Van Hoisington ‘70 received a master’s degree in business from Fort Hays State University and immediately found employment at a bank in California. “The recruiter said he liked to come to small schools in the Midwest where people know how to work,” said Hoisington. Hoisington highly valued his instructors who made the topics of finance, banking and economics interesting. “The research and lessons I experienced while a student at Fort Hays State University are still with me 40 years later.”
Hoisington’s business, Hoisington Investment Management Company, is a $5.5 billion fixed income manager and sub-advisor to the Wasatch-Hoisington U.S. Treasury Fund (WHOSX). Hoisington’s work has been featured in Forbes magazine, Pensions and Investments magazine and in the Journal of Portfolio Management. Hoisington has been a speaker for the Chartered Financial Analysts (CFA). Most recently Hoisington was featured in the August 7, 2010 Wall Street Journal regarding his firm’s view on deflation. Hoisington and his wife, Ethel currently reside in Austin, Texas.
Lifetime Tiger: Dr. Larry Gould
Dr. Larry Gould, his wife Eva and their two children joined the FHSU family in August of 1981. During time spent as a Political Science instructor, Dr. Gould seized many opportunities afforded by the environment of FHSU. His influence helped form the award-winning FHSU Docking Institute of Public Affairs, a dynamic public policy research institute. Gould has served many roles for the university including: President of the Faculty Senate, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Executive Assistant to the President and Director of the Docking Institute of Public Affairs.
Through his service to FHSU, Gould has witnessed some of the changes that the university made during difficult times. FHSU now finds itself in one of the most difficult times in school history. State funding used to account for 75% of the costs of education at FHSU. That percentage has been reduced to 43%. In addition to the declining state funds, he noted another issue, “Because of the Internet, higher education has lost its monopoly in the ability to deliver post-secondary education. Anyone, anyplace, anytime can offer do-it-yourself education, and students are buying it because of price and lack of an understanding of accredited learning.” With the lack of state funding and the increase of competition, FHSU is constantly seeking new ways of staying innovative and creative.
Gould believes that post-secondary education needs a new paradigm. “Over 85% of higher education students are non-traditional. Post-secondary education needs a new liberal arts and sciences paradigm to accommodate and steward the open -source education that is more technical, experiential, self-directed and self-paced than ever before,” Gould said. Fort Hays State University needs to offer diverse opportunities that are accessible to all Kansans and citizens of the world alike. “It’s a revolution emerging out of evolution that FHSU can’t miss—if we are to be an institution of the future.”
