University of Kansas

The University of Kansas (often referred to as KU or just Kansas) is an institution of higher learning in Lawrence, Kansas. The main campus resides atop Mount Oread. 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 27,875 students; an additional 2,769 students were enrolled at the KU Medical Center for a total enrollment of 30,644 students across the three campuses. The Lawrence campus and KU Medical Center combined employ 2,201 faculty members.

KU is home to the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics, the Beach Center on Disability, and radio stations KANU and KJHK. 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. 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.

The chancellor of the University of Kansas is Robert Hemenway. He has served as chancellor since 1995. He has taken an active approach towards improving academics.

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 Design, 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 2007, U.S. News & World Report ranked KU as tied for 88th place in its ranking of the Best National Universities. 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.

Law School
The University of Kansas School of Law, in Lawrence, Kansas, is the top law school in the state according to the 2008 U.S. News & World Report, which ranked the school 66th overall in its rankings of the best law schools. Classes are held in Green Hall at W 15th St and Burdick Dr, which is named after former dean James Green.

Medical Center
The University of Kansas Medical Center, in Kansas City, Kansas, treats over 19,000 patients per year. KU Med, as it is commonly known, is comprised of four basic schools: The KU School of Medicine, School of Nursing, School of Allied Health, and a second School of Graduate Studies. As of the Spring 2007 semester, there were 2,769 students enrolled at KU Med. 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. Programs available at the Edwards Campus include developmental psychology, public administration, social work, systems analysis, engineering management and design.

Notable faculty

 * John Bricke, Ph.D., Edinburgh University. Philosophy of the Mind, Hume and Davidson Scholar.
 * George Coggins, Frank E. Tyler Distinguished Professor of Law. J.D. from the University of Michigan.
 * Steven A. Epstein, Distinguished Professor of Medieval History. Ph. D. from Harvard (1981). Multiple book publications to his name concerning late-medieval Genoa and Renaissance Italy.
 * Bryant C. Freeman, an expert on Haiti, its language, culture, and history. He founded the Institute of Haitian studies at KU. He has been asked consulted various U.S. government and international organizations regarding Haiti, and was given the protocol rank of Major General with the U.N. peacekeeping force. He has published significant dictionaries in the language.
 * Don W. Green, Distinguished Professor of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering – co-editor of Perry's Chemical Engineers' Handbook, the world's most widely used reference by chemical and petroleum engineers.
 * James Gunn – Hugo Award-winning science fiction author and creative writing professor.
 * David S. Holmes – Professor of Psychology. Ph.D., 1965, Northwestern University. M.D., 1968, Harvard University. Served on the staff of Massachusetts General Hospital, Northwestern University, University of Texas, and Princeton University. Author of "Abnormal Psychology" textbook.
 * Kermit E Krantz MD, LittD (deceased 2007), University Distinguished Professor; Professor and Chairman Emeritus, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology; Professor of Anatomy Emeritus. Developed the Marshall-Marchetti-Krantz (MMK) and invented the expandable tampon.
 * Jeffrey Lang, professor of mathematics and Muslim author.
 * Stanley Lombardo – Classics professor and translator of numerous Classical works into English, including Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Virgil's Aeneid.
 * Charles D. Michener (retired) Ex-chairman of KU Entomology Department, Ex-director of the Snow Entomological Museum, Watkins Distinguished Professor of Entomology, member of the National Academy of Sciences. The Association of American Publishers gave its R.R. Hawkins Award for the Outstanding Professional Reference or Scholarly Work of 2000 to Michener's opus, The Bees of the World.
 * Dr. Jan Roskam -- emeritus Deane E. Ackers Distinguished Professor of Aerospace Engineering, author of eleven books on airplane design and flight dynamics and over 160 papers on the topics of aircraft aerodynamics, performance, design and flight controls.
 * Kevin Willmott, of Junction City, KS, associate professor of Theater & Film, writer and director of the film C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America , which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and in 2005 was nominated for Best Film at the Festival Internacional de Cinema do Porto in Porto, Portugal.
 * Paul E. Wilson (deceased), distinguished emeritus professor of law. Wilson argued Brown v. Board of Education on behalf of the State of Kansas.

