We observe this evening one of the longest continuing traditions at the University of Kansas. The All-University Supper began in 1873 with sandwiches in a lecture room in Old Fraser Hall.
For 126 years, we have had some form of an all-university supper. By historical standards, it's an antique. "The All-University Supper." It has a quaint, 19th century, vaguely agricultural ring to it.
It evokes a time when supper was the evening meal. Breakfast, dinner at noon, and supper in the evening . . . after the threshing was done and the cows milked.
Supper was the reward for a day's work well done. We continue that tradition tonight. In the 20th century, the All-University Supper has become an occasion where we take pride in the success of alumni, celebrate the job well done by distinguished faculty and report to you on the state of the university.
The fin de siècle, the end of the century, is an appropriate time to reflect on the state of the University of Kansas, meaning its status and success, but also meaning its geographical location: the state of the university is part and parcel of the state of the state of Kansas, and its aspirations for its sons and daughters.
So, let me talk about the University of Kansas. I am obviously not a completely unbiased observer, but it seems to me that the state of Kansas is remarkably well served by the success of this university.
Kansas students attending KU have the opportunity to earn a degree from a national research university, meaning one of the leading universities in the world. Nobel Peace Prize winner Oscar Arias said at KU this year that American universities are by far the best in the world. Fifteen hundred international students come here to study alongside those Kansas students because they want an American higher education. Surely, the state of Kansas must be proud of this fact.
KU is the only university in the state of Kansas that is a member of the American Association of Universities, that prestigious consortium of the 62 leading research universities in America. The AAU is Harvard and Yale and Cal Tech and Berkeley and Michigan and Texas and Chapel Hill and KU. The state has a right to be proud of such exclusive membership for its flagship university.
KU is classified by the Carnegie Foundation for Higher Education as a Rank I Research University, the highest ranking. Only 88 American institutions are so classified. People in Kansas should be proud there is one research university of the first rank in the state.
To be classified as a Research I University, the institution must grant Ph.D.s in a broad range of disciplines, demonstrate teaching excellence and receive more than $40 million in external research funding. At KU we grant the doctorate in 67 disciplines and our research funding for 1998 reached $147 million. This means that foundations and government agencies gave $147 million in research grants to Kansas University faculty solely because of their expertise, because of the potential for their research to have an impact on America's social, economic and scientific development. One presumes that the state of Kansas is proud of such a vote of confidence for KU faculty.
Let's talk about how KU is ranked among its national peers. How does it rank among major universities? The most popular rankings among universities, the rankings most familiar to the public, are the U.S. News and World Report annual rankings. U.S. News and World Report says that KU is 30th in the list of the top fifty national universities, tied with Indiana University. No other Kansas university is even on the list.
U.S. News says:
U.S. News says that the Special Education Department at KU is ranked first in the country, better than Harvard or Yale, Michigan or Berkeley. Surely the state of Kansas is proud to have such an education faculty living in Lawrence.
Surely Kansans are also proud of the fact that KU's School of Nursing is in the top 25 schools of nursing among public universities and in the top ten in National Institutes of Health funding for nursing schools.
Surely, Kansas is proud of our paleontology program and our systematics and ecology program, both of which are ranked fourth in the country; of our pharmacy program, which is ranked fourth in NIH funding; of our social welfare school that is ranked 21st in the country and whose faculty is 14th in scholarly research.
Surely the State of Kansas is proud of the Kansas University Medical Center's primary care program, which ranks 21st of 79 programs in this country.
The state and the university can both be proud of the business school, whose international business Web site was ranked number one in the country by Lycos, a national Internet guide. As they put it: "Small and medium-sized companies that want to become big companies by doing business internationally should make Kansas University's Business Resource Connection their first stop."
Surely Kansas parents hoping their children become doctors will be proud of KU's anesthesiology, urology and surgery programs, which rank in the top ten in residence scores on national board exams.
