Historic Day for Leadership Studies and Programs

We celebrated the groundbreaking today for the NEW Leadership Studies building at K-State. Can you believe it? A new building at K-State and it is for a minor - it truly is a miracle that we will have a brand new building two years from now. For those of you who don't know much about Leadership Studies and Programs (LSP), we offer an academic minor in leadership studies as well as leadership development through programming efforts. The minor was established in 1997 with 13 students, now we have approximately 1400 students enrolled in our program. We have been housed in two houses - literally houses - on the edge of campus as well as in the Foundation Building on Anderson Avenue. For you oldtimers, the Foundation is the old Farm Bureau building. The NEW building will be located just north of King Hall or just east of Schellenburger Hall. And for those of you with a good memory of campus, it will be located just north of the big fork. The building spot is now a parking lot - before you go crazy about that - we did not get to pick the location. It was assigned to us by a university committee!! Many of you know the issue of parking on a college campus is always a challenge and K-State is no different. I can't wait to see a beautiful new building in that spot.

Susan Scott introduced Mary Lynn and Warren Staley as the lead donors for the building.

When the K-State band played the fight song, we all stood in honor of the purple and the white! Mary Lynn Staley, Matt Wagner (LSP student and former student body president), and Ruth Ann Wefald felt the K-State spirit.

The finale to the ceremonial groundbreaking festivities was the turning of the first shovel of dirt. Of course, we had to import dirt because of the asphalt in the parking lot. Left to right: Casey Carlson (she represented the first LSP class), Ella Todd (current LSP ambassador president), Susan Scott (director and EVERYTHING that is LSP), Mary Lynn Staley (lead donor for the building and inspiration), Warren Staley (husband to Mary Lynn and former CEO of Cargill), and Bob Shoop (senior scholar and everything else that is LSP). There were others who turned dirt, but they didn't make it in my camera s hot.

Warren and Mary Lynn Staley (former K-Staters and lead donors) and Ruth Ann (wonderful woman and great K-Stater) and Jon Wefald (president of K-State)