University of Kansas

The University of Kansas (often referred to as KU or just Kansas) is a public research university with campuses located in Lawrence, Kansas City, and Overland Park, Kansas with the main campus being located atop Mount Oread in Lawrence. The University was founded in 1865 by the citizens of Lawrence under a charter from the Kansas Legislature. It also received assistance from former Kansas Governor Charles Robinson and his wife Sara, who donated 40 acres (160,000 m²) of Mount Oread land, and philanthropist Amos Adams Lawrence, who made sizable monetary donations.

The University's Medical Center and Hospital are located in Kansas City, Kansas. The KU Edwards Campus is in Overland Park, Kansas in the Kansas City metro area. There are also educational/research sites in Parsons, Topeka and a branch of the University of Kansas School of Medicine in Wichita.

Enrollment at the Lawrence and Edwards campuses was 26,342 students; an additional 2,918 students were enrolled at the KU Medical Center for a total enrollment of 29,260 students across the three campuses. The Lawrence campus and KU Medical Center combined employ 2,201 faculty members. ^[2]

KU is home to the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics, the Beach Center on Disability, and radio station KJHK. The university is host to several notable museums including the University of Kansas Natural History Museum, the KU Museum of Anthropology, and the Spencer Museum of Art. The University is one of 60 members of the prestigious Association of American Universities.

Academics

The University is a large, state-sponsored university. In addition to a large liberal arts college, it has schools of Allied Health, Architecture and Urban Planning, Business, Education, Engineering, Fine Arts, Journalism and Mass Communication, Law, Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, and Social Welfare. (The study of academic sociology originated at the University in 1890.) The University also operates a selective Honors Program, with approximately 300 undergraduate students admitted each year, offering classes in many of these areas.

The most recent edition of Peterson's Guide to Competitive College calls KU "one of America's premier universities." For more than a decade, The Fiske Guide to Colleges has awarded KU a four-star rating for academics, social life, and overall quality of university life.

In their 2009 list, U.S. News & World Report ranked KU as tied for 89th place in its ranking of the Best National Universities.^[4] In 2006, the Report ranked Kansas as tied for 45th place in Public Universities. The Report surveys over 1,400 institutions of higher education in the United States.

Memorial Campanile, the University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas

School of Business

Main article: University of Kansas School of Business

The University of Kansas School of Business is a premier public business school located on the main campus of the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas. The KU School of Business was founded in 1924 and currently has more than 80 faculty members and approximately 1500 students.

Named one of the best business schools in the Midwest, the KU School of Business has been continually accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) for both its undergraduate and graduate programs in business and accounting. KU is one of only three universities in the Kansas City region to offer an MBA degree with this highest and most prestigious level of accreditation.

School of Law

Main article: University of Kansas School of Law

The University of Kansas School of Law, in Lawrence, Kansas, is the top law school in the state of Kansas according to the 2008 U.S. News & World Report. The magazine also ranked KU Law as a top-tier law school at 73rd and rated it a "best buy."^[5] Classes are held in Green Hall at E 15th St and Burdick Dr, which is named after former dean James Green.

School of Engineering

Main article: University of Kansas School of Engineering

The University of Kansas School of Engineering is an ABET accredited, public engineering school located on the main campus of the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas. The KU School of Engineering was officially founded in 1891, although engineering degrees were awarded as early as 1873.^[6]

In the U.S. News and World Report’s America’s Best Colleges, 2009 issue, KU’s School of Engineering was ranked 41st among public schools nationwide. National rankings for individual programs included Petroleum Engineering at ninth and Aerospace Engineering at 24th.^[7]

Medical Center

The University of Kansas Medical Center, in Kansas City, Kansas, treats over 19,000 patients per year.^[8] KU Med, as it is commonly known, consists of three basic schools: The School of Medicine, School of Nursing, and School of Allied Health. Furthermore, each of the three schools has its own programs of graduate study. As of the Spring 2007 semester, there were 2,769 students enrolled at KU Med.^[9] The Medical Center also offers third and fourth year students an opportunity to do rotations at the Wichita campus.

