Recommend a student 800- 873-4282

• Contact Alumni Office 888-781-2586

• Make a Donation

800-725-1554

• Create a planned gift or Create an Endowment 785-594-8332 800-726-1554

From the Arbor @ Baker University… Monthly news from Jerry Weakley, VP for Endowment and Planned Giving •

Numbers of Importance:

ecial Interest:

Volume 9, Issue 3 March, 2011

• Recommend a student- 800-873-4282

• Alumni Office- 888-781-2586

• Make a donation- 800-726-1554

• Create a planned gift or create an endowed scholarship- 785-594-8332 or 913-449-9540 (Jerry Weakley)

• Baker Orange on-line- www.thebakerorange.com

Baker Bullets Across the University for March … Here’s a brief compilation of some of the major issues and ini-tiatives that are currently being discussed, planned for or are currently in progress across all of our campuses. Facilities Improvements: • A replacement and update schedule for all classroom fur-

nishings and equipment is in progress • Denious Hall is undergoing renovations to create a wel-

come-center for prospective students. The first floor work will be completed by July 1, 2011

Technology Planning: • An assessment of technology needs is in process that in-

cludes input from faculty, students and staff Program Planning in Academics: • A Summer Bridge Program that will provide for a 5 week

residential program designed to aid the transition to col-lege for admitted freshmen who need additional prepara-tion is being developed

• A full-time MBA program is being considered and studied at the College of Arts and Science

• Re-alignment of departments to focus on interdisciplinary “super departments” is being discussed and studied

• Faculty training programs are being developed at SPGS • New business partnerships are being developed in Wichita

to provide onsite courses for students within corporations • A cohort agreement with a large Kansas City area school

district is being developed by the School of Education • The School of Nursing is moving towards online portfolios

that will allow students to store and present coursework that demonstrates successful attainment of student learn-ing outcomes

• The School of Nursing is also exploring grant funding that will allow for the simulation lab to be reconstructed

These are but a few of the important programs and initiatives being discussed/developed across the University.

Inside This Issue: Baker Bullet Points… 1 CAS Activities in Video/TV Form… 2 Trivia Question for March… 2 Responses to the February Arbor... 3 … Travel Information HERE ONLY… 3 Trivia Answer for February... 4 Baker Alumni Spring Schedule... 4 Students Enter Leadership Challenge… 4 Baker Planned Giving Info… 5 (40 or younger….read at your own risk…) The Arbor is Brought to You by... Thanks to Jim Kean ‘60 and his wife Becky, of Boulder, Colorado for having made the gift that allows the University to continue hard copy mailings by the US Post Office to those unable to receive the Arbor by e-mail! If you received a new computer for Christmas and now get e-mail ask for the Arbor by e-mail and save us some $$$. Thanks very much!!!

Page 2 Baker Trivia for March... On average, over the previous five years, how many students graduate with a Bache-lor of Science in Nursing Degree from the Baker School of Nursing in Topeka??? ________________________________ Gift Creates Video of Speech Choir… Thanks to a generous gift, The Department of Communications was recently able to make a video that answers that age-old question: “What is a Speech Choir?” While not going into a great deal of detail here, the Speech Choir is about 5 years old and is comprised of students wishing to per-form various forms of written material in any of a number of University sponsored settings. They have performed historical pieces, humorous material, original pieces and a multitude of other material. I encour-age you to take the time to look at the pro-duction featured in this recent video to ex-perience for yourself this most unique out-reach for Baker Students. The Speech Choir was envisioned and developed by Dr. Susan Emel, Chair of the Department. The video is now available at the link below. It’s about 13 minutes long, but if you choose to watch, I’m certain you will enjoy it!   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gESLRgu4k2Q  One Ringy Dingy-Two Ringy Dingy… When your phone rings one night soon, I hope you will answer it. It’s March and the annual spring Phon-a-Thon for the Univer-sity’s Annual Fund is underway. Since 1979 students and other callers have manned phones to talk with former students, alumni, parents, donors and other friends of the Uni-versity. This year’s annual fund goal is nearly $700,000 and we are hopeful of raising that and perhaps even a little more! Please make a pledge when your phone rings and join the other 2700 annual donors to this im-portant fund. Thanks in advance for your support!!!

