Campus Connection: March 31, 2020

By Jay Golden, President, Wichita State University

Our campuses throughout the community may look empty, but Wichita State University and WSU Tech are educating students and supporting the region and state economy during these uncertain times. Our combined institutions are served by thousands of dedicated Wichitans and Kansans whose families have also been directly impacted by the current pandemic.

Our faculty and staff have made the quick pivot to provide instruction to your students online, our leading researchers continue their work focused on national security, our clinicians are serving those who have physical and mental health needs and, our residence hall staff are now sheltering those students who could not safely travel back to their homes.

Fortunately, Sedgwick County’s stay-at-home order allows us as educational institutions to continue these essential operations. The order says: “School buildings may be used if needed to house individuals, distribute food, provide medical care, distance learning or any other services deemed to protect life and property and other critical resources.”

Wichita State scientists and those from our sister institution, Kansas State University, are researching antiviral drugs initially for norovirus and have isolated a compound that shows promise to inhibit feline infectious peritonitis virus -- a coronavirus. 

The compound has just been licensed to a third-party and is in clinical development.  While there are no guarantees of the efficacy for combating COVID19, it represents the type of research underway in university labs across America to tackle this devastating pandemic.

Leveraging the expertise that exists on our campus in engineering and innovation, our researchers have designed 3-D scaffolding and frame for respirators.  The frame will be reusable in conjunction with replaceable fabric filters we are developing.  We have released all the intellectual property and are sharing the designs to universities across the country to use for their local needs.   We are also working on additive manufacturing to apply to the manufacturing of respirators and ventilators.

Our social scientists are working to quickly quantify the financial impacts to our region and the different industrial sectors while also evaluating potential mitigation and remediation strategies.  The expertise we have in regard to big data and analytics is being applied to examine trends that emerge from the current pandemic, including implications for certain demographics as well as logistics and supply chain.

This is the kind of work a national innovation university does day in and day out, to create a better world.

To meet more immediate needs of the community, both WSU and WSU Tech have organized drives to collect medical Personal Protective Equipment, known as PPE, from our labs and community industry partners such as Textron and even individual community members via GoCreate located on our innovation campus. 

Thus far we have distributed thousands of respirators including one for every Wichita firefighter and police officer as well as to regional hospitals.  This is in addition to face masks, CPR training barriers, gowns, lab coats, safety glasses, exam table paper and thousands of protective gloves.  We take great pride in providing protective equipment for those who are protecting our families.

Our first responders are still in need. I encourage community businesses and organizations with spare PPE to go to www.Wichita.edu/PPE and learn how you donate and drop-off the items at WSU, which is serving as a PPE community consolidation center in partnership with the Kansas Division of Emergency Management and Sedgwick County.

Even as we are fighting this pandemic, we need to be thinking about what comes next for Wichita and south-central Kansas.

We are blessed with a tremendously talented workforce, world-leading engineering and assembly expertise and expansive manufacturing space. 

Wichita State and WSU Tech are actively pursuing pathways to leverage the successes we have developed at National Institute of Aviation Research and National Center for Aviation Training. As we continue to strengthen the aviation industry, we are working with industry partners both based in Wichita and globally, to diversify into new and emerging industrial sectors to grow jobs and our economy. 

This includes focusing on health care, digital transformation, computer-integrated SMART manufacturing, novel materials and sustainable technologies. 

Working to sustain and grow the aviation and aerospace sectors is one of my top priorities in my first year as president, while we also focus on diversifying our economy for the benefit of our region and state. It will take strong and meaningful partnerships with the community to be successful. Wichita State University is dedicated to being that type of partner.

Though I know today may seem uncertain and at times scary, I have no doubt Wichita and Kansas will come out stronger.  While Wichita State University and WSU Tech are focusing on the immediate needs of our community and nation, we continue to operate and work towards an even stronger region. 

Dr. Jay Golden is the 14^th President of Wichita State University and a professor of engineering

Extending the deadline will also allow the Department to work with Congress to implement needed changes to expedite the issuance of REAL IDs once the current health crisis concludes, Acting Secretary Chad Wolf said in a statement.

REAL ID-compliant driver’s licenses will be required to fly domestically, after legislation passed by Congress in 2005 aimed to unify security standards for the IDs across states.

“The already difficult task of bringing the country closer to REAL ID compliance is now clearly impossible due to the coronavirus crisis,” said US Travel President and CEO Roger Dow.

