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K-State can build condos near Snyder Stadium following city commission rezoning

Cole Bertelsen — Wed, 19 Nov 2025 19:41:35 +0000

Manhattan city commissioners approved Kansas State University’s request to rezone a tract of land as part of its Edge District development plan.

The 15.7 acre area on the northeast corner of Kimball and College Avenue was rezoned from university college district to mixed use in a unanimous 4-0 vote. Commissioner John Matta was not present at Tuesday’s commission meeting and did not vote. The planning board recommended approval of K-State’s request.

Stephanie Peterson, director of community development, reminded the commission that the land could not be conditionally rezoned depending on what the university planned to do with it, providing it adheres to zoning restrictions.

To view the full article visit theMercury.com.

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K-State removes the word ‘diversity’ from its mission statement

KMAN Staff — Tue, 23 Sep 2025 17:33:20 +0000

from the Kansas News Service

Leaders at Kansas State University plan to remove the word “diversity” from the school’s mission statement to comply with a new state law.

K-State’s previous mission statement, approved in December 2008, says the university “embraces diversity, encourages engagement and is committed to the discovery of knowledge, the education of undergraduate and graduate students, and improvement in the quality of life and standard of living of those we serve.”

The change will replace the word “diversity” with the word “all.”

Kansas State University President Richard Linton told the Kansas Board of Regents on Wednesday that the change is designed to comply with a new state law that requires state agencies to eliminate any policies related to diversity, equity and inclusion.

“We are asking for the change, ‘The university embraces all’ rather than ‘diversity,’” Linton said. “This is to comply with Senate Bill 125.”

The law and a subsequent Kansas Board of Regents directive detailed the elimination of diversity initiatives at state universities, including the use of pronoun labels in employee email signatures.

Regents unanimously approved the mission statement change.

Universities across the country have been scaling back diversity efforts and merging or eliminating diversity offices under political pressure from conservative lawmakers who have pushed to rid colleges of any commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI.

Kansas and Missouri are among several states whose public university systems have scrapped the use of diversity statements in employment decisions.

A law that went into effect in July 2024 bars Kansas universities from requiring diversity statements in hiring or admissions. Colleges that violate the law could face fines of up to $10,000.

The Kansas Board of Regents, which oversees state universities and technical colleges, revised policy language that emphasized “multiculturalism and diversity” on campus.

None of the mission statements of the other state universities include mentions of diversity.

The University of Kansas has posted online that its mission is “to educate leaders, build healthy communities, and make discoveries that change the world.”

Wichita State University says its mission is “to be an essential educational, cultural and economic driver for Kansas and the greater public good.”

A mission statement posted by Fort Hays State University says the university “provides accessible quality education to Kansas, the nation, and the world through an innovative community of teacher-scholars and professionals to develop engaged global citizen-leaders.”

Emporia State University’s mission is “preparing students for lifelong learning, rewarding careers and adaptive leadership.”

Pittsburg State University’s mission, part of its larger strategic plan, is “to make life better through education.”

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Linton: Campus Master Plan to restore Anderson Hall, turn driving space into walking paths

KROCK Staff — Mon, 08 Sep 2025 14:35:34 +0000

By Emma Loura

K-State’s Anderson Hall will be looking good as new after upcoming renovations, with restored bricks, new balconies and a walking plaza in place of Mid-Campus Drive.

At Friday’s State of the University address, K-State president Richard Linton presented the Campus Master Plan and explained changes planned for the university, from a new walking trail along Campus Creek to renovating Ahearn Field House into an event space.

The master plan is still pending formal approval from the Kansas Board of Regents. K-State will bring this before KBOR at its next meeting on Sept. 17.

To view the full article visit theMercury.com.

Click here for more Kansas State University news.

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Linton: Campus Master Plan to restore Anderson Hall, turn driving space into walking paths

KROCK Staff — Mon, 08 Sep 2025 14:35:34 +0000

By Emma Loura

K-State’s Anderson Hall will be looking good as new after upcoming renovations, with restored bricks, new balconies and a walking plaza in place of Mid-Campus Drive.

The master plan is still pending formal approval from the Kansas Board of Regents. K-State will bring this before KBOR at its next meeting on Sept. 17.

To view the full article visit theMercury.com.

Click here for more Kansas State University news.

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The KMAN 5-Minute Morning Show: K-State unveils $42M campus master plan + more local news & sports

Paul Parker — Mon, 08 Sep 2025 12:46:08 +0000

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K-State unveils $42M plan to renovate Anderson Hall, campus

+ more local headlines and the latest in sports.

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K-State employee draws criticism for pro-Hamas posts

KROCK Staff — Thu, 04 Sep 2025 18:36:54 +0000

An investigator in K-State’s civil rights office is drawing criticism for controversial social media posts in support of Palestine.

Derron Borders, an investigative specialist in Civil Rights and Title IX office at K-State, reportedly made pro-Hamas posts on social media that critics say are extremist and anti-Semitic.

“F*** your fake outrage at Palestine when you’ve literally been silent about the violence perpetuated by Israel against Palestine every day,” Borders wrote on the day of the invasion by Hamas, which was Oct. 7, 2023.

To view the full article visit theMercury.com.

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K-State WBB’s Jeff Mittie signs 1-year contract extension

KROCK Staff — Fri, 11 Jul 2025 13:09:10 +0000

For the second straight season, Kansas State is extending head women’s basketball coach Jeff Mittie’s contract.

The one-year contract extension, announced by the team on Thursday, follows the Wildcats’ first Sweet 16 berth in over two decades and looks to keep Mittie in Manhattan until 2030.

