Keeping our engagement momentum

Dear K-State community,

Since our founding, Kansas State University has been committed to serving and strengthening communities across Kansas. As our state's land-grant university, engagement is not separate from who we are. It is woven into our mission, our purpose and our responsibility to help grow opportunity and prosperity for Kansans and for our state.

With the recent announcement that Marshall Stewart will become president of North Dakota State University, some have asked what this means for engagement, Extension and outreach at K-State.

K-State was an engaged university from its very beginning. We are an engaged university today. And we will remain an engaged university for generations to come. Engagement is a hallmark of a next-generation land-grant university.

I am writing today to share an update on this transition and how we will continue moving forward with purpose and keep our momentum.

As part of this transition, several External Engagement units will begin reporting through a new structure effective May 10. The Division of Communications and Marketing and the Office of Government Relations will report to the Office of the President. Interdisciplinary Program Development and the Office of Corporate Engagement will be housed in the Office of Research and report to the vice president for research. Civil Rights and Title IX will report to Human Resources, and Chief Human Resources Officer Shanna Legleiter will report directly to the Office of the President on matters related to civil rights and Title IX.

The remaining units within External Engagement: Engaged Scholarship, Economic Development, K-State Extension, Military and Veterans Affairs, the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art, McCain Auditorium and the K-State Gardens, will remain together. These units will be overseen by Dr. Ernie Minton, special assistant to the president, who will serve as interim associate vice president for Extension and engagement. Minton brings deep leadership experience, a strong understanding of Extension and engagement, and trusted relationships across our university and the communities we serve.

We will also launch a search for a permanent leader who will help advance K-State's engagement enterprise and our land-grant mission of teaching, research and engagement.

What matters most is this: K-State is not slowing down in its work to serve Kansas.

Go 'Cats!

Richard Linton
President