The land-grant promise is still needed in communities across our state and the world. However, the model we have historically used to deliver it must evolve. If Land-Grant 1.0 was about opening access to practical education, and Land-Grant 2.0 expanded the research enterprise, then Land-Grant 3.0 must be about translation, engagement and impact at speed. It is not enough to generate knowledge; we must work alongside communities, industries, and public partners to apply that knowledge to real-world challenges and opportunities.
At K-State, engagement is defined as the bridge between knowledge and impact. It is the process of working alongside communities, industries, and public partners to apply our expertise to real-world challenges. Through these reciprocal partnerships, research becomes solutions, teaching becomes opportunity, and service becomes lasting community impact. Rooted in communities. Powered by discovery and creativity. Measured by outcomes. That is the standard we are holding ourselves to at K-State.
We are proud to say the promise is being kept. Our roots in Kansas give strength to our global vision, and what is taking shape at K-State today is a testament to what this community can accomplish when it chooses to grow together, with purpose and integrity.
The evidence of our progress is real and growing:
- Our fall 2025 incoming freshman class was the fourth largest in K-State history — a signal that learners recognize K-State as a place where they can thrive, and that our efforts to share our story are working.
- • Our research enterprise surged to over $281 million in annual expenditures in FY2025 — a remarkable achievement and a powerful demonstration that our faculty and researchers are meeting the moment with world-class scholarship and discovery.
- • Our donor community matched that energy with nearly $300 million in giving in FY2025 — keeping us well on our way to the $2 billion cumulative goal we have set for 2030.
Beneath those numbers is a deeper story of structural change driving progress:
- We leveraged our unique assets: The Next Gen Opportunity Agenda to launch bold interdisciplinary efforts in water, digital agriculture, biomanufacturing, community health and well-being, and nuclear energy, with emerging investments in artificial intelligence and sustainability that will define our scholarship for decades.
- We established an institutional definition of meaningful applied learning — a foundational step toward our commitment that every K-State degree-seeking student graduates with real-world experience that prepares them for a successful career.
- We elevated Extension to the university level through the Office of External Engagement, making clear to the state of Kansas and to ourselves that our land-grant mission of engagement is not a complement to our work: it is central to it.
- We invested in our people and our collective success with a new budget model that rewards the units and colleges driving our plan forward, a completed compensation study that will allow us to better recognize and retain our exceptional workforce and more than $18 million awarded through the One K-State Fund to innovation by accelerating strategic priorities.
- We advanced a campus master plan that guides investments, including landmark facilities such as the Western Star Global Grain and Food Center, K-AIRES and a new Kansas Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory. Facilities that support teaching, research and engagement with service to our state.
As we look ahead, our priorities reflect both what we have learned and what we know still lies within reach. We will press forward on enrollment, not simply to hit a number, but because reaching more learners is core to who we are and the impact we drive across Kansas. We will focus with renewed intensity on student success, helping the people who choose K-State graduate with meaningful credentials, and the skills that open doors in our region's economy, supporting them along the way.
We will sharpen our focus on moving K-State's discoveries from our laboratories and classrooms into practical applications for the world. That means building stronger pathways for commercialization, licensing and innovation, translating our research into economic opportunities for Kansas. It means deepening the partnerships with industry, communities, and other institutions to share resources and multiply our collective impact. And it means measuring our footprint in Kansas, not just in research dollars or enrollment figures, but in the volunteer hours our people dedicate to communities, the Extension learners we reach in every corner of the state, and the statewide economic impact that we are committed to growing to more than $3.5 billion by 2030.
What happens at K-State impacts the world. The teaching, research and engagement occuring on our campuses in Manhattan, Olathe and Salina, our agricultural research centers in all 105 counties, and in communities far beyond our state shape a better world. Our land grant promise is essential to our mission and we take the trust our community has placed in us to carry this plan forward. Innovation with integrity, shared growth, and an abiding commitment to the people who make our university great are foundational to the impact we make here in Kansas and beyond.
We are grateful for the partnership of every member of this community — faculty, staff, students, alumni, donors and Kansans from every walk of life — who have made these first three years possible. The best is still ahead of us. Together, as One K-State.
Go ‘Cats!
Richard Linton
President, Kansas State University
Jesse Perez Mendez
Provost and Executive Vice President, Kansas State University
