An hour with KU Chancellor and KSU President - Chancellor Gray-Little & President Schulz

the university of kansas and kansas state university both have new leadership at the home this year i'm kay mcintyre today and keep your prisons use new chancellor bernadette wray little and kansas state's new president kirk solves that very little better selves welcome to the program that we've got to set up a range though the two of you come to kansas at a very challenging time for higher education governor mark parkinson has laid out some very ambitious goals to boost the ratings of k u n k state given the financial limitations that are facing the state right now how do you go about improving the rankings are you being asked to do more with less i'm appreciate governor parkinson's and aspirations for the university of kansas and other universities in kansas and indeed it is a challenging time here as it is elsewhere bad guy pay you we will look at this i timed as a time that will need to look for resources not only from

leahy asked aid but also from private fund raising and other resources in order to address the goals that we have i don't think however that we can afford to wait until times get better to try to improve our universities if you're looking for resources through private donations again because it's a tough financial time a lot of donors corporations have also been hit very hard by the recession does that pose some of its own set of challenges it does although i think that there are certainly would always to be successful a private fund raising and i we had a very good year this past year at university of one of the best five years in history and so even in spite of the times there have been ways to raise private funds but in addition to the legislature and private funds i'm also thinking of the kind of resources the faculty bring an entire research and grant so that is another source of resources and has a

benefit of the resources it comes director because of quality of work they're faculty do so that's another hour period to focus on present salts same question how do you bring up those us news and world report ratings at a time when there's just not a lot of money the us news or report rankings of course generate lots and lots of dialogue within higher education circles but that that is their largest selling magazine so everybody's after an associate sometimes universities we tend to one argue about the cr at your use of the rankings as opposed to the general public's perception that that is that effect your ranking standard so in my mind the short act address in the key of this period the same and say well we don't like the way the rankings are so we're just not bother with them so i'll warrant a couple things here that first is we're gonna really focused on are we marketing communicating his successes a k state has effectively

seeking and so we're actually at a cabinet level post in marketing communications so we're or keep the same number of vice presidents that we've had ever last five or six years but it's really a new focus of an administrative position that we feel that we need and second thing is we're honest are looking carefully the writings and other things what can we be doing to make sure that we keep our stature high and then the final thing the source and this is cover parkinson actually did not talk about what university where he said we need a top fifty atop hundred we will be developing a long term plan on an elevated kansas state in the top fifty national research university do you have any specifics for how you go about doing no not yet and the woolworth what i can describe the process or it's relative very quickly but we're really caught taste a twenty twenty five minute talk about the sense that you weren't so this is nothing new it turns out the governor's message isn't sort of aligned with what we were going to do anyway or start january one and lots of

focus groups have a lot of opportunities for folks threat the state whether their case staters are not for just begun the process through internet where that things like that were going to basically run say watch it can to stay here first you look like in the year twenty twenty five and the stage we have water in a beer cross cutting initiatives where we want the national writing recognize its all part of that plan that was spent a year putting that together with a completion date of somewhere around december of twenty ten and that's what we're going to use as a roadmap for the next fifteen years so we're going to be doing some this anyway and it's interesting that now that the governor's sort of laid a challenge out there for state universities to say ok folks we need recognized national in scope research universities been for the better or a state of kansas with that is a great opportunity for us to say okay here's where we think we can participate and step up to the challenge and their board of regents recently appointed a task force to look at me possibly raising the emission standards are regions institutions how

do you strike a balance between making this a top notch school and keeping it accessible for kansas students and good us that question because i think when we talk about raising standards there's often the suggestion that we're trying to keep people out and that's not the goal at all the goal really is to have standards the students know and that students need more often now so that when they come to the university they are better prepared and succeed i understand that saying that it means that the students and their parents and those high schools need also buy into this so those tunes continue to challenge and sells rob a full twelve years that they are in school and come to pay you better prepared to succeed in graduate on time i'm not looking for something that's going to eliminate access but rather that will iron provide true access in the sense of students come and they leave with a

