Dr. Kromm retired at the end of the spring semester marking a major transition in his illustrious career as a professional geographer. You can read more about Professor Kromm's career and his short-term plans in other sections of this newsletter. Another campus geographer and friend of the department, Ben Smith, Professor of Social Science Education, retired this past year as well. Ben and his wife, Sylvia, have moved back home to Georgia.

We were very fortunate (given the dismal state budget situation) to be able to hire two faculty members this past year. Dr. Shawn Hutchinson was hired, to transition in August, into the tenure-track line that Sy Seyler vacated 1½ years ago. Shawn has agreed to be the new Director of Geographic Information Systems and the Spatial Analysis Laboratory (GISSAL) and is already a member of the Graduate Faculty. We have also hired Russell Graves, as a Visiting Assistant Professor, for the coming year. Russell is ABD from Madison, Wisconsin, is a native Kansan from the Chapman area, and born in Manhattan, already is acquainted with Rusty's Outback in Aggieville, and got his BA degree from that other public institution, on the Kaw, down river from Topeka. Change occurred in the main office as well. Kimberly Karas left us to have her baby (Isaiah) in the fall semester. The Karas family seems to be doing quite well following their move to the Sacramento, California area. We were fortunate to hire Bernadette Schmidt as the new Administrative Assistant. We "stole"' Bernie away from the Department of Agronomy. Bernie apparently liked the idea of working 28 hours per week for us; yes, she has a 3½- day "weekend" each week.

Another change for the department this past year occurred on February 1st, when it was announced that Steve White was selected as Interim Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. This is a tremendous honor and a major commitment on Steve's part. For the department, it means that we are likely to have a tad less of Steve's excellent geographic scholarship and that we'll be dealing with a few less good natured jokes coming from his way.

Speaking of "interim" appointments, Kevin Blake has agreed to serve the department as Interim Department Head for a five-month period from late July to late December. I was awarded a sabbatical leave so that I might find a bit of time to work on writing up some of my research for publication.

Other "changes" have come with the tremendous success of the faculty in doing their jobs exceptionally well. You'll find a list of selected faculty accomplishments in a separate section of this newsletter. Some of my colleagues are so successful, it was hard for them to limit themselves to the agreed upon two items for the listing. Here are some items that might have also been mentioned: Drs. Max Lu and Kevin Blake were both promoted to Associate Professor with tenure and Dr. Bimal Paul was promoted to full Professor - next time you see them ask them for that new business card. Lisa Harrington was recently selected as Chair of the AAG Research Grants Committee, Chuck Bussing was elected as President of the AAG Retired Geographers Affinity Group, and I was elected to serve the AAG on the Nominating Committee for next year. Let me end this list of "changes" by providing you with an indication of how the mindset of the student population is evolving. In February, Max Lu shared a student's e-mail question with the rest of the faculty. Apparently, this student checked the syllabus and realized that they had missed a test. The question to Dr. Lu was: "I was wondering if there is anyway I could get extra points for missing the test..." Yes, go back and read that again!

Faculty in the department continue to provide classes and seminars for all three of our degree programs. And, we've had real good numbers and high quality students graduate from the bachelors, masters, and doctoral programs. We've also continued to assist the university in meeting the demands of a larger and larger student body by offering large sections of our undergraduate classes. Over 3,900 students enrolled in geography classes this past year - a record number. The department has been told that this effort has us in a good position to be rewarded with an additional faculty line, but that potential reward sometimes seems far away as all the students place an increased demand on faculty time (like having to respond to certain e-mail requests). The department faculty continues our outstanding tradition of quality education. Dr. Blake was again recognized for his outstanding performance in the classroom. He won a Stamey Award from the College of Arts and Sciences, for the second year in a row, and was selected as the "2001-2002 Professor of the Year" by K-State Housing and Dining Services.

Our students have been award winners as well. Brad Hammerschmidt, an undergraduate major, was selected to attend the 2002 NASA Summer Institute on Atmospheric and Hydrospheric Sciences at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. And, MA graduate, Jeff Van Looy, won 3rd place in the Great Plains/Rocky Mountain Regional AAG Geography Bowl competition. Jeff not only represented himself and the department well, he earned a trip to the AAG meetings in Los Angeles, where he was a member of the team that represented the region in that Geography Bowl competition. You can find the names of the department scholarship winners in another section of the newsletter.

There were a number of new faces around the department this past year. Dr. Mahnaz Gmrükçüoglu, in the Environmental Engineering Department of Sakarya University, in Turkey, joined us from July through December 2001. We hosted two exchange students from Western Europe: Yvette Van Teulingen (from Utrecht University in the Netherlands) and Sam Hiett (from the University of Hertfordshire in England). I think all enjoyed the K-State geography hospitality. Other new faces included the 33 students that selected geography, as their major or double major, during the past year. My educated guess is that 33 is likely an all time record for the department.

I want to end this message with a heartfelt thanks to all who helped make a student caller feel real good during Telefund, or just decided to send a contribution to one of the department's Foundation accounts. We try to use your contributions to help the students feel good about geography and their K-State experience. Scholarships, student travel to professional meetings, and field trips are just three of the ways we tap into Foundation donations to help the department's students. On behalf of all of those who have benefited from your contributions, I want to again thank you! - John Harrington