday said that state officials had broken their promise to adequately fund higher education and it was up to KU to persuade the public that the university deserved more.

In the annual faculty-staff convocation, Hemenway said KU had done its job by becoming more efficient and collecting more research dollars. And, he said, students have accepted tuition increases while donors have contributed more money.

It’s the Legislature, however, that has cut KU’s budget by approximately $19 million, or 8 percent, he said.

“The partnership seems to be breaking down,” Hemenway said, noting that the Legislature had failed for two years to fund promised increases in faculty salaries. “To date that promise remains broken.”

Hemenway urged the more than 300 people in attendance to “tell the KU story” by letting the public know about achievements of faculty and students.

KU has made phenomenal progress during hard fiscal times, Hemenway said. “But we can’t do it on a shoestring forever. I refuse to believe that Kansans want a second-rate education.”

Earlier, Lloyd Sponholtz, associate professor of history and president of the Faculty Senate, said the faculty was suffering low morale because of inadequate salary increases.

Last year, the state provided no funds for salary increases, and this year lawmakers approved enough to provide an average 1.5 percent pay raise.

“Uncertainty permeates the campus,” Sponholtz told the group, which has led to increased stress.

¢ 6News video: Chancellor Hemenway calls on state officials to increase university funding¢ Complete text of Hemenway’s convocation remarks

KU’s average salaries are $7,500 below the national average of other schools, KU officials said.

But later Hemenway said that “whining and complaining get us nowhere.”

Hemenway’s remarks received mixed reviews.

One person who attended the meeting but refused to be identified said Hemenway’s comments were full of cliches. The person complained about the $400,000 salary of KU’s new athletic director, Lew Perkins.

But Frank DeSalvo, director of Counseling and Pyschological Services, said the university was trying to do the best it could. “I think people pull together, and they work as well as they can, but still we are struggling with the lack of support the state provides,” DeSalvo said.

Later, Sponholtz said he didn’t believe that the low morale was affecting the quality of work. “It’s more about comments you hear in the hall and grousing around the water cooler. It’s hard to maintain your enthusiasm, but I don’t think anyone is saying ‘I’m going to do the minimum,'” he said.

KU Provost David Shulenburger agreed that salaries needed to be raised and said the administration would continue to lobby the Legislature for funds that were promised earlier. “We will ensure that we keep that promise before them,” he said.

Ray Hummert, of the public administration department, said he agreed with Hemenway that KU needed to better explain how it helped the state.

For example, he said that his wife, Mary Lee Hummert, a professor in the communications department and research associate in KU’s Gerontology Center, had brought in enough research dollars to fund seven doctoral students.

“That in turn brings income to the state. Plus, it keeps students here on the cutting edge of research,” he said. “It’s really important to talk about the successes of the faculty here.”