Wednesday, November 4, 1998
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The University Daily Kansan
Section A · Page 3
Design professor dies at 45 in home; faculty, students tell of his impact
By Steph Brewer
Kansan staff writer
Colleagues are mourning the death of Lonn Beaudry, a University of Kansas professor remembered for his wit and innovative teaching style.
Beaudry, associate professor of design, died at his Kansas City, Mo., home last Wednesday. He was 45.
Beaudry taught six classes at the University, mainly on graphic design and corporate identity systems, said Joe Zeller, chairman of design.
The Jackson County coroner said the cause of death was undetermined.
Zeller said students used to delay signing up for other courses so they could make sure to get Beadury's classes.
"Lonn Beaudry was an exceptional teacher," Zeller said.
"When he lectured on the Bauhaus, they had a color scheme, and he would come dressed in that color scheme," Zeller said.
"He really brought history to life."
Beaudry had taught at the University since 1986. Previously, he had taught at the Kansas City Art Institute and the Jacob Kramer College in Leeds, England. In 1989, he was a finalist for the H.O.P.E. Award for Excellence in Teaching.
Roger Beard, Beaudry's companion of 19 years, said that the family had received a letter from Beaudry's former students at the Kansas City Art Institute.
Beard said the students wrote: "You should know what an influence Lonn had
on all our lives ...We are all better people today for having had the fortune to have Lonn as a teacher."
Beaudry was an artist and designer as well as a professor. His first job after graduation from the Cranbrook Academy of Art was for the firm of Hermann and Lees Design. He also created many paintings and pieces of furniture.
"He loved S w i s s design and F r a n k L l o y d Wright and the Mission school," Beard said.
Zeller said one of Beaudry's former students, Jill Coppess, was working on develop
Lonn Beaudry: Died Wednesday at age 45.
Photo courtesy of University Relations
ing an exposition of his works that would travel to different schools.
Funeral services were held for Beaudry Monday in Kansas City, Mo.
Zeller said that Beaudry was a productive and well-loved faculty member who would be missed.
"I think Lonn was more than a colleague to us," he said. "He was a friend to everyone on this faculty. The faculty loved this person."
Lecturers will cover Beaudry's classes while the department runs a search to find a full-time professor, Zeller said.
Faculty equality has room to improve
"My vision of KU is that of a great university. To be a great University we must ... not only ensure that we have a personnel system in which both men and women encounter no barriers to their personal and professional goals... explore the possibility of enabling any KU fulltime employee to take at least one course each semester tuition free... if we really believe in education as a means of improving the work force, then we need to invest in that belief."
Chancellor Robert Hemenway
1995 Faculty Convocation address
Chancellor Robert Hemenway wants to make the University of Kansas a place of equality for men and women. He also wants the University to remove barriers facing KU employees who want to advance their educations.
By Chad Bettes
Kanson staff writer
Hemenway said in his 1995 Faculty Convocation speech that a great university has no "glass ceiling" and invests in human development.
Three years later, the University has made progress on both counts, but Hemenway and others at the University admit the job is not finished.
Dann Hayes, a representative from University Relations, said that this fall the number of women faculty members had risen to 440, or 32.6 percent of all faculty. There are 909 men on the faculty, 43 fewer than in 1995.
In the fall of 1995, the University had 367 female faculty members, representing 27.8 percent of all faculty.
Ola Faucher, director of human resources, said the University had made a concerted effort to improve.
"The University is committed to diversity in faculty and staff in its work force," Faucher said. "Schools
and staff in its work force, are trying very hard to get female faculty in traditionally male areas such as engineering and physics."
Ann Cudd, associate professor of philosophy, said there was frustration in finding female professors for disciplines such as philosophy. She said the number of female faculty in her department had decreased from three to one. One problem she cited was that only 20 percent of faculty in philosophy nationwide are women.
"I can't recognize a lot of progress," Cudd said. "But my local perspective is different."
She said that overall there were faculty gains for women, but that issues
MENTORING
Rite Kean, University of Nebraska professor, spent last year as a below at the University of Kansas. In that year, Chancellor Hemenway was Kean's mentor and gave her the authority to study various aspects of the University.
At 3:30 p.m. today, Kean will be at the Hall Center for the Humanities, 211 Watkins Home, to report her findings on the University's climate for women.
such as tenure were troubling. She said last year was a bad year for women seeking tenure, with four or five women denied. No men were denied, she said.
"The things I have noticed may be temporary phonema. Cudd said, "I am cautiously optimistic."
in administration, women are represented in smaller numbers than men. But women do play a role in Hemenway's administration.
Of the eight department heads who report directly to the chancellor, three of them are women -Victoria Thomas, general counsel; Theresa Klinkenberg, director of administration; and Deborah Teeter, director of institutional research and planning.
The provost and vice chancellors are men, but women serve as assistant and associate provosts, assistant and associate chancellors, and dean positions. Sally Frost Mason is the dean of the largest school in the University, liberal arts and sciences.
Women also are in many other lower-level administrative positions.
Sandra Gaunt, assistant provost, said it was hard to tell in a two-to three-year period how much progress had been made toward equality for women at the University. She said that amount of time illustrated a point in time rather than a pattern.
The chancellor set a significantly ambitious agenda," Gautt said. "The institution has clearly made gains."
At the same time, she said, the University needed to maintain its focus on the area of equality or risk falling back. Mentoring and aggressive recruitment would be key to continued progress, Gaunt said.
"Without mentoring, I don't think I'd be where I am today," she said. "I never really thought I'd be in administration, but I developed a fascination with how the place I worked functioned."
She thought mentoring would do the same thing for other women.
Despite circumstances that he said made it difficult to achieve equality in numbers, Hemenway said he still was shooting for continued progress.
"I'm pleased when I see things moving in the right direction," Hemenway said. "But if you reach a point of self satisfaction, you lose your ambition."
With regard to educational opportunities for staff members, the chancellor expanded a program that allowed them to take classes at the University without paving tuition.
Lynn George, employment manager in human resources, said that in 1996, 33 people took part in the program. In 1998, 78 were approved to take classes. Faculty members are not eligible for the program because most of them already have advanced degrees.
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