News briefs

Endowment leader to retire

issue 1, 2022

BY STAFF

Endowment Leader to Retire

After 41 years at the KU Endowment Association—the past 20 as president of the independent nonprofit that serves as the University’s official fundraiser—Dale Seuferling is retiring.

“It has been a true honor and privilege to partner with donors in accomplishing their goals in support of KU,” Seuferling says. “Some 40 years ago, I had the good fortune to match my passion for KU with a future career. Along the way, I’ve been blessed to be supported by inspirational chancellors, thoughtful volunteer leaders and a truly fantastic team of KU Eandowment staff members. I could not have asked for a more rewarding career. My family and I look forward to all the good experiences that lie ahead.”

Seuferling joined Endowment in 1981 as director of public relations and in 1982 transitioned to front-line fundraising, eventually serving as director of major gifts, vice president for development and executive vice president. He became president in 2002.

During his long tenure, Seuferling participated in three of the four major campaigns in Endowment’s history, most recently “Far Above: The Campaign for Kansas,” which raised $1.66 billion for KU and provided 735 new scholarships and fellowships, 53 new professorships and 16 new buildings or major renovations.

“Dale Seuferling embodies what it means to be a Jayhawk,” says Heath Peterson, d’04, g’09, Alumni Association president. “He led with humility, built authentic relationships with donors and campus partners and always put KU first. Countless KU leaders have relied on Dale as a trusted adviser, have benefited from his unmatched institutional knowledge, and have felt the impact of his steady, servant leadership. I am deeply appreciative of the value Dale placed on growing an impactful, vibrant alumni association and the time and care he placed in building a strong partnership with our team.”

The Loyola Project

The 1963 Loyola Ramblers of Chicago, a team of predominantly Black student-athletes who won the NCAA men’s basketball championship during the civil rights movement, are the focus of a new documentary, “The Loyola Project,” which will show at 6:30 p.m. March 8 at the Lied Center. Tickets are free for the public and available through the Lied Center ticket office, but they are limited to two per person and must be picked up in person.

KU is one of 63 universities on the documentary’s national tour, thanks to the collaboration of Kansas Athletics, the Lied Center and the Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging. Chuck Wood, the sixth man on the 1963 Ramblers, and Patrick Creadon, the film’s director, will participate in a question-and-answer session after the screening. For additional information on other events in conjunction with “The Loyola Project,” visit http://theloyolaproject.com

Suzanne Shontz, professor of electrical engineering and computer science, is the first woman to win the International Meshing Roundtable Fellow Award in the male-dominated field of mesh generation.

Mesh generation is a mathematical and computational process for building items of many shapes—Shontz likens it to building with Lego blocks—that can be used for simulation analysis and rendering computer models. Shontz’s lab, for example, created a mesh that simulates the motion of a beating human heart.

“It makes it more special knowing that I’m the first woman,” she says of the award, which she received in November. “I’m hoping it’s a sign that more women will get more involved in the field over time.”

Window sticker

Used to be the tow truck, cruising campus lots like a shark hunting in surf, that struck fear in the hearts of parking scofflaws. Now it’s The Barnacle.

Billed as “a more passive way of enforcing” parking rules, the GPS-equipped device with suction cups clamps to your windshield with 700 pounds of force and won’t let go until you pay those pesky parking tickets. Try to pry it off and you’ll activate the Barnacle’s alarm (and possibly rip out your windshield). Try to drive (with your head out the window, we presume) and you’ll likely get some strange looks and a moving violation to go with your stationary one.

“Using The Barnacle will be less costly than towing, saving vehicle owners a portion of the regular towing fee,” says Donna Hultine, c’80, director of Transportation Services, which unleashed two of the devices last summer.

Even more less costly: A parking permit.

PSU partners

With no similar program available within a two-hour drive, Kristen Humphrey, Pittsburg State’s director of social work, spent 10 years searching in vain for a partner school to help create an accessible master of social work program—until meeting Michelle Mohr Carney, dean of the KU School of Social Welfare.

“She said, ‘I hear that you’ve been wanting to create a program at PSU,’” recalls Humphrey, PhD’02. “It went from there.”

Along with an advanced KU program now in its second year on the Pittsburg campus, the schools also created a two-year MSW track, now in its second semester, that allows local students to earn a graduate certificate and master’s degree in two years, all at PSU.

“Community mental health centers in Southeast Kansas kept saying, ‘We want more master’s level social workers.’ There just were not enough in the geographical area to fill the positions they have. Now we’re able to increase the workforce down here with master’s level social workers.”

Pie time!

It’s been a minute since we’ve seen students laughing—really laughing—on campus. At least that was the immediate realization Nov. 11 when exiting the No. 10 bus outside Learned Hall and finding buoyant Jayhawks plastering each other with cream pies.

As part of an entrepreneurship contest pitting Self Engineering Leadership Fellows against the Business Leadership Program, engineering students spent their $10 stake on foil pans and whipped cream and invited passersby to take a pie to the face for a cash donation.

“Well,” exclaimed engineering student James Hurd, his head caked in pie as he headed off to his next class, “I sure feel better!”

Kids being kids. At long last.