degree can so you've that fits in very well with your stated goal of trying to improve retention and graduation rates and do you have any specific ideas for how to go about doing that we are forming a task worse now there has been some research here at the university already supporting efforts to increase graduation and retention rates i have seen some of it but more on the research will be done will have a task force who will look at our factors related to student preparation to the kind of experiences they have here the quality of your advise a and a variety of other things to see which things are really help students succeed and to stay in school and get her degree president's health and this the straw i think that we're having and we will continue to have this as an institution a part of the way of great mission in my opinion we are kansas is elaine grant state is that we have to be and the university there remains

very accessible to kansas residents so that they have that educational opportunity and that's not to say the other five regions institutions also have the same thing they just are historical mission has always been and this is the place to sign your sons and daughters and grandchildren to do to get a degree and that for the betterment of state kansas so we stroll lot with how we can increase a retention and graduation rates or stewed certainly by moving up the admission standards to get into k stay on the problem and where i think we struggle is that is a little bit counter to our historical mission to be the place that brings people in and gives him a chance and opportunity my personal biases is really strongly towards that way and grant that we need to make sure that were sensible to all kansans and there we have some challenges out there so for example we have strongly increasing latino population in the state of kansas and that's only going to continue to go up we need to make

sure that we're being extremely accessible to all of those students and that we can make sure that they all have access hopefully a kansas state to an outstanding educational experience regardless of background or ethnicity so i think i think we'll certainly have some lively discussion on our campus about this topic listen to be lively discussion with other regions institutions but my personal bias right now is accessibility is going be really important for us that's why we're founded i think that will need to be part of our mission and the future there's so much to learn at any university in a new state chairs are great little how if you're gonna bad getting acquainted with kansas there's a great deal of tiller and fortunately there's a lot about universities and similar and so the issues that you face that you deal with now and some of the opportunities are similar the people are different

so it said it's taking the time i've been here for weeks and senate take me many more weeks to get to know other people both at the university and around the region to know that the ways in which ion they can make contributions to the goals that we have for the university the getting to know people is say is a daunting task with us one of the things i'm not concentrating on i've been to a number of in addition to being kansas city in wichita and hutch and son in pittsburg high and i'm going to the western part of the state to mars on doing a lot of travelling and in that traveling i'm hearing what people want to say about pay you what their aspirations are what their complaints are iowa where they want to see is go the one thing that is common in all those places is that i've heard a lot of support for the university and a lot of support for the aspirational making the universe even better resident sault ste the same question well my heart when i interviewed i went to interview process the

water source quantitative research about cancer states i knew a few of those things which don't have a feeling for the place ness not quantify will find it you just don't know the people you made on the stage habits don't have a feeling for them so when i interviewed him to actually go back prior to my interview there's a book out there that was written by the president universal southern cal for now called the contrary it's got the leadership any talks about a leadership and higher education and he's been a very successful presidents on things he got there he suggested that book he said if he ever become law president ceo university marks a vacation while somebody else's leading institution and go on meet people and big donors a duet so i think that the heart about every three weeks i was in manhattan for thursday friday saturday connaughton i met with steve's faculty staff and got to know the institutions of the time it got here and jim first are probably going back and forth

six or seven times a startup you know willy snow were few things weren't campus and did those preliminary set of meetings i so i was a war i believed to hit the ground running very quickly because i've gotten some that stuff out of the way early on bastille after president we fall serve for twenty three years and yet any person a man who they are everybody's minnesota won so to speak to take make her be alumni band or whatever so that's been a challenge of balancing out by making sure they're doing things on and off campus were factors test its alumni is basically isn't the gang that every was to make a new president one thing even as the sacred to embrace in getting to know students and i assume alumni as well it's even likely to embrace technology you've got a blog use facebook and twitter how would those tools to help you to hit the ground running into to make contact with students in ways that that otherwise you may

not be able to cure it i enjoy those are they're kind of fine and it allows you to really teach a little bit younger a car because you know that sixteen seventeen eighteen year olds are always a generation that is pushing that envelope and trying new and different sorts of things and so i think in the last year a label that mortgage actually know what twitter is because you're out there trying to do it and things like that but what it does is it opens up communication channels which are certainly not going to get through traditional means so about the fact that i've got several hundred friends on facebook that are their students faculty staff that will send me things are good communications there that i know i would not get any other way out of the informal sort of times i think what it does is it to make sure that that myself has won respect for being a president of the university in kansas but also make you seem will more personal because you know people say well you're out shopping and you're dealing with a drop in your son off at school i'm way in line in the morning and a short ago it and

