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

it's been a year since the university of kansas and kansas state university came under new leadership and j mcintyre and to date on k pr present k u chancellor bernadette great little encased a president kirk solves talk about their first year what's ahead for next year and their vision for higher education in kansas we'll also answer questions submitted by kansas public radio listeners chancellor president welcome morning so i visited with each of you about a year ago when you first came to kansas how did that first year ago chancellor let's start with you it's been a very exciting year is then a good year i am i got a chance as i anticipated to meet a large number of community our representatives as well as they felt well as a campus in despair you with some challenges is that is that if i'm here i think as a certain different roles and appreciate overseas i thought i knew what the president did

and i think after the first year you really realize how big a job how complex it obvious but it certainly been fun it's been challenging and i'm hopeful for a lot less than four years did you have a similar experience of thinking you know what the head of a university does i mean you know not really it i work very closely with the chancellor and my previous position so i was i'm very aware of the issues i think the thing that is probably the most different is the side she huge huge amount of attention from the media and that's the thing that's most of that although i knew that would be part of the job is growing much more a part of a job and of my experience this year then i would've anticipated glad to be part of that is part of that process i get a question we got from one of our listeners he says the feed from manhattan and down i

think it was very brave of provincial and chance are great little trip a question i ought to say that i attended both of these fine university and i reached the patriots complete state and one degree from katie you and i think a lot of those degrees but i'd like to hear words for that show and to answer great little think are very most important differences between the two university sure i think the overall there's a lot of similarities between the two institutions in terms i think the things that we're trying to do on a national basis but there's clearly some differences that are really based on history and mission so one of the key differences between the two schools is kansas state university's elaine grant schools so we have a very strong focused mission in an aquaculture an extension and things like that that are just part of being a few a great university

on i think that probably in my mind differentiates what i consider the major differences between between our two institutions we're both trying to accomplish a lot in terms of research and scholarship and doing a great job educating kansas students and billing national academic programs and things like that i would agree with bauer with that the difference in the types of programs that we emphasize and offer would be the things that i would make saving the most difference i and at the same time there is similarity and the basic goals of the university but you can see a flavor of the difference and some of the day a big areas that we've talked about his years so oddly you hold it in bath program project how you would describe it it is very proper to create the kind of research that is features so heavily at a kansas state and on the other hand because we have a medical center the nc i

designation has been a big focus this year and i think is that type of thing the type of programs that we have that come from on the two different universes of lang great one kick out one case n and k u out that that is what characterizes the difference i think there also are some differences it as i go around and talk to the communities in terms of the parts of the state there are two universities have play too but ed bass the idea of having excellent education programs outstanding research and being an economic driver in and providing service to kansas is the same in both places chantal you started out i mentioned that you've done a lot of traveling around the state to meet where a long's parents prospective students and supporters and presidential primary done exactly the same thing is there one message that you've heard over and over again from cancer is about what they would like to see in higher education or a different direction that they hope higher education will

take in the state so that they misspelled like to question so is there one message and what it wants in terms of different direction i i think that arm certainly in my conversations people want to see evidence at the university of kansas is working on behalf of the state we're going to have a say both in terms of educating students and in terms of the contributions of university makes in a way economically culturally and so on and so that and a great deal of pride in the university so i got that message i also have on and as i've traveled the western part of the state not the clear message that they think are the people that i've talked to want to see us more dear want to see is out there and feel that they should have more tension years ago to sew a combination

of pride in the university our aspiration for the university to prosper and do well by their students and by their communities and also that we should be there should be more present yeah take up as i travel throughout the state regardless of where it is there's been a tremendous passion and people are very very proud of the educational spears ahead at kansas state university and i think purple's or color so you get a dance and you see purple everywhere and then that's it and that shows i think institutional pride not just in athletics and academics as well and i think that's an important point is sometimes we go out that people certainly want to talk about you know the case that football or basketball or whatever but we get a lot of questions too and this is good and positive about the direction of the university work out favorite continue to do and because we're laid grant school we probably get a lot of questions about what kind of things are we doing to support teams it's