CAS Activities Highlighted by TV/Video Coverage…

A new episode of Orangeline is now playing on KNBU-TV, which can be seen on Mediacom Channel 70 and YouTube! On this week’s episode with host Alix Schiraldi: • Many on the Baker campus were surprised recently when new "No Parking" signs went up along 7th Street. KNBU-TV Reporter Clarence Scott explains what led to the change, and he gets reaction on campus. Baker students have a rare sum-mer Interterm opportunity. We talk with Professor John Rich-ards about why he'll be taking students to England. Then, Alix tells us about HONK!, Baker's latest theater production. That's followed by Xiomara Nunez with this week's "Baker Beat." She's finding out what students have planned for Spring Break. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaTojGdxF10 • KNBU's Shavon Brown takes a look at the Baker bowling team and reports on the recent success that has them planning a trip to regionals. Next, we show you how students in Baker's School of Education celebrated Dr. Suess's birthday. That's followed by our "What's Bugging Us at Baker" segment. This week Ryckey Harper and Nick Williams share their thoughts on the weather. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMSPtDsxPFw • Our own Matt Fry has your weekly wrap-up of Baker sports. He has updates on Baker baseball, softball, wrestling, and track. Plus Patrick Mirch reports from the recent Senior Day celebration for the Wildcat basketball teams. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFTpUThlZ1U To see these segments and more, check out KNBU-TV’s You-Tube page at www.youtube.com/knbu. You can also follow KNBU on Facebook, or check out Baker Broadcasting on Twitter at www.twitter.com/knbu. Thanks for watching and enjoy the show! Baker’s Focused Vision Statement…

Going hand-in-hand with the University’s Mission Statement is this : “Building on its heritage, Baker University will expand its academic presence as a first choice institution by inspiring stu-dents to gain knowledge, perspective and compassion so they may contribute meaningfully to an increasingly complex, inter-dependent and global society.”

This one statement as much as any is the singular statement that directs all our faculty, administration and staff efforts to-ward the academic success of our current and future students.

Page 3 Volume 9, Issue 3

Travel Info ONLY Here in the Arbor… Over the course of the past several years it has be-come so very expensive to market and publicize the University’s travel experiences with the Wandering Wildcats by way of four-color/two-color brochures, individual letters or other publications/mailings. To make better use of limited resources I have found it necessary to utilize the Arbor as the primary commu-nication device for all current and future travel with this group. I apologize to those of you who may have only recently learned that the Wandering Wild-cats will be going on a June, 2011 cruise to Alaska. 35 individuals are signed up as of this time. If you still would like to go, please contact me immediately at jerry.weakley@bakeru.edu and I will get the infor-mation to you as soon as possible. In the meantime, I announced in last month’s issue that the trip we are planning for 2012 will be a cruise in the general area of Greece and Turkey. At this time, the cruise line that I am leaning toward using due to the unique nature of their 2011 itinerary has still not announced its 2012 schedule. It is my under-standing that schedules on this particular cruise line will be open for bookings as of March 17th. It is my intent to solidify a plan by the time I produce the April Arbor. Please continue to watch future issues of the Arbor for this and all future trip offerings. Responses to February’s Arbor… It’s always a pleasure to hear from readers of the Ar-bor. Please feel free to send me a note regarding anything you read herein at jerry.weakley@bakeru.edu. In response to an earlier trivia question that revolved around the “Baker in Botswana Project” from 1967 I received some great photographs and written memories from Dr. James Allen ’69 who participated in the project. Here are some of his memories: (Thanks very much, Jim!) ”We were there in 1967, the year after Botswana had gained independence from Britain. They were trying to build their country, which was quite poor at the time, and help came from many volunteers of many kinds. Educa-tion was being revamped. Historically, children there did not start school until age 10-12, so although I was teach-ing 10th graders, many of my students were older than me. Bob Williams (class of '69) was slight of build and did not look strong, and got some teasing from the students so he challenged them to a race.

(Continued Next Column)

The students were quite confident of their racing skills, but Bob won by a large margin (he was KCAC cross-country champion), and gained a huge amount of respect from the students. Bob was one of a group of us at the Teacher Training College in Serowe. Teachers from Baker in-cluded LaMonte Lauridsen, Robert Courtney, and Coach Karl Spear and his wife (Rhoda). Baker students in Serowe were Al LeDoux, Bob and me. Other Baker teachers and students were scattered across the country. For example, Dr. Don Eilenstine of the BU economics department and others studied traffic patterns in Francistown in order to help Botswana plan roads (we were told that Botswana had only 17 miles of paved road in the entire country.) At the end of our summer, we attended the Bamangwato tribal fair held in the town. Coach Spear entered a sculpture (a bust) he had worked on, and won 1st prize! Many felt a desire to stay and help the people of Botswana build their country. Bob Williams actually did. After gradu-ating from Baker, he volunteered for the Peace Corps on the condition that he would be sent to Botswana. He stayed and taught for many years and ended his career in the country's Dept. of Education. He still lives there.” Pictured below: Jim Allen with students at Serowe Botswana in 1967 and be-low that, Bob Williams ‘69, Al LeDoux ‘69 and Mark Henry ‘68 at an Elephant and Rhino crossing.

February’s Trivia Answer… The question was: What is the current Mis-sion Statement for the entire University

The answer is: Baker University is committed to assuring student learning, and developing confident, competent and responsible con-tributors to society. As the University enters this final year of its current self-study evaluation prior to the HLC visit in November much discussion and writ-ing that supports how Baker is accomplishing its mission, vision and values is taking place across all campuses.

