chancellor@ku.edu
As you know this is the faculty and staff version of the 131st opening Convocation. It has served various purposes in the past.
For example, in 1874 the opening convocation was used to explain the whereabouts of the new Chancellor. Chancellor Fraser had resigned at Commencement time in that year, announcing that he was going to run for the State Superintendent of Public Instruction. He had agreed to stay until a new chancellor arrived.
The Regents had appointed Dr. Stephen Carpenter, Professor of Logic and English Literature at the University of Wisconsin. The only problem was that Dr. Carpenter had never been to Kansas. He was chosen on the basis of his record and recommendations.
In August, Chancellor Carpenter finally arrived in Kansas. The temperature was in the 100's, there was a drought, it was dusty. There was some relief from the heat. He noticed that clouds of grasshoppers periodically blotted out the sun.
Dr. Carpenter didn't bother to make contact with those Regents who were to greet him. He didn't even visit the campus. He took one look around, mopped his brow, batted grasshoppers away from his sweaty face, and purchased a return ticket to the cooler climate of Madison, Wisconsin.
In 1996, I propose that we use this faculty/staff Convocation to pause and celebrate the special sense of academic community which comes from working at a university like this one--a student-centered research university.
KU is part of a higher purpose called higher education. Like many of you, I believe the quality of higher education will play a major role in determining the future of this society called Kansas.
Our problem in recent years has been that we believe this, but do others believe it? I want to talk for a moment about this special community with such a noble purpose--the human community formed by faculty and staff and students dedicated to learning.
If we understand ourselves, internally, perhaps we can convince others, externally, of the, university's value.
Let me begin with faculty, because the intellectual values of the university begin there. The human values are shared among faculty, staff and students, but faculty are expected to set the intellectual standard.
A faculty member belongs to a peculiar profession. It is the only profession I know where people work for 12 months and are paid for nine. True, many of us teach summer school, and many scientists obtain grants which support their research over the summer, but the majority of faculty are on 9 month appointments. They are not even paid over the summer.
So summer becomes a period of time in which faculty are not state employees, but independent agents pursuing a lifelong love of learning. Obviously, that love of learning is also in evidence throughout the school year, but faculty dedicate uninterrupted summer time to reflection, contemplation, writing, study and research.
We sometimes hear that faculty have a paid vacation, when just the opposite is true--they have an uncompensated period of personal improvement.
The University must invest in this commitment to self-improvement. It must invest in its intellectual work force. Consequently, programs in support of faculty development will be high on the priority list this year. David Shulenburger will talk about some of those ideas shortly.
Let me also talk about staff. I talked to a person from housekeeping last week. I asked her if she was ready for the fall semester. Her response was, "If you can't get excited this time of year, you don't belong in a university."
Staff members of a university share in this enthusiasm because they, too, recognize that they are part of a noble enterprise. Staff are also committed to principles of self improvement, and the principle of a university investing in its work force applies to them as well. Next semester, KU will significantly expand the number of employees who can take classes tuition free. We will expand our tuition assistance program for staff from the current 30 people per semester to 100 people a semester.
The reason I am focussed on this relationship between the individual and the university is that I have been privileged, because of my position, to observe the connection between individual achievement and institutional identity at the University of Kansas.
Because I am both a new member of this faculty and a new chancellor, I have been privileged all this year to share in my colleagues' success. People congratulate me when you accomplish great things.
Victor Frost received a million dollar grant from Sprint to work on means of developing faster communications. People stop me to tell me how wonderful it is that we got that grant. I have done nothing to deserve the congratulations, but I am associated with the success because I represent the University.
That experience has made me realize how we all represent the University, and we all share in the benefits of excellence.
Every time a Richard DeGeorge receives an honorary doctorate from a university in the Netherlands, in the same ceremony as Bill Gates and Nelson Mandella, we collectively don his hood with him.
Every time a Pat Watkins vacuums the Chancellor's office, making especially sure the corners are done, we all take pride in a clean university.
Every time Kemper Teaching Fellows are honored on the first day of class, their award serves as a symbol of the excellent teaching done by hundreds of faculty, unclassified staff, and graduate teaching assistants on this campus. Every time a Higuchi or a Budig award winner is announced, we all honored.
Every time Mike Auchard lays a brick, mortared in a way that it will last for years, we all share in the wall he builds.
Every time a Kim Cocks wins a scholarship to law school, we all share in the brightness of her future.
Every time Marilyn Stokstad appears on CBS Sunday Morning celebrated for writing the definitive Art History text book, a text which will be read by hundreds of thousands of art history students over the next decade, we, too, appear on national TV with her.
Every time Thelma Simons brings a local area network back to life, we all revel in the pleasure of renewed connection.
Every time Barb Meador trains a faculty member in KU's Animal Care procedures, we all benefit from her extraordinary expertise.
KU's staff and faculty display the excellence that one expects from a university that will enroll this fall 59 National Merit Scholars, more than double the number of National Merit Scholars in all other Kansas institutions combined; an enrollment of National Merit Scholars that will probably place KU in the top 15 public universities in the nation. KU truly offers a standard for quality.
This standard for quality is recreated every time a faculty member enters the classroom, FO landscapes the campus, a TA convenes a discussion section, a librarian classifies a book, a capital project is planned, a dormitory is cleaned, or a cafeteria worker coaxes a smile out of a drowsy student at 7:00 a.m. And I know, I see some of those students at 7:30.
