KU News Release

‘Surprise patrol’ presents year’s final Kemper fellowship on Lawrence campus

• See video, photos of the winners

LAWRENCE — The University of Kansas “surprise patrol” today presented another professor with a $5,000 Kemper Fellowship for Teaching Excellence.

The Kemper fellowships recognize outstanding teachers and advisers at KU as determined by a seven-member selection committee. Now in their 13th year, the awards are supported by $650,000 in gifts from the William T. Kemper Foundation (Commerce Bank, trustee) and $650,000 in matching funds from KU Endowment.

Today’s winner is Raj Bhala, the Raymond F. Rice Distinguished Professor of Law.

In all, 20 professors, including four at the KU Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan., will be honored and $100,000 distributed this year as part of the Kemper tradition. Today’s presentation is the last for Lawrence-campus faculty members.

The William T. Kemper Foundation was established in 1989 after the death of the Kansas City, Mo., banking executive and civic leader. The foundation supports Midwest communities and concentrates on initiatives in education, health and human services, civic improvements and the arts.

KU Endowment is the independent, nonprofit organization serving as the official fundraising and fund-management organization for KU. Founded in 1891, KU Endowment is the first foundation of its kind at a U.S. public university.

More about today’s winner:

Raj Bhala
Raymond F. Rice Distinguished Professor of Law
Raj Bhala, who earned his law degree from Harvard University in 1989, has not wasted any time since arriving at KU in 2003. “I cannot remember any faculty member who has so quickly and effectively transformed what we do,” said a colleague in nominating Bhala for a Kemper fellowship. Among programs Bhala has created and implemented at KU are a two-year degree program that allows international students with prior law experience to obtain a degree that entitles them to take bar examinations in the United States and a certificate program in international trade and finance. Programs such as these have brought to KU’s law school students from Australia, Brazil, China, Colombia, France, Germany, India, Liberia, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia. As his nominating colleague said, “Perhaps most important is his celebration of the limitless variety of the human condition. If the world is to be a better place, it is students of teachers like Raj Bhala who will make it so.”

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