people say you know it's a regular person in many ways just like the rest of us is that the difference so job responsibilities but it also forces me to rig recognize that i'm gonna let people know just what it is a president's doing does he have a high salary a people's a lot of benefits out there and they think or pay in those cows money oh what what is it that he's doing an unlocked cars people want to set their tell you what to do but they also go ok boys travel wisely when one dies done done or visits he's visited students i think it lets people know say hey i know and this is what i want i want people can just a sad no water presidents truman and he's out there helping me to be successful in my job or as a student or so once i think that's really important but the surprising thing you found about coming to kansas i haven't had any how bad surprises that had any negative surprises i think they are and maybe the and level an extent of welcome now that i've

received from people both on the campus and communities that have gone to i am not a celebrity ii and that the religious been been wonderful during the time that we've been here and while i expected to have a nice opening i think that the strength of it has been surprising presence felt at a very friendly kansas itself is very friendly stay in my mind is sort of blends perfectly the practicality of the midwest iowa with the warm friendly no soul of the south and i think it's all about those cultures made up here in my opinion and that's something that i think is as remarkable and most of you never find a state that prides himself on being unfriendly every state says hey you know we're really friendly but we have them warmly embraced by the community of manhattan by the state of kansas by kansas state alumni in a way that i never would've thought possible and people like

a leader who generally is pretty upfront because part of the culture but also with a little bit of a framework of friendliness and in a little bit of personality out there's also import as well but that's the time as it were sort of a hidden secret in the middle of the united states if you will are below that kansas or movies but i think once they visit here and see the people that they leave extremely impressed with say well we know rove was kansas was quite like that us a little bit about your background do you have a bachelors and a phd in chemical engineering from virginia tech you taught chemical engineering at the university of north dakota and michigan tech as well mississippi state before going into it administration what your educational background drove you toward a career in higher ed i saw some really effective leaders when i was a student and i'm always sort of led a long and been wired to

tijuana be the guy in charge and i bet if you asked jack and it was i did that when i was twelve and i don't know that both my parents gave a different with me just sort of always out much rather be the personified the name of the one right behind that and so i'm i'm wired that way to some extent i am but my my dad worked at a university and just retired this last spring after about forty five years of teaching so i were up around universities my wife grew up around your verses and her death was a factor member virginia tech so we sort of always been around university climate and had seen what a great university leader can do and a lot of like a joke in academia about the algae in effect of academic leader there is no such thing it's like an army intelligence an oxymoron but i think when you see effective leaders out there makes such a difference in the university and i'll put myself an effective leader category i think maybe in ten or fifteen years hopefully i'll then are now saying president be able to do that but and

that's what inspired me to want to the same leadership positions and then i had some great mentors along the way that recognize that and to be my age and the university president there is a lot of mamie breaks along the way to say well particularly younger but i want to be a chance that i had several people out there that did that for me and then help me when i'm at was strangled their door battle over excited to say yeah i've become more about these things and you look back on your career there's a whole bunch of people helped shape or york today if you were an entire and what would you be doing right now yes that's so werfel question and i've asked myself that the us several times on you know probably i would have probably gone the work and then corporate america somewhere and there probably isn't as an engineer albert interesting lady if i had not like you're going to hear a pro and history so you know

sometimes to eleven i recount once you're probably no electrical engineering and ended having some is distinctly different i really that's a field a really enjoy quite benign joining classes and things that are related to that song but i'm not sure you know my wife to wire for higher education you know i'm i've been successful in other careers but there's something about universities it just matches for background or lifestyle isn't like today do you think there's something about your training as an engineer that gives you a unique perspective on academia yes i think there are a few signs engineers and both possible night engineers tend to be very data driven and quantitative and i think that is a helpful characteristic to have any job not that you're given their muscle and numbers but the chicken you can you're learned in trying to sort of see each rounds and look for things like that in his other fields that also have that i think yeah

