By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

It doesn’t pay to be reclusive when you’re trying to build up a small university on the wind-blown Kansas prairie.

And so, once a year, Edward H. Hammond hits the road. The president of Fort Hays State University visits journalists, alumni and just about anyone who will take time to listen to his story.

Actually, that time is well spent. The Fort Hays State story is about how one college has bucked the rising costs and tuition hikes that are ailing higher education.
Start with this: Grow or die.

In 2000, Fort Hays had an enrollment of 5,506 students. Hammond realized two things.

First, his small university in northwest Kansas wouldn’t survive without more paying customers. And because students were unlikely to come in droves to his school, the school would have to go to them.

The way forward was with online learning. Hammond set out to become the state’s leader in “virtual” courses. But to make his online university profitable, he needed a market beyond Kansas.

He found it in China. With the help of a California businessman, he initiated a partnership with a university in Xinzheng City. About 3,000 students there take courses from Fort Hays professors via the Internet.

Today, Fort Hays claims an enrollment of 11,308 students. About 4,800 live on campus.

Hammond isn’t shy about noting that total enrollment at the six Kansas Regents universities increased by 1,435 students this semester, and 1,200 of those students enrolled at Fort Hays.

Much of the university’s appeal is its price tag. A Kansas student can live on the Fort Hays campus and take classes full time for $11,162 a year — one of the best bargains in the Midwest. Students enrolled in Fort Hays’ “Virtual College” pay about $5,000 a year if taking 15 credit hours a semester.

Hammond’s road tours always include tales of the ways his university holds down costs to stay affordable. These stories are riveting, because they aren’t the norm. The costs of higher education have been soaring for 30 years.

Fort Hays bucks the trend by relentlessly seeking efficiencies. Right after the economic collapse last October, it began work on an academic reorganization and a less costly system for developing online courses. The school saved money over the summer with a four-day work week and by raising the thermostats and converting most summer courses to online.

This time, though, efficiencies weren’t enough. Fort Hays absorbed a 14 percent cut in its state appropriation, and ended up laying off 30 employees and raising tuition by about $7.50 per credit hour for in-state students.

And that brings us to the turn in Hammond’s story. This year, for the first time, it includes a plea for help.

Twenty years ago, he said, the state of Kansas paid 48 percent of the cost of an education at a Regents university. Tuition accounted for 16 percent. Last fall, the state’s share of the budget for its six public universities was 27 percent. Students paid for 26 percent in tuition costs.

Hammond expects that the state will soon be a minority partner in funding for its own universities.

“I believe we’re at a crossroads in the state,” Hammond said. “If we continue to cut drastically, access is going to be impacted. Quality will be impacted.”

That can’t be allowed to happen. Kansas’s public university system is one of the state’s greatest asset. The hope of keeping and attracting talented young people and emerging new industries depends on keeping it strong.

An education at a public university in Kansas is still a bargain when compared with neighboring states like Missouri and Colorado. Both the schools and the Legislature must do their part to keep it that way.

Lawmakers must protect the school against more draconic cuts. And all the universities must pursue ideas that will enable them to save money while operating more efficiently. It can be done. That’s the meat of Hammond’s story.

Editorial board member Barbara Shelly can be reached at or 816-234-4784. She blogs at voices.kansascity.com