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Media Relations
Kansas State University
9 Anderson Hall
Manhattan, KS 66506
785-532-6415
media@k-state.edu

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Source: Steve White, 785-6900, sewhite@k-state.edu
http://www.k-state.edu/media/mediaguide/bios/whitebio.html
News release prepared by: Beth Bohn, 785-532-6415, bbohn@k-state.edu

Monday, Sept. 15, 2008

DEAN OF K-STATE'S COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES TO STEP DOWN IN JUNE 2009

MANHATTAN -- Steve White, the dean of Kansas State University's College of Arts and Sciences, will step down from his post in June 2009.

White was appointed dean of K-State's largest college in October 2003 after serving as interim dean since February 2002.

After stepping down, White plans to take a half-year sabbatical and then go on phased retirement, which will involve both teaching and some administrative responsibilities associated with alumni development and workshops for new department heads.

"I feel very privileged and honored to have had the opportunity to work with outstanding department heads, deans, deans' office staff and central administration to serve the needs of our fantastic K-State students," White said. "I am truly looking forward to teaching again while on a phased retirement, as well as playing a different administrative role at K-State."

"Steve White has done an outstanding job as dean," said Duane Nellis, K-State provost and senior vice president. "Working with the college faculty and others throughout the university, he has strengthened the college's core commitment to student success and faculty research success. Dean White also been instrumental in establishing significant positive relationships with the college's alumni base."

Among White's many accomplishments as dean include increasing the number of the college's minority faculty members from 64 to 86; increasing the number of women in key administrative positions from two to nine; and increasing the number of women faculty members in the sciences through the college's participation in K-State's ADVANCE program.

Under White's leadership, the college's annual giving level has risen from $2 million a year to more than $10 million and the college's Alumni Advisory Council was established. Expansion and improvement of the college's facilities also were addressed with the addition of Chalmers Hall and the renovation of several of the college's academic departments.

"As dean, I have been fortunate to work with truly outstanding department heads and program directors," White said. "They are the keys to any successful college."

White has been serving in an administrative capacity at K-State for 25 years. Prior to serving as interim dean and then dean, he was associate dean of the college from 1997-2002. He served as head of the department of geography from 1979-1987 and from 1994-97. White joined K-State in 1975 as an assistant professor of geography, was promoted to associate professor in 1980 and was made a full professor in 1985.

In addition to his administrative duties, White is an award-winning teacher. He received K-State's Conoco Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award in 1988; a William L. Stamey Award for Teaching Excellence from the College of Arts and Sciences in 1989; and was one of eight national recipients of the National Council for Geographic Education Distinguished Teaching Achievement Award in 1991.

White's research, which has been supported by the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, NASA, the Ford Foundation and other sources, also has received honors. As a geographer, he studies population change and economic development in Appalachia and the High Plains; human response to environmental change; global change in local places; High Plains groundwater issues; internal migration; and return migration. His work earned him the John Fraser Hart Award for Research Excellence, Contemporary Agriculture and Rural Land Use Specialty Group, from the Association of American Geographers in 2001. He also received the National Council for Geographic Education's Journal of Geography Award for best content article in 1987.

White is the author or co-author of more than 70 publications and is co-editor of the book "Groundwater Exploration in the High Plains" with David Kromm. His articles have appeared in such journals and publications as the Annals of the Association of American Geography, Geographical Review, Rural Sociology, The Professional Geographer, Journal of Rural Studies and more. He also has been invited to present his research across the U.S. and internationally.

He is a member of the Association of American Geographers, National Council for Geographic Education, Gamma Theta Upsilon geography honorary, Council of Colleges of Arts and Sciences and Phi Beta Kappa.

White earned his bachelor's, master's and doctorate in geography from the University of Kentucky.