{"id":96756,"date":"2025-11-06T10:51:52","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T16:51:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/?p=96756"},"modified":"2025-11-06T10:52:20","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T16:52:20","slug":"committee-advances-board-of-regents-nominee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/2025\/11\/06\/committee-advances-board-of-regents-nominee\/","title":{"rendered":"Committee Advances Board of Regents Nominee"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

TOPEKA \u2014 A Kansas Senate committee voted Wednesday to recommend confirmation of a Manhattan businessman to the Kansas Board of Regents and to direct a Salina attorney nominated to the higher education board to undergo additional vetting by legislators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Senate Confirmation Oversight Committee agreed to advance to the full Senate the nomination of 11 people to serve on state commissions, boards, authorities or to be promoted by the Kansas National Guard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The committee embraced Gov. Laura Kelly\u2019s nomination of Matt Crocker, recipient of bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degrees in business from Kansas State University, to the Board of Regents. The nine-member board appointed by the governor has responsibility for more than 30 public universities, community colleges and technical colleges across the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crocker works as chief executive officer of SBS Companies, a collection of nine metal distribution companies based in Manhattan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe employ over 1,300 employees across 14 states and Mexico \u2014 the majority of which are blue-collar,\u201d said Crocker, who previously was employed at Koch Industries, a predecessor to Evergy and at Citadel hedge fund in Chicago. \u201cI believe that I will bring a robust set of experiences and perspectives to the regents role.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senate Majority Leader Chase Blasi, R-Wichita, asked whether Crocker thought Kansas State administrators had been sufficiently innovative in terms of its approach to reforming higher education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crocker said universities nationally were too rigid in terms of promoting change and could miss opportunities to get more out of investments derived from taxpayers or the private sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you have limited resources, you need to make sure that you\u2019re utilizing those in the most efficient and effective manner,\u201d Crocker said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blasi asserted Kansas State hadn\u2019t taken proper steps to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs from its campuses. DEI programs were designed to create fair and welcoming environments within companies or at colleges, but DEI has been targeted for elimination by Republicans in the Kansas Legislature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn fact, they seem like they were focused on rebranding DEI,\u201d Blasi said. \u201cWe keep hearing about K-State not doing what they\u2019re supposed to be doing. So, could you look into that?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peter Johnston, a Salina attorney with a practice concentrated on health care law, had his nomination to the Board of Regents referred to the Senate Education Committee. His credentials and temperament to serve on the board would be scrutinized by that committee during the 2026 legislative session prior to consideration by the full Senate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johnston, who earned English and law degrees at University of Kansas, said he served as primary attorney for Salina Regional Health Center and was associated with hospitals in Lindsborg, Concordia, Abilene and elsewhere in Kansas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want to serve on the Board of Regents because the public schools in the state have given me virtually everything that I treasure in my life,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s an opportunity for me to give back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senate President Ty Masterson, an Andover Republican running for governor, said he received calls questioning Johnston\u2019s nomination. Masterson said there was concern Johnston might not be fair to all public colleges and universities in the state. The skepticism was based on a report Johnston made \u201cpretty disparaging remarks\u201d about one of the state\u2019s universities, Masterson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m concerned about \u2026 your ability to look at some of the other institutions that may not be your preferred institution,\u201d Masterson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johnston said he wasn\u2019t the \u201cKU\u201d appointee to the Board of Regents and that he would dedicate himself to serving the entire higher education system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, Masterson said referral of the nomination to the education committee was warranted because of an email Johnston sent to his own state senator in opposition to a proposed constitutional amendment allowing direct election of Kansas Supreme Court members. The amendment, championed by Masterson, will be on the ballot in August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m not saying, \u2018No.\u2019 I just want more time,\u201d Masterson said. \u201cWe have precedent for this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2022, the Senate Education Committee was assigned the task of reviewing three Kelly nominations to the Board of Regents. That list consisted of former BNSF Railway executive Carl Ice, retired Kansas City school superintendent Cynthia Lane and former banker and state Sen. Wint Winter. The committee declined to endorse Lane and Winter, but all three nominees were confirmed by the Senate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much of that spotlight was on Winter, a former Republican senator who opposed reelection of Gov. Sam Brownback in 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor the record,\u201d Masterson said, \u201cI was originally opposed to him (Winter), became a supporter of him \u2026 and became very pleased with his activities on the board.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other nominees endorsed Wednesday by the Senate committee included Kansas Air National Guard Col. Kent Crane to the rank of brigadier general, Natalie Haag to the Kansas Racing and Gaming Commission and Dave Harrison to the University of Kansas Hospital Authority.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector TOPEKA \u2014 A Kansas Senate committee voted Wednesday to recommend confirmation of a Manhattan businessman to the Kansas Board of Regents and to direct a Salina attorney nominated to the higher education board to undergo additional vetting by legislators. The Senate Confirmation Oversight Committee agreed to advance to the full […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[6093],"class_list":["post-96756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-state","tag-kansas-board-of-regents"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96756\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}