THE STUDENT VOICE SINCE 1904
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2010
WWW.KANSAN.COM
VOLUME 123 ISSUE 15
LOSING LEW
Ryan Waggoner/KANSAN FILE PHOTO Kansas Athletics Director Lew Perkins pulls away from Allen Fieldhouse in June after announcing his original plans to retire in September 2011. Chancellor Gray-Little and Perkins announced in a statement yesterday he is retiring effective immediately.
Perkins Out
Lester Fills in
Sean Lester, formerly senior associate athletic director, will fill in for Perkins until a replacement is found.
The retirement was announced abrubtly yesterday afternoon. Perkins previously planned on retiring in 2011.
Media Addressed
Bernadette Gray-Little and Bill Self discussed Perkins' expressed gratitude toward Perkins in an afternoon press conference.
Perkins announces early exit
Search Starts
Gray-Little set a target of mid-to late-spring for hiring a new athletics director.
Sean Lester to serve as interim AD until permanent replacement is found
BY STEPHEN MONTEMAYOR smontemayor@kansan.com
On Tuesday Perkins and Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little announced his retirement effectively immediately.
Lew Perkins was going to conclude his tenure as Kansas athletics director on an early September afternoon. That much went according to plan. That he hit the mark a year early caught some by surprise.
Perkins
his retirement, effective immediately.
Sean Lester, formerly senior associate
athletics director, was named interim
athletics director while the University
searches for Perkins' successor.
"I was shocked," Lester said about being asked by Gray-Little to carry out Perkins' duties. Lester joined Athletics in September 2003, shortly after Perkins became athletics director. He previously spent eight years as a senior administrator at the University
of Connecticut, where Perkins was athletics director before coming to Kansas.
Perkins announced in June his intentions to retire, but said he would remain as athletics director through Sept. 4, 2011. That announcement came a day after the University cleared Perkins of ethics violations when an internal investigation found that he did not exchange preferential seating for exercise equipment.
Perkins' attorney, Stephen McAllister, then sent the evidence to the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission.
The commission investigates state employee conflicts of interest. While the commission cannot comment on ongoing investigations, McAllister said no decision had been made.
Last month, Gray-Little informed the Kansas Board of Regents that she had removed Perkins as chair of Athletics' advisory committee. Perkins was to remain as a member on the committee.
The terms of Perkins' retirement agreement are being finalized. Perkins will receive a retention payment from Athletics of $2 million before taxes.
In an Aug. 28 interview with The Kansan, Gray-Little said her goal is to identify Perkins' successor in mid to late spring.
"In an informal way the process has already begun," Gray-Little said. "People have already started identifying themselves or having recommendations."
While Lester said he would like to be a full-time athletics director at some point, he only intends to do so at Kansas in an interim role.
The University released a second statement from Gray-Little following Tuesday's press conference that outlined the search process. She said she expected to name a committee of five to six members by the end of next week. Gray-Little identified the middle or latter part of the spring semester as her goal for naming the school's new athletics director.
"While I am confident in Sean Lester's ability to lead
LESTER|1B
Lester chosen as temporary replacement
Until a new athletics director is selected, Lester will fill the void left by Perkins.
SEE PERKINS ON PAGE 3A
STUDENTS REACT TO PERKIN'S RETIREMENT
Josh Booker
Sophomore from Deerfield, III.
"I was more surprised than anything, but based on the circumstances, I think it might have been the best decision."
"My guess is that it [the athletics program] will take a different direction. Hopefully the new AD will help bring us back to the top. But it's all up in the air."
Senior from Beloit
Josey Kruse
"KU has definitely benefited from him. There have been changes in other aspects of KU sports, so we'll all get a fresh start together," she said.
Dyan Penner
Junior from Topeka
"KU's sort of at a low point so I think it's time for a change. He did some good things for KU, but I think we'll be alright without him. There's only one way to go: up."
Matt Stickles
Senior from Kilder, III.
"It's kind of sad [Lew's retirement]. He did a pretty good job."
"I think we're going to go into a downward slope for a while, but it also completely depends on the AD who replaces Perkins."
OBITUARY
Dance professor dies in New York
BY SAMANTHA FOSTER AND
MICHAEL NOW
THA FOSTER AND MICHAEL HOLTZ sfoster@kansan.com mholtz@kansan.com
Hamburg spent the last 30 years teaching at the University of Kansas and was known for her work as a dance movement analyst.
Janet Hamburg, an internationally known dance instructor and greatly admired professor of dance at the University, died in New York City on Saturday.
"This is a deep and painful loss for the university family," Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little said in a press release. "Janet Hamburg was an extraordinary teacher and researcher who had earned her colleagues' highest respect, here and around the world."
Hamburg joined the KU faculty in 1979 and served as the chair of the dance program for several years. In 2005 she received a W.T. Kemper Fellowship for Teaching Excellence.
Mary Sheldon, a senior from Overland Park who worked with Hamburg in the
department of dance, said she wasn't in any of Hamburg's classes, but that she was on a dance scholarship during her freshman and sophomore years and was familiar with Hamburg through that. She said Hamburg cared deeply about finding funding for
Hamburg
the University Dance Company and for dance students.
"That's what she was passionate about, raising money so students would be financially able to dance" Sheldon said.
was her legacy.
"I know that she'll be greatly missed," she said. "The work that she did for the university, for dance scholarship and for dance education will live on."
Sheldon said that Hamburg's work for dance students at the University
Hamburg was dedicated both to her profession and her service work. Much of her research work was dedicated to movement
analysis, which resulted in her development of an exercise program for people with Parkinson's disease. She created an exercise video called "Motivating Moves for People with Parkinson's", which was co-produced and distributed internationally by the Parkinson's Disease Foundation in New York City and recommended by the major national and regional Parkinson's foundations.
She worked with the Lawrence Parkinson's Support Group and gave presentations to other Parkinson's support organizations across the U.S. She also worked with senior adults and with children suffering from coordination and sensorimotor problems, according to the release.
Hamburg taught in the Bill Evans Summer Institutes of Dance and was frequently a guest instructor at the Juillard School of Music, the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies and the Sports Training Institute in New York City. She was a core faculty member of the New Mexico Laban
TODAY'S WEATHER
SEE HAMBURG ON PAGE 3A
HIGH
82 65 LOW
Isolated T-Storms
Game attendance shows that loyalty continues, win or lose ... Preferably win.
Fans will hang on
INDEX
Classifieds...4B
Crossword... 4A
Cryptoquips . . . . . . . 4A
Opinion. ... 5A
Sports...1B
Sudoku. . . . . . . . . 4A
All contents, unless stated otherwise,
© 2010 The University Daily Kansan