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Longtime Student Affairs administrator Jane Tuttle to retire
LAWRENCE — Jane Tuttle has influenced the lives of countless students and parents in her 25 years working in Student Affairs at the University of Kansas. Tuttle, who currently serves as the associate vice provost for student affairs, is retiring from KU. She will complete her last day of work Dec. 17 and officially retire on Dec. 31.
KU senior from Overland Park earns Pickering Fellowship
LAWRENCE — With a new fellowship in hand, Jaleah Cullors will have the opportunity to jump-start her career plans with a stipend for graduate school and the opportunity to work in the U.S. Foreign Service. The senior from Overland Park is the latest University of Kansas student to earn a Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowship, which provides $42,000 annually for completion of a two-year master’s degree. Cullors is a graduate of Shawnee Mission West High School.
KU announces 2022 Global Scholars
LAWRENCE – Fifteen second-year students at the University of Kansas have been selected as Global Scholars, a competitive program that integrates international studies into the undergraduate experience. The new Global Scholars include Kansas students from Lawrence, Lyndon, Manhattan, Olathe, Overland Park, Topeka and Wichita.
Full stories below.
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Contact: Evan Riggs, Office of the Provost, 785-864-1085, [email protected], @KUProvost
Longtime Student Affairs administrator Jane Tuttle to retire
LAWRENCE — Jane Tuttle has influenced the lives of countless students and parents in her 25 years working in Student Affairs at the University of Kansas. Tuttle, who currently serves as the associate vice provost for student affairs, is retiring from KU. She will complete her last day of work Dec. 17 and officially retire on Dec. 31.
“I got a really lovely handwritten note from a graduate when he heard I was retiring,” Tuttle said. “I had no idea I had such a positive impact on this young man. It made me teary-eyed when I read it, and it still makes me a little teary-eyed when I think about it.”
Tuttle, who was named one of the KU Women of Distinction in 2012, leaves big shoes to fill in the Office of Student Affairs, where she spent the last 25 years.
“You can train someone to do your job duties, but you can’t teach the history and compassion,” said Karen Bailey, assistant comptroller in Student Accounts and Receivables. “KU is losing a great mentor for our students and a great colleague.”
Jane began her KU career as the resident director in Ellsworth Hall in 1979 and has welcomed some of her former resident assistants back to campus when they brought their children to begin college. Since coming back to KU in 1996, Tuttle has seen the university expand student support from a one-person job to an entire department and adopt a compassionate withdrawal policy for undergraduate students, which is something Tuttle always thought was necessary. With a chuckle, she explained some of her ideas were just before their time.
In her current role that she’s held since 2015, Tuttle serves as a resource for faculty, students and community members. She provides leadership and administrative support for the division of Student Affairs, which is committed to supporting and serving all members of the KU community.
It all started when Tuttle was lured back to work and said yes to a job offer as the assistant dean of students – a position she held from 1996-2004 – on a limited-term, part-time basis. Tuttle spent several years before that as a stay-at-home mom with her two sons.
“I could still do my mom thing, which was really important to me,” Tuttle said. “And the job was doing student conduct, which I knew how to do. The rest is history.”
Tuttle then served as the assistant to the vice provost for student success from 2005-2008. She was directly responsible for coordinating the parent services program, and she managed the university’s nonacademic misconduct program. She then served as assistant vice provost for Student Success from 2008 to 2011 and provided first-line communication with students, parents, faculty, staff and other stakeholders. She kept similar responsibilities in her next position – assistant vice provost for student affairs – a position she held until she moved into her final role at KU as associate vice provost for Student Affairs in 2015.
Over the last 25 years, Tuttle had the chance to build connections with thousands of KU students and parents. Tough conversations are commonplace in her line of work, but she maintains that being honest and compassionate is the key to maintaining relationships when faced with those tough conversations.
“Jane truly cares about her students,” Bailey said. “Even if those conversations are difficult, she approaches each one with care and compassion and provides guidance. That doesn’t mean the students always get what they want, but at least someone listened and cared.”