not that either any universe in the state don't need to support this package will do but certainly people wanna know kirk wait you know you talk about our search you talk about this or that house that could help me and i think we have to say we haven't been a collector stamps have to make sure that that both of us are communicating reasons why not national reputations for educational institutions are important to the state of kansas and and that's not really a k uk state issue being separate we need to great national research universities here and somehow something happened that universe in kansas is not that they put a state nor should be considered by spores so i'm i tell a lot of our groups that we do a certain amount of research that you have a larger research portfolio that we do that the university of washington is like a billion dollars in a steep was both together were not even half of that so we got a lot of room for growth it's important we communicate that there's a reason that refer to

start activity is critical to the future state kansas and it's not somehow degrading undergraduate educational experience of people get because we become more prestigious research institutions and then i like to underscore that i is very important i think to understand that having a national reputation is a benefit to cancer so students died in kansas and that odd given that we are research universities late one of the benefits to students ought to be their exposure to research and that's an advantage is that a hard sell to make two parents who aren't necessarily my concern about academic research whether it's a pop fly or not they're more concerned about their child's been a great experience i think we have to we have to attack that message directly in other words i think we can't make the implication that somehow it's it's better to university or worster university a worse for the credit cards are better so

when i talk with parents not talk directly about one of the advantages of coming to a research universities that their son or daughter can protests of hay in a project that is cutting edge that is the kind of thing that there may not be a definitive answer to that if they want to see their son or daughter bee challenge the way that the light nothing else that as an advantage of why you are going to a research intensive school it as opposed to maybe a school is only focused on undergraduate education so instead of looking at eyes in either war i think we're trying to really aggressively sell it as an important and integral part of what should be a a major university educational experience i say all adding that sounds terrific all we actually passed or her focus on her campus and say i tell you about a great research or because it's a big one a pride of it and i said well what's documented how many more states actually engaged also we found out

well it doesn't really have a set idea of our campus of what an educational or search experts was like something was seventy one saying and philosophies and melts him in chemical engineering this intimate crimea different kinds of wool were a workout of next year's actually defining what that experience needs to be my meet one on one with a faculty member or might go toward the enemy does the commonsense thing so that if a student comes out and says i've been involved in undergrad a research experience this is what it entails but i think that's a critical mass is because if you look out there the economic drivers are major research universities and the researchers would drive some of those kinds of thanks so it's important selling point it's important to address directly and it's important that that the chance or not both every chance we did advocate for the us whether legislators were parents with with any group that we have because it's a it's a statewide issued not a particular university issue and in my being one of the most

convincing our conversations if you can call a conversation is when you meet a parent or go to paris and they see the war against unions have done on whether they're working guy and chemistry or engineering of winners in performance when they see the results of the stimulus act to purchase a patient and our faculty working pretty spacious they are excited they are very impressed and so i think one of the opportunities that we have is to make sure that we provide more exposure to things that students actually arguing making sure that people understand that those opportunities are here for a large number of students one of the challenges that you both have had this year is dealing with a really tight budget situation and it looks like that's not about to change anytime soon what's your method for the kansas legislature about about funding for higher

education in kansas in a time where where budgets are really tight obviously this is say it is that one of the challenges i think thirty four the legislature the way the point that we have to make is that they eat their support for higher education is an investment that will pay us rather than a drain on the budget and that it is an investment that nice be made now ah for the future that we cannot really allow the universities to deteriorate and then expect all of sudden it is going to change around it takes a team a great deal of time to do to build a university reputation university programs and when you lose that it is very very difficult to get back so having a legislature see what is being done to the universe he

as an investment in the future the state is most important message i think that we need to get i think we i concur with with chance the chance of comments i think we it's really critical for us to continue though to communicate probably somewhat different way with the legislature than has traditionally been done by higher education and not just in the state can't cross country or were really emphasizing things like return on investment for every dollar that comes in too any institutions or higher education system here's the dollars a return so if it's for example does a quick example is a kansas state or we're going to do some work hundred forty million and an externally sponsor research as last year that happens to be just about the dollar figure that we get from the state can't just run universities essentially our factory out there hustling one dollar for every dollar that we get in that system one measure that sister sources not jobs economic impacts in other areas and things so

