Wudolph the Red-Nosed Rep
The Office of Admissions proudly presents its 6th annual holiday video!
Our story this year is about a new admissions rep, Wudolph, and how he overcomes the struggle of fitting in despite his large, red nose.
New Ulrich Museum initiatives
All faculty are invited to include a visit to the Ulrich Museum of Art in each of their courses. When you come to the museum with your students, we will facilitate a discussion around selected works of art that follows the Visual Thinking Strategy (VTS) model allowing us the opportunity to reach across all disciplines.
VTS is a research-based, student-centered teaching system and uses art to build the capacity to observe, think, listen and communicate. VTS builds cognition through art, develops critical-thinking skills, expands language literacy, and encourages students to look, think and talk. During VTS discussions, students practice expressing complex ideas and emotions while building confidence with spoken language, which supports their development into effective communications.
Contact Leslie A. Brothers or Jana Durfee with any questions at leslie.brothers@wichita.edu or jana.durfee@wichita.edu. Contact Durfee to schedule your visit.
More information and deadlines on Ulrich Museum initiatives
Space is available in Employment Relationship Training class on Wednesday, Dec. 12
Space is available in an Employment Relationship Training class from 2-4:30 p.m. Wednesday,
Dec. 12, in 264 Rhatigan Student Center. To register for training, go to myTraining
through myWSU. This is the last session scheduled for the remainder of the year.
This course is provided for leaders who supervise employees (UP, USS, students), and
will focus on the overall employment relationship. It will provide guidance on managing
performance, setting expectations, how to identify when an employee has not met expectations,
and how to effectively address those concerns. This could include concerns with attendance,
job performance, conflict with coworkers, etc. This training will also introduce you
to tools to use to effectively document an unmet expectation.
If you have questions, contact mytraining@wichita.edu.
Shared Governance Discussion Groups
During the town hall meeting in September, the university gathered feedback on four
strategic priority areas. Priority #1 is to advance a culture of shared governance
built on trust and integrity.
The university will hold discussion groups to bring faculty, staff, administration and students together to discuss how we all can make an impact through shared governance. This will be a guided discussion to share with each other, learn from one another, and generate thoughts about shared governance at the university.
The discussion group will go through a process to:
- Identify the current perception of shared governance at the university.
- Identify how faculty, staff, and administration participate in shared governance.
- Identify who you think makes decisions, who is consulted, and who must approve decisions that are made.
- Vision what shared governance could be at the university.
There will be 11 discussion groups scheduled at varying times as shown below.
Wednesday, Dec. 12: 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m., 1:30-3 p.m., 3:30-5 p.m., 5-6:30 p.m.
Thursday, Dec. 13: 9:30-11 a.m., 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m., 1:30-3 p.m.; 3:30-5 p.m.
Friday, Dec. 14: 9-10:30 a.m., 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m., 1-2:30 p.m.
Please access myTraining on the myWSU Faculty/Staff page to register for a session. You may be asked to change sessions to make sure each session represents a cross-section of the university.
We will consolidate the input from each discussion group, identify consistent themes, and recommend a plan that will be shared at open forums to ensure that it accurately reflects the input from the discussion groups and to provide an opportunity for feedback.
Town Hall on value of liberal arts and sciences to be shown on KPTS
Campus and community members who missed the Nov. 1 town hall "What is the value of a liberal arts and sciences education?" will be able to view it on local PBS affiliate KPTS this week.
The town hall will be broadcast on KPTS and KPTS HDTV at 8 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 13, and on KPTS and KPTS HDTV at 6 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 15.
Moderated by Robert Litan, a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a panel of Wichita State faculty members and Fairmount College alumni answered questions regarding the relevance and value of the liberal arts and sciences and the numerous skills it helps students develop.
Faculty and staff of the Elliott School of Communication videoed, edited and produced the program, titled “The heart of the university” for KPTS.
NASA Kansas Space Grant Consortium celebrates NASA's 60th and 50th anniversaries
With support from NASA the Kansas Space Grant Consortium (KSGC) anticipates awarding
grants to celebrate two amazing NASA anniversaries:
- The 60th Anniversary of NASA
- The 50th Anniversary of the Apollo program and the moon landing
The attached Request for Proposal (RFP) document provides additional information on the opportunity. Proposals are due by noon March 29, 2019. All investigators are encouraged to read and follow the RFP closely.
Contact the NASA in Kansas office at nasainkansas@wichita.edu or 316-978-3890 with any questions. Let's celebrate NASA and its many astonishing accomplishments!
Financial processing deadlines for December
As of 5 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 20, the university will officially be closed until Wednesday, Jan. 2.
