Newman University is receiving a major boost for its educational initiatives in Kansas, thanks to federal funding secured by U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran.
At an on-campus event earlier this month, the Kansas senator announced $1.2 million in federal appropriations to support Newman’s efforts to expand educational access and provide innovative agriculture technology programs in rural Kansas communities.
The funds will enhance all programs in southwest Kansas including education, business and nursing; a major portion will boost the university’s new agribusiness degree. A key piece is a state-of-the-art “Mobile Smart Agricultural Lab” integrating data analytics into hands-on agricultural-technology learning.
Newman President Kathleen Jagger, Ph.D., MPH, sees the investment as a win for Kansas students and businesses.
“The mobile agricultural lab will enable students to use hands-on learning to really get their hands dirty, as it were, in the agribusiness field,” Jagger explained. “Agriculture is going through a digital transformation where production becomes more efficient through the internet of things, and our programs will prepare the workforce.”
Newman students in Wichita will benefit from the new tech and the lab will also travel between the communities of Garden City, Dodge City and Liberal, where Newman will also establish “high flex” classrooms with video capabilities and an office in Garden City to house new agribusiness faculty and advisors.
“These classrooms will be equipped with cameras and smart televisions that facilitate the kind of flex learning allowing students to choose face-to-face or remote options,” Jagger said.
Jagger expressed gratitude for Moran’s “continuing support and investment in Kansans,” which is now helping expand Newman’s decades-long presence in educating southwest Kansas.
Since the 1990s, Newman has worked to fill an educational void in southwest Kansas created when St. Mary of the Plains College in Dodge City closed. Over the past 30 years, Newman has played a key role and the newest program expansion promises to have an even greater impact.
“We’re excited that this region of southwest Kansas will be less of an education desert for higher education,” Jagger said. “Newman’s been in southwest Kansas since the ’90s when St. Mary of the Plains closed, providing most of the teachers for that region.”
Moran, who has championed job creation and supporting rural communities, said the funding allows “our students, our children, our grandchildren, to make the choice to live, work and raise families” in their hometowns.
Alden Stout, Newman’s vice president of academic affairs, highlighted the significance of the appropriations, stating, “What an exciting day to celebrate a day of opportunity for what we provide Newman students.”
The appropriations align with Newman’s mission “to empower graduates to transform society,” according to Stout. The Catholic university was founded in 1933 amid the Great Depression to increase educational access.
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