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.

Athletics
The school's sports teams, wearing crimson and royal blue, are called the Jayhawks. They participate in the NCAA's Division I (I-A for football) and in the Big 12 Conference. KU has won nine NCAA National Championships: two in men's basketball, three in men's indoor track and field, three in men's outdoor track and field, and one in men's cross country.

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. The team plays at Memorial Stadium, one of the most historic NCAA football stadiums west of the Mississippi River. Memorial Stadium is currently undergoing renovation, begun in the summer of 2007, to add a $30 million dollar 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 New York Jets, and Justin Hartwig of the Carolina Panthers. NFL Hall of Fame alumni include Gale Sayers and John Riggins among others.

The KU men's basketball team, who have fielded a team every year since 1898, are a perennial national contender currently coached by Bill Self. The team last played an NCAA National Championship game in 2003 and last won an NCAA Championship in 1988. The basketball program is currently the third winningest program in college basketball history with an overall record of 1,905-781. The team plays at Allen Fieldhouse, one of the most historic basketball facilities in the NCAA. 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 Willams 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.

In 2004, the KU Men's Bowling Team won the Intercollegiate Bowling Championships. The Women's Team placed 5th that same year.

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 $40.8 million (projected) in 2005 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:
 * 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

Student publications
The school newspaper of the University of Kansas is The 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. 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.

Nobel laureates

 * Vernon L. Smith (M.A. in economics 1952), awarded the 2002 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics

Honorary alumni

 * Donald J. Hall, Sr., Chairman of the Board and former President and CEO of Hallmark Cards

Politics, government, and education

 * William H. Avery (1934), 37th Governor of Kansas (1965–1967)
 * Sheila C. Bair, Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
 * Kay Barnes, Mayor of Kansas City, Missouri from 1999-2007
 * Carol A. Beier, Kansas Supreme Court Justice
 * George L. Brown, First African-American elected lieutenant governor in the U.S, (1974) and first African-American elected to statewide office in Colorado
 * Arthur Linton Corbin (1894), professor at Yale Law School and scholar of contract law
 * George Docking (1925), 35th Governor of Kansas (1957–1961)
 * Robert Docking (1948), 38th Governor of Kansas (1967–1975)
 * Bob Dole, former U.S. Senate majority leader and Senator from Kansas (1969–1996), presidential and vice-presidential nominee, WWII combat veteran.
 * Thomas Frank, author, What's the Matter with Kansas?
 * Frederick Funston, attended 1885-1888, US Army general.
 * John B. Gage (1907), mayor of Kansas City, Missouri (1940-1946)
 * Robert L. Gernon (1966), Kansas Supreme Court Justice.
 * Jane Dee Hull (1957), 24th Governor of Arizona (1997–2003) (KU and Harvard are the only universities with 2 women alumni elected governors, see also Kathleen Sebelius)
 * Ravi Parmeswar(1954), Vice President of Central Insights Group in Sara Lee Corporation
 * Lee A. Johnson (BS 1964) Kansas Supreme Court Justice
 * Nancy Landon Kassebaum (1954), First female U.S. senator (1979-1997) elected in own right without having been preceded in office by her husband.
 * Kenton Keith, U.S. ambassador to Qatar, 1992-1995.
 * Phill Kline (JD 1987), Former Attorney General of Kansas (2003–2006), current District Attorney of Johnson County, KS (2007-)
 * Ron Kuby, civil rights attorney
 * Lee Kyung-sook, president of Sookmyung Women's University, South Korea.
 * Alf Landon (1908), 26th Governor of Kansas (1933–1937) and Republican nominee in the 1936 presidential election
 * Delano Lewis, former National Public Radio CEO and ambassador to South Africa
 * Deane Waldo Malott (1921), former Chancellor of KU and 6th president of Cornell University (1951–1963)
 * David McClain, President, University of Hawaii
 * John H. McClendon, an African-American scholar at Bates College
 * Dennis Moore, current U.S. Congressman for Kansas District 3 (1999–present)
 * Franklin David Murphy (B.S. 1936), Chancellor of the University of Kansas and Chancellor of the University of California, Los Angeles
 * Lawton Nuss (BA 1975, JD 1982), Kansas Supreme Court Justice
 * William C. Perry (1922), Chief Justice Oregon Supreme Court
 * Eric Rosen, Kansas Supreme Court Justice
 * Jim Ryun, former U.S. Congressman Kansas District 2 (1997–2007), three-time U.S. Olympic runner and silver medalist
 * Kathleen Sebelius, 44th Governor of Kansas (2003–present) (KU and Harvard are the only universities with 2 women alumni elected governors, see also Jane Dee Hull)
 * Vernon Smith, Nobel Prize laureate in economics
 * Deanell Reece Tacha (BA 1968), current chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit (2001–present)

