Attention managers of USS and non-teaching UP employees!
Manager signatures for myPerformance evaluations from March 2018 through March 2019 should be available as long as the employee has signed and submitted their signature. The employee signature due date was (March 7). Managers should log in to myPerformance in myWSU to submit electronic signatures by Thursday, March 14.
Also, planning for myPerformance evaluations from March 2019 through March 2020 is available.
To access the current review period’s evaluations, look for “2019-2020 Annual” in the list of evaluation titles. Managers should add expectations for the 2019-20 review period, including competencies and goals in myPerformance, then meet with their employees to provide copies and review planning. Planning should be completed by Sunday, March 31.
For more information (including quick reference guides, training available, and open labs) go to www.wichita.edu/myPerformance.
Emergency water shutdown to Geology and Engineering buildings
The water line break that forced a water service shutdown to the Geology Building and the Engineering Building was not found Thursday and appears to be below the main east-west sidewalk on the south side of the Engineering and Geology Buildings. Therefore, the water service interruption to Engineering and Geology will continue into and through much of the day today (Friday, March 8) when the sidewalk can be safely taken out and the pipe rupture can be found and excavated.
Repairs will commence immediately thereafter, but until the repairs are complete, restrooms, water fountains, sinks and lavatories in these buildings will be out of service, and sidewalk access to the area where the two buildings are joined by breezeway, including the Geology Building elevator lobby entrance will be congested, if not blocked entirely.
We apologize for the extended inconveniences presented and will work to restore water service and full building access as soon as possible.
The Geology and Engineering Buildings are the only buildings affected by this shutdown, so restrooms and water fountains remain in service in the surrounding Rhatigan Student Center, Neff Hall, Clinton Hall, Ahlberg Hall, Elliott Hall and Wallace Hall.
WSU women in STEAM feature: Tonya Witherspoon
To honor Women’s History Month, WSU Ventures and the Center for Entrepreneurship at Wichita State have collaborated to highlight influential WSU women who have made a difference in the areas of innovation and entrepreneurship.
Every week during the month of March, we will feature an inspirational Shocker for her contributions and accomplishments.
Tonya Witherspoon is this week's feature. Tonya has had an incredible effect on the campus and the community -- ranging from installing the first wireless networks at Wichita State and within USD 259, to starting the Shocker Mindstorms Competition for LEGO Robotics.
Accessibility Tip of the Week: Linking articles
Tip: Learn how to properly link articles in Blackboard. Many professors download PDF versions of library resources and upload them as files to Blackboard classes, but doing so invites many problems. Linking articles helps ensure the most accessible version is always showing in your course, and helps with technical issues in Blackboard classes while ensuring professors are not accidentally violating copyright problems.
- Resources from the library’s databases can be linked in Blackboard if you use the “permanent” URL (not the URL in the “address bar.”) Permanent URL’s are also called “stable,” “durable” or a similar term. For more on how to link articles can be found at the library’s website.
- Remember that all links in Blackboard should be named something descriptive, and should not be presented as a “raw” URL.
- Links still need to be checked each term to ensure they are still working. Blackboard has a link checker that is easy to use. Learn more about it here.
Do you need help learning to use these tools? Stop by IDA’s Blackboard and Accessibility Lab any time between 1-3 p.m. on Tuesdays or Wednesdays in Ablah Library’s C-Space.
Developing a Sustainability Plan for campus
The issue of environmental sustainability at WSU has been the topic of discussion among faculty, staff and students for some time, with a focus on promoting improved sustainability on campus. On Jan. 17, a day-long Sustainability Summit was held with 41 people from across campus attending, including 25 faculty from 12 departments. Many of these participants have committed to moving forward with a process to create a formal sustainability plan for WSU.
Four chairpersons will lead working groups around three broad themes. Visvakumar Aravinthan and Bayram Yildirim are leading the Research Group, Deepak Gupta is leading the Curriculum Group, and Bob Smith is leading the Facilities / Cost Savings Group.
The steering committee, consisting of the working group chairs and Associate Vice Presidents Carolyn Shaw and Shelly Coleman-Martins, have begun crafting a sustainability statement that will be used to help focus the work that follows within each working group. Updates will be provided at www.wichita.edu/sustainability.
If you are interested in participating in one of the working groups, please contact the group chairperson.
Research - Visvakumar.Aravinthan@wichita.edu and Bayram.Yildirim@wichita.edu
Curriculum - Deepak.Gupta@wichita.edu
Facilities and Cost Savings - Bobby.Smith@wichita.edu
Mark your calendars for SEM goals Lunch & Learn
The Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) Plan was put in place on campus in 2016. The plan has eight goals focused on recruiting and retaining students to grow enrollment. Come join the SEM committee for a luncheon at 11:30 a.m. Friday, March 22, in the 233 RSC, to learn of the progress that WSU is making in achieving their SEM goals.
