February 2011 K-State Kudos
All-University
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has named K-State as one of 115 institutions to receive the 2010 Community Engagement Classification, which honors higher education institutions that collaborate with their larger communities and understand the benefits of a reciprocal exchange of knowledge and resources.
K-State is strengthening its collaboration with industry through a partnership with Abaxis Inc., an animal health company coming to the Kansas City area. The company announced a strategic alliance with the university, the K-State Veterinary Diagnostic Lab and the university's business development and commercialization arm, the National Institute for Strategic Technology Acquisition and Commercialization.
Cargill has contributed $500,000 toward the construction of the Cargill Center for Feed Safety Research. The facility, to be part of the new O.H. Kruse Feed Mill and Biorefinery Teaching and Research Center in the grain science and industry complex, will conduct studies with pathogens such as salmonella and E. coli to address current food and feed safety issues facing the feed industry.
The Principles of Community, the university's statement of values, have been updated a decade after first being introduced. A new principle on the value of honor and integrity has been added.
The master of interior architecture and product design degree program has earned first-time accreditation from the National Association of Schools of Art and Design. The program also is accredited by the Council for Interior Design Accreditation.
A speech delivered at K-State by civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 was finally heard again at the university thanks to a Wichita man who had a taped copy. The original tape was thought to have been destroyed in the fire that gutted Nichols Hall in December 1968.
Faculty
Yar Ebadi, dean of the College of Business Administration, is the first to serve in the new Edgerley Family Endowed Deanship in the college. The endowed deanship, the first at K-State, was established by Paul and Sandra Edgerley.
Charles W. Rice, university distinguished professor of soil microbiology, was named one of the top 150 scientists in Kansas in the Ad Astra Kansas initiative, "Science in Kansas: 150 Years and Counting." Also on the list so far are K-State alums David Fairchild and Olga Koper.
Students
K-State's Beta Kappa chapter of Eta Kappa Nu, the electrical and computer engineering honor society, has received the Outstanding Chapter Award for its activities and service during the 2009-2010 school year. It's the first time K-State has received the honor, which is presented only to chapters judged to be exemplary.
The K-State Orchestra accompanied the rock band "Kansas" in a McCain Performance Series concert. The event was filmed for an upcoming documentary on the band, which will feature interviews with orchestra members.
A group of about 30 Kansas State University students and sponsors from Ichthus, a campus Christian church/ministry, spent 10 days in Haiti over winter break to help build homes and assist in a school in Fond-des-Blancs, a town damaged by the January 2010 earthquake.
Alumni
K-State alumni have demonstrated again why they are regarded to be among the most loyal graduates in the nation. A comparison of information submitted by Big 12 Conference universities placed K-State No. 1 in the conference for the percentage of graduates who are members of their respective alumni associations. This marks the 15th consecutive year that K-State has finished in the top position among Big 12 universities. The information was reported for the 2010 calendar year.