you're really trying to problem solve a metal an engineering degree is is really the problem solving how we we address a problem you you figure out certain ways that you're going to try right now which you know not knowing come up with a solution that sort of independent of the ranch i think that applies to live things i've done heart patient there's a stereotype so that you fight and that and the big one is that engineers are so quantitative data driven that the people are just like little things you know around the table and they're not you know you're not sympathetic and i think that's probably the thing that he talked a lot of folks are an engineering if i know they care about people to invest is important in a land that's why i think hopefully i come across that way but that's probably the opposite stereotypes people say well an engineer will have respect for people in the music arts and humanities because you know it's such a different area probably have more respect for those people causes lot different than things that i do but tom

i think a problem solving ability at ras numbers and trends or are really so important characteristics that help me every day hopefully do a good job you came to kansas state from mississippi state university where he served as vice president for research and economic development what you think the most valuable lesson you learned in mississippi state university was that's a great question and actually it's part of a learning process and had every place that i worked but is that we assume that when we're in these harlow positions president vice president and beans that people see the same sorts of things that we see so they i understand what's going on say after a mild you're the middle was something there's ten people university you know that you're in the middle of it you'd try to make this isn't the other fourteen hundred people work there have no clue that even if things on the horizon so importance of communicating effectively water critical university things and the issues that are out there is the one thing that i've

seen that i learned a great deal and and so when i'm a department head hat became a weekend people i sit around a table as her to make a comedy about a hundred fifty faculty in you know a thousand students was a little bit different way of communicating you keep his care what anyone expected when it is signed welcome to you extrapolate that out to a university that is a senator fifty million dollar your operation five thousand students five thousand or so factories staff combine twenty three thousand state when he used at all out is this huge massive organization so how to communicate effectively to make sure better people not just know what the president's doing what my thinking what kind of things are important to my building consensus for new programs and objectives and so the idea of finding creative ways beyond some of things we talk about social networking to communicate regularly affectively with is many

people's possible i was probably the biggest thing i learned from a positive way german town of a city state where i had to figure out what her department head to it being the vice president had a wide globally communicate with a wide diverse community we've been talking to dr kirk schulz the new president of kansas state now because the same questions to the new chancellor of k u dr bernadette grade level your bachelor's degree in psychology from meredith college in pennsylvania a phd in psychology from st louis university you've taught psychology has world was worked as a psychologist is there something about your training as a psychologist that gives you a unique perspective on academics well i have this perspective of a psychologist i think that almost any discipline would bring you a particular asset into working in the universe the university administration and leadership because my background is

is that psychology certainly am very interested in behavior but i think that anyone who's going to be successful in a leadership or management effort has to attend to human behavior because it's about people about a way that people behave the way we interact with one another and that there may be some benefit in being a psychologist that i come with that knowledge but whether i came with or not i'd have to learn it twice so it's it's relevant i see many fields would be relevant what isn't about your particular background that led you to a vocation in higher education i i have always liked the atmosphere of academic institutions settings i like they eat an openness to ideas that might really excite been that comes from our teaching and discovery and contributing to knowledge

i like a setting in which we are engaged in education and helping to form i young adults and prepare them for their lives and for their watch out for their work so that combination of helping to prepare a degenerate the next generation of alarm workers teachers professionals scientists and it just the quality of auburn out why the universe in terms of focus on teaching and learning and new ideas and openness those are the things that are attractive about university to me if you were working in an university setting either in administration or in teaching where would you be right now why i don't know where i would be although i have a fantasy that i would be a landscape or perhaps a dancer those are those are the things that i think i might've done a landscape or maybe more more realistically i'm just curious what kind of danced you enjoy doing all kinds of very cool we may have already hit on this with the dancer

landscape was one thing we don't learn about you just by looking at your resume or let me rephrase is what something that that might surprise people about you maybe though it knows those things would be as good as any i can think of of a particular thing so asked me that question before i think it was an end in may and my appointment was announced and i said well that i like to dance that was the same about you might be surprised by them but i don't think there's any win one thing that people would be surprised by may i am pretty much who you see who you see before you can hand i think as people you don't get to know me they find that that that's true i'd like to approach people openly and beal to talk with them directly in and got communicate directly and i don't think there's going to be too many surprises back to shots

yeah don't know that's actually if you if you take one of those myers briggs test and aspires to help yeah i'm actually an introverted person and and people look and they go but you're speaking all time you know people choosing the top analysts or things but and in august and it was an interesting article about your go about it or injury executives and what they did is they really talked about it as it had he spent your free time what sort of things do you like to do and so for me i visited your boss cell with a book for five hours in man on fire that is great that people ran out you know as mayor fact i prefer to have my own little quiet time and that's my sort of really survive on a vacation going to a beach house or somewhere where it's lots of time it's a dare read novels and detective stuff and i think that's a great vacation time my wife and i have much loved to be around people all the time so you know we have to

