Office of U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran

GREAT BEND–U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman, hosted Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Deputy Commissioner Michael Taylor in Kansas on Friday, Oct. 16. They made stops in Great Bend and Manhattan.

At Great Bend Feeding they learned about the safe and judicious use of antibiotics in livestock production.

“As someone who places tremendous value in learning about issues through conversations with Kansans, it was a pleasure to host FDA representatives to discuss important issues impacting our state,” Sen. Moran said in a news release. “The FDA plays a critical role in reducing resistance to medically important antibiotics and overseeing the safe and judicious use of antibiotics in livestock production. The responsible use of antibiotics is both an agriculture and public health issue, impacting everyone from farmers and ranchers, to veterinarians, to consumers. It’s important the FDA learn directly from the best experts in the field, including right here in Kansas, about the issue.”

FDA Deputy Commissioner for Foods and Veterinary Medicine Michael R. Taylor said, “We are grateful to Senator Moran and his fellow Kansans for the opportunity to meet directly with livestock producers, veterinarians and veterinary students as we transition toward more veterinary oversight of legitimate uses of medically-important antibiotics in food producing animals. The actions the FDA has taken to date represent important steps in addressing antimicrobial resistance, and we look forward to continuing our work with stakeholders to ensure the judicious use of antimicrobials to protect public health while ensuring that sick and vulnerable animals can receive the treatment they need.”

Earlier this year at a Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee hearing, Sen. Moran invited Commissioner Michael Taylor to visit Kansas. As chairman of the agriculture subcommittee, he has the opportunity to play a role in overseeing the activities at both the FDA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). During the visit, Sen. Moran introduced Deputy Commissioner Taylor to Kansans to learn firsthand about some of the issues facing the state, particularly the agency’s oversight of antibiotic use in the livestock industry, which directly impacts Kansas agriculture producers and has implications on overall public health.

The visit included a tour of Kansas State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine clinics, research labs, and diagnostic services. They also visited with a number of students about issues facing the next generation of veterinarians, their experience at K-State, and future plans after graduation.

OnlyInYourState.com has offered Hays and Ellis County adulation over the last several months.

One of the latest rankings sheds a different light on the community, however.

Ellis County was fourth on the “Most Sinful Counties in Kansas” list, which measures the number of “vice” businesses per capita.

Check out the entire list HERE.

In contrast, Hays also was listed on the site’s “Most Religious” list, which measure religious organizations per capita. Click HERE to view that list.

FHSU University Relations and Marketing

Fort Hays State University’s Cuban immigrant president took her personal message of diversity to the Michael Tilford Conference on Diversity and Multiculturalism at Pittsburg State University Monday night.

“I remember arriving in the States, the fear that came with not knowing a word of English — how could I communicate with others?,” said Dr. Mirta M. Martin, recalling her arrival in America after leaving Cuba for Spain as a little child, then moving to the United States as an older child, but still a child.

“I remember going to school full time while also working 40 hours and then getting up on Sunday at 6 to go to Mass and then off to work cleaning houses to put food on our table,” she said.

“But I also remember how very happy and how very grateful we were to be in a country where sacrifice and hard work opened doors, a country where through education we could achieve anything. And in this country, we found individuals who were willing to give us a hand up, not a hand out.”

President Martin used her personal experience — as an immigrant, as the first Hispanic Kansas Regents institution president and as the first woman to lead Fort Hays State — as the foundation of her case for the necessity of diversity in higher education.

“The diversity we need — the diversity that allows us to build an innovative and entrepreneurial culture, one that differentiates us and creates the best programs and services on a worldwide scale — must include people who reflect a broad spectrum of demographics and people who reflect a broad spectrum of experiences and ideas,” she said, contrasting this vision of diversity with a purely demographic one that counts people based on ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation or other factors.

Even by a purely demographic standard, she said, American higher education has made progress over the last 40 years, she said, “but diversity measured solely by demographics has limits, and it does not guarantee inclusion.”

She used evidence from studies and the experience of entrepreneurs such as Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group of more than 400 companies, to call for diversity in not only “inherited traits” such as gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation but also for an “acquired diversity” of life and work experience, education and culture, among others.

For Branson, she said, the results of this kind of diversity were “teams that can spot opportunities, anticipate problems and innovate solutions.”

“Now, aren’t these the kinds of teams we want as we face unprecedented fiscal and demographic challenges?,” she asked. “Unfortunately, many in higher education still view diversity as an imposed cost of doing business in a politically correct world. This needs to change. Diversity must be seen as a valuable strategic asset, a competitive advantage, a growth enabler. Diversity is about people, about their thoughts, their experiences.”

In her presidency, she said, the lessons of her youth still motivate her, and the results of her knowledge and experience guide her in her presidency. She is putting into practice the policies she advocates.

“When I became president of Fort Hays State University in July 2014, 16 percent (one in six) of our senior executive leadership team was a minority,” she said. “A year later, by July of 2015, 66 percent (four in six) of our senior executive leadership team is a minority and/or is from an international background. Fifty percent of our current senior leadership team possesses a diverse array of insights gained from previous careers outside of academia.”

“Our multi-dimensional diversity powers our new beginnings and our commitment to a ‘bottom-up information for top-down support’ leadership style, and this is a new philosophy that has been embraced by the family of Fort Hays State University. It’s no longer my vision. It’s our vision.”

The Tilford Conference was established “to provide an opportunity for faculty, staff and administrators at the Kansas Board of Regents’ institutions to approach diversity in higher education by examining the challenges and opportunities in Kansas,” according to its website. It was named in memory of Dr. Michael Tilford, a Wichita State University professor who was the WSU representative on the Regents Diversity and Multiculturalism Committee from its founding in 1994 until his death two years later.