'State of the University'
KU's grown fast under Wescoe
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Enrollment up
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a summary of his seven years of stewardship was given Sunday, June 4, by, Chancellor W. Clarke Wescoe in his traditional "State of the University" message to more than 1,400 faculty, alumni, students, parents; and friends in the Kansas Union ballroom.
Growing Grad School
Enrollment has increased more than 50 percent, he pointed out, going from 10,036 in 1960 to 15,763 last fall, with another 1,000 gain expected this fall.
"But it means even more to us that the quality of the freshmen grew higher in a period of rising enrollments and rising percentages of college attendance," he said.
He compared the 13 Woodrow Wilson Fellows, two Danforth Fellows, and a Rhodes Scholar in the class of 1960 with the 16 Woodrow Wilson Fellows and a Danforth Fellow in 1967; and the 1339 degrees conferred in 1960 with the 3,464 names listed in this year's Commencement program.
A STUDY by the Kansas Board of Regents shows, he said, that KU is providing graduates far in excess of its proportion of the state's college enrollment. Between 1961 and 1966 KU provided 44 percent of the increase in the number of graduates at the five institutions of higher education that were state-assisted during this period.
Wesscoe pointed also to changes in KU enrollment toward more upperclass and graduate students. The Graduate School increased from 1,672 to 2,950 between 1960 and 1968, he reported, and the School of Law has doubled in size, and even the School of Medicine, where growth is difficult and expensive, has increased by more than 20 percent.
Enrollment in journalism has almost tripled. Dr.Wescoe said, virtually doubled in pharmacy and education, and increased by almost a third in fine arts, in business, and in nursing.
"THE SCHOOL of Engineering and Architecture, which has suffered for a decade from declining interest in the field nationally, is making its way back into broader student acceptance."
The chancellor pointed out that KU has one-third more juniors and seniors than the next largest institution in the state, and that among the six state schools, KU provides 73.7 percent of the post-baccalaureate progressional instruction, 34.7 percent of the instruction at the master's and specialist's level, and 75.5 percent at the doctoral level.
The instructional staff has grown from 665 to $25 full-time faculty and full-time equivalents, the operating income from $27,-294,680, 47.9 percent of it from state tax sources, to $48,568,638 in 1965-68, 39.8 percent of it from state tax sources, and substantial contributions from affiliated organizations such as the Endowment Association were not included.
GRANTS AND contracts for sponsored research and associated graduate training projects have climbed from $4,355,957 in 1960 to more than $12 million annually.
The campus has grown by 160 acres in Lawrence, by 10 acres in Kansas City, by nearly 200 acres for research at Sunflower, and by the 70-acre Maurice L. Breidenthal biological reserve two miles north of Baldwin. Physical facilities for academic work and student services have been built at a cost of more than $43 million,
Gifts increase
Wescoe said. Nearly $23 million of that came from other than state tax sources; $6,837,950 from federal grants; $5,953,113 from private funds and $9,755,000 from bonds to be repaid by student rentals and special fees.
The chancellor referred to development of the research area west of Iowa street with the future construction there of the $2.3 million Space Technology building for which NASA has made a grant of $1.8 million, and the development at Lawrence of work of national significance in radar which can provide information on agriculture as well as geology and geography in space.
At Kansas City the regional medical program was funded at more than $1 million for the first year by the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare to get information about heart disease, cancer, and stroke into the hands of practicing Kansas physicians.
WESCOE MENTIONED the addition of two new degree programs, a bachelor's degree program in theatre and the Ph.D. in business, as well as the approval of two degree programs—the master's and the doctorate in engineering technology, to begin next year. He also noted that programs are being dropped as circumstances indicate, mentioning the graduate degree in nuclear engineering.
He called for additional effort to put KU into the middle 50 of the top graduate institutions.
Wescoe called attention to the University's "growing national reputation as one of the top 25 universities in the nation in terms of undergraduate education," and said that "our graduate programs have been ranked among the second 25 in the nation."
IN THE HUMANITIES, he said, KU was ranked 36th in the nation by an American Council on Education study; in social sciences. 35th; in life sciences. 31st; in physical sciences. 36th; and overall in letters and science. 30; and in engineering. 48th.
"In this region, only Colorado was mentioned, like KU, in all institutional and divisional standings, and only Iowa State was listed in more than engineering."
KU WILL SEEK additional sources of support, chiefly from federal agencies and philanthropic organizations. Wescow said. But he also called for a higher level of support from the state, funded in recognition of the greatest cost of upperclass, professional and graduate education in which KU specializes.
