Don’t expect Robert Hemenway to retire when he hits age 65.

As he starts his 10th year as chancellor of Kansas University, the 63-year-old Hemenway says he’s still going as strong as ever.

“When I came to Kansas, I was really filled with a lot of optimism with the possibilities here,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve lost that at all.”

Hemenway, who started at KU in July 1995 after serving as chancellor at the University of Kentucky, already has served longer than 10 of KU’s 15 previous chancellors.

Hemenway manages four campuses with more than 29,000 students, 12,000 faculty and staff members and a combined budget of more than $770 million. But he said the breadth of his job hadn’t worn him down, and he wants to continue toward his goal of making KU a top-25 public research university.

“God gave me a pretty strong constitution,” he said. “People have accused me of having too much energy sometimes. To be honest about it, what inspires and keeps me going is the privilege and the responsibility of leading such a great university.

“I know that sounds hokey.”

‘Tough job’

The daily grind of being a chancellor can start early in the morning and last well into the night. It’s a position that often has Hemenway at a Rotary breakfast and an alumni reception in a different state, all in the same day.

And there are the frequent commutes between Lawrence and the Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan.

“He does it from early morning to late at night, and he tends to do it seven days a week,” said David Shulenburger, provost and executive vice chancellor. “It’s a very, very tough job — an extremely tough job — especially as politically attenuated as Kansas is. You have to work with people of all persuasions.”

Chancellor Robert Hemenway joins a group of Kansas University graduates for a photo at commencement. Hemenway, entering his 10th year at the university, has served longer than 10 of KU's 15 previous chancellors.

Hemenway remains philosophical when discussing the strains of his job. He said he especially enjoyed meeting with alumni to hear what the university meant to them.

“That’s a tremendous story,” he said. “You talk to KU alumni, and they’ll tell you that story over and over and over again. That can’t do anything but make you proud to be in charge of an organization responsible for changing people’s lives and give them ingredients for success. That sustains you physically as well as intellectually.”

After an out-of-town newspaper column in April 2002 said Hemenway was a candidate to be chancellor at the University of Indiana, he denied wanting another job and declared in a Journal-World story: “I’m a Jayhawk for life.” How long he’ll remain in the position, however, is unclear.

“I have no plans to retire,” he said. “One thing about my job is people will always let you know if you should retire. As long as I can continue to be effective, I’ll look forward to what the next challenge is for the chancellor. By the time you’re 70, I think you begin to wonder, ‘Are there not younger people that should take over?'”

Emotional businessman

Shulenburger, who has been at KU since 1974, said Hemenway’s background as an English professor might lead many to assume he’s an emotion-driven person.

Hemenway, right, visits with Kansas State University President Jon Wefald, left, and former KU Chancellor Gene Budig in 1997.

“What you don’t expect is a good, rational business approach,” Shulenburger said. “He pays attention to the rational argument. He likes to hear cases for action presented well to him. But he’s also an emotion-driven person.”

Shulenburger remembers being in a car with Hemenway early in his tenure, and seeing paramedics tending to a student who had been hit by a car near Murphy Hall. After talking to emergency officials, Hemenway learned several other students had been hit there.

“We had a staff meeting later and he said, ‘I want a stop sign there by noon,'” Shulenburger said. “And there was a stop sign there by noon.”

Accomplishments

Shulenburger said he thought Hemenway’s greatest accomplishments were creating the KU Center for Research and helping convince the state to switch to a “tuition ownership” model when budgeting.

The Center for Research has allowed KU’s research enterprises to re-invest overhead money from grants into research facilities, instead of having that money go to the university’s general fund. The change has allowed that money to be carried over year to year, and has led to building projects such as the Structural Biology Center and the planned new west campus research buildings.

The tuition ownership model allows universities to keep the money students pay, instead of having that money go to the state general fund. Universities now benefit from their enrollment growth and tuition rate increases.

Exercise therapist James LeCheminant, left, works with Hemenway on the treadmill. Hemenway participated in a special weight-loss program at the Energy Balance Lab in 2002.

“Those two changes were monumental in the history of the university,” Shulenburger said. “The university is a better place than it was 10 years ago.”

Del Shankel, who has been at KU 45 years and served two stints as interim chancellor, agreed. But he said funding challenges had made improving the university difficult.

“I think a major change at the university is one (Hemenway) was forced into making, and that’s the major tuition increases students are now receiving the benefits of,” Shankel said. “Because of the state’s inability or unwillingness to fund higher education properly, it’s been difficult to maintain the quality of the university we’ve come to expect.”

New goals

Hemenway lists an increase in research, a better grade-point average among freshmen and an increase in minority student numbers among his accomplishments. But he also lists those areas among his key goals for improvement.

Hemenway has spearheaded a large increase in tuition rates at KU, but he said improvement in all areas will require success in reaching a more fundamental goal: increasing state funding.

“I’m pretty optimistic about the future,” he said. “I think the Kansas economy is coming back.”

A goal during the 2005 legislative session will be to increase the amount of property tax revenue available for maintaining campus buildings. A regents survey in 2002 showed there was $670 million in deferred maintenance projects at state universities.

“I’m very concerned about our deferred maintenance problem,” Hemenway said. “Everybody who owns a house can relate to the idea that if you don’t fix a step or your plumbing, the quality of the house will deteriorate and the value will begin to decline. That’s what’s been happening in Kansas.”

He also wants to help promote the life science industry in Kansas.

“Nine years ago, I don’t think we would have envisioned such a large role in life sciences,” Hemenway said. “That’s certainly something we’ve put a lot of emphasis on, and it’s paying off.”

Athletics priorities

Hemenway also is working to help Jayhawk athletics enter a new world of big business.

New KU Athletic Director Lew Perkins hoists Hemenway's arm when Perkins was asked the major reasons he took the job in 2003.

When he hired Lew Perkins as athletic director in 2003, he sent a clear message of that. Perkins’ fund-raising activities and hiring in the past year have served to bolster the idea that Hemenway wants a big-time athletics program.

Hemenway also has been prominent in the national athletics scene, leading the NCAA Division I board of directors. His term runs through mid-2005.

“Just think about it,” Hemenway said. “Last spring, we had the judiciary committee of the United States Senate talking about hearings on how to conduct football playoffs at universities. If ever there is proof positive of the influences of athletics, that’s it.”

Though challenges remain, Hemenway said he would continue working to, as he frequently says, “tell the KU story.”

“The bottom line is it’s not an effort,” he said. “I don’t get tired of selling the University of Kansas. It has this collective achievement that is so powerful.”