Tuttle’s mind goes first to students when reflecting on her time as a Jayhawk. Hawk Week, she said, is fun, even if it means working every day, and move-in day is a “joyous occasion” where students and parents are filled with hope.
Tuttle, who received a doctorate in higher education administration from KU, has also been involved in policy work in her time at the university. She remembers a time nearly 20 years ago when the Kansas Board of Regents decided to survey graduates with questions to measure indicators of success post-graduation.
“That was before you could send somebody an email and have them fill out a quick form,” Tuttle said.
The project eventually became Tuttle’s to take on. And she believes that’s because others thought it couldn’t be done.
“I went around and talked to every dean or their assistant and asked how we could make it work,” Tuttle said. “Long story short, we made it work, and it’s still institutionalized. My philosophy was, ‘I don’t care how much work it causes in the back if it gets done.’ Nobody needs to be its champion anymore because it just works.”
Now, after years of hard work, Tuttle finally has time to relax and will join her husband, Herb Tuttle, in retirement. He is a recently retired KU faculty member who led the Engineering Management and Project Management programs for many years. She has no immediate retirement plans besides enjoying more time with her family and more frequent trips to Texas to watch her granddaughter’s dance recitals.
But memories of her KU family will not fade anytime soon.
“I will miss the people,” Tuttle said. “It’s been a truly wonderful experience. This is a research institution that cares about undergraduate students. You don’t find that everywhere.”
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Contact: Andy Hyland, Office of Public Affairs, 785-864-7100, [email protected], @UnivOfKansas
KU senior from Overland Park earns Pickering Fellowship
LAWRENCE — With a new fellowship in hand, Jaleah Cullors will have the opportunity to jump-start her career plans with a stipend for graduate school and the opportunity to work in the U.S. Foreign Service.
The senior at the University of Kansas from Overland Park is double majoring in political science and global & international studies, with three minors in Spanish, intelligence & national security studies and Middle East studies.
She is the latest KU student to earn a Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowship, which provides 45 students from across the country with $42,000 annually for completion of a two-year master’s degree. The degree must be in international affairs or a related subject, and fellows must fulfill a five-year commitment to work in the U.S. Foreign Service.
“I was very surprised and incredibly grateful,” Cullors said of earning the fellowship. “My work has centered around building communities wherever I go, and that’s something I look forward to continuing in the U.S. Foreign Service.”
Fellows also participate in two internships, one at the U.S. Department of State headquarters in Washington and the second through an overseas placement in a U.S. Embassy or Consulate that takes place the summer after the fellow’s graduation.
“Our last fellow from KU was in 2008, and we are excited to welcome Jaleah to the Pickering Program,” said Lily López-McGee, director of the Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Program. “I am confident that the education and skills she gained there helped her compete in this rigorous selection process. Her experiences and skills are sure to help her success in graduate school and eventually the Foreign Service. We are looking forward to seeing what she will accomplish.”
Cullors is part of the McNair Scholars program at KU, which prepares low-income, first-generation and underrepresented college students for graduate study. In that program, Cullors presented a research project focusing on American newspapers’ coverage of terrorist events.
In analyzing thousands of articles, she found that terrorist events featuring Muslims were covered more often by journalists and contributed to Islamophobic sentiments in their communities.
Cullors said she appreciated her mentors inside and outside KU, who encouraged her to major in global & international studies and seek out non-academic opportunities to engage with different cultures and peoples.
She said she hopes to pursue a career in the nonprofit sector before entering academia as a professor, where she would have the opportunity to help pay some of that mentorship forward to other students.
“I would hope to be able to share with students, and especially students of color, ‘I did it, and you can do it, too,’” she said. “Ideally, I would be creating research that can have an impact in my communities and can create change in public policy.”
Cullors worked with KU’s Office of Fellowships in preparing her application. Students who are interested in applying for the Pickering or similar awards in the future are encouraged to contact the office by email at [email protected].