Media and the arts

 * Stewart Bailey, television producer of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
 * Scott Bakula, actor, star of Quantum Leap and Star Trek: Enterprise
 * Etta Moten Barnett, actress and singer, was the first black artist to perform at the White House, and was Bess in the Broadway production of Porgy and Bess
 * Kara Brock - Television and film actress.
 * Danni Boatwright, former Miss Teen USA and Miss USA contestant, winner of Survivor: Guatemala
 * Liliana V. Blum, Mexican writer
 * Evan S. Connell, novelist, best known for Mrs. Bridge and Mr. Bridge
 * Bob Dotson, documentarian and NBC reporter, 4-time Emmy Award winner
 * Von Freeman, Television Executive Producer ABC,NBC TV - The Radio Music Awards, Award winning Marketing director for his work in Los Angeles Radio.
 * Moses Gunn, actor, was in the TV mini-series Roots
 * Ann Hamilton (BFA 1979), sculptor, installation artist and 1993 MacArthur Fellow recipient
 * Kevin Harlan, broadcaster for CBS and TNT sports
 * Herk Harvey, Academy Award-winning director of over 400 industrial and educational short films as well as cult feature film Carnival of Souls
 * Kevin Helliker, Chicago bureau chief of the Wall Street Journal, awarded the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting
 * William Inge, a Pulitzer Prize and Academy Award winning author/playwright
 * Don Johnson, actor, co-star of Miami Vice and Nash Bridges
 * Tim Joyce, television journalist, writer, meteorologist
 * Rebecca Kolls, former gardening expert on ABC's Good Morning America and HGTV and knife-hawking infomercial co-star
 * Bill Kurtis, television journalist and producer best known as the host of numerous A&E crime and news documentary shows, including Investigative Reports, American Justice, and Cold Case Files.
 * Neil LaBute, filmmaker/screenwriter, wrote and directed the award-winning In the Company of Men, nominated for Palme D'Or for Nurse Betty
 * Robert Morris, contemporary sculptor and painter (transferred to Reed College)
 * Rob Neyer, baseball author and columnist for ESPN.com
 * Sara Paretsky, novelist, best known for her frequent protagonist, V.I. Warshawski
 * Mandy Patinkin, Emmy and Tony Award winning actor and singer (Yentl, The Princess Bride; TV's Chicago Hope)
 * Artur Pizarro, concert pianist
 * Maurice Prather, motion picture and still photographer and film director
 * Betsy Randle, actress best known as the mother on Boy Meets World
 * Rob Riggle, comedian, The Daily Show correspondent and former Saturday Night Live cast member
 * Paul Rudd, actor from TV's Friends, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Clueless, The Cider House Rules, William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet, and Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
 * Devin Scillian, television journalist and children's author
 * Gerald Seib, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist
 * William Stafford (BA 1937), poet and pacifist, winner of the National Book Award for Travelling Through the Dark
 * Dee Wallace-Stone, actress (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, The Howling)
 * Harry Teinowitz, Sports Radio Host for Chicago's ESPN Radio AM 1000 (WMVP)
 * Catherine Warren, Miss Illinois USA 2006
 * William Allen White, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author
 * Carol Journey, Castmember on Big Brother 8
 * Cara Gorges, Miss Kansas USA 2007, controversial 2nd runner up Miss USA

