Annual Report 2007-08
Best school, best job
Tansy Hayward remembers the day she found her calling. She had enrolled in journalism classes at KU, intending to become a television news anchor. During her sophomore year, an Introduction to Public Administration course put her on a day of observing Susan Sherman,
an assistant city manager in Olathe.
Hayward was impressed by the scope of issues: meeting with an individual to solve a sidewalk issue, working with a group of community stakeholders to improve the welfare of children in Olathe, strategizing with fellow staffers about city policy.
“After that one day I decided that was the best job in the world,”
she says. “I had to do it.”
Sherman told her she was already attending the best school in the country to study public administration. Others agree: U.S. News & World Report has ranked KU’s Master’s in Public Administration program number one in the country continuously since it started ranking programs in city management and urban policy.
One element in the department’s success is the Edwin O. Stene Distinguished Professorship of Public Administration, supported by KU Endowment since 1979.
Five years out, Hayward now knows from experience how well KU’s program prepared her. And she still relishes the variety.
“It never gets old,” she says. “There’s something new every day.”
Record support
In FY08, KU Endowment provided $112.1 million in financial support for KU, setting a new record. Since our founding in 1891,
we have provided $1.5 billion in support for the university.
