Within a few days, Kansas University Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little is expected to announce her choice for the school’s new athletic director.

These days, the athletic director is an extremely important individual at major NCAA Division I schools because intercollegiate sports is a huge money-making and friend-making element in the university community.

It is even more important at KU at this particular time because the new person will be replacing Lew Perkins, a highly controversial and disruptive individual who ran the KU show for seven years. He either resigned or was told to resign by Gray-Little after several embarrassing revelations about athletic department people being involved in a multimillion-dollar ticket scam and questions about the propriety of some actions by Perkins.

Along with this, his arrogant and bullying manner did not reflect well on the university.

This being the case, those interested in the welfare and success of the university are hopeful the chancellor selects an individual who will be a big hit with faculty, alumni and friends of KU.

KU needs some good news, something that will cause people to say “Wow” and get excited about their school.

Hopefully, the new athletic director will be able to unite numerous factions within the university community and keep KU in a strong position in the sure-to-come conference realignments and not allow KU to be left on the sidelines. KU needs someone highly respected by other athletic directors, an individual who conducts himself or herself in a manner that reflects credit on the university.

As this writer has noted before, these are critical times for the university. It’s unfortunate many in responsible, senior positions under the institution’s umbrella share this concern but are reluctant to publicly acknowledge the seriousness of the situation. This includes highly recognized faculty members and trustees and board members of the KU Endowment Association and KU Alumni Association. In addition, there is widespread concern about the state of affairs at KU among alumni throughout the country.

Evidence of this genuine unrest is the prolonged delay of a formal kickoff for a new capital campaign for the university.

Various surveys have been conducted among alumni, friends and others who have been generous in past capital campaigns to seek ideas about a major fundraising effort and gauge whether their contributions to a new campaign would be similar to their past contributions.

Results of those surveys have not been encouraging, with many of those responding citing concerns about the university’s leadership.

The drive has been put off much longer than outside professionals overseeing the campaign had wanted. Sure, the national economy does not present an ideal climate to ask for major contributions, but fundraising professionals recognize there is such a strong attachment to KU by its alumni that even in tough economic times, it is possible to raise large sums of money.

However, with the uncertain situation during the last five years or so of Robert Hemenway’s chancellorship and now, with the first two years of an untested and unproven new chancellor, the drive has been delayed far too long.

It is understood a public announcement will be made soon that Endowment officials have selected co-chairs for the upcoming drive rather than a single chairman as has been the case in three previous capital campaigns. The co-chairs will be Kurt and Sue Watson of Wichita. Kurt Watson just stepped aside as chairman of the Endowment Association, and Sue Watson is a past chairwoman of the KU Alumni Association.

The Watsons, probably more than anyone else, are hopeful something can be done to ignite enthusiasm for the university. They want a big “Wow” factor and an injection of excitement about the university and its excellence, mission and leadership.

Hopefully, the individual selected to be the next athletic director, followed by individuals selected as new deans for the law school and business school, will provide evidence that things are getting on the right track on Mount Oread with new emphasis on leadership, vision, courage and entrepreneurship.

Why not seek the best?