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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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MONDAY, NOV. 2, 2015 | VOLUME 130 ISSUE 20
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WORLD CHAMPS!
Kansas City Royals fans celebrate on Massachusetts Street on Sunday after the team won the World Series, defeating the New York Mets in five games
Meet the "mother" of KU women's athletics
CHRISTIAN HARDY
@ByHardy
Senior Tiana Dockery rose up above the net, found a lane, and slammed the ball to the hardwood court; the thunderous collision between ball and floor shook through Horejsi Family Athletic Center. Point Kansas.
On the edge of the bench closest to the net, Kansas coach Ray Bechard eagerly jumped out of his seat and shouted a few words of encouragement.
fingers locked in her lap, with a quiet comment or criticism of the game here or there every so often. She twiddles her thumbs — maybe a sign of the investment she has in the team.
She breaks her folded hands to join in the applause with the 1,520 people in attendance. But, even then, her hands seem to end up back in her lap, her thumbs fidgeting.
Another coach sat 10 rows behind him, between sections A and B. She gazed at the court with her eyes wide, startled by what Dockery had just done. This coach, though, was retired, more relaxed, and rather removed — yet equally important — to what became a 19-game win streak for Kansas volleyball on that Wednesday night.
Mawson knows what it's like to be in the position Bechard is today; she's been there. In fact, she might be the reason it exists.
For most of the match, Mawson, who is considered the mother of women's athletics at Kansas, sat with her
It's Marlene Mawson.
"They're not good," Mawson said, looking onto the court. "They're fantastic."
Marlene Mawson watches Kansas volleyball on Oct. 21.
"She got women's athletics off the ground here," Bechard said. "She just gave females a chance to compete."
"We did not have floods of
money, so a lot of the people who were coaching would coach two or three or four sports," said Kerry Kapfer, who played for Mawson in the early 1970s and is in the Kansas Volleyball Association Hall of Fame for her efforts at Shawnnee Heights over 26 years. "Without her, I really don't know what would have happened at KU."
In 1968, Mawson was tasked with establishing an intercollegiate women's sports program at the University of Kansas with a budget of only $2,000 per year to cover for six sports. That $2,000 covered equipment, uniforms and travel, and comes to about $13,675, accounting for inflation. So, on top of her physical education faculty position, Mawson was suddenly coaching four women's sports
volleyball among them.
Mawson coached the volleyball team for five years and also contributed to building women's basketball, softball and field hockey programs. Then, even though on a much smaller budget and with fewer resources, the programs were much different.
When Kapfer played for Mawson, the team traveled in station wagons and played in generic uniforms. Now, it has hotels, identifiable Adidas-sponsored uniforms, and charter busses or — on occasion — planes. Mawson was major player in that transition, especially before she left the University in 1990.
"For all the things that we get from the standpoint of Adidas, and travel, and opportunities, we should look back at those that didn't have anything and still competed
PAIGE STINGLEY/KANS
because they loved the sport," Bechard said.
"It's exciting to just to see the changes in sports for women over the last 40 years," Kapfer said. "It's a different world, and it's better. It's really the way it should be."
Mawson said she has been impressed with the way women's athletics has shifted in the 40 years, too, and Kansas volleyball is a beacon of that change.
"It's incredible that not only volleyball but all of women's sports have the opportunities they have nowadays," Mawson said. "That wasn't always so." Few teams — if any — can rival 19 consecutive wins at Kansas, especially in the short history of women's sports. Mawson was quick to deflect the attribution of that progress to Joan Wells, who was
SEE MAWSON PAGE 11
Vitter discusses progress on "Bold Aspirations" goals before becoming chancellor at Mississippi
LARA KORTE
@lara_korte
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Provost Jeffrey Vitter
Jeffrey Vitter, the current provost and executive vice chancellor at the University of Kansas, will move to become the chancellor for the University of Mississippi in January.
Vitter was named chancellor of the University of Mississippi on Thursday by the College Board of Trustees. Starting in January, Vitter will move to Mississippi and be formally introduced as chancellor in February.
Vitter has been at the University since 2010 and has worked primarily on developing and
"The community really stepped forward and took this as a challenge that this is a time we want to really move the University forward."
JEFFREY VITTER Current KU Provost
According to Vitter, the plan was developed after an analysis of the University's standings among other institutions. Vitter said that from the very beginning, the plan was about developing a shared vision of where the University needs to go.
implementing a new strategic plan, "Bold Aspirations"
The first goal of the strategic plan was to "strengthen the recruitment, teaching, and mentoring to prepare undergraduate students for lifelong learning, leadership and success." This goal eventually led
"The community really stepped forward and took this as a challenge that this is a time we want to really move the University forward," Vitter said.
to the development of the University's core curriculum and a renewed focus on experiential learning opportunities.
According to Vitter, course redesign has been a major factor in working towards these strategic goals.
"It's all about making the courses more engaged and moving them from just a massive lecture format, which is not very exciting or engaging to students, to using technologies in novel ways that the class can focus on important interaction," Vitter said.
Since the implementation of the new core curriculum, Vitter said the University has been working on something called "flipped classrooms," in which students are involved in online modules they can be quizzed on at home, providing professors with feedback for areas students need help in.
The University has redesigned 50 to 60 courses since the initiative began and they are hoping to be part of the Gates Foundation effort to offer flipped classes at a much larger scale, according to Vit-
"It gives the professor the ability to really tune the class for maximum effect," Vitter said.
Vitter said one of the goals of the strategic plan was to increase retention and graduation rates among undergraduates. In the last few years, the graduation rate has hovered around 60 percent. Vitter says with the new plan, he expects those numbers to rise to 70 percent by the end of the decade, or at least soon after.
ter. There will be around 15 University partners who will work to offer such classes, and, if all goes well, Vitter expects the program to begin in 2017.
Over the next three years, students will see new additions to campus, including an Earth Energy and Environmental Center building, a remodeled Burge Union, an art lab and research facility, a new parking lot, a power plant, a new residence hall and a gradeate village, Vitter said.
Vitter said he expects the new provost to oversee the continuation of "Bold Aspirations" as well as other projects undertaken by the University.
According to Vitter, the campus is undergoing one of the biggest infrastructure remodels in its history.
Vitter said these new infrastructures are key to establishing the University's reputation
"We cannot be a flagship university if our science facilities are not truly top notch," Vitter said. "Frankly, if we waited any longer, those facilities could become dangerous."
as an educational leader.
[ ʔ ]
Senior Vice Provost of Academic Affairs Sara Rosen will be handling provost "duties while a search committee is formed to find a replacement. Vitter called Rosen a "key player in a host of important initiatives dealing with undergraduate curriculum," and said Rosen could very well be a candidate for provost; however, no formal candidate search has begun.
Vitter said he expects that they will be bringing final candidates to campus by the end of spring semester.
Although Vitter said he is ready to start his position as chancellor of the University of Mississippi, he said he has great respect and admiration for the University of Kansas and its administration.
— Edited by Rebeka Luttinger
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