On the same day that a Kansas Senate committee cut $10 million for a new KU Medical Center education building from its budget plan, KU Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little testified to a different committee Monday, this one in the state House of Representatives.

KU posted her testimony, which was before the House Education Budget Committee, online. You can read it for a look at how KU is pitching its importance to the state.

Gray-Little runs through a lot of the developments, initiatives and accomplishments that were listed in her “State of the University” video a couple weeks back. There’s perhaps an additional emphasis on some programs that reach out to various parts of the state — for instance, the School of Business RedTire program that matches rural small-business owners with recent graduates who can take the reins, ensuring those businesses don’t fade away.

One other thing I noticed: Gray-Little reported that an energy-savings effort, conducted as part of a $25 million contract with an Overland Park firm, has saved the university about $3 million so far. KU may have reported that figure elsewhere, but this is the first time I’ve seen it.

The last time we reported on the effort, done with the help of Energy Solutions Professionals of Overland Park, was about a year ago. KU had just about finished all the work, a lot of which involved more efficient ventilation of the scientific labs in Malott and Haworth halls, and was waiting to see how much savings would result.

According to Gray-Little’s testimony, the contract guarantees a total of $31 million in savings over 15 years.

Obtaining a breakdown of how exactly those savings were achieved is among the items on my to-do list. So let me know if you’re curious about any aspect of the energy savings in particular.

Then set your computer to its most energy-friendly power settings possible before you email your KU news tips to merickson@ljworld.com.