The second 25, he said, has been identified by experts as the group where the greatest potential exists for growth and improvement, and experts agree that these institutions should receive major increases in support to enable them to develop as new centers of excellence.
"For the first time, in the coming years," the Chancellor said, "I expect to see effective recognition by the state of the unique nature of the University's responsibilities and accomplishments."
KU is determined to make even greater contributions to the state and region, he said. The concert and lecture series and the Young People's Theatre will continue to tour the state, but he called for help from all interested citizens. "Our motto," he said, "is 'have talent—will travel.'"
THE CHANCELLOR also expects greater contributions by the University to industrial development, through such programs as BETA and the El Dorado project and the new graduate professional programs in engineering. He called for greater effort by those anxious to hire KU graduates to keep them in the Midwest.
"We think that Kansas and the Midwest have much to offer young people," he explained, "but the people of the Midwest seldom have exerted themselves to sell their way of life."
Among other projections, he saw an increase in KU enrollment next year of approximately 1,000 students and a continuing gain in the quality of those students; a greater volume of research at KU; and salary increases for faculty to bring them all, including full professors, to the "B" level on the scale of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP).
"THE UNIVERSITY of Kansas is not a 'C' institution in anything else," he said in reference to the AAUP scale rating.
"I believe the people of Kansas wish us to aim higher."
Returning to the need to sell graduates on staying in the Midwest, Dr. Wescoe added: "It can be done. The University of Kansas recruits from a national pool, against national competition, and has been able to demonstrate dramatically what can be done to sell the concept of Midwest living."
The chancellor then paid tribute to the loyalty of KU alumni and the role private support has played in building KU
"THE DEBT we owe to philanthropy in the past has been recognized d," he said, "I recognize it again today by saying that we find ourselves in our present national position because of it. I recognize its importance to our future by pointing out that much of what we can expect in the next decade alone will depend on the generosity of our friends during the coming two years."
Gifts and pledges to the 3-year $18.3 million Program for Progress capital fund drive have reached $7 million at the end of the first year, Dr. Wescoe reported, climbing from the $4 million reported last fall.
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He mentioned the L. E. and Lenora Carr Phillips professorship in medicine endowed by Philip R. Phillips of Bartlesville, Okla., in memory of his parents; an 80-acre form in Johnson county valued at $20,000 given by Mrs. Elizabeth Kimpton of Kansas City, Mo., in memory of her parents and by her stepson, Dr. Lawrence A. Kipton of Chicago, in memory of his parents; advance gifts and pledges in the Lawrence community from other than University faculty and staff of nearly $300,000; and a pledge of $20,000 by a member of the University faculty.
A record 15,206 alumni and friends contributed $522,780 to the University's annual giving program, the Greater University Fund, Wescoe reported. This is the first time it has gone above $500,000.
THE DEVOTION of alumni to KU, Wescoe said, "is the basic and glorious stuff with which we begin. More than 18,000 of them pay dues to their Alumni Association, and more than 10,000 of these are life members or are committed to a life membership plan."
GIFTS, BEQUESTS, and income to the Endowment Association and gifts directly to the University were a record $4,316,767 this year. For the first time the Endowment Association passed $1/2 million in investment income. Current assets of the association are valued at $23 million. Almost $22 million has been contributed to the association in the past seven years.
Wescoe listed some of the purposes for which gifts are being used and for which they are being sought:
The University made possible $2,043,184 in student loans during the year and still had to turn away applicants.
The University made possible scholarships, fellowships, grants-in-aid, and prizes totaling $804,-257, but still had to reject applications from students who ranked
in the top five percent, and sometimes the top two percent of their high school classes.
WITH THE addition of two endowed professorships since last Commencement, the number at KU now has climbed to 17.
A surprising number of pledges to the Program for Progress, Wescoe reported, are coming in the form of unrestricted funds, "which can have the greatest value of all. These are the funds with which we can seize the unexpected and prepare for the unpredictable."
"We stand," the Chancellor concluded, "at the start of our second century much like those men and women who stood at the start of the first century, filled with no greater hope but perhaps with greater reason to hope for the future and the fulfillment of our dreams.
"If we have their faith, if we work with their energies, if we sacrifice ourselves with their dedication, we will see this institution blossom into something even finer than it is today, just as this once-barren hill blossomed under their care into an institution of great beauty and accomplishment."
Summer Kansan Tuesday, June 13, 1967
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