Please respond with your attendance plans to Lydia Santiago at lydia.santiago@wichita.edu.
For more information, visit SEM Plan.
Collegiate Learning Assessment and National Survey of Student Engagement are in progress
Please share the following information with WSU freshmen and seniors: The CLA (Collegiate Learning Assessment) & NSSE (National Survey of Student Engagement) assessments are now in progress. They can be part of helping Wichita State leaders better understand the amount of time and effort students invest in their studies and other co-curricular activities, and the potential impact of the WSU curriculum and other learning opportunities that decades of research show, are linked to student learning.
Students should click on assessment to find out how they might be eligible for a $25 QuikTrip card.
Weekly Briefing university update
At Thursday’s Weekly Briefing, information was shared about visits from the Higher Learning Commission, transfer enrollment, a visit to the Ways and Means Committee, and Haysville GEAR UP.
Higher Learning Commission
Last week, WSU and WSU Tech both hosted visits from the Higher Learning Commission. We’re proud of the faculty from both institutions for the work they’re doing to make these visits a success.
WSU’s site visit was on Feb. 26 and was required due to WSU’s growth and the additions of WSU Old Town and WSU South. The accreditation team met with several campus leaders representing WSU offices who provide direct service to students. The visit also included a meeting with graduate students in the physician assistant and physical therapy programs—and concluded with a tour of the facilities.
Confirmation of the affirmed accreditation, including the new locations, is expected by summer.
WSU Tech’s visit came on February 25 and 26. While on campus, the HLC team met with WSU Tech students, faculty, staff, administration, WSU Provost Rick Muma and members of the WSU Tech Board of Trustees.
The visit was done as part of the year-four comprehensive evaluation to ensure that WSU Tech is meeting the HLC Criteria for Accreditation, pursuing institutional improvement and complying with certain requirements set by the U.S. Department of Education. WSU Tech will find out the results of the comprehensive evaluation later in the spring.
Transfer enrollment update
KBOR recently released their annual Transfer Feedback Report highlighting the most recently available data from fall 2017. We’re happy to announce that WSU remains the #1 transfer destination in Kansas for eight years in a row. Based on this data, WSU transfer students totaled 942. We were also the No. 1 transfer destination for students from Butler, Cowley, Hutchinson, Independence, Coffeyville and Pratt Community Colleges. On March 1, WSU Tech announced record-breaking enrollment for spring 2019, with its headcount reaching 5,000 students for the first time in college history.
This is the sixth consecutive semester the college has seen strong enrollment growth. As of the 2019 spring semester census date, overall student credit hours were up 2.6 percent over last spring. Headcount made the largest increase, up 11 percent. This is equal to 515 more students being enrolled than in spring 2018.
These enrollment numbers are just another example of our joint effort to provide accessible, life-changing education to more students while working to meet the area’s workforce needs.
Ways and Means Committee
Provost and Acting President Rick Muma traveled to Topeka Wednesday to advocate for increased investment in higher education. This investment is vital to providing greater access to quality education so that Kansas can grow the workforce needed in today’s economy.
The legislative request is for $50 million for state institutions in the FY2020 budget. So far, the House Appropriations Committee has added $20 million, the Governor $9 million—and the Senate Ways and Means Committee will make their recommendation next Monday.
Haysville GEAR UP
On Tuesday, we were happy to announce that the university has been awarded $4.2 million from the U.S. Department of Education to implement GEAR UP in Haysville school district USD 216 through 2025. Every student in 6th and 7th grade will benefit from GEAR UP’s college prep resources.
The grant will provide Haysville more than $8.4 million over seven years, which includes in-kind funding, in resources devoted to college access and success services.
Haysville GEAR UP works with community-based partnerships to provide students with direct services, including mentoring, homework assistance, tutoring, college counseling, campus tours and financial aid counseling.
The program follows each 6th and 7th grade student through high school graduation. The classes of 2024 and 2025 will be directly impacted by the program—and we look forward to seeing many of them as official Shockers.
College of Applied Studies dean and associate dean recognized by national professional organizations
Shirley Lefever, dean of the College of Applied Studies and Clay Stoldt, associate dean, were nominated and recognized by two separate organizations during February. Lefever was awarded by the Association of Teacher Educators (ATE) as this year’s Distinguished Member. Stoldt was inducted as one of six inaugural members into the Commission on Sport Management Accreditation (COSMA).
Lefever joined the ATE in 1989 and has served on as many as nine committees in her tenure and has received the Presidents’ Service Award six times. Most recently, she served as the president of ATE for two terms spanning from 2015-2017.
The ATE was founded in 1920 and is an individual membership organization devoted solely to the improvement of teacher education both for school-based and post-secondary teacher educators. Currently, ATE members represent nearly 1,300 teacher educators in colleges, universities, school districts, and state education agencies within 41 regional and state affiliated units and U.S. territories.
