KU News Release

Dec. 8, 2008
Contact: Jill Jess, University Relations, (785) 864-8858.

KU chancellor announces he will step down June 30 to return to teaching, writing

Reactions to Hemenway's announcement

LAWRENCE — Chancellor Robert E. Hemenway, who since 1995 has led the University of Kansas through an unprecedented period of progress and expansion, announced today that he will step down from the post effective June 30, 2009.

Under Hemenway’s leadership, KU has achieved records in enrollment, ACT scores and diversity of faculty, students and staff. The university has grown in national stature, more than doubling its research activity to almost $300 million in annual expenditures, and undergone an unprecedented expansion and remodeling of campus facilities to attract top students and faculty. To emphasize the importance of teaching, Hemenway created a Center for Teaching Excellence and special cash awards to present to 20 faculty at the start of each school year.

“As of June I will have completed 14 years as chancellor — an unusually long tenure in these times,” Hemenway said. “I am grateful to the members of the Kansas Board of Regents for this opportunity and their continuous support. Being KU chancellor has been a great honor and a demanding job.”

Hemenway said there is no “good” time to step down. But in light of the university’s many recent achievements, “I will return to the classroom knowing the University of Kansas is in excellent shape and ready for the challenges that face our nation’s leading public universities,” he said.

Donna Shank, chair of the Kansas Board of Regents, said, “The people of Kansas and KU alumni worldwide have benefited tremendously from Bob Hemenway’s service. The accomplishments of the university during his firm and progressive leadership speak for themselves. KU has grown in size, strength and reputation.”

Shank said the regents would appoint a committee to begin a national search for Hemenway’s successor.

In a personal message sent earlier to faculty, staff and students, Hemenway said he will be on sabbatical leave next academic year to work on a book about intercollegiate athletics and American values, and then return to teaching and scholarly research at KU.

Hemenway acknowledged that higher education faces trying economic times, but said he knew from experience that the best academic institutions not only survive such downturns but also rebound.

“Great opportunities inevitably emerge in the wake of challenging economic times,” he said.

“I pledge to the Jayhawk nation that I will remain deeply engaged as chancellor these next seven months as the university navigates through the challenging financial waters. And I will do whatever is needed to assist my successor.”

Among KU’s accomplishments so far during Hemenway’s tenure as chancellor:

— A fall 2008 record enrollment of 30,102 students — including the largest number of Kansas resident students in state history, the most diverse group of students in KU history and the brightest freshman class on record in terms of ACT scores.
— One of the top four universities, along with Stanford, Emory and Michigan, to excel in the Chronicle of Higher Education’s “Great Colleges to Work For” 2008 survey.
— An unprecedented addition of new campus buildings and renovations. More than $150 million has gone to new research labs, $100 million to athletics facilities and $60 million toward student housing. Programs and activities emerging from the Dole Institute of Politics and the Hall Center for the Humanities have enriched the cultural and intellectual life of the region as well as the university.
— Progress toward the No. 1 priority that Hemenway announced in 2005 to achieve designation as a National Center Institute comprehensive cancer center, which will bring cutting-edge clinical trials to Kansans. In November, the KU Medical Center announced that it had been invited by NCI to apply for the coveted status in 2011.
— Johnson County voters’ approval in November of a sales tax that will fund an estimated $10 million a year toward KU Medical Center cancer programs and Edwards Campus graduate programs.
— A $20 million research award in October from the National Institutes of Health for a Specialized Chemistry Center, the largest single federal grant in Kansas history.
— KU Hospital’s transition to a top performing academic hospital, a turnaround attributed to Hemenway’s proposal in 1998 to move the hospital from state status to a public authority free to compete and succeed nationally.
— Achieving an increase of more than 54 percent in minority faculty and a 33 percent increase in women faculty.
— Completion of a $653 million capital campaign, KU First, in 2004. Fundraising by KU Endowment has reached record heights in support from private donors, the number of donors and the amount of privately funded scholarships for students. In fiscal year 2008, KU Endowment distributed $112.1 million in support to KU’s four campuses.
— Initiating a “wounded warrior” education partnership with the U.S. Army in Fort Leavenworth, building on a faculty-student exchange he created earlier with the fort.

Other higher education leaders have recognized Hemenway’s administrative talents. In 2007, he was elected to the 11-member executive committee for the Association of American Universities, an organization representing the nation’s most prestigious research universities; in 2008, he was elected AAU vice chair. He has also served on the board of directors for the American Council on Education, the National Association of State and Land Grant Colleges and the NCAA Division I Board of Directors, which he chaired from 2002 to 2005.

Hemenway’s interest in athletics is widely known. Proud to be called the No. 1 Jayhawk fan, he was especially pleased to see KU win the NCAA men’s basketball championship and a BCS Bowl game, the Orange Bowl, in 2008, joining the University of Florida as the only schools to have achieved that feat.

Hemenway’s early imprint on KU was an emphasis as a student-centered university that provided a world class education, streamlining administrative structure, uniting the KU campuses into “one university,” upgrading technology and invigorating the university’s research programs.