Science and technology

 * Paul R. Ehrlich (MA/PhD 1957), entomologist, population researcher and author of The Population Bomb, and 1990 MacArthur Fellow recipient
 * Joe Engle (BS 1955), former NASA astronaut and a retired U.S. Air Force colonel
 * Ronald E. Evans (BS 1956), former NASA astronaut and a retired U.S. Navy captain
 * Steve Hawley (BA 1973), current NASA director and former astronaut
 * David Hillis, evolutionary biologist and 1999 MacArthur Fellow recipient
 * Wes Jackson (MA 1960), environmental historian and founder of the Land Institute, a 1992 MacArthur Fellow recipient
 * Bill James, noted Baseball sabermatrician and author of The Bill James Baseball Abstract in 1971
 * Brian McClendon, VP of Engineering for Google Earth, formerly Keyhole
 * Douglas Shane, director of flight operations for SpaceShipOne, which made the first privately-funded human spaceflight
 * Mike McCamon (1985), former executive director of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG)
 * Walter Sutton, pioneer of cellular biology and genetics, physician, inventor
 * Clyde Tombaugh, astronomer, discoverer of the dwarf planet Pluto
 * Kent Whealy, co-founder of the Seed Savers Exchange, and 1988 MacArthur Fellow recipient

Business

 * Kenneth S. "Boots" Adams (1921), former President and CEO of Phillips 66 Petroleum Company
 * Kenneth G. Adams (1972), President and CEO of Adams Investment Co.
 * Philip Anschutz, billionaire, founder of Qwest
 * Stephen Barackman, President of BIBofCA.com Los Angeles, CA
 * Linda Z. Cook (1980), executive director of Shell Gas & Power, part of Royal Dutch Shell
 * Paul Wilbur, CEO, Saleen Inc.
 * David Dillon, Chairman and CEO, Kroger Co.
 * Robert Eaton, former CEO of Chrysler Corporation
 * Robert Kleist, founder and CEO of Printronix
 * Lou Montulli, co-founder of Netscape
 * Alan Mulally (BS/MS), President and CEO of Ford Motor Company
 * Christopher A. Sinclair (1971), former CEO of Pepsi-Cola, Co.
 * Charles E. Spahr (1934), former CEO of Standard Oil of Ohio
 * David Wittig, (1977) Former President and CEO of Westar Energy.
 * Cynthia Carroll, CEO of Anglo American, one of the world’s largest independent mining companies.

Sports
For athletes and coaches, see the relevant section in Kansas Jayhawks
 * Wilt Chamberlain, NBA hall of famer and NBA all-time leader for most points in a game with 100 points.
 * Paul Pierce NBA all-star on the Boston Celtics.
 * Raef LaFrentz, NBA player from the Portland Trailblazers
 * Kirk Hinrich, NBA player form the Chicago Bulls
 * Nick Collison, NBA player from the Seattle Supersonics also known as "Mr. USA Basketball" for representing the country in international basketball since high school
 * Gale Sayers, NFL Hall-of-Fame running back.
 * K. S. "Bud" Adams, Jr., owner of the Tennessee Titans
 * Jack Del Rio, former NFL linebacker, current head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars (Del Rio played collegiately for the University of Southern California (USC). He earned his degree from KU while playing for the Kansas City Chiefs.)
 * John Riggins, NFL Hall-of-Fame running back.
 * Danny Manning, basketball player and coach. Two-time All-American 1988 recipient of the Naismith and Wooden Awards, Big 8 Player of the Decade for the 1980's, two-time NBA all-star
 * Billy Mills, the only US athlete ever to win an Olympic 10,000m gold medal (at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics).
 * Jim Ryun, former U.S. Congressman for Kansas District 2 (1997–2007), three-time U.S. Olympic runner and silver medalist
 * Dean Smith, former men's basketball coach at the University of North Carolina and the second most winningest coach in the sport.
 * Adolph Rupp, former men's basketball coach at the University of Kentucky and the third most winningest coach in the sport.
 * Forrest "Phog" Allen, football and basketball player, head basketball coach. Won 3 national championships, the 10th winningest coach in college basketball history.

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 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 ; these rates are subject to annual increases. The schools of architecture, business, engineering, fine arts, journalism, law, and pharmacy charge additional fees.