It’s a great time to be a Jayhawk. In football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball KU is currently a combined 37-3, with the biggest win being an Orange Bowl victory that was a true team effort and a testament to the hard work and dedication of all our student-athletes.
The Orange Bowl gave us an opportunity to tell KU’s story to a wide audience, and what a story it is. If you listened to the radio broadcast of the game, you heard our advertisement touting the fact that we have a national football coach of the year, a national debate coach of the year, are ranked #1 in training family physicians and that our Confucius Institute is ranked in the top 20 of all such institutes in the world. KU basketball excellence has many partners.
These are just a few examples of how KU is a leader in countless fields, as well as how we work for the entire state of Kansas. And our mission of teaching the next generation of leaders, performing cutting-edge research and providing services to our fellow Kansans is something Provost Lariviere, Dr. Atkinson and I have been talking about a lot lately.
Over the past several months, we’ve made more than three dozen trips to communities throughout our state, talking with community groups, legislators and alumni about how KU works for Kansas, and finding out about new ways for us to build on our successes.
Those discussions will continue, and even intensify, in the coming months. With the 2008 Legislative Session starting next week, I wanted to share with you several elements of our state agenda.
First among these is our support for the operating grant increase requested by the Regents. We direct a significant portion of those resources to maintaining a high caliber faculty and staff, which ensures a first-rate education for our students and keeps KU tuition affordable.
Additionally, there are several other initiatives the Regents have endorsed that KU will pursue in Topeka.
The fight against cancer remains KU’s top research priority, and we will be asking legislators to continue the state’s investment in the drive to obtain National Cancer Institute designation for our comprehensive cancer center. That designation will lead to greater access to treatments and cures for people throughout Kansas.
But unfortunately treatment of cancer and other medical conditions is being hampered by a growing shortage of health-related professionals in Kansas and around the nation. The pharmacist shortage is particularly severe, as six counties in our state have no pharmacy and another 30 have only one.
The Kansas Pharmacists Association, the Regents and many others are enthusiastic about a proposed expansion of our nationally recognized School of Pharmacy in both Wichita and Lawrence that will allow us to nearly double the number of pharmacists graduating each year.
KU plays a pivotal role in answering the state’s workforce needs on other fronts too, and we will seek new support for UKanTeach, which will produce math and science teachers for Kansas classrooms, as well as a proposal to produce more engineers, business leaders and other high-tech professionals our economy needs.
As we look to these new projects, we must not forget the problem of deferred maintenance. The investment made by the governor and Legislature in 2007 is funding repairs to mission-critical infrastructure. But as Governor Sebelius stated at the time, that investment is only a down payment, and we still have a long way to go until the maintenance backlog is eliminated.
But, of course, KU is much more than just buildings. Talented faculty and staff make it possible to provide the best education to our students, which is why two items we propose will help us recruit and retain first-rate faculty and staff.
New faculty members can be recruited if we can expand the cap on the Kansas Partnership for Faculty of Distinction Program, increasing to $10 million from the current $5 million. The Legislature created this successful program in 2000 to enhance support for endowed professorships at Regents institutions, enabling us to establish 48 professorships at KU.
We’re also asking for elimination of the 60-day waiting period for health benefits for new employees. Beyond being a barrier to recruitment, this waiting period places an unnecessary burden on new employees and their families.
These and other proposals will help KU continue to work for Kansas.
KU is fortunate to have two talented individuals leading the advocacy effort at both the state and federal levels.
Kathy Damron has represented KU’s interests in Topeka for several years and is now serving as director of state relations, responsible for advancing the agenda outlined above. She can be reached at (785) 235-2525.
Keith Yehle serves as director of federal relations and is working with federal policymakers on issues of major importance to KU, such as securing federal support for the many KU projects that benefit our state and nation. He can be reached at (785) 864-7100.
If you have questions about KU’s state or federal agendas or would like to know how you can help KU advance its mission in Topeka or Washington, D.C., contact either Kathy or Keith.
Sincerely,
Bob Hemenway
Chancellor
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