instead of looking upon as we're sending money in higher ed and they're learning it over there at the universities we need to really continue to probably change our messaging as to the impacts that universities making the state the second thing though that that we're doing is we have to step up are we have to change the portfolio of funding a kansas state university said that were not as highly dependent on fluctuations in the state budget and it also has a new snap offenders are changes overnight that private giving is going to be a major component of kansas state in the future and so we're going to have to take her fundraising from now eighty five nineteen eighty year hundred fifty sixty million dollars a year and over the next three or four years and so were really aggressively to step up and asked our alumni our very successful alumni that evokes you gotta help us build a great university and not and not become as dependent on looking at that to be cover for all

of our solution so it's a long term process and that i think we're going to work on developing a vague water portfolio of funding for for the institution and i will say that our alumni our are equally enamored of this approach because people say well for a few more successful was for tenure successful this year if you're taking the pressure off the legislature on higher ed and i had i wanna get every dollar we can out of the legislature to help with your job better but the real islam is those dollars continue to decrease we better be planning now for for last hours to safely you positioning it absolutely it and i would say unfortunately i think white curtis it is true and i had that guy we've we look at the funding per student out that we receive is much much lower than it was ten years ago and we have no indication that it has gone up and or that

it is going up and so just being realistic and looking at what's happened we have to acknowledge that that is the case the if i look at the total a university funding overall now the state funding is less than a quarter of that funding and so that's already it's already happened to him today to a very great extent and unfortunately may continue and one of the concerns that i have about the stadium yesterday indict in addition to the fact that it makes it difficult to run the things he already said the state funding is very important for educational programs especially the graduate programs and when they eat ice state are contributes alas alas to the education of students then we have to find those resources other places fund raising is one of them but tuition is another one and so i am very concerned about the effect a loss of state support on our

ability to offer education to students without regard to their income or economic background and i think that is that are a serious loss off for us kelly's perfectly into a question that we receive by email from a parent in prairie village to ask each of you what specific plans do you have to keep tuition costs from spiraling out of control chancellor we're trying to look at our tuition iron overload long terms and in conjunction with the other areas of support as elle was just enjoy the areas of support that we have is actual research funding but that does that is specific to research and could not be used for other university needs we have fundraising which allows us to raise funds for a scholarship and other forms of student age which is very important i mean i think that is as long as we try to

maintain a certain level of quality and certain level of opportunity for students that is going to be important to focus on stay support intuition so they're a pirate day costs have not decreased as a question of how to get the fires that's why the state support is so important is because that allows us to keep the tuitions are down as the state support decreases that has to be made up by to wish and fund raising and and so is so it is not a job that the state level support does not really protected good situation with regard to live to wish and if you want to maintain the same level programs and the same level of qualities we are doing things everything that we can to be more efficient in a way the university it is ron and even in the kind of programs that we offer ah but i had some point there is a there is a cost when you find ways to

to address those costs present selves yeah what echoed many of the cancerous comments i think were doing a lot of the same thing we're trying to control costs for example this year an art to wish him and he's proposal a lot of the towers are going for increased health care costs and so the people can look so actively tuitions going up you know part of it is we're just trying to keep her head at the water level with some of these kinds of things that are not i shall we say our choices that were making their tanks that we we feel we need to do the second part is we're really aggressively continuing i'm unsure where the fund raising side to really focusing in on three curious in and one of those three a student endowment to support student scholarships and finally we're taking some additional dollars internally and re focusing them on and i'm eating student aid needs but with the cuts coming

we can't keep pace with external fundraising events like that too to keep things as affordable as we would like to i think go when things i would communicate to the listening audience is people here do remember universities are massive complex organization so we're six hundred fifty million dollar five hundred five thousand five hundred employee operation and sometimes it's easy were people accountable just cuddle bear here tumbled over there if this was if we were company located anywhere in kansas we would be by far when the largest employers in the state and i think sometimes communities and folks they look upon us more in that particular record because lower educational institutions we've got a lot of those kind of issues that they're out there so every time we get a salary increase what happens is people buy more cars to me they eat out or you know it's a it's a cumulative kind of thing every time we cut people will buy that you know they'll upgrade their house in to listen to

