A little late to the game here, but I'd like to say what I noticed about the need in the state.
Take everything with a grain of salt, as these are just my own observations. (And if you have any reason to think I'm in error, please let me know!)
I'm from the Wichita area, grew up around medicine and agriculture, and I think if there's anywhere to start a DO, it's probably here. There's already a large DO presence in the city (mostly from KCUMB), so there would be lots of willing and capable preceptors and professors. As someone who shadowed and worked in healthcare in the city, I didn't get the impression that the hospitals were overrun with students as the Dean of KU-Wichita, Dr. Minns, was implying. I got the opposite impression - at the two large hospitals every physician I worked with was excited to be teaching - and this was even more so at smaller or more rural locations where I was usually the only student.
By all counts Dr. Minns is a lovely person and I don't think he meant any harm - the things he has said publicly as a KU employee opposing a DO school are just echoes of the state's political situation regarding medical education. KU is the only school that serves the state. Their admission, administrative, and financial powers are almost completely controlled by KU-Kansas City. Needless to say urban KC is completely different than the rest of the state which is primarily rural. In my experience the people working for KU Wichita and Salina are wonderful, but unfortunately, I think they trust the sincerity of the KU-KC institution too much. KU receives A LOT of taxpayer money to produce rural physicians, but from what I've witnessed the powers out of KC do the bare minimum to keep that funding and keep the state legislature off their back. They threw a fit when Gov. Brownback suggested the state needs a DO school due to a lack of medical school spots for the state's growing need and aging population. The Wichita and Salina campuses haven't been expanded since 2011. If you asked someone from the school they would say this is due to lack of funding - funny how that argument didn't come up when KU-KC built a $100 million dollar cancer center in 2018 and spent $40 million+ on a proton beam this summer. Meanwhile, in 2018, the community of Salina funded their own campus renovation for their 8 medical students with no tax-payer assistance. KU said they would up the Salina campus' enrollment in 2019. Not surprisingly, it didn't happen.
I've met many good, well-rounded candidates for matriculation from small towns and small universities in Kansas who would love to stay in the state but can't get in at KU. Many end up going to osteopathic schools elsewhere instead of waiting another year to try again. From what I understand of KU's admissions process, this is not coincidental. The admissions committee for Wichita and Salina is the same committee that chooses candidates in KC and, of course, it's disproportionately composed of members from the urban medical community in KC.
Finally, the fact that UMKC, KCUMB and OSU are in the region doesn't only minimally helps this situation. UMKC and KCUMB are both in KC and in Missouri. Most of these students (except a handful each year from KCUMB) will end up working in KC or another urban area. More students from both schools end up in Missouri than Kansas. Both schools are managed by entities in urban KC and in Missouri, which means that similarly to KU-KC, they don't have rural Kansas in mind when they choose their students, curriculum, rotations or policies. Finally, OSU is a state school so their students are overwhelmingly Oklahoma residents who, through the school's loan program, have large financial incentives to stay in Oklahoma.
This situation is very bad for rural Kansas where the coming physician shortage will hit hard. Something needs to change. I don't anticipate KU-KC conceding power to Salina and Wichita so those campuses can act in their populations' interests. A DO school in Wichita could very well be the answer.
www.ksn.com
