UMKC is currently ranked 181 by US News and World Reports.

That is only 38 spots below K-State which ranks 143.

The question is with a medical school, law school, dental school, solid business school, good arts program, should the ranking be higher?

With a little better marketing maybe the University of Kansas City could catch the lowest ranked Big 12 school, West Virgina, at 164.

http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandrevie ... ata/page+8

Clicking on UMKC on the list provides some more information including the following:

"The university developed the unique team name in the 1930s, when community excitement about the Kansas City Zoo’s purchase of two baby kangaroos grew, and when Walt Disney himself drew a cartoon of the Kasey Kangaroo mascot. Although he never graduated, former President Harry Truman attended the UMKC law school for two years and later received the school’s first honorary degree. Today, he is the namesake of the university’s Harry S Truman Center for Governmental Affairs."

I didn't know Truman attended the Law School and I didn't know the history of the mascot name or that Walt Disney did the first drawings over 80 years ago. The Star apparently does a pretty lame job of covering UMKC history. Maybe if they take University of Missouri out of the name, the Star's coverage of the University will be more favorable.

How about changing both UMKC and KUMED to the University of Kansas City and Kansas City Medical Center? Get away from both KU and MU and build up a KC based university system. Then those two can work together and really do something.

For many on the coasts they will think it is in Kansas instead of Missouri.