that and so those economic impacts are really profound when people look and say we got all that money on easy for you just keep cutting and hacking and keeping those costs down so ordinary thing we can but i think it's a much more complex issue than just what is the percent tuition increase that we put out there from your ear let's get another question from a listener good evening chancellor and president when he imaged detail from lawrence our question for both of us non kansans they press bar day and preview the logo especially the attitudes towards education i am also curious how's your current school k u or a state compares to your previous postings and institutions and finally what has been the biggest surprise by either the state of kansas

or the school for youth and she arrived us so you know i'll start they obviously there are a lot of similarities end i can say that and sometimes i've been surprised by the level of similarity i view it it's their students their faculty their research programs i mean i think even sometimes the arguments that groups have are the same there are there which makes me think that they have to do with organizations rather than individuals of also they are there is a great deal of similarity a in particular in comparison to north carolina i think they did and this goes back to really the common that were if you were talking about earlier i think there was more consciousness and commitment at north carolina to thinking of how the university stood and national program standing and so on but that was much more conscious

the air that i have found it to be as odd talk with people around kansas so there are huge assets of people in the state that they want the university to be then that daschle or so i think that is one of the differences but they are the similarities are to it in terms of the way the university operates the program's error art that is certainly very striking the level of the devotion of the alumni to the university is similar maybe even stronger now i hear i have something that is very impressive and i've been impressed by that sense i when i first started talking with people i hear it's an overwhelming commitment to the university i so i would say there are more similarities than more similarities than there are differences when that came out i spent eight years in mississippi state university before coming here which is which is wayne great university is well armed and unlike bernadette mention i think i was struck

more by similarities that was differences so for example the political leanings of mississippi kansas are very similar in terms of a general a conservative nature i'll say generally republican orientation of one one statement put it that way between between the two states the population was almost identical in both are very strong agricultural states and so mississippi state a state except for size are very similar to have that area schools are laying grant that strong agony engineering tradition and some of those kinds of things so the difference is i think kansans as a whole value education public education a little bit more than i think mississippians as a whole and they were certainly kansas state a better funded institution and mississippi state was and so those are the kinds of things and see out their kansas in my mind represents a really unique combination

the sort of practical up for outsiders characteristic of midwesterners with some of the friendliness that you sort of associate it with southerners that i think kind of blends together a little bit i'm very very well that you maybe don't see quite as much of you made several states than the work or i think at the time you get to texas she was a little bit of the midwest so i think it's a nice blending of the personalities from different areas of the country and k staters have like the k u graduate lots of passion for their institution and i think i have been impressed with that and i think that mississippi state had a lot of passion but i i don't think i've dealt with alumni university that i worked at so far that it felt so intensely about their institution and experience that they head at that institution and so it reads and let me just say i think lee odden your

description of the kind of practical and friendly way which people on the you served as something that is as striking here and harden i have found that in kansas and if you meet someone they don't know what political party they belong to you should assume it's republican party in north carolina if you did know what part they belong to you should assume it was democrat how wherever oz having said that you couldn't tell whether politics were by the label of their party and i think that was true for democrats in north carolina just as is true of republican side here in kansas so i think the label is different but each one had a wide variety of of points in a point of view let's try that question from dale i believe it was i am with any big surprises since coming here i think there's yet out how i'll put it this way i think i've been impressed with the state and the people of the state like a sort of previously mentioned but i think

sometimes detected that people sort of expect that great things are going to happen in kansas because we're just sort of in the midwest and you know he's got to care about us they were to anatomy in people and i think people may be proud not just of their institution that of their state and i'm not saying that people wore but i think there's an idea that sometimes down deep we can compete op as a state i think when you look at that the cancer designation that barricade you is pursuing event happened and and some of the stuff is happening in kansas city you know there's a lot of things to be proud of in the state and i think we're a progressive that we have some real opportunities ahead of us but we don't need to feel a need as a state has somehow were just not going to be quite as competitive is oklahoma or or a nebraska our misery your or anything like that and then i maybe not stating that very well but i think that's been an impression out there is

