Outgoing KU chancellor reflects on barrier-breaking eight years of leading the university

Becoming the first woman and the first African-American chancellor of the University of Kansas seemed, in many cases, more remarkable to others than to Bernadette Gray-Little herself. “For a number of people that I met here in Lawrence, especially women, it was extraordinarily important and significant,” Gray-Little said. “…They didn’t know that they would ever see this day. There was some similar reaction from members of the African-American community who were alums, or people who worked here, who lived in the community — a sense that this was very important to their experience for this to happen.”