Building Cross-University Alliances that Enhance Research


The Barn, Valley Falls, KS

July 26-28, 1999

This was the third annual retreat in the series: The Research Mission of Public Universities. Thirty-two administrators and senior faculty scientists came from the four heartland states of Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri.

Topics in 1999 included:

  • Managing intellectual property
  • Graduate education: how the relationships between universities benefit our students
  • Creating a science network between institutions
  • Developing a competitive edge through multi-state collaboration
  • Collective action in the face of the crisis in scholarly publishing

Our keynote speaker was Dr. Luis Proenza, President of the University of Akron in Ohio. He encouraged participants to think in terms of "strategic intent" and described important precedents for university-industry cooperation and alliances between universities.


Retreat Participants 

Keynote Speaker 

  • Luis M. Proenza, President University of Akron 

Iowa State University 

  • Charlotte R. Bronson, Professor of Plant Pathology 
  • Bruce Harmon, Deputy Director of the Ames Laboratory Distinguished Professor of Physics 
  • P. B. Swan, Vice Provost for Research & Advanced Studies 

Kansas Board of Regents 

  • Kim A. Wilcox, Executive Director 

University of Kansas 

  • Robert E. Barnhill, Vice Chancellor for Research & Public Service President of CRINC 
  • Sally Frost Mason, Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences Professor of Molecular Biosciences 
  • Robert Hemenway, Chancellor 
  • Roberta Johnson, Director of the Hall Center for Humanities 
  • Ted Kuwana, EPSCOR Director & Regents Distinguished Professor of Chemistry  
  • Kathleen McKluskey-Fawcett, Associate Provost 
  • Mabel Rice, Director, Merrill Advanced Studies Center, University Distinguished Professor of Speech-Language-Hearing 
  • James Roberts, Associate Vice Chancellor for Research & Public Service  
  • Dick Schiefelbusch, Director Emeritus, Life Span Institute 
  • Steve Schroeder, Director, Life Span Institute  
  • David E. Shulenburger, Provost 
  • Don Steeples, McGee Distinguished Professor of Geophysics 
  • Marilyn Stokstad, Judith Harris Murphy Distinguished Professor of Art History  
  • George S. Wilson, Higuchi Professor of Chemistry & Pharmaceutical Chemistry 

University of Kansas Medical Center 

  • Charles DeCarli, Director, Alzheimer’s Center & Professor of Neurology  
  • Don Hagen, Executive Vice Chancellor 
  • K. Michael Welch, M.D., Vice Chancellor for Research 

Kansas State University 

  • Bikram S. Gill, Director of the Wheat Genetics Resource Center University Distinguished Professor of Plant Pathology 
  • Marc A. Johnson, Dean of Agriculture, Director, Agricultural Experiment Station & Cooperative Extension Service 
  • R. W. Trewyn, Vice Provost for Research & Dean of the Graduate School President, KSU Research Foundation 

University of Missouri - Columbia 

  • Andrew J. Blanchard, Director of Research, College of Engineering Professor of Electrical Engineering 
  • Jack O. Burns, Vice Provost for Research 
  • Roger A. Sunde, Professor & Chair of Nutritional Sciences Cluster Leader, Food for the 21st Century 
  • Richard L. Wallace, Chancellor 

University of Nebraska 

  • Thomas Rosenquist, Director of Research, Medical Center in Omaha Chair, Cell Biology & Anatomy 

Other Participants 

  • Keith Yehle, Legislative Assistant to Senator Pat Roberts 
  • Bob Woody, Shook, Hardy & Bacon