WASHINGTON, D.C., Jan. 28—Robert N. Kelly, executive director of the Kansas Independent College Association (KICA) from 1976 to 2004, has been selected by the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU) to receive the 2005 Henry Paley Memorial Award. He will receive the award from NAICU President David L. Warren on Tuesday, Feb. 2, at the NAICU annual meeting. The meeting will be held at the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill.

Since 1985, the Paley Award has recognized an individual who, throughout his or her career, has unfailingly served the students and faculty of independent higher education. The recipient of this award has set an example for all who would seek to advance educational opportunity in the United States. The Paley Award is named for Henry Paley, president of the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities of New York from 1975 until 1984.

“Few higher education advocates, inside or outside of the Washington Beltway, have had a more continued and profound influence on federal higher education law than Bob Kelly,” said NAICU President David L. Warren. “For 28 years, he has mastered formulas, built friendships on Capitol Hill, and negotiated regulations that have benefited private college students throughout the nation.”

In addition to heading KICA, Kelly served as the executive director of the Kansas Independent College Fund from 1995 to 2000. Kelly’s achievements during his tenure with the independent colleges and universities in Kansas are numerous.

Kelly was intimately involved in drafting the current campus-based aid formula that considers a student's unmet need, a factor that makes college choice possible for millions of low-income students. He pioneered a tax-exempt bond financing program in Kansas that has brought the students of his state less expensive, more efficient loans, and served as a model for other states.

Kelly has given his time to promote many national private higher education causes. He has been a steady presence on Capitol Hill in endless legislative battles, and was particularly effective in working with his delegation, when Bob Dole was Senate Republican leader and Nancy Kassebaum was the key Republican on the Senate education committee. He served countless hours as a NAICU negotiator in the tedious, but critically important, negotiated rulemaking process—through which detailed regulations are written with the input of the higher education community. Kelly was also a U.S. Senate appointee to the national Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance.

Kelly received his bachelor's degree from Occidental College, and his master's degree and doctorate from the University of Kansas. He has worked for the Kansas state legislature, served as an assistant professor at Washburn University, and worked for the Kansas State Education Commission and Kansas Board of Regents.

Kelly will be joined at the award presentation by his wife, Cindy.

NAICU serves as the unified national voice of independent higher education. With nearly 1,000 member institutions and associations nationwide, NAICU reflects the diversity of private, nonprofit higher education in the United States. NAICU members enroll 85 percent of all students attending private institutions. They include traditional liberal arts colleges, major research universities, church- and faith-related institutions, historically black colleges, Hispanic-serving institutions, single-sex colleges, art institutions, two-year colleges, and schools of law, medicine, engineering, business, and other professions.