Let's live in the present. Different AD, different coach, different conference.

I don't think the legislature is anything more than a convenient excuse. They turned down bonding a luxury apartment complex for bball. That construction should be privately funded in my mind because it produces nothing. And it's more of a luxury than a need in my opinion.
And after being rebuffed KU funded it privately.

The bigger picture here is that with the emphasis on JUCO recruits last spring, you lose a lot of the roster during the time Zenger claims the need for momentum. KU could be better next year and not see it in the record. It's a tough position to be in right now.

You are aware KU was going to pay for that anyway, they just wanted lower borrowing rates. The state wasn't going to be paying any of the bills. I'm sure you know that but I just wanted to make sure.

Yes sir. I was quoting the feelings of the legislative committee that denied it. BC's statement that it was the KSU leaning legislature made me chuckle. Because it's a lazy excuse. IMO

Has KSU received any bond support for improving their facilities from the state?

I think it's more the severe anti-tax, anti-govt political environment in the legislature right now more than it is a KSU bias. The dream-dorm just has terrible optics.

That said it's an important reminder for KU admins to realize what state they're operating in and how they need to cultivate relationships across the state much better than they have. Like KSU does. Outside of Johnson County, KSU dominates the state in exposure, student recruiting, etc etc. They spend time visiting schools in rural areas while we spend time recruiting international students and kids in Chicago that can't get into Illinois. That's why their undergrad enrollment has finally caught ours after 160 years of trailing.

Of course KSU has. And so has KU. All the way back to the funding of Allen Fieldhouse.
It's a weak excuse.

Pfft, there's plenty of money. They just want to see wins. It's not rocket science.

That has more to do with KU's increased academic standards rather than our "failure" to reach out to the state of Kansas.

You're absolutely correct about our inability to form positive relationships with the state legislature, however.

Those standards were changed in 2013. The enrollment gap was nearly closed before then.

Drunk posting isn't for me. I meant to say that KU is more selective with their applicants (by a negligible amount, now that sober Chiefspants examines the data), our new academic standards won't even go into effect until 2016.

You are right, however, KSU's enrollment has been absolutely exploding over the past decade.

If KU is against most of what the Kansas State Legislature is doing these days then I know KU is doing the right thing.

We could probably have a pretty spirited discussion about KU's politics on the DC board if you want to start a thread about it. If you were correct, our enrollment wouldn't be stuck at the same 1980 count. (24,000 in 1980 - 24,000 in 2012). Meanwhile Johnson County has exploded from 200k to almost 600k in that time and our enrollment.....is flat. It should've exploded with it. Something is very broken in Lawrence KS.

Most definitely. Lawrence was once considered one of the booming towns through the 90's and early 2000's.

You have to have a better local economy and job market for that to sustain. It's basically turned into a hippy bedroom community for Kansas City... that happens to have a college in the middle of it.

Sad, cause that's my home. :(

Seeing that Lawrence's population has nearly doubled since 1980, I'm not buying your whole "there's something broken with Lawrence" hypothesis. Whatever is wrong with KU's enrollment is limited to KU alone, not the city around it.