A Senate committee on Thursday unanimously recommended confirmation of three new members of the Kansas Board of Regents.

Fred Logan Jr. of Leawood, Robba Addison Moran of Hays and Kenny Wilk of Lansing were all nominated by Gov. Sam Brownback.

“It’s such an important job,” state Sen. Jean Kurtis Schodorf, R-Wichita, said of the regents, who oversee and coordinate the state’s higher education system.

Full confirmation is essentially a formality when the legislative session starts in January, and the three have already been at work, participating last month in a three-day board retreat.

Logan told the Senate Confirmation Oversight Committee that his nomination has “turned my calendar upside down,” but that he was more than glad to do it to work to improve higher education in Kansas.

Moran, who has taught in primary and secondary schools, said she believed the regents needed to focus on “efficiency, excellence and economic development.”

Schodorf, who is chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee, said that because of budget cuts during the recession “the regents institutions have been through a lot.”

She added, “They have cut programs, they have economized, they have put programs together. I hope everybody will realize how much they have done.”