that i feel up and saying we can be really good and i think people go we would like to be really good but i'm just not sir yes really kahn a possible and and i think that's part of what our experiences of travel and that kansans politically here in the state you know when you said that made me smile is i've had conversations with people where they say will and cans will say it like that a similar north carolina we break all the time and so it really is very very very different approach a very different style and some of the things that god i've been no surprise by don't directly deal universe but i am surprised and impressed by the existence of the bioscience authority that at some point a group of people decided that it would be worthwhile to invest and bioscience night in a way that has on i am surprised and impressed by the johnson county research and attacks that a

county you would agree to tax themselves for the benefit of education sciences cell that's very impressive is not typical odd and so i'm surprised by those things that they actually have had happened here and the level of our community commitment that's saint and people and cities both small and large as i've traveled around that they grade civics indictment i think is something that happened or been impressed by let's hear senator lamar alexander published an article in newsweek which i'm sure you both read about why college education shouldn't take four years in a key ally and animist remind we you can do it in three proposal and and talked about a number of schools who are aggressively pursuing getting their students in a non and three years what's your

reaction to that type of approach to higher education do you think of three year bare bones degree is something that either institution would be interested in pursuing an end if not what are the downsides to that um i'll start that one i think some of it is market forces day of its most of us will respond to the kidneys if there is huge demand out there for that i think will start living in that particular direction however let me be an advocate for that in a passive sense some of the way that we do education now so my son is a soft of a rising sophomore computer science and so when i'm writing checks maybe ago three years to become a nice for the house to do it but what he's doing this summer is he's engaged in some research experience where he is learning things that he's not getting in the classroom his party's educational experience but not directly taking a class so is he sitting by the

pool the summer no part of what he'll do when he starts his sophomore year is he'll be better prepared for the workplace or graduate school or whatever he likes to do by making news of sunday's times i think we talked a lot of her students we find that they're doing things during some are better in there were field internships cooperate education opportunities things like that the second thing is we talk about affordability earlier a license also take jobs through the summer to help them pay for parts of their education now maybe tuition dollars and maybe the dollars they use for sort of peripheral things on the side about living away from home i think there is some positive many passive benefits by having those kinds of internships and it work experiences interspersed through the educational experience and look back to world war two there's a lot of schools pick engineering schools that went to three year baccalaureate degree as we went you're way out there trying

to get people ask what was that the existing land up after the war was over schools went back to that there was no huge to me and to keep those continues to greece functioning so while i understand and respect that that is a perspective i don't think that's the direction that i see our education experience a kansas state calling a town near future i don't think we're going to make a wholesale arm move in that direction as students can get a degree in three years if they pursue that kind of compact an intense experience now and i know there are some universities that are looking at that as an option for some students especially the students to arm very well prepared when they come in it's going to go through that process so it would be something to consider as an option i don't think is something that we are considering as a model for all are all of our students and i also believe that

it depends on what you want a college education to be so if you want a college education to consist of the completion of a certain number of courses and asset than i think that some of that compact rain on my work if you want to have the opportunity for students to explore different kind of course opportunities different kind of experience to opportunities is we just described as it may have to have time nola to take courses but to reflect and do some other things that help them to a consolidated learning that they may get in in the classroom and in other places so ever i think is a very important question right now especially with the economy like good especially as their art a for profit universities that are offering students experiences that consist of taking courses and they get a degree and bob will have to decide as a society whether that's what we want a college education to consist of

a series of courses or if we wanted to be a series of courses and some other kind of experiences that change the overall experience of the student it's a really interesting point because i notice from my my own experience my husband still to this day talks about the most interesting thirty second cannes was a film class and he's an economics major he's a law professor now he doesn't have any kind of film background but yet he still talks about that class has been really influential one under programs like this that opportunity to experience at one called a fuck last day of class it's totally out of your line of academic pursuit and you would have time for that yeah i think different degree smiles are certainly for different folks and i remember fifteen years ago people say well once distance it gets out there the the classic on to go live in a tormented candidate class with a human professor and five was going to sort of doctors the

