History, economics to be focus of faculty bus tour

Mike Hayden, Kansas secretary of wildlife and former governor, speaks to Wheat State Whirlwind Tour participants about the history and future of the state of Kansas. Hayden and two campus historians met with KU faculty and staff who will be on the tour May 21 and May 24 through 28. Doug Koch/University Relations

About 42 KU faculty and staff members will take a 1,500-mile, six-day whirlwind tour across the state May 21 and May 24 through 28.

This marks the seventh year that Chancellor Robert Hemenway has sponsored the Wheat State Whirlwind Tour of Kansas, primarily to give faculty and staff who are new Kansans an opportunity to learn more about the state and about fellow Kansans.
Hemenway and Stuart Bell, dean of engineering, will join the faculty on Tuesday night in Liberal and on Wednesday will ride the bus to Colby.

History and economics will be emphasized along a clockwise route through the Wheat State. The faculty will travel through about 38 of the state’s 105 counties, from Atchison in the northeast to Liberal in the southwest and from Colby in the northwest to Lindsborg and Marquette in north-central Kansas.

The tour could be called Kansas 101. On the road, Kansans along the route will become teachers for the faculty on the bus.

Those Kansans include KU alumna Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, who plans to meet with the faculty at 7:55 a.m. Monday, May 24, as they visit the state Capitol building. After meeting with the governor, the faculty will travel a few blocks to the Monroe Elementary School National Historic Site, 424 S. Kansas Ave., to learn more about the state’s role in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision.

Margey Frederick, KU director of visitor services and special events, and Don Steeples, the McGee distinguished professor of geophysics, organized the 2004 tour.

To prepare for their road trip, the KU faculty and staff met with Mike Hayden, Kansas secretary of wildlife and former governor, and with two campus historians in April for an overview of Kansas’ past, present and future.

Hayden described Kansas as “a vast state with dramatically different landscapes and economies that are undergoing tremendous transformations.” He advised the KU faculty to gain a historical perspective to get a feel for the future of Kansas. “You can’t possibly know where you are going until you know where you’ve been.”

Historians Jonathan Earle, KU history department, and Deborah Dandridge, Spencer Research Library, sketched pictures of Kansas’ role in the history of race relations.
“Kansas has always been in the center of the nation’s debate over racial equality,” Dandridge said. “It’s one of the things that distinguishes Kansas.”

A day-by-day itinerary for the tour is online at www.wheatstate.ku.edu/.