New Board of Regents members are named, governor appoints trustees

A new Board of Regents took shape July 1, when a recently passed law that broadened the group’s oversight went into effect.

Kansas Gov. Bill Graves appointed nine individuals to the new board. Appointees Clay Blair of Mission Hills, Harry Craig of Topeka, Sylvia White Robinson of Kansas City and Bill Docking of Arkansas City were holdovers from the previous Board of Regents, and Docking will continue to chair the group. The other appointees were WSU alumnus Stephen Clark, Wichita; Janice DeBauge, Emporia; Floris Jean Hampton, Dodge City; Fred Kerr, Pratt; and John (Jack) Wempe, Little River.

Instead of just governing the state’s six public universities as it had in the past, the Board of Regents is now responsible for the coordination of all public post-secondary higher education in the state. The nine-member board will be sub-divided into three advisory commissions — one for community colleges, area vocational and technical schools and colleges; one for the six public universities; and one for higher education coordination. Clark, Craig and Robinson will serve on the public universities commission.

Graves also re-appointed three WSU alums to its Board of Trustees, which oversees the expenditure of mill-levy money WSU receives from the city and Sedgwick County.

Bill Moore, executive vice president, chief financial officer and treasurer of Western Resources Inc.; Marilyn Pauly, president of NationsBank, Wichita; and Jeff Turner, vice president and general manager of Boeing Commercial Airplane Group, Wichita, will serve three-year terms.