we have to sometimes understand that the differences in the way we're wired but i think most people just a census around people seem to enjoy and i do that the quiet time i would like the same thing and you know i consider the tv and watch a football game by myself and i'm happy so i think that's probably the one thing that people with after many be surprised it now price that fly and tj is one of my little thing is for myers briggs hasn't changed in twenty years you've met us at all she's also an engineer by training and she's teasing here a kansas state highways seat on the transition now both of us so she's enjoying a transition quite a bit actually interestingly enough an interesting story she actually band mate hank he has about ten years ago to give a seminar here and visit was so what point during faculty so and she came back saying if we ever have an opportunity as a state might be any place to be in our careers and this was long time ago we were at michigan tech still so it's interesting

how those kind of things were so she had actually been on the campus way before i ever head in and then were going to be interviewing process i was college thing that these jobs are are really twenty four seven and erect healthy that you read about it say mentally i know it but but preparing for that is it is there is no preparation you to sort have to dive and that's been our perspective we just forgotten the campus community but there are some times where you just really beat and you go get in your face is that i you know i can't to stop and i think you know it'll take us a while but we're in a kind of asset out that along with being parents and so that's the the other we have a son who's a manhattan high school in and so we've got parent things we also have to make sure that we're doing in and i don't know that we're doing it exactly right but there were were doing our best shot and and we found people around us are also understand that sometimes renee to downtown in and so it's going well that after one

year ask me again and it will probably have a different answer in unison here one son who came in and had with you you also left another son back in mississippi where he's a freshman in mississippi state university how is that going for one into does that give you a different perspective on the function of a university from a parent's perspective it does tens do very well kept him as or eighteen year old and he's majoring in computer science at mississippi state and in person on campus at mississippi state was the same as yours so he went to football games for eight years and was engaged in the university community and things so i went out when we were meeting he knew that's where you still want to go to school and we did come to basketball games or side story here in colorado and i'm pat roscoe who is our vice presidents do life is the most affective collegiate recruiter in the world worked

at my son for an entire game to try to change the kansas state and have said that that did a great job and the state of mississippi state we have a very similar to the situation has just aren't kansas with a kansas a math and science focused high school and i think in haste there is one of those in mississippi has gone a mississippi school for math inside since two years went on a campus you it's intense and for kids interested in those years at him with a bat so his last two years he lived away from home in the war and some of that so for him the cold war experience and and time management some those days he was very used to because he's already done it in high school of four and is it for most palestinians is not mary sport after your degree it's can you handle the freedom and time management analyst of the girls won't be in college so he'd go well have a great time so that the mississippi state cut a fresher welcome event with a kansas state shirt on so i saw my friends their senses or

picture of certain gadgets are somehow address correctly or they taste better so it's the whole family's wired and against that chancellor how is your husband's a little making the transition to kansas i think he's enjoying it immensely it has met many people in town and on campus and so he's been quite busy and tie he has all already started and plans to continue volunteering at haskell it so he said many of the island the members of the community there as well i if you have had a chance to meet him you know he's very outgoing he doesn't meet a stranger and so he's not had a difficulty of finding things to do and people to talk to universities and colleges often struggle with trying to find a balance between academic research and teaching and athletics how do you help our institution to find that balance so we start off by saying universities exist for or academic

reasons for education and research and not athletics are often an important clue pollan of universities as it is it is here i think very what athletics hass to offer to university in addition to the possibility of entertainment and excitement is that it helps to build a commitment of the community to university so it's clearly can be an asset i understand though that the primary focus of the university the goal the university is to educate students and to provide a setting for discovery and research and that that always has to be seen as the primary goal and mission of university the universe he doesn't existe haven't athletics team the athletics team exist to support a strong university can you tell us a little bit about the new edition at the stadium and how that will be used to support

