The following is an excerpt from a July 24 feature in the Wichita Eagle about Wichita State University Vice President for Academic Affairs Tony Vizzini.
Tony Vizzini knows that Kansas legislators who cut Wichita State University's budget won't necessarily be impressed by his academic credentials.
WSU's new vice president for academic affairs hopes to talk to lawmakers soon -- and to listen so that "Oh, they will be my best friends."
But he has heard enough about their frustrations about why and how universities spend tens of millions of tax dollars to know that his four degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, including his 1986 doctorate in aeronautics and astronautics, might not inspire as much conversation as whether he can find ways to save money, he said.