KUCIMAT Winter 2007 Newsletter

Department Chair's Report

Greetings from a cold Lawrence, Kansas, where basketball optimism abounds!

We recently had our annual department holiday party with over 60 faculty, students, friends, and children attending at our home.  Carol and I enjoy very much hosting this annual event, which seems to get bigger each year.

Carol and I returned from a visit to Austin, Texas, where we conducted a goals setting and team building retreat with the city council.  We have been invited to do the same in San Antonio as well.  Each time I travel I carry KU’s name—your name-- with me.  It is on my shoulder as some of you know!

In the last newsletter, I reported on a possible partnership between our department and Tsinghua University in China.  Tsinghua is one of the top-rated universities in China, and they have invited us to deliver our MPA to local government executives there.  We are putting an agreement in place now, and hopefully I will have a successful report in the next newsletter.

We are in the middle of a strategic planning exercise for the department.  We have fulfilled our last plan which called for addition of a doctoral and undergraduate program.  Those programs are being implemented now, and I am optimistic that they will add value to the department.  With the addition of these programs and the Tsinghua partnership, we are taking additional steps towards our goal of becoming a full-service academic public administration unit.

Our local alumni who listen to basketball games on the radio may have heard a plug for the KU MPA program on the Jayhawk Radio Network.  It is a very nice spot, produced by KU’s University Relations department, that focuses on what KU brings to the state of Kansas. Carol Gonzales, City Manager of Shawnee, KS, is featured.

In early December, I attended a wonderful celebration in Chanute, Kansas, recognizing one of our alumni, Randy Riggs, as recipient of the Kansas Association of City/County Management’s Buford Watson, Jr. Award for Excellence in Public Management.  The mayor and council joined the city’s staff, other KACM members, and Randy’s family for this recognition.  Randy has given Chanute a unique combination of determination and grace, helping to empower citizens in their goal of creating a city with pride. 

Last, I have announced to our faculty and dean that I will be stepping down as department chair at the end of the academic year.  It will be seven years for me as chair on top of the five years I served in the 1980s.  It is time for me to return to the intellectual pursuits that attracted me to KU in the first place, and to help provide a leadership transition to our younger faculty.  As I hope you know, I draw strength from my association with you, the alumni of what I consider the best public administration program in the country.  As I return to the faculty, I will continue to work with you and to draw upon you.  You are a big part of what makes us the best.