| |
He will succeed Jon Wefald, whose presidency spanned 23 years of service to K-State. Most recently Schulz was vice president for research and economic development at Mississippi State University. He is already on the K-State campus and will assume his duties full-time in June 2009.
What will be your first priority when you start work at Kansas State?
I need to learn as much about K-State as I possible can as soon as I can. Modern research universities are amazingly complex places with many different activities going on all of the time, and it will take me quite a while to get a feeling for all of the wonderful activities and traditions which are part of the K-State experience.
Describe your leadership style.
The role of a university president is constantly evolving, so a modern president of today will do a much different set of things than a president did in 1970. I intend to be very externally focused, which means that I will spend a great deal of time outside of Manhattan building relationships with the K-State family. One of my primary jobs will be to garner as many resources as possible to help our faculty, staff and students to excel in their educational and research endeavors. In order to do this, I will need to delegate much of the day-to-day running of the university to vice presidents and deans—and K-State has a very impressive set of administrators in place. So I intend to com-municate frequently [I am a Blackberry addict], hire the best people we can and let them do their jobs to the best of their abilities.
What are your early thoughts on building on the momentum and excitement generated by the announcement of the NBAF lab?
NBAF represents a rare transformational opportunity for K-State and the region. I believe that 10 years from now, we will look back with amazement at how much of a positive impact NBAF has made on the research capa-bilities and national reputation of Kansas State University. In addition to NBAF, there will be excellent opportunities for partnerships between industry moving to this area and K-State. If we can fully capitalize on these partnerships, it will lead to additional resources to keep improving our research and educational experience at K-State. |
KIRK H. SCHULZ
•Title Incoming president, K-State •Education B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in chemical engineering, Virginia Tech
•Married to Noel Nunnally Schulz;
two sons, ages 18 and 14
|
Athletics have played a key role in the strong sense of pride shared by the K-State community. What are your thoughts on the role of athletics in a university’s success?
If I am walking around Washington, D.C., wearing a purple jacket with the Powercat logo, everyone knows exactly what university I am associated with. Athletics represent our “front porch” of the K-State “house” to the world around us. As such, a successful athletics program gets people looking at Kansas State University. It will be up to us to once again capitalize on this interest. We need to get people “off the front porch and going into the house,” learning why K-State is such a wonderful university.
Tell us something about yourself that comes as a surprise to people once they get to know you.
I am usually perceived as a very outgoing person, but in my spare time I like to curl up with a book in a quiet place and read, mostly science fiction and spy thrillers. I also raced in the soapbox derby when I was in middle school and won my local race in Virginia Beach. By winning the local race, I qualified for the world championships in Akron, Ohio, in 1977. It was a great experience for me and my family.  |
