4A THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
THURSDAY. SEPTEMBER 15.2005
BOARD OF REGENTS
Biennial visit made
BY GABY SOUZA
gsouza@kansan.com
KANSAN SLFE WRITE
The nine members of the Kansas Board of Regents paid their biennial visit to the University of Kansas on Tuesday.
The Board of Regents governs the six state universities in Kansas. It also coordinates the community colleges, technical schools and colleges and a municipal university.
The regents visit three of the six state universities each year.
Their next visit will be to Wichita State University in October, and in April they will
visit Pittsburg State University. Reginald Robinson president and CEO of the Board of Regents, said it made sense to visit each campus regularly to meet with the chancellor and students. He said it was also a good idea to "get the pulse of the place."
"One of the things we love to do as regents is interact with students." Robinson said.
Robinson said there seemed to be two themes to the regents' visit. One was making the University more international and the other was emphasizing research projects for every student. The regents first attended a presentation featuring Diana
Carlin, dean of international programs.
They had lunch with students who studied abroad following the presentation.
Robinson said this made it easier to understand the tremendous effect research can have.
The regents then visited the School of Engineering where they observed research project presentations by engineering students.
"It's more powerful to talk to students who have been impacted with these experiences," he said.
— Edited by Anne Burgard
New appointees begin process
BOARD OF REGENTS
BY GABY SOUZA
BY GABY SOUZA
gsouza@kansan.com
KANSAN STAFF WRITER
The three newest appointees to the Board of Regents visited the University of Kansas on Tuesday, and, after an appointment process, may soon be making decisions on University policy.
Christine Downey-Schmidt, Dan Lykins and Janie Perkins were appointed by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius last month. The next step in the Regents' appointment process is approval by a committee, which will probably happen late this month or early next month, said Kip Peterson, director of government
relations and communications for the Regents.
The final step will happen in January, when the state legislature approve the appointees and officially give them the title of regents.
Nicole Corcoran, press secretary for the governor, said, "We've spent a lot of time finding potential regents with strong qualifications and diverse backgrounds." Each of the appointees had a different background, but they all had ties to public education. Corcoran said.
Downey-Schmidt is a former state senator who has experience with educational legislation. Lykins practiced law and worked on cases dealing with
Regent appointments are unique because political party and county must be considered. There is a requirement that says no more than five regents can declare the same political party. There are currently five Republicans and four Democrats on the board. There can also be no more than one reagent from each county in Kansas.
education. Perkins is the mayor of Garden City and a former educator.
The orientation for the newly appointed regents occurred a couple of weeks ago, Peterson said. The purpose was to inform them of their role in the state as well as on the issues at hand.
- Edited by Anne Burgard
Reaching for new heights
Blair Donovan, left, Medicine Lodge senior, Tim Wantland, center, Leawood senior, and Reed Schmidt, right, Blue Springs, Mo., senior, work on a design for one of their courses. Their assignment is to design a flying car for a local engineering company.
Kim Andrews/KANSAN
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