academics that is an exciting development you are referring to the gridiron proposal which is an improvement to the football stadium and now the funding for this improvement would come through licensing of new us seeing that would be provided in the expansion and in this project of the first off funds a raise in that way would be to pay for the cost of the project but then the next bolus of money that comes from the project would be given to the university ile for academic programs and they come in the nays are forty million to the university this is an outstanding development and so wonderful opportunity to look for to especially as it is i began here aka you i've worked with the athletic director welcome to perkinson talk with him about this and i think he has to be given a lot of credit for his cell willingness to think of that project and programmed as not only now serving athletics but

also serving the academic mission of university so i'm delighted about this presidential same thing question is yeah this is as the transition time for a lot of us because you go from being a vice president from bs trek fan to do really you're playing a ceo role allen and you know it used to be that it might happen without a pay somebody this amount or whatever and now you're the person put their name on the alabama line all so many of our alumni and and friends of an institution at public universities nationwide associate himself so closely with athletics and so the success of your athletic teams gives people a sense of pride and universally and quite honestly what we see us playing football or basketball or something on tv they'll be some people out there were seventeen year olds interested in where my god a school and open up a laptop or a computer go check out the university

are so it does blend in very much so with our marketing and what it is to be at a big time university of the question is at worst the balance point and i think that's something that will either not athletic directors in presidents and chancellors all struggle with his was the appropriate balance and how much is too much and how many more things to have to do draft like facilities and so on now we saw was a pat answer but it's it's tough and the presidents of the big twelve you together are all of us are distressed at some sour if we have to pay or the fact that we got a key building things on its or like an arms race in the question is who's going to be the first to say well we're not going to go there so i think it's a kansas they were edgy pretty well balanced i think our coach's help us with us at our athletic department tells us what this challenge for us is saying our plan i was dated football in kansas city

or challenge is how can we actually used athletic event there to really promote the university and we take for granted that that connection to curse but i'm engaging our executive team to say ok folks let's talk about not just me the front porch of the university as an athletics is what we get some people walk through the door and walk around the ruins so the sooner they get on the front porch of energy that front door to use an analogy i don't think that happens often as it needs to announce our job is to what we do agree on the athletic events to proponents academic excellence that's part of kansas state officials speaking of sports any comment from you about the scandal involving the athletics apartment that hit the fan just as he arrived in manhattan was an interesting first week the audit came out friday was dave five of my presidency so there was it was really a certain interesting time that i wouldn't wish on anybody else and we we're a rally promoting a couple key messages that have come out that the first is we're going to really

look towards the future and can promote a very positive agenda about the word university is going with what the new leadership came in athletics and the president said we're on the second part that those were going back to look at all our business practices and all those sort of thanks to make sure that we're operating our athletics program another things just like our alumni people expect it's a mess with accountability and credibility and transparency and that's records and changing climate in terms of directors contractors on the back table they made a copy of being happy and free information and always trust and we're doing that regular baseball coaches gets on a multi year contracts same deal that's just the way we're going to continue to operate so were trying to go back and say we're fixing areas where we were as a composer should be but the bottom line is and this is ivan says several groups the alumni the region's everybody has got a generally the body at the end of the day camp

on the president university to make the most of the best decisions he or she came in and that's also where i've got to make sure that i don't have checks and balances on me that when i make the decision as the wisest one possible and not something that made sense you know it one in the morning when i woke up there was a great idea and i we pay for the next ten years so i think that's what the direction were trying to go a group of state auditors have recommended that k u n k state would be more efficient if you increase teacher workloads dropped some classes with low enrollments and talk more courses online how do you go about making an institution like hey you work a state more efficient without significantly impacting a quality education very carefully so i think any anytime or universities should be looking to see ways in which he can be calm more fish and

more fish and does not translate necessarily into teaching more courses the early universe at all such as k u is a research university it has as a primary goal the education and graduations students another primary goal is research and scholarship and faculty and our service is also a goal i don't think that it would be if an efficiency to sacrifice one primary goal for another one it would still have to do all of those things so while that out also i agree that we do need to look for efficiencies are there ways in which we can i increase opportunities for students to get an education but we can't do that at the expense of the other goals the university powerhouse present selves were looking closely law those recommendations and were circling and address every