restaurant sit at home on a computer in and week we don't we don't see that people still value that that human element and things like that so long i think it's it's important too we talked earlier about were certain scholarly activity sometimes higher it is the only adjective it we don't ever sort of looking to focus as much as we probably need to so the question becomes a philosophical sense should kansas state university focus on becoming the best research wayne kramer see me they need the state kansas and a great job with our kids or do we want so do yes already that research and already three year degree programs after widespread yourself safe and with limited resources but what's occurring is renato rocha job any of it and so i think it's important the focus and decided to we got some outside educational institutions something like this or other things that were

going out what not to pursue that uno be some constituent work out there that would have to say if this is really what you want then then you really need to look at a different outlet not comfortable with that you know we can't be all things to all people and i think we have to focus on interstate nice expect that we're going to focus on because we're going to get less resource that we had previously and if i can keep doing everything out stuff for the same dollar had before or maybe i've had too much money so as my response to that along the same lines the number of high school students who are current currently enrolled getting college credit while they're still in high school has really increased over the last decade or so so that's a number a freshman coming in with the number of college credits under the belt already what do you think of that trend as educators is this a positive thing a negative thing a

little bit about its students come whereas college credit either from taking ap courses and getting taken the ap exams in getting high credit or from taking our dollar role and they have the equivalent truly the equivalent i think it's an advantage got to them they can move into more advanced courses out with a dot com and can make more rapid for progress to be resold by difficult again if the courses are of the level that is commensurate with university courses and i think it can be an advantage to the student out and my concern would be de esa says in which those courses are really taught at a way that they're often his college courses built where they're not really comparable with student comes expecting to be ready for higher placement courses and really is not so i am i'm concerned more about the mismatched between the labeling and the actual quality of the chorus that i am about the student coming with advanced placement yeah i would

i would concur with with upper their thoughts on that i think that's my mother is my biggest issues says there are real if they take calculus and some particular thing and suppose i have credit for is it really equivalent of the pacing and gas that they're against howard as attendant on a personal note about my son had some credits that he could have used and as parents we counselor so you know what i take that class the second time it's not a whore and it was really that easy you know you just sort of walk away with day which never saw the kurds but if it's a class really has been quite as in depth as it was you know the grateful that she gets worse if it can't do that so interesting link and math my son took our advice in english he did not ok so he that can create a dozen credit for call one and it turns out he didn't take his advanced composition class and be done with it quicker we said you know you not great writer you really ought to do this he said on monday that the quicker want to be done with it

and up and indeed it ok in the class and what his keys he could've done that it was ok in the class so i think it's really important that that parents i think it's great first is to take those classes in high school because it's more accelerated and more in depth than typical high school curriculum but i think you have to be careful that you show up you go what my son or daughter has done with their freshman year guest here's where we get angry parents sit on a saw or classes and get to five and they go well your instructors are terrible because junior virginia rather whatever is always made all days and achy and be tested so that's that's a tough conversation have a parent where it's a busted nose never seen to be in a white you know they showed up in your institution did this so it's really working hard to make sure those classes are really equivalent to the rate that don't get a case they were playing you were any of the video of your universities in the state our next listener

question is from emporia i am john richard schrock i teach at a state university in kansas and my concern is with academic quality i think he has calculated that only twenty five percent of students who take the azt in kansas are college ready but with border regions push for retention and doesn't pose the danger of diluting down the value of a college degree and promoting grade inflation i'm like you know i think that the faculty have dined a good job of maintaining those standards in terms of college courses and expectations and that will always be my communication to them to continue to do that and i think that for what we have to do is to communicate with potential students with incoming students better or what they expectations are for their performance and to work with their our schools to make sure that they have those experiences in school because the goal is to ensure that they have better success

and that they graduate with a degree and i think that is in the preparation and i i don't really have concerns and faculty are all of a sudden go and start to be easy graders i guess not a real a real concern on and i haven't seen it at a tennessee i want to make sure that students have the preparation that will allow them to be successful i don't think we have any stage show up at kansas state that are not they don't have the academic skills to get a college degree what happens is it's a lot of other things that that really hurt the students' ability to successfully complete that freshman year about time management is a terrible issue with many of our states we have helicopter parents out there so every morning monday get him up every morning on a basket and homework you know those kinds of things are so what occurs as they come to college with a set of academic credentials that look very solid they had somebody looking over their shoulder every day of their life and also they show up they had nobody going did you get

