Education competition

Kansas State University is all about cooperation in Johnson County, but maybe not in Salina.

We love our sister university in Manhattan, but officials of Kansas State University seem to be talking out of both sides of their mouths when it comes to higher education competition in the state.

On Thursday, KSU President Jon Wefald was quick to say that his school’s proposed new campus in Johnson County would pose no threat to Kansas University. Even though the KSU campus would be just minutes away from KU’s Edwards Campus in Overland Park, Wefald said it would not offer courses that duplicate KU offerings and would provide good opportunities for cooperation between the two universities.

However, KSU isn’t taking as generous an approach when it comes to its satellite campus in Salina. In fact, according to reports last week in the Salina Journal, the university is telling Salina officials that a merger between Salina Area Technical School and a community college that could offer classes in Saline County, might lead to the closure of KSU’s campus there.

The Kansas Legislature has ordered all the state’s remaining technical schools to either become degree-granting colleges or merge with a degree-granting college within the next couple of years. To meet that mandate, the Salina technical school is considering merger proposals from KSU and a number of community colleges.

But KSU says it doesn’t want the competition that it would face if the Salina school merges with a community college. Too many students, KSU officials say, might choose to take freshman and sophomore courses at the community college which offers lower tuition than the state university. That would cost KSU about $1 million in state revenue, officials say. In a way, Kansas University is in a similar situation, with many KU students being drawn to Johnson County Community College to take some classes either because they are more convenient or less expensive.

By state law, a state university can prohibit a state community college from teaching classes in a county where the state university has a campus. Rather than compete with a community college in Salina, KSU officials have said they may invoke that law to squelch the Salina school’s merger plans.

So much for cooperation.

The Salina school board currently controls Salina Area Technical School and is scheduled to vote next week on a direction for the school’s future. KSU officials may be just trying to garner more serious consideration of their school’s merger plan, which also includes the North Central Kansas Technical College in Beloit, but the subtle threats they are making seem a bit heavy-handed.

In regard to KSU’s venture in Johnson County, Wefald contended that there’s no need to worry about competition. A community college in Salina may be a greater threat to KSU than any competition that school will give to KU in Johnson County, but the situation does raise some questions about just how far KSU’s cooperative spirit will reach.