single one of that was made we are also as an institution committed to being more efficient and and one of the things that some of the budgetary challenges has driven is we really have to look as a luxury we gotta do it because we're going to have less resource cooperate on and so we're starting a process right now that were spent three months getting ideas and people can put him on the way up and all our respect three months to win some analysis of those ideas over a three year period and then war on into the january timeframe have a set of a b and c parties as to how wars on two different fiscal challenges so we're going to be prepared and as part of that six month process we're looking at efficiencies and things that we can do so red address the issues related to post bought it the legislative audit parched haitian but were already in process of doing many of those things and

so i want to go back to a legislature and say folks we really appreciate the hard work that was put into this years our dressing and here's how we're being efficient here's how are using our money more wisely and because no to be honest all of us are in this together in a state agency higher educated twelve all of us and got to look at are we really doing everything week ian resource we have to this is not to be as much of a future with fewer resources at your disposal how do you keep attracting top notch students to k u n k state honestly we have to have very good programs and students have to know about i think being able to say you can come here and be successful is an important part of that i mean being able to provide students who need support own aid student aid is important being able to recognize our house a performance of students with scholarships all those things contribute to attracting students here i believe

that on in the current economic situation that many students have found the prospect of paying for college they're challenging one of the ways i think that is shown is that in some four year universities enrollment it is down or maybe down the sheer what the same time and community colleges they are bursting at the seams in many instances the cost of living expenses for room and board for example hear a k u is higher than the cost of tuition for a native kansan for someone who is having difficulty financially be able to stay home and going and go to school means they're paying half hour or less of what they would otherwise so i think this is going to be a true probably for the next couple of years and that may even out after that neither cvs will eventually come here they'll come here or other four year colleges

florida junior senior years and so we will eventually see those dunes but i think for now the most important thing is holding this out as an education and high quality and really unparalleled experiences of four students for the students who are starting out their education at a community college and then transferring and for their juniors public institutions like hey your case state make that transition as seamless as possible that's a very good question in the business that i've had in the last few weeks i've met with a number of community college presidents and talk with the president johnson county community college i am love for scott community college all and above me a college and hutchinson and so i've met with a number of them and all of them have time phrase that same question on the same issue of

making sure that their good lines of communication between the people are on their campuses and i pay you who know what's to the requirements are what the needs of students are so that when a student comes from a community college to pay you they know that their courses are going to be accepted and that they have the right the right kind of advising and support to help them be successful but this is a i think i had that conversation at least every other day in the last three four weeks presidential to do you feel like you face some of those same challenges in attracting top notch students to kansas state university well part of the limits of edible rod since noted that specifically part of it is a recognition that that we have to look at a go wacky of income sources operate mater university there's no different here the centers anywhere else

we no longer can rely exclusively to ration dollars plus our state budget to operate university we have to use private moneys it would go racing foundation supporting and so on so forth so one of the things that we've got to do is continue to diversify their portfolio just like somebody might if they're investing aren't yet stocks is that he sort of one investment of an eraser one's down you can sort of balance it out with this will continue to force us to do is balance out that portfolio of private mines and foundation endowment and an for profit enterprises and so want to make sure that we got enough resourced runner university but we always have to make sure that we're being in a position to not only maintain affordability but put together a private scholarship money so that we can continue to attract those best and brightest students and what's happening is institutionally were start to realize okay we can't rely on the state of kansas georgia tennessee the state in tennessee too not to pay for everything we're going to have to

be more creative in how we decide if i think so we had a good creative people here but that's just a change over the last thirty years in higher education has just taken us a little longer to recognize and many other places do you also find that like the chancellor the whole issue of community colleges and affordability has really changed the landscape for higher education yeah absolutely and we do have a statistic that will look and say i can live at home for two years i can attend local clinic are just much more cost effective and so one of our solutions that has to really be a strong partnerships with with almost all the counties in the state so that if she used to like to do that we make it so they can transfer into very seamless process and a good good academic advising and they know how to get into the program so they also want their associate's degree or are spending year we go well no those courses were right one so it's for benefit to make sure that we do this thing that's going to

continue to be a trend in higher education's low now as a four years occasional argue that their benefits their strong benefits are showing up as a freshman her first you're still in hand and we'd put your retention programs are helping development or study skills and sometimes people just look purely and say well i have to write a check it's a bigger check in manhattan that it would be at a local school will argue pretty strongly that if we can get a steamy end and get them involved in a lot of the different programs they have set up for students' success that we have a greater deal of confidence in the relevance of graduating contribute back to kansas country an hour ago you both come to campus and a very challenging time for higher education but it's also a really exciting time for both of you chancellor what excites you the most about hey you i think neon excitement on the campus