“Over the next 18 months people will be focused on building their lives back, not going to the DMV. The economic damage of coronavirus is already massive, and as we move toward a recovery phase it would be awful if the REAL ID deadline hits and creates yet another obstacle to people traveling.”

A new analysis compiled by US Travel and Longwoods International, a market research consultancy, shows that if REAL ID were implemented today, an estimated 67,400 travelers would be turned away at airport security checkpoints on the first day, and more than 471,800 within the first week.

1. Basic budget – As the impacts of the Coronavirus begin to be felt in Kansas, most additional spending that had been planned to be added in conference committee between the House and the Senate was put off until omnibus in late April/May. The one that impacts higher education the most is a 2.5% pay increase for State workers. On the positive side, while it is reviewed at omnibus it is for ALL state workers including higher education whereas the Governor’s original budget did not include higher education. The legislature essentially gave higher education the Governor’s Recommended Budget which was $11,893,156.There was added to KDHE’s budget $50M to be appropriated to all state agencies to combat the spread of the Coronavirus. It was addressed in conference committee that higher education would be able to access those funds if needed. 
2. Below are some of the key items that were included in the adopted budget this week:
   • $11.9M increase to the base for the universities
   • $11.1M increase to 2-year colleges
   • $2.5M to the comp grant that would require a match from private funds
   • bonding approval, with KBOR approval first, for WSU to purchase flats and suites 
3. Here are some of the key items that were put off to omnibus:
   • 5% pay increase for all state employees including university employees 
   • $10M addition to the base for universities 
   • $5M grants for WSU, and KSU 
   • $363K for FHSU military Education pathway 
   • $1.5M increase in 2020 and 2021 for Excel in CTE 
   • $1.75M increase for CTE capital outlay 
4. Highway Plan – Since the end of the last session, the legislature has worked on a new ten-year highway plan. While it is a ten-year plan, it breaks the projects into two-year increments to provide some flexibility as projects are added and deleted. It does place priority on T-Works projects that were not completed from the last highway plan. The plan spends approximately $1B over the ten-year period and does factor in decreasing transfers from the highway fund to the SGF. Given the almost certain economic fallout from the spread of Corona, it’s possible those transfers will continue. 
5. Executive Emergency Powers – Last week, the Governor declared a state of emergency in order to free up agencies to address the spread of the virus. That culminated in her executive order to close K-12 schoolsfor the rest of the year. That prompted the Senate to pass an amendment to renew her emergency powers limiting them to a potential restriction if the Legislative Coordinating Council (LCC) votes to nullify her action(s) up to three days after she announces that action. LCC is made up of legislative leadership without representation from the Governor’s office.  
6. Response to Coronavirus –The legislature last minute added $50M depending on approval of LCC to deal with financial impact of Coronavirus on State agencies. The budget will take a couple of weeks to be reviewed by the Governor, and then LCC will likely develop a process to handle request to deal with those impacts. 

Given the uncertain future of travel, it is very unclear if there will be a Veto Session in late April or May. Currently they are scheduled to return on April 27 and could come back as late as May 21 if the LCC determines that is necessary. If there is no Veto Session, the above amounts will be the only enhancements higher ed receives for FY21. We likely won’t know for at least a couple of weeks if that is the case. 

Many of the vacancies are in family childcare homes, which are licensed by KDHE and serve no more than 10 children, a positive consideration at a time when group sizes should be limited. Bulluck says that Early Childhood Connections has also received many calls from caregivers who usually limit enrollment to five or six children, but are volunteering to open their enrollment to serve eight or 10 in order to support first responders and medical personnel.

Child Start’s Early Childhood Connections program helps maintain a statewide database of childcare providers and has just completed contacts with all licensed providers in Sedgwick, Butler, Cowley, Harvey and Sumner Counties, so the local information on that database is accurate as of this week.  Parents searching for child care are encouraged to go to www.childstart.org to begin an online search for vacancies or to call 1-877-678-2548.

“We are staying on top of the changes in the availability of childcare,” says Bulluck. “Although our own staff are working remotely, we are in constant touch with providers and updating vacancy information on the database daily.”

About Child Start

Child Start is a local non-profit organization focused on early learning for lifelong success.   We work with child care providers to ensure quality care for our community’s children and administer Head Start. 

One dollar invested in high quality early childhood education produces a 7 to 10 percent return on investment.  This helps our children do better in school while making them more likely to attend college and less likely to be involved in the criminal justice system.  They also earn more in wages and pay more in taxes.  Support Child Start today with your time, talent and treasure.  Our kids can’t wait one more day for your help.