Wefald recognized with honorary degree

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K-Statement

Wefald recognized with honorary degree

President Jon Wefald is being recognized with an honorary degree from Southwest Minnesota State University, which he led as president from 1977-82.

Wefald will return May 12 to Marshall, Minn., to accept an honorary degree and to deliver the university's commencement address. After the commencement ceremony, Wefald will be recognized with an official dedication ceremony noting his achievements and accomplishments while president at Southwest Minnesota State University.

David C. Danahar, current president of Southwest Minnesota State, said he is "delighted that Jon Wefald will return to the campus to receive the recognition he so clearly deserves."

Wefald left Southwest Minnesota State University to serve as chancellor of the State University System in Minnesota from 1982-86, a system comprised of seven universities.

He became K-State's president in 1986. Previously he served as Minnesota's Commissioner of Agriculture from 1971-77, and was a member of the faculty at Gustavus Adolphus from 1965-70.

Wefald has been recognized nationally for the improvements at K-State under his leadership -- from improving K-State's academic reputation to increasing enrollments and repairing its athletics fortunes.

K-State is in the top 4 percent of schools in the nation for research activity. According to the latest rankings of America's colleges and universities by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, K-State ranks in the top tier of the three subcategories for the 278 doctorate-granting institutions evaluated in the Carnegie Foundation's study. Since Wefald's arrival in 1986, K-State leads the nation's public universities in the total number of Rhodes, Marshall, Truman, Goldwater and Udall scholarship winners.

During the Wefald years, K-State enrollment has increased from about 13,500 to more than 23,000. K-State has built a healthy endowment program and established a national presence in athletics. With Wefald at the helm, K-State's total research funding has increased to record numbers. K-State produces about $3 billion in economic benefit for the state of Kansas each year. External research funding is $111 million. Research projects include food safety and security; animal health; stem cells and more.

Under his leadership, K-State has added about 2 million square feet of new university buildings, including a new library, a new art museum, and a nationally acclaimed plant science building.

Wefald earned his B.A. from Pacific Lutheran in 1959, his M.A. in history and political science from Washington State University in 1961, and his doctorate in history from the University of Michigan in 1965.

April 19, 2007 / Vol. 29, No. 19