To ensure all financial processing is completed for the month prior to Holiday Closedown, the following items must be received by the office listed, no later than 5 p.m. Friday, Dec. 14:
- Invoice Control Documents (ICDs) - Office of Purchasing
- Payment requests associated with a purchase order - Financial Operations Office/Accounts Payable
- Inter-Organization Transfer Documents (IOTDs) and Correction Requests - Financial Operations Office/Accounts Payable
Travel Reimbursements (TRs) must also be final approved in the Travel Expense Management (TEM) system no later than 5 p.m. Friday, Dec. 14.
Transactions received after the above dates may not be processed until January 2019.
Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards will be closed tomorrow (Wednesday, Dec. 12)
The Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards will be closed tomorrow (Wednesday, Dec. 12) for staff development.
Heskett Center announces winter break hours now to Thursday, Dec. 20
The Heskett Center has announced its winter break hours.
Tuesday-Friday, Dec. 10-14: Regular hours
Saturday-Sunday, Dec. 15-16: 1-6 p.m.
Monday-Wednesday, Dec. 17-19: 7 a.m.-8 p.m.
Thursday, Dec. 20: 7 a.m.-5 p.m.
Wiedemann Natatorium
Monday-Friday, Dec. 10-14: Regular hours
Saturday-Thursday, Dec. 15-20: Closed
Shocker Fit Schedule
Monday-Thursday, Dec. 10-13: F45 classes from noon-12:45 p.m. and 5:15-6 p.m.
Friday, Dec. 14: F45 class from noon-12:45 p.m.
Monday-Wednesday, Dec. 17-19: F45 classes from noon-12:45 p.m. and 5:15-6 p.m.
Thursday, Dec. 20: F45 class from noon-12:45 p.m.
All Shocker Fit classes are held in F45 studio
Six WSU students named new University Innovation Fellows
Six Wichita State students have been named University Innovation Fellows by Stanford University's Hasso Plattner Institute of Design. Out of 1,800 fellows worldwide, there have been 30 fellows at Wichita State, with 13 still active on campus. The new cohort's students are:
- Maggie Brown, sophomore, Aerospace Engineering
- Noah Foster, sophomore, Computer Science
- Christian Ammerman, sophomore, Secondary English Education
- RJ Clark, graduate, Biomedical Engineering
- Sierra Bonn, junior, Biomedical Engineering
- Mikah Betterton, sophomore, Mechanical Engineering
This prestigious national program seeks to empower student leaders to increase campus engagement with innovation, entrepreneurship and design thinking.
The 6th Annual Puppy Paddle is coming Saturday, Dec. 15
Bring your furry friends and take a dip in our pool from 10 a.m.-noon Saturday, Dec. 15, at the Heskett Center! You and your puppy can swim together, lob tennis balls or practice jumping in. This event raises money for animals in need and will showcase dogs in need of a fur-ever home.
Game Day Sale at the Shocker Store
On Wednesday, Dec. 12 and Saturday, Dec. 15, head to the Shocker Store at Braeburn Square to take advantage of their Game Day Sale! The day of every men's home basketball game you can take 20 percent off your entire purchase! (Braeburn Square Store only, some exclusions may apply)
Send a letter from Santa
Once again the Campus Post Office will offer eight different letters that you can choose from and have sent to a child. “A Letter from Santa” will be forwarded to the Santa Claus Post Office in Indiana for a pictorial postmarking and then sent to the addressee on the envelope.
Each letter will cost $1.25. The last day to purchase a letter will be Friday, Dec. 14, to allow them to get the pictorial postmark.
The Santa Claus Post Office is the only post office in the world with the Santa Claus name, and during the Christmas season thousands of letters are mailed to Santa each year.
The first Santa Claus Post Office opened its doors in 1856. The town's name did not peak interest, however, until 1914 when Santa Claus' 14th postmaster, James Martin, took it upon himself to answer the children's letters.
Soon after, people flocked to the Santa Claus Post Office to get the special postmark; so much that in the early 1930s the U.S. Postal Department suggested changing the name of the town to avoid the Christmas season frenzy. Fortunately, for everyone, that did not happen!
James Martin continued answering letters and eventually enlisted Jim Yellig to aid in helping him write back to children across the world. Today, the nonprofit organization, Santa's Elves Inc, and the Santa Claus Museum, organize volunteers to answer all the children's letters that flood this tiny post office during the holidays. More than 22,000 letters were answered in 2018.
Shocker Blast wraps up fall schedule on Friday, Dec. 14
The last edition of Shocker Blast for fall will be Friday, Dec. 14. Information for the Dec. 14 edition needs to be received by noon Thursday, Dec. 13, at shockerblast@wichita.edu.
The tentative schedule will have Shocker Blast resuming on Friday, Jan. 18, immediately prior to spring semester classes. There's no Shocker Blast on Monday, Jan. 21, because of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
If you have news or information to share with students, please submit it before noon Thursday, Jan. 17, for the Jan. 18 edition.
Information needs to be submitted by noon Tuesday, Jan. 22, for the Wednesday, Jan. 23, edition of Shocker Blast.