From the Office of Public Affairs | https://www.news.ku.edu
Headlines
Gorton Music & Dance Library to celebrate quarter century milestone
LAWRENCE — For 25 years, the Thomas A. Gorton Music & Dance Library has been a cornerstone of performing arts scholarship at the University of Kansas, providing a home for learning, creativity and connection in Murphy Hall. A series of public events Feb. 12-18 will honor the library’s quarter century of partnership as a pivotal university resource.
KU awarded grant for Sawyer Seminars on academic freedom and democracy
LAWRENCE — The University of Kansas has received support from the Mellon Foundation to fund a two-year seminar series on concepts of democracy and academic freedom. The series, open to the public, begins at 10 a.m. Feb. 4 at the Hall Center for the Humanities.
Full stories below.
————————————————————————
Contact: Kevin McCarty, KU Libraries, 785-864-6428, [email protected]
Gorton Music & Dance Library to celebrate quarter century milestone
LAWRENCE — For 25 years, the Thomas A. Gorton Music & Dance Library has been a cornerstone of performing arts scholarship, providing a home for learning, creativity and connection in Murphy Hall. Faculty, staff, students, alumni and supporters are invited to a series of events Feb. 12-18 to honor the library’s quarter century of partnership as a pivotal university resource.
“Having that space that is dedicated and having library staff who are dedicated and specialize in our needs is such an important and useful part of our school,” said Colin Roust, associate dean for academic affairs and professor of musicology in the School of Music.
Sara Outhier, performing arts and humanities librarian, said the library is a central and integrated partner in a variety of ways, including providing access to a wide range of resources — an undertaking that has evolved a great deal over time.
“Music and performing arts collections are a dynamic organism, comprised of specialized formats that have experienced great change in the last 25 years,” Outhier said.
Named for the dean of fine arts from 1950-75, the library was completed in 2000 as part of a $9.8 million addition to Murphy Hall. The new library was nearly three times the size of the previous music library and enabled new and enhanced services as well as technological upgrades.
Today, the library contains more than 100,000 scores, books, sound recordings, videos, microforms and serials, making it one of the leading music collections in the Great Plains region, while providing performing arts students with the resources and space needed to support their learning, discovery and growth.
Outhier’s work with KU Libraries, alongside Music Library Operations Manager Chris Bohling, connects students and faculty with foundational learning and research materials. The library also provides an essential place for individual and group study or gatherings for academic and social pursuits. The interdisciplinary value of the collections is also important.
“Music and the performing arts are relevant to almost every academic discipline taught at KU,” Outhier said.
The library works to continuously span the gap between old and new, providing access to legacy media formats and analog equipment such as record and CD players as well as meeting the increasing demand for digital formats. For example, as performers and scholars have begun to rely on digital scores, librarians work with music publishers to provide access while also meeting the continuing demand for scores in print.
The 25-year milestone has been a chance for KU Libraries and School of Music partners to appreciate the value of their partnership and highlight the importance of the library to the university community.
“I’m a musicologist, a music historian, and I cannot do my work without those outstanding folks who work in the library,” Roust said. “Students can’t afford to buy every single score they have to learn, and they’re able to borrow a lot of them from the library, making college much more affordable. It’s such an important resource.”
Gorton Music & Dance Library 25th Anniversary Celebration
Feb. 12 | 4-6 p.m. | Gorton Library, Murphy Hall
Join alumni, faculty, staff and supporters to celebrate Gorton Library’s silver anniversary. Enjoy music from the Cornerstone String Quartet student ensemble, refreshments and remarks on the library’s noteworthy past and bright future.
Gorton Anniversary Brown Bag Concerts
Feb. 13, 16 & 17 | Noon-12:30 p.m. | Gorton Library, Murphy Hall
Bring your lunch and enjoy complimentary treats while enjoying live music performed by students, faculty and staff.
Gorton Anniversary Student Party
Feb. 18 | 2-4 p.m. | Gorton Library, Murphy Hall
Students are invited to drop in to the library for pizza, music and crafts.