During the ATE presentation of the award, the nominating committee stated: “For more than 20 years, Shirley has been fully committed to ATE and saved ATE at the time of crisis in 2016. As a result, she has impacted teacher education research and practice significantly. Her record is excellent and admirable. She truly exemplifies professional commitment and responsibility that ATE Distinguished Members share: accountability, collaboration, and sacrifice.”
The Honors and Awards Committee were extremely impressed by Lefever’s accomplishments and contributions to ATE, and voted on the nomination and unanimously approved the nomination.
Stoldt was recognized at COSMA’s annual meeting Feb. 8 in Atlanta, and he was one of six inaugural members in the organization’s Hall of Fame.
COSMA is a specialized accrediting body that promotes and recognizes excellence in sport management education programs. Stoldt has been involved with the organization since its founding a decade ago. He served as chair of COSMA’s board of directors from 2015-2018, during which time the organization earned its own recognition by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. Stoldt was nominated by Mark Vermillion, chair and professor in WSU’s Department of Sport Management.
“I’m deeply appreciative of this honor, especially given how highly I think of the people involved in the nomination and selection,” Stoldt said. “I have great respect for COSMA, its leadership and members, and I highly value the positive impact they are having on our profession and our WSU programs.”
The College of Applied studies faculty and staff congratulates both Lefever and Stoldt on their national recognitions.
Yuan Liu to present math lecture today (Friday, March 8)
Yuan Liu from Mississippi State University and a visiting candidate for an assistant professor position, will present a lecture at 3 p.m. today (Friday, March 8) in 372 Jabara Hall. The lecture will be “High order structure-preserving numerical methods for convection-diffusion-reaction equations.”
Join us for refreshments before the lecture at 2:30 p.m. in 353 Jabara Hall.
RH: Basketball Flashback - 2018 at No. 5 Cincinnati
The Roundhouse podcast continues its men's basketball flashback series with a look
at Wichita State's 2018 win over No. 5 Cincinnati at Highland Heights, Ky.
Mike Kennedy, Bob Hull and Paul Suellentrop discuss the 76-72 win and the play of guard Landry Shamet, Rashard Kelly's defense on Gary Clark and why that game stands as the highlight of the 2017-18 season.
Game Day Specials all day Saturday, March 9
The Shocker Sports Grill & Lanes is your Shocker Basketball headquarters! For each men’s basketball game, they will have a different game day special, honored all day long. On Saturday, March 9, you take 15 percent off all starter menu items!
‘Preparing a Research Poster’ to be presented March 21
Undergraduate and graduate students are invited to learn how to design an effective poster presentation that will connect with your audience. “Preparing a Research Poster” will be held from 5-6:30 p.m. Thursday, March 21, in 266 RSC. Snacks will be provided. RSVP to jenny.stauffer@wichita.edu. Doug Parham, Communication Sciences and Disorders, and Kristyn Smith, Institute for Interdisciplinary Creativity.
Learn about effective formatting and content design for a traditional research audience, and innovative entrepreneurial audience.
The event is cosponsored by the Graduate School and Cohen Honors College.
Wichita State invites students to consider new higher education program
Are you interested in pursuing a career in higher education? Beginning in fall 2019, Wichita State will offer a Master of Education in Educational Psychology: Higher Education / Student Affairs track.
To help kick off this exciting new program, WSU is hosting a Graduate Assistant weekend Friday and Saturday, March 22-23. During this weekend perspective students will learn more about the program and interview for graduate assistantships, including those in Housing and Residence Life, Student Involvement, Student Success and the Career Development Center.
For more information about these assistantships, go to Student Affairs Assistantships.
To apply to attend the graduate weekend, click on Graduate Weekend.
For more information, contact the Vice President of Student Affairs at VPStudentAffaris@wichita.edu or call 316-978-3021.
It’s time to submit your information for summer camps
Spring is almost here, and that means parents will soon begin signing their children up for summer camps. Please send the details of your WSU summer camp to lainie.mazzullo@wichita.edu. Let us know:
- Name of camp
- A sentence or two about the camp
- Age group
- Cost
- Time, date, place
- How to register
WSU graduate students attend statewide 16th Capitol Graduate Research Summit (CGRS)
On Feb. 26, nine WSU graduate students drove to Topeka to participate in the annual statewide KBOR Capitol Graduate Research Summit (CGRS) event at the Capitol. Brien Bolin, associate dean, Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and Kerry Wilks, interim dean of the Graduate School, participated. The event featured research conducted by graduate students at all Kansas Board of Regents graduate public universities.
Selected in a competitive application process by the CGRS committee, the students showcased research and projects relevant to the state of Kansas and of potential interest to state legislators. A multi-month commitment, the Graduate School congratulates all participants and the winners!
