Even before Kansas became a state, Kansans wanted a university. What no one knew in territorial days or in the earliest years of statehood — or even after the University of Kansas opened for classes — was how big and how good it might become. In KU’s first semester, 55 students enrolled but the faculty of three found not one prepared for college work.

The university would grow into a vast and intricate educational machine that in the 21st century counts more than 27,000 students and 1,600 faculty members across multiple campuses. Former Kansas City Star and Kansas City Times editor Monroe Dodd, who has written a new coffee table book for Kansas City Star Books that commemorates the school’s sesquicentennial, discusses the often difficult, 150-year journey through wars, economic pitfalls, clashes of ideas and ideologies, and the unending demands of politics.