Surely rural Kansans, often far from a physician, must be grateful for and proud of the Kansas University Medical Center's telemedicine program, which is ranked number one in the United States.
But when one speaks of universities and their rankings, you are really speaking of people: faculty, staff and students. How good are KU's people? You will gain some sense of the answer when you read the biographies of the faculty being honored here tonight.
The KU faculty has been good enough over the years to earn 346 Fulbright grants since the beginning of the Fulbright program. The Fulbright program, as many of you know, is a government program designed to send the best American teachers abroad to teach American subjects. Surely Kansas must be proud of KU's Fulbrighters.
Twenty-three KU students have been good enough to become Rhodes scholars, more than twice the number from any other institution in Kansas. Kansas must be proud of KU's Rhodes Scholars.
Kansas must also be proud of the KU aerospace engineering students who took first place in the General Aviation Design Competition, and Steven Weller, the KU chemical engineering student who won first place in the 1998 American Institute of Chemical Engineering Student Problem Contest. Since 1984, KU students have won more awards in this contest than any other university.
So, what is the state of Kansas University? Academically, this university is doing very well.
How is the state of Kansas doing? In many ways, it is doing well, too. Kansas is a wonderful place to live and raise a family, with a quality of life so rich that faculty enjoy teaching here.
KU faculty also know that they earn, on average, 12 percent less than their peers at comparable universities. They frequently are invited to earn much more some place else. Kansans may be proud that KU's faculty are so much in demand, but they should also be worried about it.
The Kansas economy is booming, so much so that the legislature has given back to taxpayers one billion dollars of its surplus revenues over the past four years, rather than invest any part of this billion in higher education.
Should Kansans be proud of that? Perhaps, most people like to pay less in taxes. But are Kansans proud of the fact that KU faculty salaries are in the bottom 20% of doctoral granting institutions? Are the two things unrelated?
Should Kansans be proud of the fact that this year, for the first time in a decade, Kansas high-school graduates' ACT scores fell below the national average for entering college freshmen?
What is the climate for education in Kansas?
The Kansas Board of Education is currently seriously considering a proposal from one of its members to unilaterally declare all scientific theories mere speculations. It is proposed that the science curriculum taught to your son or daughter should be based upon the following assumption: "Since science today is defined as empirical, and, therefore inductive, no one can rationally claim that any scientific theory has been certified to be true."
They go on to state that the laws of gravity, for example, are only a theory. I quote: "It has been tested very few times, has at least a modest body of evidence against it, and was (and is) not accepted by some notable scientists, for example, Einstein."
As Professor Adrian Melott of KU's physics department recently pointed out: "This is sensational news, since every shell fired in World War I, every rocket fired into space, every eclipse of the moon that happens on time is a test of gravitational theory."
Yes, Einstein perfected Newton's theories into a gravitational theory called General Relativity, but that does not mean that we throw out gravity as a scientific fact, any more than we throw out the exhaustive record of fossil evidence just because there are theories of evolution. If apples fall, they still hit you in the head.
Why would someone propose to do away with such scientific facts? Because people fear, without reason, that teaching evolution will destroy a student's faith in God - exactly the same argument used in the Scopes trial in 1925, and no more true today than it was then.
You can believe in God and believe in evolution. Science and religion are not incompatible.
Is the state of Kansas proud of the University of Kansas? I hope so because there is much to be proud of. I hope Kansas will be particularly proud that it has within its borders a nationally recognized research university of the first rank, where the fundamentals of scientific theory and fact are taught every day; where discoveries about the universe are made, illness is cured, drugs created and lives saved because scientific theories, proven by facts, are recognized as true. Kansas students deserve no less.
I am proud to be a Kansan and to lead a great Kansas university, the faculty of which and the graduates of which are honored here tonight. Let us continue to be proud of the University of Kansas - and the State of Kansas - in the future. Let's face the 21st century with pride and hope, not fear.
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