up and a classically secure more correctly you have those kinds of the issues i think in all of us at all and higher ed struggle with you know how do we take a statement about twenty nine mac tn as a three aid in high school and all the sudden they get a one two after the first semester i ended has little to do with the fact that not smart enough to take those classes i think though one of the things thats interesting is we could solve that freshman sophomore retention issue easily week a jac tradition standards way out ok so we take only the best students it will happen if you look at florida and you look at texas a series of a school public universities that have these really high numbers they take a very elite status did so how do you balance in a state of tuna happening in people to too making sure that we're being we have access available to kansas kids to

come to the school's ii and we keep those retention numbers up so we have to have here i say we the collective sense intervention programs if you will to make sure that we're working on life skills and study skills and all those things that we can take stinson they come in and without the authority a ct and some of those credentials and help them successfully navigate get a college degree contribute to the state economy in the future and i think there are art a number of things that we can do this it's certainly clear that students' attendance a class for example as a huge project for us of student success are a lot of studies on that and so there are things that we can do to help students learn how to beat college students much more effectively there things that we can do to help give them feedback early on in the process and then give them the support but i also believe that it will be important to communicate to students clearly

the expectations for how they need to be repaired not as a way of excluding them but is away having them have brett better preparation know what to be is to be expected and helping them to be successful when they get here would that is the end we're going to have kansas students i think as the students are good enough to do the work and he's begun and so that's not the issues are they prepared to have the right skills the right attitude right habits and so on that are important to be successful when it switched gears entirely now you both a year respected institutions have had to deal with in the scandal involving athletic department this year what lessons are there how to balance athletic departments where the mission of higher education the servicer as an interesting question we phrases so we both had issues to deal with having to do with

iran inappropriate scandals how rewarding described behavior with in some portion of athletics on and then that has become a major news item because of the interest that people have in athletics and so they had i was trying to think where earlier this year whether there's anything else that could happen at university that would've had the kind of attention that either the conference realignment or their ticket issue had and so ann and i don't i don't know that there is one could hardly get a message is out so is certainly there's something going on we have to address it but then it becomes a huge issue that takes a lot of time a lot of attention and it takes the focus away from the other things that you're trying to do with the university so if it as i thought about it the sheer i wish i could get that kind of attention and some of the other things that we are doing at

the university and trying to do evil things that are going well are things that we need help with and sell it i would love to have that kind of attention to it so you're saying if this scandal involving say the physics department it wouldn't be quite as newsworthy is absolutely not absolutely not or if i say i'm a scandal or positive thing i am i a once we get that ncr designation there was the in bath program is finalized we get that kind of coverage i think it actually within the athletics program you've gotta have outstanding leadership from your athletics that sets the tone for how that unit is going to sort of operate and i dont mean just in terms of balancing the books and things like that that pop how in gates' involved on earth is that individual in campus academic life and how involving take your coaches in campus academic why the athletic director sets of my cabinet

and that he's awake force graduate and we've met several times when we're discussing an academic issue that he'll bring up somebody we go wow you know but it's that engagement of athletics within the campus and i don't mean just on football sadder is that that is actually critical of the second is that there's a passion out there about at college athletics that there are alumni all feels so if i brought the nobel prize winning lecturer in physics and the football stadium like to put fifty thousand people in their first hour comes out for over again she still a lot fifty thousand people there so you know some of it is we've we've got this passion out there at the division one level that that sort of this created this this desire to be successful the third thing is we take people that have always been absolutely winners of everything we make and head coaches we put all together and

they're all looking for a way to sort of get a little bit ahead now not on why the people do anything inappropriate it is not that that you got all these highly successful people have one all time he put a mall together in a unit and i think it's a different kind of amnesty or then you can have just about any anywhere else sort challenge is how do we use that the case of the passions they are and how we use that to really move the university forward and people always say athletics is the front force universal that problem is people never come in off the front porch through the front door they're like oh yeah ck state park at all that stuff that when do we actually make them take that step that goes okay i see all the stuff i wanted something more bath university said this year for a fall i've charge for marketing educations grip on campuses i want everything in the football stadium at our six hyundai nhtsa learn one new thing about the adverse effects and one new thing that they don't know and they haven't learn before say when he goes wow that's colony i didn't

