CEI partners with Oral Health Kansas to create multi-year strategic plan
During the course of 14 months, Wichita State’s Community Engagement Institute (CEI) partnered with Oral Health Kansas to develop a three-to-five year strategic plan informed by data gathered from their stakeholders. The purpose of this plan was to guide future priorities and decisions for Oral Health Kansas to expand their scope during the years 2019-2023.
From this plan, four key focus areas were decided upon, including strategic collaboration strategies with associations and organizations from other fields of work to increase the impact of Oral Health Kansas’ work. Oral Health Kansas continues to make progress on their strategies through continuous strategic thinking and doing at the board and staff level.
Tanya Dorf Brunner, executive director of the organization reported: “The Community Engagement Institute masterfully facilitated Oral Health Kansas’ most recent strategic planning process. Danny and Vanessa designed a process that included our major stakeholders, board, and staff members. The process was engaging and interesting, and the one-day retreat remains one of the best meetings our board and staff have had in recent years. We cannot recommend CEI enough for their insight, process design, and friendly collaboration. Their coaching throughout the process made it easy to follow and develop a plan we will be able to use and track closely over the next few years.”
CEI is proud to have partnered with Oral Health Kansas and we are excited to see continuous improvement from them and our other partners.
Work on new shuttle stop has begun; traffic reduced to one lane
Bauer and Sons began saw-cutting yesterday (Monday, June 24) in preparation for relocating the shuttle stop currently in lot 15 to the west side of Mid-Campus Drive just east of Wilkins Stadium. The west side, south-bound lane will be closed and traffic will be reduced to one lane with flaggers stationed to direct traffic. See above.
The lane closures will be sporadic throughout the course of the project, which is scheduled to be completed Aug. 8.
WSU Foundation end of fiscal year schedule
Requisitions
Any check needs are due at 5 p.m. tomorrow (Wednesday, June 26), for the check run Thursday, June 27.
The WSU Foundation does not encumber funds, and we cannot write any checks for fiscal year 2019 after Friday, June 28.
Deposits
Please deliver all gifts by Wednesday, July 3, to the WSU Foundation by 5 p.m. that day. Contact Amy Houpt at 978-5191 with any questions or concerns.
Parking lots to be resurfaced east of Grace Wilkie and MRC
Parking lots 15 and 13 east of Grace Wilkie Hall and the Media Resources Center will be resurfaced this summer. Construction will begin around July 1. The estimated completion date is Aug. 8.
During this time, both lots will be closed, with the exception to delivery trucks that may make periodic stops to unload / load equipment.
Registration for Campus Safety: Active Threat Incident Planning is available
Providing a safe and secure environment for the WSU community continues to be a top priority. The Campus Safety: Active Threat Incident Planning course in from 3-4:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 31, in 233 RSC, is a live training initiative to enhance WSU’s proactive approach to ensure a safe campus environment and to prepare our faculty, staff, and students in case of an incident of campus violence.
Campus Safety: Active Threat Incident Planning will focus on two areas: 1) what to do in an active campus threat incident and 2) how to identify and report behaviors of concern.
This training is free and available to all WSU employees (faculty and staff). Log in to myWSU and register through myTraining. For questions, contact myTraining@wichita.edu.
A SculpTour Affair – The biennial benefit event for the Ulrich Museum of Art
“A SculpTour Affair” celebrates the renowned Martin H. Bush Outdoor Sculpture Collection, considered to be one of the top 10 collections on university campuses across the United States. This year’s gala event from 4-7 p.m. Sunday, June 30, at the Ulrich Museum of Art will feature three new acquisitions by nationally and internationally recognized artists: “The Celestial Mechanic” by Randy Regier; “Font” by Elyn Zimmerman; and “Shockers” by Tom Otterness.
Join us for a late-afternoon stroll with friends and art lovers, cocktails, delicious food, music, and a bit of the unexpected at our next “A SculpTour Affair” this June.
To purchase tickets or become a sponsor, call 978-3664 or purchase online at SculpTour.
For more information, contact Carolyn Copple at Carolyn.copple@wichita.edu or call 978-6646.
Ranked choice voting is a step in the right direction
Neal Allen
WSU political scientist Neal Allen just published an op-ed in “The Wichita Eagle” with Alejandro Arias-Esparza, a current WSU senior political science major and Washington, D.C. intern last semester.
Arais-Esparza also was the Fairmount College Bright Future Award Winner this year, and is working with Allen on a project-based “Law and Political Power” course this fall. His internship, funded through a WSU Foundation and Parkinson Fellowship, was with FairVote, a nonprofit organization that is promoting the “Ranked Choice Voting” system referenced in the article.
The op-ed is an example of WSU’s active learning focus. Read the op-ed below.
The Kansas Democratic Party will be using ranked choice voting for its 2020 presidential primary in May, which is a step in the right direction for democracy in our state. RCV is an electoral system which guarantees majority support for winning candidates and improves the information-gathering function of elections.
Ranked choice voting allows voters to rank their favorite candidates (the number of choices depends on the election). A threshold is set (15% in the case of the 2020 Democratic Primary), and if the voter’s first choice doesn’t meet it, then the vote is automatically applied to the second choice, and so on through a number of rounds until all remaining candidates have at least 15%.
