LATEST NEWS FROM THE HILL
KU organizations to host Lunar New Year celebration
The Lawrence community can ring in the Year of the Horse at the KU Center for East Asian Studies’ New Year Festival, which will feature giveaways, performances from local organizations, activities and more.
MORE KU NEWS
Two KU debate teams automatically qualify for national tournament
Two KU debate teams have earned automatic bids to this year’s national tournament after finishing the regular season as top-16 teams.
Kansas House committee plunges paring knife into state’s public university budgets
A Kansas House committee recommended a budget that cuts grants to KU, reduces need-based student aid, ties funding to elimination of DEI, offers faculty one year instead of two to fix their academic shortcomings before they are potentially fired and more.
Cuyler Dunn/Lawrence Times
KU faculty union still without contract nearly two years in; city commissioner urges progress
Contract negotiations between KU’s administration and faculty union remain stalled after more than 600 days of bargaining, and a Lawrence city commissioner has joined those urging KU to end the delays.
Tom Harper/Contributed photo
Former KU professor to give talk on biography of George ‘Nash’ Walker
A former KU professor will give a talk on his new book, a biography on the trailblazing Black performer George “Nash” Walker who spent formative years in Lawrence.
Tom Harper/Contributed photo
Student-curated collections on Indigenous literature, human connection with ecology to launch at KU
A dual exhibition will celebrate two new student-curated collections at KU Libraries focused on contemporary Indigenous literature and human connection to the flora and fauna of China and Japan.
John Green passion rages on as KU Reads prepares for spring events
John Green fever will continue to sweep Lawrence with KU Reads’ spring slate of events themed around the author’s essay collection “The Anthropocene Reviewed.”
Molly Adams / Lawrence Times
Lawrence forum expands on ways to improve accessibility in arts
Folks involved in Lawrence’s arts scene during a forum Wednesday came up with ways beyond audio description that they can incorporate accessibility into the arts for people who are blind or visually impaired.
Merry Sun/Off-Site Art Space
‘A force of nature’: Posthumous show at Lawrence gallery celebrates the feminist textile art of Becky Johnson
Viewers are invited to contribute to a communal weaving at an exhibition celebrating the work of Becky Johnson, a textile artist and KU grad student who died last year.
Renovations to Kansas Union to include WWI memorial, game day watch spot and more
KU Memorial Unions have announced a renovation to the level four lobby and Jayhawk Ink space in the Kansas Union will include a WWI memorial, moveable furniture and a TV for game days.
Molly Adams/Lawrence Times
Couple donates $1M to construct accessible entrance to KU’s Natural History Museum
A gift of $1 million from KU alumni Jann and Tom Rudkin will fund a new accessible entrance to Dyche Hall, home of the university’s Natural History Museum.
KU nominates Free State alum, 4 other students for Goldwater Scholarship
KU on Friday announced five nominees for prestigious Goldwater Scholarships, including a Free State High School alum from Lawrence.
Molly Adams / Lawrence Times
KU research advances functional fitness to help people with mobility limitations build strength
KU researchers are partnering with a Lawrence gym to advance functional fitness, helping people with mobility limitations in their day-to-day lives.
Upcoming Watkins Museum exhibition to celebrate 5 decades of KU’s Hall Center for the Humanities
An upcoming exhibition at the Watkins Museum will look at 50 years of growth and impact at the Hall Center for the Humanities, a research center at KU.
Molly Adams / Lawrence Times
KU’s living library of fungi, key to restoration and sustainability, threatened by shrinking federal funds
For a team of researchers at KU, fungal doomsday looks less like parasitic mushrooms transforming people into zombies, and more like the loss of a fungi collection that serves as a major global resource for sustainability and restoration.
August Rudisell/Lawrence Times
Spring programming at Dole Institute themed on America’s 250th birthday
The Dole Institute of Politics will recognize America’s 250th birthday with its spring 2026 programming, including a series by a Kansas journalist and a former state senator and a Holocaust film screening.





