Infusion of private money revives KU’s Wheat Whirlwind State Tour

About 40 faculty and staff members from Kansas University will travel across the state next week as part of the 12th Wheat State Whirlwind Tour.

The tour will visit more than 20 communities in the state from Monday until Friday next week, and will include deans, faculty members and staff from the Lawrence campus, KU Medical Center and KU School of Medicine-Wichita.

Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little, who is completing her first academic year at KU, is scheduled to participate in the tour for the first time on Monday and Tuesday.

The tour had been scrapped last year for budgetary reasons, but was restored after Gray-Little used private funds to reinstate the tour, said Don Steeples, senior vice provost and tour director.

Steeples said this year represented the first time the tour had been paid for completely with private funds.