KUMC Alumni Associations Celebrate with New Graduates

The KUMC Alumni Associations joined newest alumni from the Schools of Allied Health, Graduate Studies, Medicine and Nursing in celebration at a variety of events in May. More than 100 allied health and nursing graduates attended a "Night at the Ballpark" and Royals tailgate party on May 14, including (pictured from left to right) Rebecca Siefers, Lori Schwartz and Ashleigh Surber, 2004 KU School of Nursing graduates.
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Association names Del Shankel interim president, CEO

University of Kansas Chancellor Emeritus Del Shankel will lead the Kansas Alumni Association as interim president and CEO. Shankel succeeds Fred B. Williams, former president and CEO.

"Del Shankel is among the University's most trusted and talented leaders," said Dr. Linda Duston Warren, national chair of the Association. Read more.

Juanita Strait does one more thing for her KU kids

During the 60 years Juanita Strait lived next to the University, she was as much a part of the lives of many KU students as their classrooms and professors. A piano teacher for two generations and surrogate mother to students, she made room for all of them in her living room at 1346 Louisiana St.

Before her death in 2002 at the age of 93, Strait and her late husband, Reginald "Reg" Strait, KU professor of physical education, made certain that her surrogate kids would have a final bit of support from her. She bequeathed the couple's home and half of their estate for projects designed to make life easier for KU students. Read more.

KU athletics department to implement new priority points system

The KU athletics department is implementing a priority points system, which will reward longtime season ticket holders, alumni and contributors with priority seating at KU athletic events. "It is important to remember that these contributions to the Williams Educational Fund provide vital scholarship support to more than 500 KU student-athletes," Kansas Athletics Director Lew Perkins said. Read more.

KU in the Capitol

New Kansans learn lay of the land in whirlwind tour

Forty-two KU faculty and staff members traveled 1,500 miles over six days last month for a dizzying trip across Kansas. The journey was the seventh-annual installment of the KU Wheat State Whirlwind Tour.

Chancellor Robert Hemenway created the tour primarily to give faculty and staff who are new Kansans an opportunity to learn more about their new home state, their students' hometowns and their fellow Kansans.
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This Week In KU History

June 9, 1924: KU unveils a full-length bronze statue of Law School Dean James W. "Uncle Jimmy" Green sculpted by Daniel Chester French.
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From The People Who Brought You This Week IN KU History…

Get Ready for KansasHistoryOnline

Just in time for the sesquicentennial of Kansas Territory, the pilot version of a dynamic new Web site focused on Kansas history is now live.

Called KansasHistoryOnline, and accessible at www.kansashistoryonline.org, the project was conceived and developed by many of the same people who created This Week In KU History.

As with This Week In KU History, KansasHistoryOnline combines scholarly methodology with magazine-style journalism to provide site visitors with highly readable content that reflects academic standards. KansasHistoryOnline is a project of the Hall Center for the Humanities and the Kansas State Historical Society. The site's project director and editor-in-chief is Henry Fortunato, who also directs This Week In KU History

"The pilot version is simply a demonstration of what we intend will someday be a much larger site," said Victor Bailey, director of the Hall Center. "But even this initial sample contains a degree of sophistication, design quality, and technological excellence that most state Web site histories do not possess. We're confident that KansasHistoryOnline can become a major contribution to the evolving practice of e-history, and in the process, KU can become a leader in this field."

Visitors to the pilot of KansasHistoryOnline will find a daily listing of key dates in Kansas history and sample articles in two themed sections directly accessible from the homepage. One focuses on the "Bleeding Kansas" period and was underwritten by a grant from the Kansas Humanities Council. The other is called "Quintessential Kansas" and details the peculiarities of the state and its people. Individual articles also contain links to related articles within the site, primary source documents, lists of recommended readings, and Kansas travel destinations such as museums and points of interest related to a given article.

Although the site's creators are high on Kansas history, they warn that KansasHistoryOnline isn't a celebration. Instead, it's an objective, oft-times wry, interpretation of the state's past, "warts and all."

Fortunato is managing a team of PhD candidates and other contributors who are writing the core content for the site. The vast majority of the images come from the state historical society. A advisory board comprised of leading historians from KU, Wichita State University, and the Kansas State Historical Society counsel on potential subject matter and review completed articles before they are put online.

"This project has always appealed to me because of its potential for reaching a broad audience of lifetime learners," said Bailey. "Lectures and workshops are useful formats for public outreach, but the lasting effects are nominal. With KansasHistoryOnline, we can achieve a level of accessibility and permanence that only the Internet can provide."

This Week In KU History is a project of the KU Memorial Unions.
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© 2004 University of Kansas Memorial Corporation