Edwards Campus

KU's Edwards Campus is in Overland Park, Kansas. Established in 1993, its goal is to provide adults with the opportunity to complete college degrees. About 2,100 students attend the Edwards Campus, with an average age of 32.^[10] Programs available at the Edwards Campus include developmental psychology, public administration, social work, systems analysis, engineering management and design.

Potter Lake, behind Strong Hall. Carruth-O'Leary Hall is seen in the far center, and Joseph R. Pearson Hall is seen in the upper right

Tuition and costs

The University of Kansas is repeatedly listed as one of the best buys in higher education by such publications as Kiplinger’s, the Fiske Guide to Colleges, Kaplan’s and the Princeton Review. Tuition at KU is 13 percent below the national average, according to the College Board, and the University remains a best buy in the region. Its 2004-05 in-state tuition and fees of $4,737 were lower than the University of Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, and most other public universities.

Beginning in the 2007-2008 academic year, first-time freshman at KU will pay a fixed tuition rate for 48 months according to the Four-Year Tuition Compact^[11] passed by the Kansas Board of Regents. According to the compact, tuition will be $213 per credit hour for in-state freshman and $560 for out-of-state freshmen. For students who do not take part in the compact, current per-credit-hour tuition is $194.80 for in-state undergraduates and $511.70 for out-of-state undergraduates;^[12] these rates are subject to annual increases. The schools of architecture, business, engineering, fine arts, journalism, law, and pharmacy charge additional fees.^[13]

Computing innovations

KU's School of Business launched interdisciplinary management science graduate studies in operations research during Fall Semester 1965. This innovative program provided the foundation for decision science applications supporting NASA Project Apollo Command Capsule Recovery Operations.

KU's academic computing department was an active participant in setting up the Internet and is the developer of the seminal Lynx text based web browser. Lynx itself provided hypertext browsing and navigation prior to Tim Berners Lee's invention of HTTP and HTML.^[14]

Chi Omega Fountain, the University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas

Student activities

Student Government

The University of Kansas Student Senate represents KU students to University administrators, and to the government locally, state-wide, and nationally. Senate oversees student services including the Student Recreation Fitness Center, Watkins Health Center, Safe Ride, and more.

Student Senate allocates a budget of more than $21 million each year paid for by required campus fees(each KU student enrolled in more than 6 credit hours pay around $420 per semester). It is up to the Student Senate to decide how to allocate this money based on how best to represent student needs.

The members of Student Senate are elected in Student Senate elections each April. In the elections, coalitions form plans on what student services they will focus on as well as propose new ideas they want to see happen at KU. The Rec Center and Multicultural Resource Center, for example, were Student Senate-initiated projects.

The 1983-1984 Student Senate election was marred by vote tampering on the part of the administration. Boog Highberger (running on the Costume Party ticket) was only able to take office in January following a legal challenge.^[15]

Athletics

Main article: Kansas Jayhawks

The school's sports teams, wearing crimson and royal blue, are called the Kansas Jayhawks. They participate in the NCAA's Division I (I-A for football) and in the Big 12 Conference. KU has won twelve National Championships: five in men's basketball (two Helms Foundation championships and three NCAA championships), three in men's indoor track and field, three in men's outdoor track and field, and one in men's cross country. Home course for KU Cross Country is Rim Rock Farm. Their most recent championship came on April 7th, 2008 when they defeated Memphis 75-68 in overtime to win the 2008 NCAA Men's Basketball Championship.

