Yeah - Campus was on a not so great trajectory in the first half of the 80's. There were a few good things happening here and there: a bump in basketball, Nichols was rebuilt, new Engineering building, architecture, ag and vet med were stable but not spectacular; but it all lacked any coherence. Honestly, it was KU fumbling in-state student recruitment at this time in their Harvard of the Midwest quest as much as anything that kept enrollment falling even further. They mostly ignored actively recruiting in-state students in favor of a larger regional out of state approach. Wefald really was the right man in the right place at the right time.
