- For the fourth year in a row, about 40 KU faculty and staff
will board a bus for the annual Wheat State Whirlwind Tour of
Kansas, May 19 and May 22 to 26. Chancellor Robert Hemenway will
join the tour for a day on May 24 in Garden City.
In five days, the group will circle the state, traveling 1,325
miles, stopping to meet with residents and learn about the culture,
history, economic issues, geographic landmarks and educational
concerns of 18 to 20 communities.
"This year we will be emphasizing higher education in Kansas,"
said Linda Robinson, tour director.
"We will be visiting Haskell Indian Nations University,
two community colleges and the Southside Educational Center in
Wichita, which represents an educational partnership among technical
schools, community colleges, universities and businesses. Several
members of the Kansas Board of Regents also plan to meet with
us in their hometowns. In fact, on Tuesday, May 23, four regents
members will be meeting with us in their communities."
Chancellor Hemenway established the tour in 1997 as an annual
event to give faculty new to Kansas an opportunity to explore
the state and learn more about their students' hometowns. The
tour also provides an informal atmosphere for faculty from different
departments to become better acquainted.
Participants of previous tours have revisited parts of Kansas
as a result. For example, Garth Myers, assistant professor of
geography, and Byron Caminero-Santangelo, assistant professor
of English, were fascinated with the Safari Museum in Chanute
they visited in 1998. They returned for a day's research and
hope to schedule more in the future.
"The museum has such an extensive record of experience of
Osa and Martin Johnson [the museum founders] and books and materials
associated with the colonial period of Africa," Myers said.
"To find such a resource in a Kansas community was interesting
and neat."
Glenn Prescott, associate professor of electrical and computer
engineering, said he, his wife and daughter have visited Colby,
Hays, Dodge City, Garden City and Council Grove more than once
as a result of his participation in the 1997 tour.
Prescott, who has been working at NASA headquarters in Washington,
D.C., on a sabbatical leave, finds the wide-open spaces of western
Kansas relaxing. He recently wrote: "My wife and I plan
on taking a trip out to western Kansas as a welcome home gift
to ourselves and to 'decompress' after a year in the big city."
The first day of the 2000 tour, Friday, May 19, splits time between
the KU Medical Center campus in Kansas City, Kan., and Topeka.
In Kansas City, the tour group will learn about the medical center's
role in Kansas and developments in telemedicine at KU. Clay Blair,
regent from Overland Park, will join Kansas City area business
representatives at the medical center to discuss economic development
in the Kansas City area.
Regent Harry Craig of Topeka will join the faculty in Topeka
to hear Rep. David Atkins, Leawood, who chairs the House Appropriations
Committee, speak on the future of higher education. The group
will have lunch in the Capitol and tour the building before visiting
the Kansas History Center at the State Historical Society.
Tour highlights include:
- Monday, May 22: Haskell Indian Nations University, Lawrence;
Safari Museum, Chanute; Farmland Industries, Coffeyville; and
the Red Buffalo ranch near Sedan.
- Tuesday, May 23: Cowley County Community College with Regent
Bill Docking and Regent Executive Director Kim Wilson, Arkansas
City; Boeing and the Southside Educational Center in Wichita
with Regent Steve Clark; the Gant Larson Ranch and the Red Hills
near Medicine Lodge with Regent Fred Kerr, Pratt; and Boot Hill
with Regent Floris Jean Hampton, Dodge City.
- Wednesday, May 24: the Victor Ornelas Elementary School, Reeves
Entities (agra-industry), United Methodist Western Kansas Mexican-American
Ministries Health Clinic and Garden City Community College, all
in Garden City; the Duff Ranch near Scott City to roam with the
buffalo; chalk pyramid formations in Gove County, and Colby for
dinner with Wayne Bossert, manager for the Northwest Kansas Groundwater
District.
- Thursday, May 25: Nicodemus in Graham County, the Dane Hansen
Museum in Logan, Phillips County; a wheat farm, grain elevator
and high school at Palco in Rooks County, and the Michael E.
DeBakey Hays Heart Institute of Kansas.
- Friday, May 26: Garden of Eden, Lucas Grassroots Arts Center
and Wilson Lake in Russell County, and the Birger Sandzen Art
Museum and the Smoky Valley Roller Mill in Lindsborg, and lunch
with Regent Jack Wempe of Little River.
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