Cullors is the daughter of RL Cullors and Joyslyn Fears. A graduate of Shawnee Mission West High School, she is double majoring in political science and global & international studies and triple minoring in Spanish, intelligence & national security studies and Middle East studies. She is a member of the University Honors Program and the Multicultural Scholars Program; she was selected as a sophomore for the Global Scholars Program by the Office of International Affairs. In addition to being a McNair Scholar, Cullors is also an Intelligence Community Center for Academic Excellence Scholar and a Public Policy and International Affairs Junior Summer Institute Fellow. She is currently serving as an Independent Task Force Intern for the Council on Foreign Relations and previously interned at People to People International, a nonprofit dedicated to humanitarianism, global education and cultural exchange. Her extracurricular activities include the Global Awareness Program, Hawklink, the Rising Scholars Program and volunteer experience at El Centro Academy for Children.
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Contact: Christine Metz Howard, International Affairs, [email protected], @KUintlaffairs
KU announces 2022 Global Scholars
LAWRENCE — Representing diverse academic fields from across campus, 15 University of Kansas second-year students have been selected as 2022 Global Scholars.
The Global Scholars Program recognizes and encourages undergraduate students who have an interest in international studies and a strong academic record. In its 11th year, the program is directed by Megan Greene, associate professor of history.
The 2022 cohort of scholars was competitively selected for their demonstrated interest in integrating internationalism into their undergraduate experiences and potential for high academic achievement and leadership.
In the spring semester, the group will participate in a three-hour weekly seminar, “Music and Migration,” taught by Ketty Wong, associate professor of ethnomusicology. The course will examine what happens when people, religious beliefs and ideas about music migrate to new social and cultural contexts around the world.
As part of the Global Scholars Program, each student will work with a faculty mentor with similar interests on an internationally focused research project. The scholars will present the results of that research during spring semester of their senior year.
“We are super excited to welcome a very strong new cohort of students to the Global Scholars program. I am really looking forward to working with them as they progress through the program,” Greene said. “We selected this year’s cohort from an exceptionally strong pool of applicants. They should be very proud of this accomplishment.”
The 2022 Global Scholars:
1. Sivani Badrivenkata, from Lawrence, is a pharmacy major. Her parents are Dayakar Badri and Haarisa Valasa.
2. Blake Bruno, from Topeka, is an accounting major. Her parents are Tom and Shawna Bruno.
3. Sydney Cole, from Kansas City, Missouri, is majoring in molecular, cellular & developmental biology with a minor in German studies. Her parents are Julie Cole and Randy Cole.
4. Dorothy Haggard, from Topeka, is a chemical engineering major. Her parents are Kelly and Calla Haggard.
5. Rachael Lawler, from Overland Park, is majoring in history, global & international studies and French. Her parents are Kristen and Thomas Lawler.
6. Sana Mahomed, from Wichita, is on the pre-medicine track with a likely major in applied behavioral sciences with a specialization on community health & development and a minor in Spanish. Her parents are Mohamed Mahomed and Zohra Mahomed.
7. Preston Means, from Wichita, is majoring in psychology, sociology and political science. His parents are Nic Means and Tonya Renner.
8. Kaitlyn Moore, from Lyndon, is majoring in secondary English education. Her parents are Sheri and Jonathan Moore.
9. Gustavo Moreira, from Olathe, is an electrical engineering major. His parents are Sonia and Ricardo Moreira.
10. Diana Nguyen, from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, is a psychology major. Her parents are Khoi Nguyen and Thuyen Nguyen.
11. Ahmni Pang-Johnson, from Topeka, is a computer science major. His parents are DeVaune Johnson and Jade Spies.
12. Aalana Samuels, who was born in St. Ann, Jamaica, and moved to Lawrence in 2017, is majoring in political science and philosophy with an interest in pre-law. Her parent is Shaun Graham-Dawson.
13. Tanya Singh, from Manhattan, is majoring in biology and political science. Her parents are Preeti and Avinash Singh.
14. Larissa Thome, from San Jose, Costa Rica, is majoring in finance and exercise science. Her parents are Kenneth Thome and Deborah List.
15. Caroline Tuohey, from Overland Park, is a mechanical engineering major. Her parents are Patrick Tuohey and Michelle Slattery.
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