For KU to be successful, we all must be recruiters, we all must keep the campus clean.
This philosophy is what is reflected in the reorganization of the Lawrence campus that took place this year. The Provost system has been created so that we can put the academic mission first; meaning not that any one part of the University was more important than another, but that all parts of the University serve the academic mission which is at our core.
Let me report on two areas where I believe this philosophy has already begun to pay off--Information Systems, and our physical environment.
Information Systems, in this past year, established 4400 new data network connections. Previously, the most ever in one year was 1500.
We set a goal that every faculty member who wants a computer should now have one. And I am told that we are nearing success in this area. If the program hasn't reached you, let me hear about it. Faculty who want computers should have them.
Students also need computer access. 290 PCs have been added to student computer labs. Twenty-four new buildings were connected to the campus Ethernet.
In the spring of 1997 as Budig Hall comes on line there will be a new student computer lab with 125 new micro computers on one of the lower levels of the building.
And finally, we now have an official KU Homepage--a gateway which will connect you to all department and school Home pages at KU. Check it out: http://www.ku.edu/
The goal for Information Systems for 1997 will be an e-mail system for the entire campus. If you have a PC and a network connection, you should be able to talk by way of e-mail to anyone else on this campus. We do not have that capability now, but we will have it by next year.
As you know, last year we were not supposed to be able to secure any funds from the Legislature. I was told there would be no salary raises, no, increase in operating funds, and renovation or construction funds were out of the question. The predictions were not entirely off target. We encountered hard times in our search for better compensation for faculty and staff.
A two and half percent increase deferred for 6 months, is not enough to meet family obligations. Even more important, it is not sufficient reward for the excellence and hard work of this faculty and staff. Improvement of compensation has to be a priority for the Regents and the Governor this year. The Regents have proposed 4%. I hope we can do better.
Despite an inadequate raise however; we were still able this year to make a convincing case for a $163 million bond issue to repair the Regent system's crumbling classrooms. I did not find the Legislature hostile to higher education. If it had been, KU would never have received $44 million from this bond issue to repair our infrastructure problems, build a $9 million addition onto Murphy Hall, to totally renovate JR Pearson for School of Education offices at a cost of $11 million.
Already this summer, the crumbling classroom funds have enabled us to repaint 69 classrooms, more than triple the number that would normally have been repainted. If your classroom was painted, let your legislator know how much you appreciate it, and while you're at it, let your legislator know you hope for a salary increase this year.
Finally, let me announce a new goal for the 1996-97 academic year. 1995-96 was a time of reorganization and identifying areas for re-engineering. Reorganization is now in place and you will shortly hear from the Provost about plans for the Lawrence campus as a part of that reorganization.
During this school year, we will be asking people to participate in a strategic planning process. What does that mean? It means this human community coming together to arrive at an agreed upon strategy for KU in the 21st Century.
We want a strategic plan for the future which comes from the bottom up rather than the top down, which shows the value of shared governance for a large campus.
The process has already begun with a scan of our environment through various brainstorming sessions on campus to consider perceptions of KU, and, through the GUIRR (Government-University-Industry Research Round table) held this summer. Some of you will have an opportunity this fall to participate in a campus round table sponsored by the PEW Foundation to identify major issues facing higher education and KU in the next century.
In my mind one of the most thoughtful commentators on university planning is George Keller. Keller argues there are six features to a university's strategic planning.
First, academic strategic decision making means that a university and its leaders are active rather than passive about their position in history. We must determine our destiny, not let our future be determined by events from outside.
Second, strategic planning looks outward and is focused on keeping the university in step with the changing environment.
For example, how will we create the electronic campus of the future?
Third, strategy making is competitive, recognizing that higher education is subject to economic market conditions and to increasingly strong competition. Who are KU's competitors? What market conditions will affect KU?
Fourth, strategic planning concentrates on decisions, not on documented plans, analyses, forecasts and goals. Decisions are the product of human beings thinking. Let us collectively think about our future.
Fifth, strategy making is a blend of rational and economic analysis, political maneuvering and psychological interplay. It is therefore participatory and highly tolerant of controversy.
I have every confidence that a spirited analysis and debate will accompany our effort.
But in the end, most importantly, strategic planning concentrates on the fate of the institution above everything else. Strategic planning places the long term vitality and excellence of the university first. Strategic planning is not a collection of departmental plans compiled and edited. Strategic planning is for the whole community and for its long term stature and excellence. A university is more than the aggregate of its parts. A strategic plan is something more than a list of individual wants and aspirations.
We will be asking all of you to participate in the strategic planning process and our goal at the end of the process will be to have a clear understanding of how KU will preserve its status as the standard for quality in higher education in Kansas.
Let me now take the opportunity to introduce to you Dr. David Shulenburger. When we reorganized this campus this year we wanted to make the academic mission central, the core of what we do. In order to find someone who could implement that mission, we went through an extensive nationwide search. In the end, we found that our best candidate was the person down the hall.
I have enjoyed getting to know David as we worked together this year. I look forward to many years of partnership, because I know we share the same set of values, the same aspirations for KU, and a shared belief in the power of spirited debate to resolve differences.
