Shocker Blast: April 26, 2019

The idea for an MGC Quad was first discussed in spring 2013. The Multicultural Greek Council, Student Involvement and university entities were in support of this idea, however, it took several years to bring the quad to fruition. Over a six-year period, the quad went through several redesigns, and monies were secured to pay for the landscaping, pillars and banners incorporated into the space.

The location of the quad, at the crossroads of the Rhatigan Student Center, Clinton Hall, Neff Hall and the Geology Building, was chosen by the MGC Council and Facilities Planning. Feedback from students within the MGC Council was gathered on the landscaping, pillars and banners.  

The purpose of the quad is to provide our culturally based and National Pan-Hellenic Council Greek chapters a visible space on campus. These chapters traditionally do not have chapter facilities. Providing them a space on campus increases their visibility and affords them a gathering space.

The quad currently hosts active chapters on campus. As more culturally based and National Pan-Hellenic Council Greek chapters are brought to Wichita State, banners will be added to represent these groups.

The chapters currently on campus include, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc., Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc., Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc., Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc., Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Inc., Sigma Lambda Beta International Fraternity Inc., Kappa Delta Chi Sorority Inc., Sigma Psi Zeta Sorority Inc., Chi Sigma Tau Fraternity Inc.

Two more chapters will be added to the quad over the next year; they include Lambda Pi Upsilon Sorority, Latinas Poderosas Unidas Inc. and Mu Delta Alpha.

A special thanks to those who donated to the project, including Sean and Melissa Conley, WSU Student Affairs and WSU Panhellenic Council. 

For more information about this event or the MGC Quad, go to Greek Life or call 978-3022.

Sponsors of this year’s competition include Foulston Siefkin, High Touch Technologies, IMA Financial Group, INTRUST Bank, Lubrication Engineers, NetWork Kansas, Riverside Health Foundation, Jeff & Kelley DeGraffenreid.

This week wrapped up the judging of the 10-page business plan round. The result is the movement of 16 teams into the trade show round of the competition. Selection was based upon market viability, the likelihood to launch and financial projections.

The 16 teams advancing to the Trade Show are:

• Bionic6
• Boost Hoop
• DUO Health
• ERC
• HandiLift
• Liberty Limbs Prosthetics
• Nuria
• PARROT
• Phantom Technologies
• Safety Headphones
• Senior Design Spirit
• Shiver
• Smart Warehouse Advanced Technologies
• TableTop
• Team Ascenseur
• TechHead

The six teams with the most “investments” by the judges will advance to the final round which takes place on May 3. The final round will take place from 1-4 p.m. in 107 Devlin Hall. An awards ceremony will follow at 5 p.m. in Devlin Hall. The public is encouraged to attend the final round presentations and the award ceremony.

WSU Tech embedded training

WSU Tech was recently recognized for its beneficial embedded training support partnership with Spirit AeroSystems in the areas of new hire onboarding, certification training and recertification for skilled workers in production.

WSU Tech has a longstanding relationship with business and industry to support skilled training needs by offering a customized approach that yields notable impact to their bottom lines. In a recent client survey, Spirit reported the following stats in favor of their partnership and services provided through WSU Tech, including:

• $19.8 million in opportunities for increased sales
• $13.2 million in retained revenue
• 2,305 jobs retained as a result of training skilled workers and upskilling workforce
• $87,300 in cost savings that would have otherwise been spent
• And a Net Promoter Score of 10 out of 10, meaning Spirit is very likely to continue this project with WSU Tech.

We applaud WSU Tech’s efforts to make a positive impact on our workforce and economy.

 

Applied learning update

With applied learning and research at the center of everything we do, Shockers in every academic program have unmatched opportunities to gain the valuable real-world experience needed to achieve their career goals.

Recent numbers from the Career Development Center illustrate the positive impact the university’s commitment to applied learning has on our students.

In 2017-18, more than 1,100 WSU students earned $4.9 million in co-op internship wages and gained more than 370,000 hours in professional experience, all while working with nearly 500 different employers.

NIAR programs for Airbus, Spirit AeroSystems and other aviation and manufacturing organizations around the world have led to a 30 percent increase (240 total) in student employment at NIAR and in the Applied Learning Program. NIAR is hiring 60 more students per year than in 2016.

The presence and demonstrated commitments of WSU collaboration with industry and DoD has provided millions of dollars in new funding for advanced research programs. These partnerships are the reason Wichita State ranks first in the nation in industry-financed aeronautical research and development. To put it simply, no other university in the country employs more students in aerospace R&D. And we need more student employees – NIAR is hiring.

The WSU Office of Undergraduate Admissions will now play a larger role of linking newly admitted students to our brand of applied learning, where every student has an experience leading to employment upon graduation. Two offices will be integrated in this approach, Admissions and Career Development. By creating this link, we make our promise of an applied learning experience for every student even more explicit at the moment of being admitted.

 

Strategic Planning town hall – May 2

As the university continues working toward fulfilling its vision and mission, we want to thank all of the faculty, staff, students and community members who help steer the university toward success by volunteering on WSU’s strategic planning activation teams.

