The recent reorganization of Kansas University’s external affairs staff seems to indicate that KU leaders still are struggling with how best to spread a positive image for the university across the state.

The central change by KU administrators was to eliminate the job of executive vice chancellor for external affairs. The duties of that job will be split between two current KU employees. Lynn Bretz, KU’s longtime director of university relations, will become the director of university communications and assume responsibility for university relations, special events, marketing, Kansas Public Radio and the Kansas Audio Reader Network. Keith Yehle, KU director of government relations, now will head the government affairs team and report directly to the chancellor.

Paul Carttar, who had served as executive vice chancellor for external affairs since 2004, will become a special assistant to the chancellor. Although Carttar will continue to draw his $202,000 salary, the new job is a maximum one-year appointment designed presumably to give him time to find another job.

Carttar succeeded Janet Murguia, who was the university’s first executive vice chancellor for external affairs. Murguia held the job for about 2 1/2 years before leaving in early 2004 to become executive director of the National Council of La Raza, a national Hispanic advocacy organization. Carttar was in the position for about a year and a half. Although both could point to certain accomplishments during their relatively short tenures, they both also faced criticism often focused on the position’s salary and whether the university and the state were getting their money’s worth.

Creating the position of executive vice chancellor for external affairs probably was intended to show that the chancellor placed a high priority on telling the university’s story, but it also created a big target for criticism. Moving external affairs duties to employees with lower profiles may actually serve the university better.

The changes also seem to indicate that the chancellor and/or other university officials weren’t entirely satisfied with KU’s external affairs efforts. KU continues to meet with animosity among many state legislators and still is plagued across the state by a reputation for being too liberal or too elite.

Yehle came to KU about a year ago from Washington, D.C., where he has served as legislative director for U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts. His experience should be useful to KU’s federal lobbying efforts, but it remains to be seen how effective the Overland Park native will be on the state level.

With or without an executive vice chancellor, KU is right to put high priority on improving its image, particularly across the state. For whatever reason, it has been a continuing challenge in recent years to battle a negative perception of KU among many state legislators and many Kansans.

Although the state’s financial support to its state universities has declined in recent years, KU still is a state school that depends on both the philosophical and financial backing of legislators and taxpayers. Over the long haul, the ability to build loyalty and support for the university among these groups will be a key factor in KU’s continued success.