KU football dates from 1890, and has played in the Orange Bowl three times: 1948, 1968, and 2008. They are currently coached by Mark Mangino, who was hired in 2002. Under his leadership, the #7 Jayhawks emerged victorious in their first BCS bowl game, the 2008 FedEx Orange Bowl, with a 24-21 victory over the #3 Virginia Tech Hokies. This capstone victory marked the end of the most successful season in school history, in which the Jayhawks went 12–1 (.923). The team plays at Memorial Stadium. Memorial Stadium is currently undergoing renovation, begun in the summer of 2007, to add a $30 million football practice faciltiy complete with indoor practice field and weight room along with improving the locker room facilities. Current NFL alumni include Moran Norris of the San Francisco 49ers, David McMillan of the Cleveland Browns, Charles Gordon of the Minnesota Vikings, Adrian Jones of the Kansas City Chiefs, Justin Hartwig of the Carolina Panthers, and Aqib Talib of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. NFL Hall of Fame alumni include Gale Sayers and John Riggins among others.

The KU men's basketball team has fielded a team every year since 1898. The Jayhawks are a perennial national contender currently coached by Bill Self. The team has won three NCAA tournament championships in 1952, 1988, and 2008. The basketball program is currently the third winningest program in college basketball history with an overall record of 1,943–785. The team plays at Allen Fieldhouse. Kansas has counted among its coaches Dr. James Naismith (the inventor of basketball and only coach in Kansas history to have a losing record), Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Phog Allen ("the Father of basketball coaching"), Roy Williams of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and former NBA Champion Detroit Pistons coach Larry Brown. In addition, legendary University of Kentucky coach Adolph Rupp played for KU's 1922 and 1923 Helms National Championship teams. In addition, NCAA Hall of Fame University of North Carolina Coach Dean Smith played for KU's 1952 NCAA Championship team. Both Rupp and Smith played under Phog Allen.

Lew Perkins, previously at Connecticut, replaced Al Bohl as the university's athletic director in 2003. Under Perkins's administration, the department's budget has increased from $27.2 million in 2003 (10th in the conference) to currently over $50 million thanks in large part to money raised from a new priority seating policy at Allen Fieldhouse, a new $26.67 million eight-year contract with Adidas replacing an existing contract with Nike, and a new $40.2 million seven-year contract with ESPN Regional Television. The additional funds have brought improvements to the university, including:^[16]

• The Booth Family Hall of Athletics addition to Allen Fieldhouse;
• Brand new offices and lounges for the women's basketball program;
• Brand new scoreboard and batting facility for the baseball field;
• A new $35 million football facility adjacent to Memorial Stadium;
• The $8 million dollar 42,000 square foot Anderson Family Strength Center

Fraser Hall, the University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas

Song

Notable among a number of songs commonly played and sung at various events such as commencement and convocation, and athletic games are: “I’m a Jayhawk", "Fighting Jayhawk” and “Stand Up and Cheer.”^[17]

Media

The school newspaper of the University of Kansas is University Daily Kansan, which placed first in the Intercollegiate Writing Competition of the prestigious William Randolph Hearst Writing Foundation competition, often called "The Pulitzers of College Journalism" in 2007. In Winter 2008, a group of students created KUpedia, a wiki about all things KU. They have received student funding for operations in 2008-09. The KU Department of English publishes the Coal City Review, an annual literary journal of prose, poetry, reviews and illustrations. The Review typically features the work of many writers, but periodically spotlights one author, as in the case of 2006 Nelson Poetry Book Award-winner voyeur poems by Matthew Porubsky.^[18][19]

The university houses the following public broadcasting stations: KJHK, a student-run campus radio station, KUJH-LP, an independent station that primarily broadcasts public affairs programs, and KANU, the PBS-affiliated radio station. Kansas Public Radio station KANU was one of the first public radio stations in the nation. KJHK, the campus radio has roots back to 1952 and is completely run by students.

Notable alumni and faculty

Main article: List of University of Kansas people

See also

• Kansas Board of Regents
• Audio-Reader
• Scholarship hall
• Hoch Auditorium
• Queers and Allies
• The Marching Jayhawks

Further reading

• University of Kansas Traditions: The Jayhawk
• Kirke Mechem, "The Mythical Jayhawk", Kansas Historical Quarterly XIII: 1 (February 1944), pp. 3–15. A tongue-in-cheek history and description of the Mythical Jayhawk.

References

External links

• Official website
• KUpedia: A KU wiki maintained by KU students