-30-
————————————————————————
KU is nationally recognized as a Center for Academic Excellence in Cyber Research,
underscoring its leadership in top-tier cybersecurity education.
https://cae.ittc.ku.edu/
————————————————————————
Contact: Peyton Williams, Hall Center for the Humanities, [email protected]
KU awarded grant for Sawyer Seminars on academic freedom and democracy
LAWRENCE — The University of Kansas has received support from the Mellon Foundation to fund a two-year seminar series on concepts of democracy and academic freedom.
Titled “Navigating Academic Freedom and Democracy on a Public University Campus in America’s Heartland,” the project was selected by a panel of distinguished scholars from across the nation and named one of the John E. Sawyer Seminars series in October 2025. Other Sawyer Seminars series were named at institutions including Duke University, Brandeis University, the City University of New York (CUNY), Penn State, Rice University, Tulane University, the University of California-Davis and Washington University in St. Louis.
KU sessions will run from February 2026 through October 2027 and will explore how democracy and academic freedom are understood, taught and tested at KU and at other heartland public universities.
The series is a collaboration among the Hall Center for the Humanities, the Center for Democratic Governance, the Kansas Data Consortium within the Institute for Policy & Social Research and the Provost’s Office of Community Impact. The project is led by Hall Center Director Giselle Anatol with co-principal investigators Nicole Hodges Persley, Christopher Koliba, Randall Fuller and William Duncan.
“This project isn’t only valuable for its subject matter,” Anatol said. “It also has the potential to serve as a model for successful partnerships between research centers, robust cross-disciplinary dialogue and productive conversations between participants who approach complex issues from distinct perspectives. We hope it shows how all of these interactions can strengthen scholarship and spark new ideas across KU campuses.”
The Sawyer Seminars will bring together researchers at all levels and members of the public to examine the relationship between higher education and democracy, address contemporary challenges to academic freedom and consider how universities might adapt different pedagogical strategies for generations to come.
“KU has a strong history of cultivating a campus community that encourages sharing and grappling with diverse perspectives,” said Shelley Hooks, the university’s vice chancellor for research. “We are excited to celebrate and build on that tradition by creating space for a broad range of voices to explore topics of fundamental importance to academic freedom and democracy, particularly in an era of increasing polarization.”
All sessions will be free and open to the public. Spring 2026 meetings will take place from 10 to 11:30 a.m. on the first Wednesday of each month during the academic year, beginning Feb. 4 at the Hall Center, 900 Sunnyside Ave. The group will also meet for a summary session in October 2026 and a half-day capstone in October 2027.
Seminar themes
Planned discussions this spring include:
Feb. 4: Setting the Stage: What is Democracy? What is Academic Freedom?
March 4: The Relevance of the Kalven Report
April 1: KU’s Governance Structures and Academic Freedom Policies
May 6: The Relationship Between KU, the Board of Regents and Local Economies.
Additional topics will be explored this fall and through 2027, including:
Individual Rights and Academic Freedom: Lessons taken from the Separation of Church & State in Kansas and Campus Dynamics
Contemplating Sovereignty and Freedom on Campus, given the Complexities of Past Injustices
Faculty Control over Course Content: Addressing Pressure from Policymakers and University-wide Curriculum Decisions
Wrestling with Book-Banning and Censorship
Teaching Democratic Values at KU – Disappearing Civics Education
The Dismantling of Programs with “Low Numbers”
Handling Fear of Conflict in College Classrooms in the Heartland
Employing Sites of Informal Learning to Address Conflict in the Heartland
Concerns about Academic Freedom in Research
Recent Protests on Campus.
Get the latest Sawyer Seminar updates at the Sawyer Seminar webpage.
To learn more about the Sawyer Seminars from 1994 to present, go to Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar webpage.
-30-
————————————————————————
KU News Service
1450 Jayhawk Blvd.
Lawrence KS 66045
https://www.news.ku.edu
Erinn Barcomb-Peterson, director of news and media relations, [email protected]
Today’s News is a free service from the Office of Public Affairs