elbow will on the campus to god continue to be a strong university in to be even stronger i have had faculty staff and students come up and say that i do they're much subscribe to the goals of higher graduation rates and excellence in scholarship and research on the students have started is i walked on the campus and has said that so i think i'm excited by that kind of endorsement of those goals and the other thing is the commitment that i've seen to pay you a hmong faculty staff students and alumni and the number of people who have said if there's any way that you think i can help just call one day and that has been very gratifying to say one of the most surprising things about me being canvassed a president kirk solves is that his

office contains a life sized cut out of captain james t kirk from star trek what's the story behind that you know i was a girl our saliva campus was doing a kickoff for their star the new year than all the factories staff and so asked me to come and give a talk and it turns out that their theme was a star trek fame and others were louder our aviation programs or they had this cut out there of the new captain kirk and all the factories vapid inside and they said that i was their captain kirk so there was this is a native man tonight have it all out there and so i brought it back and put it up to my office and it's gonna need to see this so easy and a helmet also lyricist captain kirk and that was from amok time as an undergraduate at virginia tech so it's a moniker this or stuck around for a while and anyway as indeed so he was in the gifted one more surprising things around she and flirt with the most unusual thing will find it being your office i have shown in the car and off no i don't

forget your eye it i don't have the i don't have a cut out i'm in my office and see really funny things uprising there i have a signed a music score from james taylor addressed to me what's fun is that and how did you get that well it ms caroline on my mind but i it is addressed to me dear bernadette to that are seeing stellar law how absolutely cool but they came back to visit every year part of your jobs will be to testify to lawmakers about the good things k u n k state are doing and what kind of money it will take to keep doing those things if there was one message you'd like to get across to lawmakers and to the people of kansas for that matter what would that message be gentler than their investment in higher education and that in particular their investment in paid you is of course that

it pays off it will be to the benefit of the state of kansas for themselves i think number one thing really is that are we have an outstanding educational experience with a very hardworking set of faculty and staff that is doing everything they can to ensure that work inch that we're going to have that quality educational experience when they send their sons and daughters to kansas state university and many other schools are open the same thing a lot of times people will get caught up in well you know the fact there are working very hard as i wish i had a job we're only had to be there twelve hours a week and most of our factory routinely put in fifty sixty hours a week to work and we can see how trying to do the best job that they can and i just want the residents in the state legislators to know that you're not going to find a harder working people that work at the university's finance faculty

and staff and so i did do we need more mind is there are many more money absolutely but we're doing everything we can to make sure using every dollar we get in a responsible fashion so that people can be proud of the job that we're doing anything else either of you would like to add no i think you've covered a good range of questions and topics the only thing that i would say is said what attracted me about this position in addition to the obvious commitment of people to university was the us sense and that there was a strong aspiration to not only be strong but to be even stronger are academically and and that was very attractive and the way that they couldn't be on search committee for trade university and i wanted to be part of that and i'm happy to be a part of it we've been

visiting with chancellor bernadette gray little and president kirk schulz thanks so much to both of you for joining us today you're welcome joey ross well thank you president kirk shelled inauguration is taking place this upcoming week with a university wide ice cream social wednesday september twenty a third is official inauguration takes place thursday september twenty fourth at two o'clock in bramlage coliseum with a reception to follow schultz what gave his first state of the university address on friday september twenty fifth that event will be at three thirty in the case state alumni center ballroom i'm j mcintyre k pr present is a production of kansas public radio at the university of kansas why aren't we transfix on this day a tragedy where is the outbreak identified with harry truman for many reasons the pundits always told him during his first time that he was sent you

can educate a boy educate an individual over educated girl going to take a community one of the great myths of american history is it weakens that has like that celebrated his humble origins that is he spent a lifetime the toughest decision that they give when you send somebody else's son or daughter and harmful enough about america from presidents poets actors to ambassadors apr presents is a way to listen in on some of the most interesting speakers that come to northeast and east central kansas macintyre join me a lot every sunday night for haiti are concerns here are kansas public radio nice

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