Last year, Mittie signed a five-year contract through the 2028-29 season, which set his base salary for the 2024-25 season at $750,000. This year, that will go up $30,000, followed by $45,000 in 2026-27 and $50,000 in 2027-28 and 2028-29, meaning Mittie will have a base salary of $925,000 by the end of the deal.

To view the full article visit theMercury.com.

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Kansas State University ag research lab only one to get nod from feds to continue work

KROCK Staff — Fri, 02 May 2025 17:35:46 +0000

By The Kansas Reflector

TOPEKA — The Trump administration defunded 16 of 17 Feed the Future labs across the country when it began wiping out U.S. Agency for International Development projects.

After months in limbo, Kansas State University found out its lab is the lone survivor.

Two K-State labs that are part of the Feed the Future network received stop work orders in January. In early April, K-State officials received notice that the Climate Resilient Cereals Innovation Lab could resume work, said Timothy J. Dalton, professor of agricultural economics and interim director of the lab.

The second lab, the Feed the Future Collaborative Research on Sustainable Intensification Innovation Lab, which had a $50 million cooperative agreement for its operations, was terminated.

Dalton is unsure what the future funding will be for the Cereals lab. The original cooperative agreement allocated $22 million for five years.

“We are just completing our second year,” he said. “We receive our funding in annual increments. We’ll see what happens once this fiscal year ends.”

Dalton is pleased to continue the work the Cereals lab began, which involves collaborations with universities around the country, and with national agricultural research systems in Senegal, Ethiopia and Bangladesh.

But he’s concerned about the long-term impacts of ending 16 labs, each of which was doing work that affects farmers in the United States.

University spokeswoman Michelle Geering said U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran was helpful in getting the funding reinstated.

“K-State’s innovation lab is helping bolster American agriculture by creating crops that are resistant to drought and disease,” Moran said in a press release. “I appreciate (U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio) for recognizing the importance of the work being done at Kansas State University and supporting the continuation of this program.”

International and local impacts

The research work at all the labs has implications internationally as well as for U.S. agriculture. Giving credit to another professor, Dalton borrowed an analogy to describe what the 17 Feed the Future labs were designed to do.

Timothy Dalton, Kansas State University interim head of the Climate Resilient Cereals Innovation Lab, is worried about elimination of agriculture research because of USAID cuts. (Submitted)

“We train our military to go and fight battles overseas in order to prevent similar problems from occurring in the United States,” Dalton said. “It’s a similar argument. What we’re doing with the Innovation lab mechanism is working on very similar problems that just happen to be food-related.”

Dalton said aligning with other countries to solve agriculture challenges like crop disease resistance pays off for the United States by preparing U.S. farmers for when those same issues come here, which they eventually do, he said.

For example, research in the 1980s to protect farms in southern Africa from the sugarcane aphid helped U.S. farmers with managing the greenbug aphid, Dalton said.

“I have always expressed my deepest concern about the halting of any international collaborative work, that it’s really going to fall on the shoulders of farmers because they’re the ones who are not getting the type of research to get out in front of these challenges that they will face,” Dalton said.

Longterm research

Dalton also raised concerns that halting support for the other 16 labs sets agricultural research back because of the long-term, slow path that research sometimes takes.

Researchers are usually tied to the crop cycles, so they may only be able to do investigations in the fields during certain times.

“The work in Ethiopia has had tremendous impacts, but it started half a century ago,” he said. “Because ag research moves slowly and it’s all about persistence over time, rather than stop-and-go funding, you have to think about protecting the long-run interests.”

Cereals research

Work will now continue in the Climate Resilient Cereals Lab, where they focus on researching four cereal grains: sorghum, millet, wheat and rice.

In Senegal, research is focused on wheat and sorghum. It’s on the border of the Sahara Desert, Dalton said, where it’s always hot and dry, allowing them to study wheat that is exposed to heat and drought. Those are two issues that regularly affect Kansas farmers.

Work studying rice in Bangladesh considers, among other things, the genes that rice varieties harbor that are resistant to disease. Identifying ways to fight rice blast, a fungal infection that destroys rice crops around the world, is part of that research.

Dalton said sorghum research is important because there are fewer researchers focused on it than on other grains. More than 50% of U.S. sorghum is grown in Kansas.

“There are so many more questions left to be answered about sorghum because it hasn’t had that intense level of research,” he said.

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Regents approve $26 million to renovate K-State’s biomanufacturing innovation center

KROCK Staff — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 22:28:28 +0000

By Emma Loura

The Kansas Board of Regents on Wednesday approved the next step in and addition to the Bioprocessing and Industrial Value Added Products Innovation Center at K-State, a project estimated to cost between $26.5 million and $30 million.

Regents approved a program statement for the facility, which belongs to the Department of Grain Science and Industry. There, scientists work to develop technology to produce bio-based products from grains and other plants.

Renovating and adding to the BIVAP building will create more space for biomanufacturing training and education, as well as industry partnerships. The laboratory space in the facility will have a complete biomanufacturing line that supports all phases of modern biomanufacturing processes and prepares students for the industry.

To view the full article visit theMercury.com.

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Official: K-State’s retention rates nearing 2025 goals

KROCK Staff — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 22:24:33 +0000

By Emma Loura

K-State is getting closer to its goal for retaining freshmen.

Officials on Wednesday told the Kansas Board of Regents the university’s first-time freshman retention rate was up to 85.5% as of fall 2023. K-State’s goal for 2025 is 90% first-time freshman retention.

Its four-year graduation rate was 53.9%, surpassing the 2025 target of 50%.

To view the full article visit theMercury.com.

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