Kansas University reached a record enrollment of more than 29,000 students this year. Eleven percent were minority students — another record.

But Chancellor Robert Hemenway used most of his speech Friday night at the All-University Supper to quote someone else’s praise for KU.

The American Association for Higher Education surveyed faculty and students at more than 500 institutions about a year and a half ago, Hemenway told the more than 300 alumni and faculty gathered at the annual event. KU fared so well that the association sent a team to Lawrence to investigate for itself.

“Maybe they were going to see if our students were telling the truth,” Hemenway said.

Kansas was among about 20 institutions that received the in-person visit, and one of only two institutions of its size, said Kevin Boatright, associate executive vice chancellor for University Relations.

The group — uncommissioned and unpaid — spent about a week talking to students and faculty and turned out a 30-or-so-page document. The document hasn’t officially been released.

“This is kind of a leak, I guess,” said Janet Murguia, the former executive vice chancellor for university relations who left Kansas in March.

The report was part of Project DEEP, or Documenting Effective Educational Practices, conducted by Indiana University. It studies the level of “student engagement” at universities, which can show the effort students give and the ways the university deploys its resources to encourage the effort. The survey hasn’t been done in the past, Boatright said. But its positive results will help with the university’s book-length self-evaluation that’s due in October for re-accreditation of the university, he said.

Hemenway quoted several pages of the DEEP report, which lauded the university for its culture. The local history, which includes black poet Langston Hughes and abolitionists who survived Quantrill’s Raid, has created a Populist, egalitarian “Midwestern modesty,” Hemenway said. The report praised the university for its 15-to-1 faculty-to-student ratio and its dedication to giving students a voice in issues that affect them. For example, he said, a group of students attended Thursday’s meeting of the Kansas Board of Regents because the students felt responsibility for the third-year tuition increase proposal presented there.

The report also commended the university for its emphasis on undergraduate teaching, with all of its higher-level administrators teaching at least one class — including Hemenway himself.

KU schedules ceremonies for graduating students Chancellor Hemenway’s remarks at the All-University Supper

“I have to admit, when I first started reading this report, I thought, ‘Did (Provost David) Shulenburger write this?'” Hemenway said.

After all the revelry, though, Hemenway cautioned the audience.

“On a day which has demonstrated to us how high we can fly as a university, we can do better,” he said.

Salary increases in the past three years have been less than 2 percent, he said. Faculty and students alike must elect a pro-education Legislature to get the faculty a raise, he said.