Kansas University Chancellor Robert Hemenway leaves today for an eight-day trip to Asia for fund-raising and other events.

Hemenway will be accompanied by Jeff Weinberg, assistant to the chancellor; Diana Carlin, dean of the Graduate School and international programs; and Dale Slusser, director of corporate and foundation support for the KU Endowment Association. Private funds are paying for the trip.

Hemenway on Friday will be the guest of honor at a dinner for KU alumni, donors and students at the Tokyo home of U.S. Ambassador Howard Baker and former U.S. Sen Nancy Kassebaum Baker.

The chancellor then will head to Seoul, South Korea, for a series of events and meetings, including a lecture in Chungnam Province on U.S. public universities and their relationship to state government; a meeting with the president of the Korea University of Technology and Education to sign a faculty and student exchange agreement; a reception hosted by members of the KU Korean Alumni Assn. to celebrate the KU First capital campaign; a visit with Hak Soon Chang to thank him for $100,000 donated earlier this year to KU; a visit with Jong Woo Han and Y.B. Min, who helped raise funds for the KU Korean War Memorial; and discussion with the president of Sunggyunkwan University about an exchange agreement signed last year.