WSU Today: May 17, 2019

This past six weeks I’ve gotten a concentrated introduction to the life and people of the university. I’ve seen many of you honored at awards ceremonies, participated in your celebration of the life of President Bardo, helped dedicate a new sculpture and shared in the joy of student performances.

Mostly I’ve walked, talked, observed and listened, to learn the rhythms and issues of the campus and city. One thing I’ve quickly learned is that the Wichita community counts on WSU as a center of education, innovation, arts, culture, athletics and much more.

I believe the university is in a good place from a budget standpoint. The whole public university system had one of its best years in the Legislature in more than a decade. As a result, our request for a 1% tuition increase is the smallest in 30 years. Also, we received a small pool of money that will enable us to provide some modest raises. If fall enrollment meets or exceeds projections, we’ll have a little more breathing room than in recent years.

Yesterday the Kansas Board of Regents took the first important steps in the process of finding a new president by naming a search chair, committee members and search firm. You can learn more here. The expectation is that a new president will be named by early November.

I consider it a privilege to work with you and support your efforts until the new president can begin. I’m looking forward to getting to know you in the coming months. Until then, I wish you a relaxing and enjoyable summer.

Sincerely,

• The proposed 1% tuition increase for 2020-21: This proposal went to the Kansas Board of Regents on Wednesday, and we will have an answer by mid-June. Read more about the proposal.
• An update on the presidential search: Tompkins outlined the process of selecting a new university president, the first step being the naming of a presidential search committee and search firm by the Regents, both of which were announced Thursday. Read more about the committee.

During the meeting, Jason Post and Lauren Smith were also on hand to talk about the WSU Idea Generator, the purpose of which is to gather suggestions that could generate revenue savings or cost reduction for the university. Make your own suggestions or learn more at Idea Generator.

Judy Espinoza, executive director of Human Resources, spoke at length and answered questions about the Compensatory Time Utilization plan being worked on by HR. An updated plan was discussed as the university continues to work on transitioning to overtime rather than comp time. The exact date for this conversion has not been set. For more details, go to the UP website and read the May 14 meeting notes.

The next joint senates meeting will be 9-11 a.m. June 18 in RSC 266.

Friday-Saturday, May 24-25: All of parking lots 3N and 3S between Cessna Stadium and Devlin Hall, all of lot 5 (green lot east of Corbin Education Center), and lots 2N, 2E and 2K north and east of Koch Arena, will be blocked off for the state high school track meet. Parking lots will start to be closed off Wednesday to help clear and set up the lots.

Thursday-Friday, May 30-31: All of lot 5 (Green lot east of Corbin Education Center) will be blocked off for student orientations.

Shocker New Venture Competition / Koch Innovation Challenge

We’d like to recognize the recent winners of the Shocker New Venture Competition and Koch Innovation Challenge, who applied their classroom knowledge to solve real-world problems while gaining valuable business skills along the way.

Hosted by WSU's Center for Entrepreneurship, the Shocker New Venture Competition serves as an opportunity for college students from across the state, and from a variety of majors, to take key steps in developing and launching a new business venture.

This year’s winner is Boosted Ideas Lab, a team of four WSU students, who received $8,500 and a $1,500 membership to GoCreate for their product, Boost Hoop, which is a device to improve basketball players’ shooting skills.

The Koch Innovation Challenge is a competition emphasizing teamwork and entrepreneurship. In addition to developing a technically feasible and potentially profitable prototype, competing cross-disciplinary teams submit a basic business plan or opportunity statement to determine market size, profitability and potential for commercialization for their product.

This year’s grand champion is team Water Level Sensor Buddy, who created a tool for the visually impaired to accurately gauge water levels for a wide range of applications, such as filling up a water bottle. This fall, the team will travel to Florida to compete in a national pitch competition.

We congratulate the winners—as well as every competitor—and look forward to seeing what each of these innovators accomplish in the future.

 

NASA 2019 Space Launch Competition

A team of four WSU aerospace engineering seniors just returned from Huntsville Alabama where they successfully competed in the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center’s Student Launch Initiative—where participants design, build and launch a rocket to complete a simulated inter-planetary mission.

The team’s 37-pound, 10-foot-tall reusable rocket carried an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle that autonomously oriented itself for takeoff and delivered a simulated navigation beacon to a designated location.

Since last August, the team has completed three challenging NASA design reviews, conducted seven launches and reached almost 300 3rd-12th grade students via educational outreach events.

Like the two previously mentioned competitions, this is another prime example of the applied learning opportunities that benefit our students, and we applaud our aerospace engineering team for their accomplishments.

 

APLU

With the success of every Shocker paramount to our vision and mission, we’re proud to announce that the university has recently been recognized by the Association of Public Land Grant Universities, or APLU, for its best practices in financial aid strategies and proactive advising.

In particular, APLU has recognized our Office of Student Money Management, which helps students with skills such as financial planning and budgeting, understanding loan repayment, tax completion and more.

They also recognized our centralized advising and “push” enrollment for traditional freshman, which provides them with first-year advisors and custom schedules.

This recognition comes through our participation in the APLU’s Powered by Publics: Scaling Student Success Initiative—a collaboration between 130 APLU universities to tackle different pieces of the student success puzzle. We’re proud to be a part of this collaboration and will continue working to develop strategies and tools to make sure even more students have all they need to succeed in college and beyond.

 

WSU Tech 

On May 9, WSU Tech held its graduation ceremony at Charles Koch Arena, awarding its first graduating class, 1,000 degrees and certificates—the largest number of awards conferred by the institution in its history. We applaud the hard work and dedication of every WSU Tech graduate, and the faculty and staff who supported them. Their success is just one of the positive outcomes that happen when two higher-learning institutions, like WSU and WSU Tech, join forces for the benefit of our city, state and region.

Steelsmith had an illustrious collegiate career followed by a successful professional career on the Professional Bowlers Association tour. Rick started his collegiate career at Vincennes University where he was a two-time NCBCA First Team All-American along with the 1985 NJCAA National Team and Singles Champion. He obtained his degree in 1985 in Bowling Center Management from Vincennes and then came to Wichita State. While at Wichita State, he was again an NCBCA First Team All-American twice, becoming the first ever player to be a four-time First Team All-American. Steelsmith was also named the 1987 NCBCA Most Valuable Player. He was part of the 1987 national championship team as well. He received his degree in Business Management

“Gordon was my coach during my collegiate career at Wichita State years ago,” said Steelsmith. “He played a huge role in the successes that I’ve been fortunate enough to have since college. What an amazing honor it is for me to return in a coaching capacity to this iconic bowling program he’s built over the last 40-plus years. I can’t express how thankful I am for this opportunity and how excited I am to get to work. I am really looking forward to working with and learning from Mark and Holly, meeting all of the student-athletes and becoming a part of the Shocker Bowling team.”

The new positions for Harris and Lewis will start June 1, while Steelsmith’s first day with Shocker Bowling is June 11.

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