This week on The Crimson and Gold Connection we visit with Pittsburg State President Dan Shipp about his bike trip across Kansas to raise money for unrestricted student scholarships at PSU.
Dan starts his 12-day, 15-stop trip across the Sunflower State Monday morning at 9 from Champions Plaza at Pitt State.
He’s peddling to raise awareness of PSU but to also learn more about Kansas and to raise 8-million dollars by getting per mile or flat, one-time donations.
He says the idea of biking across Kansas came from a student who joked that he should run across the state like Forest Gump.
“A lot of these conversations with students, certainly in families and it, you know, this isn't a surprise, right, that the cost of a college education and earning a degree is of concern right for families and students. And I got with our development team of, you know, what are our opportunities to grow funding for scholarships, right?”
“To try to help, provide more students with more funds to keep that cost down. And so, we were talking about it and got some students involved in the conversation. And one of our students said, well, you should run across the state like Forrest Gump and people can pay you per mile this summer.”
Dan joked that he might make it to Arma, Kansas if he ran, although he has experience in biking long distances and decided to give the ride across Kansas a try.
“I've done a lot of runs in the past, but the only thing I can compare it to is I went with some friends to up around Glacier National Park and they were cyclists. I'm not a cyclist, I'm more recreational, right?”
“And as I've gotten older, I have less and less time. Might not surprise you to know that when your university president, there's not a lot of training time for things. So, but I had gone on this adventure cycling trip. I'll never forget it.”
It’s unlikely that Dan, students, professors or staff will forget Dan’s trip across Kansas, with 15 stops including Fort Scott, Iola, Lawerance, Topeka, Dodge and Garden cities to the Colorado/Kansas border near Woodland, KS.
During the nearly two-week trip Dan will meet with alumni, advocate for Pittsburg State, make new friends and learn up close about the state.
He says that he wants to show the campus community and greater southeast Kansas that he’s willing to go above and beyond and think outside the box when it comes to funding the university.
“I want our students and our community to know we have their back and we're not afraid to try to do some really tough things on their behalf. Somebody sent me a note yesterday that said you may earn the Iron Butt award and I'm sure that's true. Sitting for those you know, long periods of time and probably the things that have me most concerned, there's going to be a ton of fun.”
In April of last year Dan was named Pittsburg State President, taking office in early June.
Although he’s been at PSU a short time, he says he’s been touched by the amount of support and generosity the university receives whether it’s in southeast Kansas or the greater Four State area.
“This one really sweet woman called me from Joplin, and she said, well, you know, ‘we don't have a lot of money, but we'd be willing to sponsor you a dollar a mile, which is about $900’, because it would be about 900 miles when we're all done.”
“And I was like, that is a lot of money. Are you kidding me? You know, so it could be $0.50 it could be $900. The same week we had a donor reach out and provide a quarter $1,000,000. So, you know our goal is to try to get $8,000,000 in 12-days. I have no idea if we're going to hit that or not. It's going to take a lot of folks helping and pitching in.”
You can follow Dan’s trip through Pittsburg State’s Facebook page.
Or make donation of any amount, or a one-time donation here.
