KU makes sudden change in Statehouse presence

The state relations contracts detailed in the article are paid with private funds.

May 20, 2013 at 1:14 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

KU chancellor writes that possible state budget cuts would mean loss of at least 38 faculty jobs

It is important to note that for all of those individuals state funds only cover a portion of their salaries. For example, more than half of the athletics director's salary is paid by private funds. And clinical income comprises a significant portion of many KUMC salaries.

April 10, 2013 at 6:31 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Simons' Saturday Column: KU needs new tactics in its pursuit of state funding

As you say, the University of Kansas is the flagship university of the state. The other Regents institutions fulfill their roles well, but each institution has a different mission. For this writer to try and create an equivalence between all of Kansas' universities doesn't serve any of them.

To downplay KU's excellence in academics, research, and service to the state, as this piece suggests, doesn't serve our university when it comes time to make the case for KU's value to Kansans. And it certainly doesn't help us compete in Kansas and around the nation when it comes time to recruit talented students, faculty and staff.

Hundreds of alumni advocates are members of Jayhawks for Higher Education and can be counted on to contact their elected officials. And we routinely engage business leaders in advocating for higher education. For examples you don't have to look any further than the successful campaigns to expand the schools of Pharmacy and Engineering, or Chancellor Gray-Little's recent video on the federal budget with Jim Lewis, the chief administrative officer of Black & Veatch.

KU's efforts paid off then, and they're paying off now, such as with the restoration of funding for the KU Cancer Center and the removal of the salary cap - both of which are achievements from just the past week. Not to mention the fact that Governor Brownback proposed no cuts for higher education and included KUMC's Health Education Initiative in his budget.

What would be useful is if universities had advocates in the media who used facts to demonstrate the value of higher education to students and society, rather than always finding fault.

March 23, 2013 at 8:36 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

U.S. Rep. Pompeo critical of KU Chancellor Gray-Little's video on sequestration

Chancellor Gray-Little is one of 150 university chancellors and presidents calling for a balanced approach. As she wrote in December, this means that "all options — discretionary spending cuts and reforms to entitlements and taxes — need to be on the table."
http://www.kansascity.com/2012/12/04/...

As the CAO of Black & Veatch stated in the video referenced by Congressman Pompeo, research universities are economic drivers. Indeed, the one area in which the Simpson-Bowles Commission called for increasing federal spending was on research and development because of the economic benefits.

This research - whether it is the search for treatments and cures at the KU Cancer Center, cooperation with the aerospace industry at NIAR in Wichita, or the biosecurity research that would be done at NBAF - contributes to the prosperity and well-being of Kansans and Americans.

The sequester, being a blunt, across-the-board cut, will have serious effects on all of these efforts and on the future prosperity of the nation. Just yesterday, former NIH Director Dr. Elias Zerhoui, who served during the George W. Bush Administration, said the sequester "would be a disaster for research, which is not an activity that you can turn on and off year to year." He said the sequester will set back medical science for a generation.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/w...

Finally, here's a link to the video in question: http://www.scienceworksforus.org/bern...

And the videos from a range of research universities around the nation: http://www.scienceworksforus.org/econ...

February 22, 2013 at 11:31 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Simons' Saturday Column: KU can’t afford to fall behind online course trends

Here's some of what Senior Vice Provost Sara Rosen said in the article this column is ostensibly based on:

"Rosen said a major lesson for her was the importance of expanding access to higher education, specifically, access for groups beyond 18-year-olds coming out of high school.

“I think a lot of us are watching it carefully, thinking about how we can create different programs that will allow different groups of potential students to enter into higher education,” Rosen said."

This sounds remarkably like what Mr. Simons says KU should be doing...except for where he says we should forget about educating undergraduates. One of KU’s top priorities is having more students earn their degrees, something that MOOCs are as of yet unable to address.

As part of the Bold Aspirations strategic plan, KU is actively working to expand its online offerings in terms of both classes and degree programs, as well as to use technology to "flip" the classroom and make it more interactive. Much of this was discussed in the article.
http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2013/jan...

More information on support for KU faculty creating online and hybrid courses: http://codl.ku.edu/

February 2, 2013 at 10:05 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

KU offers full-ride scholarship to Topeka high-schooler blogging on college choice for NY Times

Per the donor’s wishes, the David M. Wall Scholarship is awarded to graduates of Topeka High School who demonstrate both academic achievement and financial need and who will seek a degree in the KU College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. It is a four-year renewable scholarship that covers tuition, fees and books. Recipients are selected by a committee appointed by the Dean of the College.

January 30, 2013 at 12:07 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Simons' Saturday Column: Despite odd search, KU makes strong Med Center hire

The National Institutes of Health ranking of the School of Medicine rose to 60th in 2011 from 75th in 2006. And in U.S. News rankings for specialties, rural medicine has risen, primary care has risen, family medicine has risen…you get the point. Your claim to the contrary is false.

Additionally, this hopefully is the last time you will subject your readers to the fantasy of there being two searches. You have been told repeatedly there were not, including by the chair of the search committee, Dr. Ellerbeck. You also besmirch the reputation of Dr. Girod by persisting in this falsehood.

We conducted a national search because an institution that aspires to further increase its national stature must provide itself every opportunity to attract the best talent available from the broadest and deepest pool possible. To not conduct a national search would have been shortsighted, even if ultimately we found the best candidate right here at the university.

The only “openness, transparency, fairness and honesty” that should be questioned is that of this newspaper’s opinion pieces given their tendency to use anonymous “sources” and unsubstantiated claims to spread rumors and outright falsehoods.

December 29, 2012 at 8:17 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Regulations adopted to implement higher admission standards at KU in 2016

The GPA and ACT thresholds are only for automatic admission. Students who don't meet those thresholds will have their applications reviewed by a university committee, which will take into account a range of factors related to performance in high school and potential for success at a research university.

December 19, 2012 at 4:32 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Regulations adopted to implement higher admission standards at KU in 2016

No - that is just one factor the committee will look at when reviewing applications of students who don't meet the automatic requirements. Our statistics indicate that children and grandchildren of KU graduates tend to be more likely to be successful in earning degrees themselves.

But again, it is only one factor the committee will look at, assuming the student has otherwise demonstrated potential to succeed academically. The full list of factors is in the PDFs linked from the original announcement: http://www.news.ku.edu/2012/may/16/ad...

December 19, 2012 at 3:20 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Editorial: Choice awaited

Please stop lying about the KUMC Executive Vice Chancellor search. You have been repeatedly told, including by the chair of the search committee, that there was no nomination of a single internal candidate. http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2012/nov...

What is "difficult to understand" is this newspaper's obsession with misinforming its readers about this subject. Surely your ax has been ground down to the handle by now, hasn't it?

December 16, 2012 at 8:20 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )