Manhattan ? Kansas State University’s cost for preparing the campus for a visit from President Bush is still being tabulated, but it’s running well ahead of earlier estimates.

Charles Reagan, chairman of the university’s Landon Lecture series, said Thursday that the total cost will likely be about $65,000. Before the presidential visit in January, Kansas State President Jon Wefald had said the university’s cost might be as low as $20,000, while Reagan’s estimate was in the $30,000 range.

But the university ended up spending $36,000 alone just for a contractor to outfit Bramlage Coliseum with a stage, lighting and custom-built backdrop to meet White House specifications.

Labor costs for parking, preparation and cleanup of the arena are expected to be about $10,000.

Reagan said the attention Kansas State received from Bush’s appearance was worth the cost, noting that a question about whether Bush had seen “Brokeback Mountain,” a movie about cowboys who fall in love in the 1960s, kept the visit in the public eye longer than usual.

“I don’t know how you measure the kind of national and international publicity we got from it,” Reagan said of the president’s visit. “Thanks to the stupid question about ‘Brokeback Mountain,’ we got play for weeks after the other issues were long forgotten. We’re kind of like politicians: As long as you say our name right, we don’t care what you say.”

The Landon Lecture series, named for former Kansas Gov. Alf Landon, who was the Republican presidential nominee in 1936, has drawn presidents and other prominent speakers to Manhattan for years.

Reagan said the university spent $100,000 to prepare the campus for a visit by President Reagan in 1982. That appearance came not long after the president was shot and wounded in Washington, and Kansas State had to provide extensive security for his visit.

More recently, the university spent $50,000 on an honorarium, plus transportation costs, when former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev spoke in October. In 2002, radio broadcaster Paul Harvey received $50,000 to cover his speaking honorarium and costs.