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LAWRENCE -- Former KU Chancellor Gene A. Budig and his wife, Gretchen, have established a new teaching professorship in the University of Kansas Department of Special Education, School of Education Dean Angela Lumpkin announced today.
The Gene A. Budig Teaching Professorship in Special Education will be awarded annually to a special education faculty member who demonstrates excellent teaching skills in the classroom. It is the first teaching professorship for the department and the second one the Budigs have established in education.
The professorship was established through a combination of gifts to the Kansas University Endowment Association from the Budigs and previous gifts to KU Endowment made in honor of Budig when he left KU in 1994. That same year, the Budigs established their first education professorship, the Gene A. Budig Teaching Professorship in Education, using a portion of the honorary donations.
"Gene and Gretchen Budig recognize that one of the most important ways to promote excellent teaching is to reward it through professorships and awards," Lumpkin said. "We are grateful to have the financial support to honor our outstanding faculty members."
The professorship will help the special education department maintain its No. 1 ranking, Lumpkin added. The graduate level of the program, which enrolls about 400 students each year, has been ranked No. 1 in the country for the past six years by U.S. News and World Report.
Gene said he and Gretchen hoped the professorship would draw attention to the importance of quality faculty members.
"Recognizing exceptional faculty is one way to remind society of the importance of outstanding teaching and research," Gene said. "Gretchen and I have enormous respect for the KU School of Education and its people, and we are especially pleased to add a second teaching professorship, this one in special education."
Budig was named KU's 14th chancellor in 1981. During his 13-year tenure, more than 180 faculty positions were established. He was an active fund-raiser during Campaign Kansas, the 1987-92 campaign that raised $265 million from private donors. He left the university to become president of baseball's American League and now is senior adviser to Major League Baseball. He and Gretchen live in Princeton, N.J.
KU Endowment is an independent, nonprofit organization serving as the official fund-raising and fund-management organization for the University of Kansas. Founded in 1891, KU Endowment is the first foundation of its kind at a U.S. public university and one of the largest.
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