realize that just not that athletics is going be about something of an academic program or not a triumph what i'm with sixteen messages at each game so he's a westerner simplistic in and boys are really have much of an impact we extend that to refer four seasons and all the sudden people get used to the fact of the lords of the day about my alma mater that i did know about and so we're really working as a cabinet to say how we capitalize on at a fixed number of people sitting in an arena toward i'm a convicted to help promote the overall university and not just our athletic programs would use them successfully as a as a way to get people walking in off that front porch into the building and i mean there's an actual idea and last year during the football season aired on several of the game's a different athletic different academic programs or student groups and so were featured on it during very powerful

bowl games i'm not sure how much and impersonate but i think it's a good idea to tie that in iowa during the games make sure that people will keep that in mind that one of the things that our current federal air i think is really import so you have although a bad pressure that people of style and so on bass important to successful athletic program and a lot of biggie egos the programs are expensive so the question is can helping you use those forces to the benefit of the university obviously they bring people there i think that in addition to being very out front door one of the advantage is a successful and diesel athletic program is it helps to cement a relationship of alumni to the university it's a point of pride and so obviously there are some ways that it benefits the university and the question is

can you continue or can you nature that calls for the athletics program is also won that is consistent with the universe the rather than having a life of its own that's outside of what you would want to be part of the academic atmosphere and i also say that i even though both of us have dealt with significant issues is sheer this question is one that every university with a larger athletic program deals with the particulars that we've had to deal with this year are different but the same issues the same questions the same concerns of factly about the athletic occur everywhere that i've known of that has a larger athletic program so i think i am managing they eat their tensions is one of eight important things that has to be done at the university of all things ever gonna go away but they have to manage how do to make sure you have a successful athletic

program and that it is a coherent part the university i think tom a couple other thoughts i think it's important for the chancellor president whomever to be engaged with athletics but there's a fine point where you go way too far you know i should be talk talk and two of my flight director who were scheduling football but i certainly need to make sure that we are communicating about everything on a regular basis of that athletics is a big component university and i need to make sure that i am appeared and understand all the things that that are occurring in athletics on one of my mentors he was president virginia tech don't leave these revised he gave me what i became president case davis he said have a good working relationship with men's basketball coach the head football coach and her athletic director it said the cut because of those things go south and we same issues of both schools' i just an inordinate amount of time trying to deal with something instead of focused on

the broader issues that we're trying to deal with with educating cancer scares and drug research programs and things like that we have time for just one more question this one is specifically for present selves mr gardner from harry campbell warrior the universe for the right price going forward to control the month apple incorporated that the right to develop hey if you fly and the genetically modified wheat then we'll work to take the team jae su branded genetically modified soybeans so will there be a public for the deal with diana and what impact will genetically modified we have on our exports an expanding organic wheat market in

campo kansas state university is not interested in several selling a public entity like this tip to any particular group organization out what we do want to do though is figure out ways to work with different entities to maximize corridor what's he to work with those within the week industry instead kansas so the opportunity that we have with man monsanto was something that we worked with the kansas wheat commission the kansas association of wheat growers the kansas wheat alliance mine along with monsanto and the kansas state university to make sure that we're going to have a partnership that that they were still a state entity but there weren't maximizing the ability to keep our weed industry competitive in the state so the answers basically no we have no interest in our work selling everything completely out to eat it but i think it's in our best interest to look for partnerships that are going to continue to support this

industry's day present selves chancellor gray little thank you so much for taking time on this visit added talk to us thank you welcome it's been a pleasure to talk with and we've been visiting with chancellor bernadette gray little and president kirk solves as they each begin their second year at the university of kansas and kansas state university respectively i'd also like to think at peterson and vanessa lamoreaux of the kansas board of regents when brents director of university relations at the university of kansas and dina hastings presidential says office for their assistance and scheduling today's interview i don't like to thank all our keep your listeners who submitted questions for our conversation with chester great little and president scholtes i'm kate mcintyre if you get comments about today's k pr presents please drop me a line my email is kate mcintyre at k u that edu that's k n c i n t y r e at k u that edu this program and many of our

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