In a race like the 2016 Democratic nomination contest, where nearly all voters supported either eventual nominee Hillary Clinton or Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), RCV would not have made a significant change to the process or outcome. But in an election like the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination contest, where there are currently nearly two-dozen major candidates, RCV can make a big difference and give voters more and more meaningful options.
For example, Gov. Jay Inslee (D-WA) is running a single-issue campaign about human-caused climate change. A voter might want to support Inslee to make a statement about their policy priorities, but might worry that they would “throw their vote away” if it turns out most environmentalist voters decide to support more viable candidates like Sanders or fellow Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). A voter could rank Inslee first, and then Sanders or Warren second.
In standard general election races for positions like senator or governor, voters benefit from ranked choice voting because they can register support for their most-favored candidate, while having a kind of insurance policy if it turns out that candidate is finishes third or lower on election day. Citizens and the broader political system also benefit from RCV’s ability to deliver more accurate information about voter opinion.
If Kansas had used ranked choice voting in the 2018 governor election, supporters of Independent Greg Orman could have registered their dissatisfaction with the two-party duopoly that controls Kansas elections, while still working to prevent their least-favored candidate winning. RCV would generate more specific and reliable information about Democrat Laura Kelly’s support relative to Republican Kris Kobach.
We would have a better idea of whether Kansans support Democrat Laura Kelly’s agenda of increased funding for public schools and Medicaid expansion. We could better evaluate the claim of prominent Republicans like Senate President Susan Wagle of Wichita that Kelly’s 48% of first-choice voters is not a mandate, even though she outpolled Republican Kris Kobach by 5%.
The upcoming Wichita mayoral election would also benefit from ranked choice voting. In August voters will have to sort through nine candidates, with limited information about which challengers to Mayor Jeff Longwell are viable. The election is nonpartisan (although some candidates, like Democratic State. Rep. Brandon Whipple, have partisan histories), and independent polling will be either sparse or nonexistent.
Ranked choice voting would help a voter who wants to change the direction of Wichita, but is unsure which challenger to Mayor Longwell is most likely to make the runoff. Such a voter could rank Longwell last, and always have their vote counted for change. Or a different voter could rank Longwell first, and possibly help the Mayor win a second term.
The 2020 Kansas Democratic presidential primary will be a test of the feasibility of ranked choice voting for state and municipal elections, and we argue a demonstration of the system’s benefits for citizens and democracy.
Shukura Bakari-Cozart to retire this month
Shukura Bakari-Cozart
Shukura Bakari-Cozart is retiring tomorrow (Wednesday, June 26). Shukura has served the WSU community and the TRIO community for 19 years.
She has worked in the Student Support Services Program, McNair Scholars Program and is currently the director for the Veterans Upward Bound Program. Shukura has served on multiple campus committees during the year, and she currently serves on the Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) committee. She received her bachelors and master’s degrees here at Wichita State University.
Please wish her well by emailing her at Shukura.cozart@wichita.edu, or calling her at 978-6743.
Admissions application for fall 2020 opens July 1
Do you know of students planning to attend Wichita State in the fall of 2020? Encourage them to mark their calendars - the admissions application opens on July 1.
Keep an eye on our social media sites for a countdown to July 1. Follow us on the following -
- Twitter - @wheatweet
- Instagram - @wichitastateadmissions
- Facebook - Wichita State Admissions
Shocker Store in RSC closing for inventory
The Shocker Store in the Rhatigan Student Center will be closed for year-end inventory starting at noon tomorrow (Wednesday, June 26), through 5 p.m. Friday, June 28. It will reopen at 11 a.m. Saturday, June 29. They also will be unable to process web orders during this closure.
SGA students and staff advocate for students in Washington, D.C.
A delegation of students and staff from Wichita State’s Student Government Association went to Washington, D.C., for three days to meet with the Kansas delegation to the U.S. House and U.S. Senate in order to advocate for and share issues affects students at WSU.
The delegation met with U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts as well as staff from Sen. Jerry Moran’s office. They met Rep. Ron Estes and Roger Marshall, and discussed issues affecting students and staff from each of their offices.
Students and staff were able to tour the Pentagon, and meet with Pentagon staff and Air Force representatives to discuss some current initiatives. Additionally, they were able to go on a White House and Capitol Building tour with Susan Estes, the wife of Rep. Ron Estes.
The SGA is grateful to the Senators, Representatives and staff members for meeting with us, and the time they gave us to listen to our concerns as we advocated for the students of Wichita State University.
Issues such as tuition and federal funding, veterans’ concerns, and the Higher Education Reauthorization Act were discussed in many of these meetings. Each meeting gave new insight into innovative ways to better support Wichita State University, as well as relations between state institutions and government on local, state and national levels.
For more information, go to wichita.edu/sga, or call 978-3480.
Tuition assistance deadline approaching
The Total Rewards team reminds staff and faculty that the deadline for fall 2019 tuition assistance applications is 11:59 p.m. Monday, July 1.
Applications with incorrect or incomplete information, including missing signatures, will be returned to the applicant for completion, and will be considered submitted as of the date of submission of the fully completed form. Applications returned for completion will be denied if they are not submitted with all complete and accurate information prior to the deadline. Because of the volume of applications received each semester, late applications will be automatically denied. There will be no exceptions.
For more information, including eligibility requirements and a fillable PDF of the Tuition Assistance application form, go to tuition assistance.