Alumni Activities for the Spring… March: 16th-17th...Dinner/Luncheon: Green Valley (16th)and Sun City, Arizona (17th) 25th ...Memorial Service-Dr. Harold Kolling 4:00 p.m. Osborne Chapel (open to the public) April: 14th...After Hours Social/ Old Ebbitt Grill, Wash-ington DC 6:00-8:00 21st...After Hours Social/ Trezo Vino, Leawood, KS. 5:30-7:30 May: 6th: Trustee Meeting 8:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. Memorial Service of Remembrance for former Trustee, Susan Perry Chavez, 4:00 p.m. Osborne Chapel (open to the public) 20th...Golf Tournament/Prairie Highlands GC, Gardner KS Registration 6:45 a.m. 5:00...50 year graduating class (CAS) medallion presentation, Doubletree Hotel, Overland Park 6pm...All years “Former Student/Alumni Reun-ion Party” at the Doubletree Hotel, Overland Park 21st...Baldwin Campus tours/former student-alumni banquet and award ceremony/society meetings/Endowment-Memorial service/Greek house Stag Dinners/After-Hours Party (Watch for your issue of the Baker Pride which will provide additional information and opportu-nities to make reservations for the weekend.) June: 18-29...Alaska Cruise with Wandering Wildcats Facebook Friends Continue to Grow… Join hundreds of other former Baker students and alumni on Facebook!

Have a Great Month of March...I’ll write again in April...

Jerry L. Weakley ‘70/’92

Vice President for

Endowment and Planned Giving

P.O. Box 65, Baldwin City, KS 66006

1-785-594-8332 jerry.weakley@bakeru.edu

Students Enter Leadership Challenge… Five students will represent Baker on April 7-8 at the Leadership Challenge Event at Washburn University in Topeka. Baker’s student leadership team consists of Tracie Babbitt, Kansas City, Mo., junior; Mariah Barnett, Salina, junior; Tonia Karpowicz, Independence, Mo., senior; Chelsea Pennock, Colorado Springs, Colo., sophomore; and Caleb Watts, Smithville, Mo.; sopho-more. The intercollegiate event challenges students to address a variety of problems and situations where the outcome of the simulation is dependent on leadership decisions. It honors intellectual achievement and practi-cal experience in leadership while building camaraderie and networks between competitors. GO BAKER!!!

Endowment...Long an Important Topic Within Baker...

From deep in the archives of the University I recently came across a clipping from the Baldwin Ledger dated August 23, 1895. The author of the article was none other than Baker alumnus and later, Presi-dent, William A. Quayle. The article was a proposition that Quayle was laying out to current students, citizens of Baldwin City and to alumni and former students of the University as well. Then, just as it continues to the current day, the search for monies to support the operation and on-going mission of Baker was a considerable function of the President’s daily agenda. Now, as the Uni-versity has continued to evolve and add others responsible in part for fundraising activities, it is even more important to raise not only the “annual fund” dollars that help off-set expenses not covered by fees and tuition but to raise endowment dollars that will serve the University well into succeeding gen-erations. The plan that Quayle proposed upon that writing has in one way or another been one of several plans employed by universities and other charities and one that I have addressed from time to time here in the Arbor or in earlier publications dedicated to planned giving and endowment creation. Enjoy both the language employed and the thoughts that young Mr. Quayle employed in authoring the following piece: (It is my opinion that his use of the word “student(s)” most likely referred to an alumnus).

“Dear Friend: The need of Baker University for endowment is my apology for writing. Of course, an immediately productive endowment is the desideratum, but if that can not be secured, a remoter one should be attempted. My suggestion is this: I will be one of fifty students of Baker University to take out a life insurance policy for one thousand ($1,000) dollars, in favor of Baker University. Could fifty students be induced to do this, in fifty years, $50,000 could become productive. Let us now endow a “Students Chair.” Straight life insurance can be had for from $15 to $17 annually per thousand. Surely among all the students and other who have enjoyed the tuition of Baker University, fifty could be found to pay $15 a year to the institution. Many students of the institution are in positions of responsibility and profit, yet, today, no plan of endowment has enlisted the co-operation of any considerable number of them. It is high time we begin to do and I venture this offer to you as an officer of the Alumni Association.” Cordially Yours,

W.A. Quayle

Jerry L. Weakley Vice President Endowment/Planned Giving

P.S. Call me at 785-594-8332 if you would like more information on any aspect of making a testamentary planned gift or a current gift in support of an endowed fund through life insurance or any other means.

* The Above information is provided only for your consideration and should not be construed as “Legal or Tax Advice”. You should always consult your own professional advisor before acting upon this or similar information.