A scholar of American literature, Hemenway has taught an undergraduate class every year, in recent years alternating between American literature and honors seminars on global poverty and development issues, topics reflective of Hemenway’s wide-ranging intellectual interests.

Hemenway reaffirmed KU’s mission as a research university that serves the state well, finding cures for cancer and other ways to enhance health, and is known nationally and internationally for its faculty expertise. By the late 1990s, KU was identified as one of 21 “rising stars” in the book “The Rise of American Research Universities: Elites and Challengers in the Postwar Era.”

For a decade, Hemenway has ensured KU’s partnership with a bi-state effort to make the region a bioscience hub, earning kudos from “Time to Get it Right,” an assessment of higher education and research in the greater Kansas City area authored by Benno Schmidt, former chancellor of Yale University.

In the summer of 2008, Hemenway traveled to the University of Nottingham, England, with Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to meet with top researchers and leaders of a life-sciences firm, OncImmune, which had opened its North American headquarters in Kansas City because of its proximity to Lawrence campus and KU Medical Center research faculty.

Later in the summer, he traveled to Greenland with an international delegation of government and academic officials to view an ice-drilling site, which draws scientists from KU’s National Science Foundation-funded Center for the Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets. His traveling party included the chair of a Nobel Peace Prize-winning organization and Thomas Friedman, a New York Times columnist.

KU’s growing research and academic reputation has galvanized university fundraising efforts. During Hemenway’s years, KU Endowment has received the largest private gift in history to a Kansas college or university — $42 million in 2004 from the Hall Family Foundation.

Hemenway has been a relentless advocate for international education, challenging KU students to learn languages and study abroad. Today, KU is a leader among U.S. public universities in the percentage of students who study in other countries. KU is one of few universities to win the Sen. Paul Simon award for campus internationalization.

Hemenway has spoken at institutions in the Far East, South and Central America and Europe, checking in on KU alumni at every stop. In 2005 he was among a select group of world political and education leaders invited to attend the annual world economic forum in Davos, Switzerland.

In 2002, the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos in Peru, the oldest university in the Americas, awarded him an honorary degree for leadership in higher education and promotion of multicultural literature.

In 2006, KU’s strong ties to Chinese higher education paved the way for KU’s Edwards Campus to become the site of the nation’s fourth Confucius Institute, providing free language and cultural courses for Kansas businessmen and other travelers. In December 2007, the Chinese government named KU’s Confucius Institute one of the top 20 such institutes in the world.

Hemenway drew national attention in 1999 and again in 2005 when he voiced concern about attacks on science and evolution. Christian Science Monitor columnist John Merrow noted that Hemenway was one of just three higher education leaders in 2005 to publicly address attacks on politically motivated threats to science education.

Hemenway is known for his biography of African-American novelist Zora Neale Hurston, a “Best Books” pick by the New York Times in 1978 and a Quality Paperback Book Club selection in 1991. Writer Alice Walker cites Hemenway’s “thoughtful and sensitive” biography as her inspiration to lead a national rediscovery of Hurston — “Zoramania” — that thrives today. Arnold Rampersad, nationally known scholar and biographer of Langston Hughes, Jackie Robinson and W.E.B. Dubois, has credited Hemenway with initiating a late 20th century surge of African-American biography.

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius:“I congratulate Bob on his great successes in helping the University of Kansas to be one of the premier universities in America. The opportunities for the future have been set with record enrollments, nationally top-ranked programs in numerous fields and a research engine that is generating critical economic activity and knowledge. (And a national basketball championship doesn't hurt!) Bob’s legacy will be the continued success of KU. I wish him all the best as he moves to his next chapter as a writer, a teacher and forever a Jayhawk.”

Donna Shank, chair, Kansas Board of Regents: “The people of Kansas and KU alumni worldwide have benefited tremendously from Bob Hemenway’s service. The accomplishments of the university during his firm and progressive leadership speak for themselves. KU has grown in size, strength and reputation. Under Bob’s leadership, KU’s academic programs have received increased national recognition, the university has embarked upon ambitious plans to achieve Comprehensive Cancer Center designation, it has made huge strides in the amount of federal research activity taking place on campus — all while maintaining the commitment to providing world class education opportunities for students. These and many other achievements have secured KU’s position as a national academic and research leader which will have a lasting impact on the residents of Kansas.”

Lew Perkins, athletics director: “KU has been fortunate for the past 14 years to have had such a quality leader as Chancellor Hemenway. Our students will continue to benefit from his decision to remain here on the faculty. Chancellor Hemenway’s commitment and vision was a key inspiration in my choice to come to Kansas. The chancellor has been very supportive of the Kansas Athletics program, recognizing the value of intercollegiate athletics to KU but always in the context of education, integrity and NCAA compliance. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Chancellor Hemenway, and I feel privileged that I can count him as a friend.”

Video of December 8, 2008 press conference

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