Your daily dose of news, notes and links from around Kansas University.

• Though we’ve reported on this in several places, I thought it deserved a mention here in this space.

Thanks to the funds from a recent KU tuition increase, we’ll finally be seeing some raises for faculty and staff, who have had their salaries held stagnant for the last three years.

I’ve heard more than a little grumbling about that, too.

KU Provost Jeff Vitter mentioned the raises on his website.

The regents approved a 2 percent salary merit pool, he said. The process for awarding the raises will be developed this fall and will go into effect in January.

• Though I always strive to bring you timely information, in the summer, things seem to slow down a bit, so here’s a link to an old, old story from the Kansas Historical Quarterly.

Written by a then-associate professor of history at KU named C.S. Griffin, this article describes “the years of frustration” for the university between 1854 and 1864.

I was amused by the article’s opening line.

“When the University of Kansas opened on September 12, 1866, the only things it had in common with an actual university were a name, a charter, and a large measure of faculty factionalism,” it said.

Apparently, two of the school’s original three faculty members didn’t much care for the third fellow, thinking him to be “personally uncongenial and intellectually incompetent.”

Lots of other little goodies are tucked away in there, if you’d care to look.

• I spotted some data on a rather strangely named website, College Prowler, a site that claims to be a college guide written for students, by students.

Here’s KU’s page on the site.

KU made four Top 100 lists, and most of them I found to be quite silly.

KU is No. 25 for “best course variety,” No. 33 for “hottest girls,” No. 42 for “most athletic girls” and No. 43 for “most freshmen.”

I pass this along not to start a debate about just exactly how hot people are at KU, but to ask a broader question. I wonder if that’s a real consideration for folks when they are choosing a college or university. Aren’t there hot men and women (and not so hot men and women, too) hanging around at most schools?

I have more hope for America than that, but if I’m wrong, I’m pretty sure I don’t want to know.

Either way, I’m betting you won’t see those rankings touted on a KU website anytime soon.

• I recently reached the maximum limit of emails my work inbox would hold (that’s 30,000, for those of you keeping score at home). But I deleted a few of them, so I have room for your tips for Heard on the Hill at ahyland@ljworld.com.