Section A·Page 10
The University Daily Kansan
Tuesday, December 7. 1999
Hemenway proud of freshman class
Chancellor Robert Hemenway answers a series of questions pertaining to events that occurred throughout the semester and the challenges and accomplishments of the University. Photo by Tara Kraus/KANSAN
Chancellor talks about challenges, accomplishments
By Clay McCuistion writer@kansan.com Kansan staff writer
Chancellor Robert Hemenway enjoys talking about the University of Kansas.
In a 30-minute interview conducted in his Strong Hall office last week, Hemenway spoke at length about the University's accomplishments and challenges at the end of the millennium. At the end of the 1999-2000 school year, 58-year-old Hemenway will mark his fifth year as the leader of Kansas' largest university.
The following questions and answers were excerpted from last week's interview and subsequent e-mail correspondence. Both questions and answers have been edited for length and clarity.
Q: Is there any accomplishment or event you're most proud of this semester?
Hemenway: Obviously, I'm very proud of the quality of the freshman class — the National Merit Scholar enrollment — the fact that once again we've had a lot of very talented academic students who have chosen to come to KU.
I'm very proud of the students and their willingness to take seriously the whole alcohol awareness program. The response to that initiative from the greek community, from the residence halls, from students in general — I think that's been very positive.
Q: What challenge facing the University keeps you up at night?
Hemenway: The problem that keeps me up at night is finding the funds to ensure that KU will be able to make the investments in information technology to prepare students for a 21st century knowledge economy.
Q: Why does the University concentrate on and pay so much attention to National Merit Scholars?
Hemenway: We recruit National Merit Scholars for the same reason that we recruit high-achieving students who are not National Merit Scholars; we want KU to set a high standard and
encourage its students to meet that high standard. We want KU to be known as a university where academic achievement counts for something.
Q: How does teaching undergraduates affect your perception of the University?
Hemenway: Teaching undergraduates gives me an understanding of what students can do and what is on their minds. Faculty are committed to enabling students to achieve at
the maximum level of their ability. If I am teaching, I get both the pleasure and the challenge of trying to help students achieve at this level of their potential.
Q: What are you pleased with overall, during your five years as chancellor?
Hemenway: When I came here, we set a number of goals. National Merits were one goal. We also wanted to focus on the physical property. We had $150 million of capital construction going on in this five-year period.
The overall improvement in research funding over the last five years is the mark of a successful university. I'm proud of the way we've been able to emphasize the importance of teaching. The Kemper fellows program, where we go in the first day of class and give people $5,000 checks in recognition for their excellence in teaching and advising — I think as an institution we ought to be proud of those things.
Hemenway: KU in the 21st century needs to be a more integral part of the information economy. We are having such a massive change in our ability to communicate, to send information from one point to another, to apply information to the decisions that we make.
Q: How will the University have to change in the future?
The 21st century is going to be a century where the information economy, the knowledge economy, drives the majority of our decisions. The exciting thing about that is that good universities, if they prepare themselves, can be right at the center of that revolution.
Q: If you could describe the University in one word or phrase, what would it be?
Edited by Kelly Clasen
Hemenway: Pursuing excellence.
Shulenburger working toward budget increase
By Nathan Willis
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
As the semester wound to a close, Provost David Shulenburger sat down in his office last week to discuss his views on the semester and on major issues confronting the University of Kansas as it enters the new millennium.
Below are excerpts from that interview. The questions and answers have been edited for length and clarity.
Q: What do you feel were the biggest accomplishments of the University this semester?
Shulenburger: Well, there are a
Shulenburger great many things in progress right now. I'm pleased with the recruiting results of the year. We continue to increase the quality of the students who are coming to the University. The 101 NATIONA
Shulenburger discusses University issues
Merits is partially reflective of that. (There was) a very significant increase in the retention of minority students. I think the advising center is off to a very good start. It started handling sophores regularly this year.
We've got two buildings that are moving along very rapidly now, Murphy and Joseph R. Pearson. Both of those schools are doing a good job planning to move into them. I think they're going to be very significant in the lives of the schools. It looks like both of those projects are on schedule now.
Q: What goals do you have for the coming semester?
Shulenburger: Well, we want to get the intellectual property policy for this campus worked out. I've been working with that committee, and that should be finished
"...I think there's an understanding that, at this time in the state's history, it would be a serious mistake to de-emphasize education."
David Shulenburger
University provost
before the year's over. We do have one huge goal, and that's to get out of the legislature with a budget increase that begins to help us deal with some of the problems that we've got, the largest one of which is faculty salaries. That's probably our biggest goal now. It became such a big goal because the state receipts aren't what they ought to be, and we've had what we hope is a one-time budget cut.
Q. With the budget cut, how optimistic are you about our financial future?
Shulenburger: I'm more optimistic than I was. My optimism is based upon the fact that a number of important state legislators are speaking out now about the importance of education. They're publicly speaking out, and I think there's an understanding that at this time in the state's history, it would be a serious mistake to deemphasize education.
1. (a) $x = \frac{2}{3}$; $y = -\frac{1}{2}$
(b) $x = 0$; $y = 1$
(c) $x = 1$; $y = 0$
(d) $x = -1$; $y = 0$
2. (a) $x = 4, y = -1$
(b) $x = -2, y = 1$
(c) $x = 2, y = -1$
(d) $x = -3, y = 0$
3. (a) $x = -1, y = -1$
(b) $x = 0, y = 0$
(c) $x = 1, y = -1$
(d) $x = -1, y = 1$
Q: Do you feel that the University's mission is changing as we head into the next century?
Shulenburger: I think the mission is not going to change a great deal from the one that we've adopted officially as the mission of the University. What will change is the way we fulfill our mission. I'm sure we'll do a lot more distance education, that electronic communication is going to be more important in the way we carry out our mission than it is right now. The basic mission of the University — our teaching, our research, our service mission — is going to remain the same.
Edited by Kelly Harvey