- Winner of the WSU award: Heather Forster, master's student, Department of Biological Sciences, “Innovative Genetic Approach May Give Crops Resistance to Charcoal Rot Disease." Bin Shuai, research advisor.
- Winner of the BioKansas award: Jacob Griffith, master’s student, Department of Biomedical Engineering: "Non-Invasive Detection of Intracranial Fluid Volume Shifts Using Wearable Headband." Kim Cluff, research advisor.
Other 2019 WSU graduate student research presenters included:
Sattar Ali, doctoral student, Department of Mechanical Engineering, “Produced Water Treatment for Agricultural Use in Kansas Oil, and Gas Production Fields.” Eylem Asmatulu, research advisor.
Fayez Alruwaili, master’s student, Department of Biomedical Engineering, “Cardiac Failure Detection Using a Wearable Patch Sensor in a Point-of Care Setting.” Kim Cluff, research advisor.
Suvagata Chakraborty, doctoral student, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, “Modeling and Evaluating the Effect of Data Aggregation Interval on Smart Power Distribution System.” Visvakumar Aravinthan, research advisor.
Parsa Kianpour, doctoral student, Department of Industrial, Systems and Manufacturing Engineering, “Economic Development and Job Creation by Applying Optimization Methods for Scheduling Problem in Job Shops.” Deepak Gupta, research advisor.
Jenny Masias, master’s student, Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literature, “The Immigrants Who Built Kansas: One Spike at a Time.” Enrique Navarro, research advisor.
Seyed Ali Mirzapour, doctoral student, Department of Industrial, Systems and Manufacturing Engineering, “Organ Motion Prediction in MR-Guided Radiotherapy.” Ehsan Salari, research advisor.
Naveen Ravindran, master’s student, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, “GuideCall: A System for Remote Video Call Assistance for Blind and Visually Impaired People.” Vinod Namboodiri, research advisor.
For more information, including abstracts, click on CGRS.
Nationally known speaker to lead three events at WSU this month
Anne Krook is a nationally known speaker who helps students transition from the academy (university) to the workplace, using the language that employers expect from applicants.
Krook herself left academia (she was an assistant professor of English at the University of Michigan) to work for a small startup in Seattle … Amazon (!), where she enjoyed many roles both abroad and in the United States. She then went on to become VP of Operations at another startup, Mindbloom, and then VP of Operations at Synapse.
She now specializes in helping graduate students transition to non-academic workplaces and undergraduate humanities majors translate their skills into jobs. In addition to her consulting work, Krook currently chairs the Board of Directors of Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund.
Krook will speak at WSU three different events later this month. Read on to learn more about these wonderful opportunities!
* Entering the Job Market with a Humanities or Arts Degree: A Talk with Anne Krook, Ph.D.
Wondering how to get a job with a liberal arts degree? Talk to someone who knows: Anne Krook, Ph.D., a former academic who transitioned successfully to the corporate and nonprofit workplaces, will share her story and advice from 4-5 p.m. Thursday, March 28, in 261 RSC. Hear about how you can identify and market the skills that make you an asset to many different jobs. All students and faculty welcome. Cosponsored by Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dorothy and Bill Cohen Honors College, Graduate School, and Career Development. Visit Dr. Krook’s LinkedIn profile.
* Women and Men in the Workplace: Colleagues & Allies
What are the economic, social, and cultural factors that influence how men and women see and treat each other in the workplace? Students (UG and GR) and faculty are invited to join consultant Anne Krook, Ph.D., for lunch from 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Friday, March 29, in 156A Corbin Hall for a discussion that offers two models for making those relations work better: collegiality and allyship, and discusses why those well-known ideals sometimes fall short at work. Finally, it offers tactics for making those models more effective in your workplace. Visit Krook’s LinkedIn profile. Event cosponsors are Graduate School & Career Development Center. Make sure you get lunch by registering. Students register here to log into Handshake with your WSUID and password and click “Join Event.” An email confirmation will be sent to your "shockers.wichita.edu" email address. Faculty may register by emailing jenny.stauffer@wichita.edu.
* Marketing Yourself After Graduate School: A Talk with Anne Krook, Ph.D.
Join nationally known speaker and consultant Anne Krook, Ph.D. for practical advice for graduate students who want industry jobs outside of academia. We will meet from 2-5 p.m. Friday, March 29 in 305 RSC East Shirley Beggs Ballroom to learn from her how to identify your skills, craft a resume, and how to use the language that employers expect from applicants! Snacks served. Visit Krook’s LinkedIn profile. Cosponsors of event are the Graduate School & Career Development Center. All are welcome. Students register here to log into Handshake with your WSUID and password and click “Join Event.” An email confirmation will be sent to your "shockers.wichita.edu" email address.