These teams form the foundation of the strategic planning process by reviewing the university’s Strategic Plan and ongoing goals—to help it better fulfill its mission to be an essential educational, cultural and economic driver for Kansas and the greater public good.

The teams have engaged more than 160 individuals from campus and the broader Wichita community. On average, 55 persons have attended each of the activation teams’ Tuesday sessions. 

Each team, led by a chair and a co-chair, works through a playbook, provided by the steering committee, which leads the team through guided conversations around critical issues facing the university and higher education. Additionally, the playbook outlines a SWOT analysis format that each team goes through together over the semester.

With the spring semester nearly finished, we’re inviting everyone to a Strategic Planning town hall at 3 p.m., on May 2, in the RSC Beggs Ballroom, where the activation team leaders will share the results of their meetings and make recommendations.

 

Community events

We hope that everyone enjoyed all of the fun campus events at last Saturday’s Family Fun Day. There are two more can’t-miss events we want to let you know about.

The Multicultural Greek Council will host its annual Shock the Yard Step Show at 7 p.m. Saturday, April 27, in Charles Koch Arena. Now in its 10th year, the show has grown to become one of the most creative, entertaining and competitive events on campus—and a reflection of the rich diversity found in WSU’s student body and campus culture.

Shock the Yard was started by some of the university’s historically black fraternities and sororities. It features performers from a wide variety of campus organizations, in addition to drawing participants from across the region. Teams compete in group dance routines where performers’ bodies are used as instruments to produce complex rhythms and sounds through a mixture of footsteps, spoken word and hand claps.

We encourage the community to come out and attend this high-energy event. Tickets are available for $10 through goshockers.com. They can also be purchased for $15 at the door.  

Also, this Saturday is the Kansas Optimist Club’s oratorical scholarship competition at 1 p.m. in 100 Lindquist Hall. The competition gives younger students the opportunity to gain experience in public speaking while competing for multiple college scholarships. Winners advance to the world championships with a chance to compete for a scholarship worth more than $22,000. The topic for this year’s event is “Is there a fine line between optimism and reality?”

We’re honored to support this competition and other events and initiatives that inspire and enable excellence in our community’s youth. We wish the competitors the best of luck—and we hope to see all of you there.

 

Dean search

On Wednesday, we were happy to have welcomed the first of three graduate school dean finalists to campus. Dr. Coleen Pugh is a professor in the Department of Polymer Science at the University of Akron. Two more candidates are scheduled to visit campus on April 29-30 and May 6-7. The second candidate’s public forum will be held at 3:30 p.m., April 29, in the RSC, room 319. The third’s will at 3:30 p.m. on May 6 in Clinton Hall, room 204. We look forward to having them on campus, and we’ll release more information when it becomes available.

The following 2019 Senior Honors were honored at the banquet:

Ashruta Acharya, 2014 graduate of Rato Bangala School, Lalitpur, Nepal

Clayton Baugh, 2015 graduate of Goddard High School, Goddard, Kansas

Samuel Belsan, 2013 graduate of Christian Liberty Academy, Wichita, Kansas

Meghan Carver, 2015 graduate of Mulvane High School, Mulvane, Kansas

Kent Dang, 2014 graduate of Southeast High School, Wichita, Kansas

Courtney Nichole Grosch, 2015 graduate of Newton High School, Newton, Kansas

Kyle Kopecky, 2015 graduate of Blue Valley North High School, Overland Park, Kansas

Amy Lightfoot, 2015 graduate of Rampart High School, Colorado Springs, Colorado

Shelby Rowell, 2015 graduate of El Dorado High School, El Dorado, Kansas

Breck Towner, 2015 graduate of El Dorado High School, El Dorado, Kansas

The exhibit features “A Time of Peace” with photographs taken by Dr. Jens Kreinath during a day trip to Aleppo on May 29, 2010. This selection of pictures conveys a tranquil atmosphere and is contrasted directly with photographs by the world-renowned war photojournalist Narciso Contreras. The collection of photos by Contreras—named “A Journey of Pain” and taken in the fall of 2012—are from the very frontline of the battlefield and capture unfiltered moments of utter despair as experienced by the inhabitants of the once-glorious city that is now drawn into the fray of Syria’s merciless war.

A further small exhibit “Remembrance—From Antakya to Aleppo” displays only nine photographs that capture cheerful moments during Dr. Kreinath’s two brief encounters with Boulos Yazigi, the Metropolitan Bishop of Aleppo at the celebrations of the city-wide festival on the Day of St. Peter and Paul in Antakya (formerly known as Antioch) in 2010 and 2012. Yazigi and his companion, Bishop John Ibrahim of the Syriac Orthodox Church, were abducted on their return trip from Antakya on April 22, 2013. With their location being unknown, the Greek Orthodox community in Antakya continues to commemorate its cherished leader and still mourns his ineffable loss.

Looking forward to welcoming you for the occasion of the opening! As we host this exhibit during the next five years, we will organize various events all thematically related to research on the cultural heritage of Aleppo and the interreligious relations in the surrounding areas of the Northern Levant–including Turkey, Iraq, and Lebanon. If you are interested to receive notifications about upcoming events or research projects, contact Jens.Kreinath@wichita.edu.