Good news begets more good news’

By Lynette Murphy

Chemistry professor Erach Talaty holds some of the press clippings about him winning the 1999 Kansas Professor of the Year award. One clipping seen by the Rudd Foundation led to an unsolicited $10,000 gift to Talaty.

It was pure coincidence that the executive director of the Rudd Foundation was visiting Wichita State the day in October it was announced that Erach Talaty had been named the 1999 Kansas Professor of the Year. Talaty won the award from the Carnegie Foundation and the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education.

However, the result of that timing -a $10,000 gift with which Talaty can do as he pleases- is not coincidental. The Rudd Foundation, founded by Leslie Rudd, a 1981 WSU graduate and entrepreneur from Wichita who lives in California, was created with the premise of encouraging entrepreneurial spirit.

"I want to find those who are known as risk takers and innovators," Rudd said in his article "Founder’s Thoughts on Philosophy." "We can do great things if we can match our resources with creativity, drive, innovation and talent."

The uniqueness of Talaty’s teaching and his dedication to students struck a chord with Rudd.

The gift came about in this way: Ellen Hunt, executive director of the Rudd Foundation, was meeting with President Don Beggs, who had just returned from the Talaty press conference and told Hunt about it. Later, Vice President for University Advancement Elizabeth King sent the story that appeared in Inside WSU to Hunt as a courtesy. Unsolicited, Rudd decided to reward Talaty with a gift from the foundation.

Foundation founder Leslie Rudd.

"This is just a very wonderful professor," Hunt says. There are no stipulations on the money. Rudd wanted Talaty to be able to use it for himself, research or to assist students.

Talaty chose the latter – he will either create an endowed graduate fellowship or supplement an existing fellowship. (He hasn’t worked out the details with the Endowment Association yet because he is home recuperating from hip replacement surgery and is not teaching this semester.)

"I could have used the money to buy an instrument for myself, but I want to set up a fund from which future graduate students can be paid," he says. He likes the idea of having his name attached to something like that after he is gone.

Talaty is still dumbfounded by the $10,000 gift, especially because it came from someone he's never met.

"It makes you feel kind of humble," he says.

Gifts of this type are only one of many advantages that come from publicizing faculty activities. It's one of the reasons faculty, staff and administrators are encouraged to inform the Office of University Communications about their efforts, says Bruce Erickson, executive director for marketing and communications.

"I've been doing this for 25 years, and time and time again, I have seen good news beget more good news," Erickson says. "The point of public relations is that the more people who know about the good work our faculty, staff and students do -donors, legislators, parents- the more likely they are to support them and the university."

Often times, faculty are unwilling to "toot their own horns" in fear of appearing braggadocio. But Erickson says, that as employees at a public institution, it's our responsibility to spread word of our accomplishments.

"This is not about vanity; it is about the public good. We have an ethical and practical obligation to inform the public."