6 University of Kansas

WAGE SCALE

As a result of appropriations made by the 1943 legislature, substantial in-
creases in wages and salaries were provided for civil service employees, but
after meeting these civil service needs, nothing remained to provide increases
to the various members of the teaching staff. Modest adjustments were made
in individual cases for this group from the reserve balances, but the salaries of
a large proportion of the faculty remain significantly below pre-depression
levels. Provision for some attention to this situation is made in the salaries
and wages request for next biennium.

So THE CHALLENGE OF THE ERA OF PEACE

During the biennium, the adaptation of the University to peacetime needs
was begun. There was established a Bureau of Testing and Guidance to pro-
vide returning military men and our civilian students with the latest and best
service in individual vocational counselling, that their education may be fo-
cussed intelligently on the aptitudes and interests of the individual student.
A Veterans Service Office was established with a University administrator of
veterans’ affairs to assure a personal, helpful service to returning service men
and women.

Faculty committees were set to work for a thorough restudy of curricula and
requirements, to assure our Kansas young people of the best and soundest
basic education. Plans were laid for strengthening and increasing the Uni-
versity’s services to the people of the state, in the belief that the University
of Kansas has the obligation to serve all the people, through radio, extension
classes, institutes, bulletins, and the many state agencies and service laboratories
which are a part of this University, including the widespread and important
work of the Geological Survey. Of especial interest were the plans laid in co-
operation with the Kansas Medical Society and the Kansas State Board of
Health for a series of postgraduate medical institutes to be held in various
parts of the state for the medical profession.

Notable also, as a milestone toward the future, was the establishment of the
William Allen White School of Journalism, a memorial to one of the Uni-
versity’s most distinguished alumni, to serve as the future home for the pro-
posed William Allen White Foundation.

There was also organized the University of Kansas Research Foundation to
coordinate and administer the many research projects, both state and privately
supported, which are being carried on in this institution.

THE LONG-RANGE FUTURE

The biennial requests for the support of the University are discussed in de-
tail in a subsequent section of this report. It must here be emphasized that
higher education in America is receiving greater financial support than ever
before. Institutions are growing in strength. The institutions of Kansas, with
their splendid academic traditions, must not fall behind in this development.
Only with strongly supported colleges and universities will Kansas succeed in
keeping her young people within the state. Our young students are being
eagerly sought by institutions elsewhere. And history shows that when our
young men and women leave the state to be educated, too few ever return to