Kansas Communities

The Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas will welcome a slate of national leaders and feature student-led issue programs, an original exhibition and the family-favorite annual Easter Egg Roll.

Despite belief or skepticism on the topic, Kansas and Missouri farmers avoid talking about climate change with neighbors, community members and even family for a variety of reasons, including avoiding arguments or violence or fear of damage to their livelihood, research from the University of Kansas has found.

The Achievement & Assessment Institute (AAI) at the University of Kansas has awarded the 2024 AAI Art & Humanities Grant to Sarah Jen, associate professor in the School of Social Welfare, and Liz Langdon, a lecturer in the Department of Visual Art, for their project, “Untold Stories of Aging in Action — Revealed and Traveled.” The project’s aim is to create and document the influence of an art-based intervention among communities of older adults and intergenerational audiences.

A hazard detection program begun nearly 40 will enter a new era of artificial intelligence, neural networks, and machine learning, supported in part by a $15 million grant from the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center.

Kristi Northcutt will direct the center that provides professional education and leadership development programs and events for public service professionals across Kansas and beyond.

The public is invited to Expo events from noon-3 p.m. Feb. 23 at the KU Engineering Complex, 1536 W. 15th St.

KU and the Kansas Leadership Center will host the first Civic Leadership Workshop & Fair for KU students Feb. 28 in the Kansas Union. The student workshop will run from 10 a.m. to noon in the Big 12 Room and includes lunch for all attendees. The fair will take place from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. in the Kansas Ballroom.

Earlier this month, law enforcement officers from various agencies across the state gathered to present their capstone projects as part of the Law Enforcement Leadership Academy (LELA). Enrollment is open for the 2025 sessions, which begin in January 2025.

A crew from the Kansas Geological Survey and staff from the Kansas Department of Agriculture's Division of Water Resources will be in western Kansas the first week of January as part of a joint project to monitor the health of the state's aquifers.

Construction will begin next month on a 5,500-square-foot addition to the Kansas Geological Survey Drill Core Library in the West District of the University of Kansas Lawrence campus. The library preserves cores from 6,500 wells in Kansas for future study.