WSU receives NSF award for aquatic ecology research
Greg Houseman
The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded Wichita State University with funding for “Increasing Aquatic Ecology Expertise in Kansas.”
The project is led by Greg R. Houseman, associate professor of biological sciences and filed station director. The purpose of the proposed initiative is to facilitate a new faculty hire with expertise in aquatic ecology at Wichita State University.
The WSU Field Station has experienced a rapid increase in capacity with two externally funded projects from the NSF and U.S. Department of Agriculture, and increased sites from 489 to more than 5,100 acres. Several of the Field Station sites include important aquatic resources (springs, streams, rivers, and impoundments) in the southern part of Kansas. However, the Department of Biological Sciences has no faculty with sufficient expertise to study aquatic systems or contribute to the broader examination of aquatic resources in Kansas. WSU would like to create a new faculty line to address aquatic ecology to increase the momentum of the Field Station and within the Biology Department.
The focus of the aquatic ecologist will likely be understanding aquatic systems in Kansas and fostering linkages across plant, soil, and microbial dimensions. It is expected that this new position would begin in August 2019.
This particular line of funding is specifically for small projects that will either allow for networking and planning, or allow for the immediate pursuit of larger projects that are developing new transformational concepts.
WSU Foundation end of fiscal year schedule
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.
Scholarships are now available for WSU badge courses!
Enrollment is now open for the fall semester. Apply, be admitted and enroll in a badge course by Monday, Sept. 9, to be eligible for a scholarship for one Badge course (fall semester only).
You can begin badge courses between Aug. 19-Nov. 19. All badge coursework must be completed by Dec. 5.
To enroll and view the badge course catalog, visit badges.wichita.edu. For questions, please contact workforce@wichita.edu or 978-7579.
Badges are academic short courses of one credit hour or less that are designed for working professionals. They are online and self-paced. Badges allow students to demonstrate to employers their knowledge, skills, and competencies in a subject area.
Students who successfully complete a badge will receive a digital recognition of their accomplishment that they can share on social media and link to a digital resume.
Abstracts are being accepted for Sixth Annual National Anti-Human Trafficking Conference
The Center for Combating Human Trafficking is accepting abstracts for the Sixth Annual National Anti-Human Trafficking Conference to be held at the Hughes Metropolitan Complex on Friday, Jan. 31, 2020.
This year’s title, “Context Matters: Confronting a Culture of Exploitation,” is intended to focus on more than just trafficking, and provide attendees with an understanding of the various “-isms” and cultural contributions that create the opportunity for abuse, exploitation, and trafficking to occur. The deadline to submit abstracts is Friday, Aug. 2.
More information is available below.
Share your expertise through two opportunities
Deadline: Friday, Aug. 2 – APPLY NOW!
For more information, and to stay up to date check out the conference website and the Facebook event page.
Upcoming change to WSU travel booking process at Sunflower Travel
Wichita State University currently uses a central credit card (aka Ghost Card) for billing airfare and rental cars booked through Sunflower Travel. These charges are expensed to departments based on information provided on the approved Travel Authorization in TEM.
Effective Wednesday, July 10, WSU will discontinue the use of the Ghost Card associated with Sunflower Travel. This change will allow the university to reduce costs and gain efficiencies by replacing the current manual reconciliation process.
Chrome River, the university’s new expense software, provides a user-friendly, streamlined process for handling expense charges. This upcoming change will provide departments and travelers with greater visibility into their Sunflower Travel charges.
Travelers will now have the option of creating a travel profile at Sunflower Travel containing their myWSU ID, WSU issued procurement card and / or personal credit card information. Details about obtaining a WSU issued procurement card can be found on the WSU Business Procurement Card Program webpage.
Contact wsutraveloffice@wichita.edu with questions.
Tenure and Promotion Workshop coming July 16
All faculty going up for promotion and/or tenure are welcome to attend a Tenure and Promotion Workshop at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, July 16, in 326 Clinton Hall. This is a working session, so please bring your laptop so you can make progress on your dossier. Snacks and coffee provided.
Take advantage of the campus chemical cleanup event
Old, expired or unwanted chemicals being stored in your department create potential hazards for employees and students and are an environmental and regulatory liability.
During the week of July 8-12, the Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) Office will conduct free disposal for any university-related waste chemical. This event is an opportunity for all departments to get rid of unwanted chemicals in a safe and compliant manner. Chemicals will be picked up in your department by EHS staff and include: paints, solvents, batteries, light bulbs, oils, acids, etc.
In order to participate in the event, please submit a Facilities Services work order before Friday, July 12.
Safety note: If any of your chemical containers have any crystals or powder build-up on the container, do not attempt to move them. Some crystals on old chemical containers can be shock-sensitive and can explode.
Contact Mike Strickland at 978-3347 or Andrew Clem at 978-7904 immediately.
Shocker students help city improve its use of data
Four Wichita State students work at 125 N. Market this summer with a view looking west over the Arkansas River, Keeper of the Plains and the baseball stadium under construction.
They can enjoy that panoramic view while digging into details that can help the City of Wichita do its business in a more efficient manner as part of a data analysis project with Cornerstone Data.
Ulrich Museum invites your participation in brief survey
The Ulrich Museum of Art invites you to participate in its new branding process by completing a nine-question survey. Your ideas and opinions are valued, so please take a moment to share them. The survey will close on Friday, July 12.
Neal Allen: ‘We need more pioneer woman politicians’
Neal Allen
Neal Allen, chair of the Department of Political Science, wrote the following op-ed for the Topeka Capitol-Journal.
Former U.S. House Member Jan Meyers (R-KS) died last week, and will be celebrated as a model of how female politicians can bring people together. Her former chief of staff said, “she was a pioneer” for “women in politics.”
Jan Meyers is a part of the larger story of women doing the hard work of rebuilding majority coalitions after powerful men have made a mess of things. The stories of these Pioneer Women Politicians have a lot of wisdom to impart to us as citizens of Kansas and the United States.
I am a transplant to Kansas, moving here in 2010 to teach at Wichita State University. As a product of an Indiana farm family (working the same land continuously since 1868), my knowledge of Kansas comes from an Almanac – in this case “The Almanac of American Politics.”
It is from that book that I learned that Jan Meyers was elected to Congress in 1978 from a District that included Kansas City, Kansas and its Johnson County suburbs. In the 1970s the egotistical, narcissistic President Nixon nearly wrecked the national Republican Party, and triggered a gigantic Democratic landslide in the 1974 congressional elections. Sen. Bob Dole almost lost his Senate seat, and Democrats even won a majority in the State Senate in 1976.
In Washington, moderate Republican women like Meyers and Sen. Nancy Kassebaum (also elected in 1978,) were more successful at holding together their electoral majorities. The Democrats never got close of defeating either of them.
But back in Kansas, the 1985 property tax appraisal revision, crafted by Democratic Governor John Carlin and Republican House Speaker Mike Hayden, sparked a backlash that in 1990 elected the first female Governor of Kansas, Joan Finney.
The Finney coalition, which was built on her social conservatism and law-and-order appeal, was short-lived. Even if she had run for reelection, no Kansas Democrat could have withstood the massive Republican landslide that followed the collapse of Democratic President Bill Clinton’s popularity in 1994.
Back in Washington, Meyers served one more term, and conservative Republican Vince Snowbarger replaced her. The farm-subsidy-cutting Freedom to Farm Act of 1996 angered rural Kansans, and the Kansas Board of Education’s anti-evolution textbook choices angered suburban Johnson County Moderates. This double-whammy backlash defeated Snowbarger, and was chronicled in Thomas Frank’s bestselling “What’s the Matter With Kansas?”
While hundreds of miles away people in New York and San Francisco were trying to answer Frank’s question, back here in Kansas, Democrat Kathleen Sebelius was trying to rebuild a governing majority. Liberals in Northeast Kansas, combined with rural Western Kansans who fondly remembered her father-in-law (the late Rep. Keith Sebelius), produced her narrow win in 2002 and her landslide win in 2006.
But the governing coalition in Topeka would fall apart again after Sebelius went to Washington as Health and Human Services Secretary. The tax cuts enacted by Gov. Sam Brownback and his allies bankrupted government services and led to the election of Democratic Governor Laura Kelly last year.
This narrative of women politicians fixing the problems left by men is not the only way to tell the story of Kansas politics in the last 40-plus years. I am partial to the Pioneer Woman story, probably because I knew my grandmother, a tough-as-nails nurse. Raising two children while working in a steel factory was hard, but she kept the family coalition together.
Gov. Kelly faces an uncertain future, especially since she is contending with State Senate President Susan Wagle, who is trying to put together her own Pioneer Woman coalition on a foundation of social conservatives. But we Kansans should be hopeful, because our present is linked to our past through the work of Pioneer Women working in log cabins, the U.S. Congress, and our state Capitol.
Neal Allen is Chair of the Department of Political Science at Wichita State University
Teen study participants needed
Are you a parent of a teenager? The Inspyre Research Lab is exploring what makes relationships healthy or unhealthy in adolescence. The purpose of the study is to explore perceptions of healthy and unhealthy relationships in teens.
Participants must be 13-19 years old and be fluent in English. The survey will take about 20 minutes to complete.
More information is available below.
After parental consent and teen assent has been obtained, teens will be asked to participate in a survey that gathers information on demographics and perceptions of dating relationships.
Flexible locations for study participation are provided:
- In person at 417 Jabara Hall
- In person at an outdoor public meeting place
- Through email
- Through mail
A small prize will be offered as compensation.
Interested? Contact the Inspyre Research Lab at inspyre@wichita.edu or call 978-6180.
RSC and departments closed for Independence Day
The Rhatigan Student Center and its departments will be closed Thursday, July 4, in observance of the Independence Day holiday. For regular building and department hours of operation, go to RSC hours.