The Fairmount College newsletter is published two times a year. For information, contact Cheryl K. Miller, writer and coordinating editor, at 316-978-6659 or cheryl.miller@wichita.edu.
You’ll find events, photos and articles about our faculty, staff, students and departments.
Photo credits: Cheryl K. Miller and courtesy photos
By Cheryl K. Miller
Amy Pham studied abroad to learn French in an engaging manner, and to accelerate exponentially her ability to learn the language. Destiney DeAnda immersed herself in Puebla, Mexico so she would gain more confidence speaking Spanish.
These reasons are common among students who choose to go to another country to learn a different language and culture.
The two longest-running programs coordinated or led by Fairmount College faculty are the university’s partnerships with the University of Orléans and the Puebla Summer Program. Both focus heavily on the respective primary language of their country of study.
Brigitte Roussel, associate professor of French, coordinates the Orléans program, and Cuitláhuac Chávez, Spanish instructor and language lab director, leads the Puebla Summer Program. Despite unique differences between the two programs, Roussel and Chávez see common outcomes from their students’ experiences.
“Orléans students improve their conversation skills and self-esteem,” Roussel said. “They speak more easily, and they mature and assert themselves.”
Bronwen Jenkins, who participated in the four-week summer program at Orléans, agreed.
“I really enjoyed having the opportunity to experience a different culture,” Jenkins said. “Though I was only in France for a month, I feel like my French improved.”
Chávez sees this with his students, too.
“Puebla students know a lot of Spanish,” Chávez said. “They just don’t realize how much they know. They learn a lot about the culture and they learn a lot about the language.”
They also grow in personal ways.
“Puebla helped me grow as a person and be open to new people, but it also made me be more adventurous,” DeAnda said. “I grew to love the culture even more, and it definitely helped me better my Spanish, which was my number one goal.”
“Studying abroad was the first time I had ever moved out of my parents’ home,” Pham said. “I felt this experience really pushed me to be independent and resourceful.”
More broadly, Roussel and Chávez said, study abroad students’ worldly perspectives shift. Students become better global citizens because they are able to understand others’ perspectives and the complexity of the world’s problems.
“They become better students when they come back. They see their own culture in a different way,” Chávez said. “They don’t take it for granted anymore. They realize it is a privilege to be a university student. They compare their way of life to other ways that people live.”
“Students become involved with current issues, which makes them a citizen of the world,” Roussel said. “They become so much more open-minded.”
Roussel, who grew up in France, and Chávez, who spent most of his youth in Mexico, believe that everyone should learn a second language. It makes them better global citizens, Roussel said.
“People who may not have the same cultural background may be able to understand another perspective and the complexity of the world’s problems to be solved and to be dealt with,” Roussel said. “It is necessary to have a strong diplomatic core that one can argue effectively by taking on a global perspective, not only a materialistic perspective or a hard political perspective.”
Conan Shinn, who went to Puebla in 2019, experienced that shift in viewpoint.
“It changes you. You have a wider and deeper understanding of the world,” Shinn said. “I had been to Mexico several times, but I still learned a ton and came back with a fresh perspective.”
Knowing multiple languages also presents different ways to solve problems and look at life, Chávez said.
“If you can solve one problem in one language, you may be able to solve another in a different language,” he said. “You become aware of different issues around the world.”
Knowing more than one language may also be good for the brain.
“One of the language journals released a study a few years ago stating that people who know more than one language had more healthy gray matter in their brains than people who know only one,” Roussel said.
“I also read that people who know more than one language are less likely to get Alzheimer’s,” Chávez said. “You’re always exercising your brain.”
Puebla Summer Program
Established in 1966, the Puebla Summer Program grew out of the National Defense Education Act. Students travel with Cuitláhuac Chávez and another faculty member to Puebla, Mexico and attend classes daily for six weeks. They earn six credit hours through WSU. Acompañantes, or conversation partners, take students around Puebla each day during the late morning and early afternoon. Students also meet native speakers for lunch conversations daily. Participants may stay in the Hotel Colonial for the length of the program, or stay three weeks with a host family and three weeks at the hotel. Scheduled trips include travel to Teotihuacan, Cantona (an archeological site), Cholula, Mexico City and Chautla.
University of Orléans
Orléans and Wichita declared themselves Sister Cities in 1973, and fewer than 10 years later, the University of Orléans and Wichita State established a study abroad partnership. Students largely travel independently to Orléans, France, but receive specific instructions, support and direction from the University of Orléans faculty and staff. Students attend classes daily and earn six credit hours of transfer work as part of a four-week summer program, or 12-24 hours through a semester or academic year plan. They also submit a final portfolio at the end of their stay that showcases some aspect of their learning experience. Depending on their program length, they may live in a studio apartment, with a French family, or in a residence hall. Students are free to travel throughout the country and Europe.
MAUI Consortium: Students study at universities within the Utrecht network in Europe.
WSU Exchange: Students pay their regular tuition and fees to WSU. Current agreements are in place with universities in Austria, China, England, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Spain and Sweden.
Short-term/summer programs: Students study via exchange partner universities or faculty-led programs, such as travel seminars. Students are able to study abroad for one to eight weeks.
Independent program providers: These programs are not directly associated with WSU, but are ways to study in another country and earn credit.
By Paul Suellentrop
Public scholarship aims to introduce academic research to a wide audience, one that
doesn’t subscribe to journals or possess the time to wade through lengthy articles
or books.
Wichita State University political science professor Dinorah Azpuru is doing her part to help people’s understanding of political science with her work in the Washington Post “The Monkey Cage,” a blog dedicated to “making sense of the circus that is politics,” as the blog describes itself.
She has submitted three articles to the blog, most recently one that examines declining trust in and support for democracy in Latin America.
“It comes from the discipline’s self-criticism that political science is about politics, which is very important, but no one was reading other than ourselves,” Azpuru said. “What are you contributing to the understanding of politics if people can’t read it?”
“The Monkey Cage” is an independent site published at the Washington Post.
At Wichita State, Azpuru teaches courses focused on democracy, foreign policy and comparative politics (the politics of other countries). She also teaches specific courses on Latin America. She considers the region critically important to the United States for several reasons, including security and economic issues.
“We’ve got to pay attention to that region,” she said.
Her appreciation for democracy comes from her childhood in Guatemala, living under military rule. She attended lectures on democracy organized by the U.S. Embassy as a youngster. In high school, she spent a year in Iowa as a foreign exchange student.
“I didn’t grow up in a democracy,” she said. “I always admired democracy in the U.S. I loved seeing how people could get involved in it.”
As part of her public scholarship, Azpuru also contributes with a blog in Spain’s main newspaper El Pais and makes public presentations of her research findings to nonacademic audiences in Latin America.
“The idea is to share research – it’s research-based, not opinion,” she said. “You try to make it accessible to people who are not political scientists. I like to share what I do.”
Azpuru’s most recent article in “The Monkey Cage” is headlined: “Latin American democracy may be in trouble. The protests are a symptom of increasing mistrust.”
From birth, Dinorah Azpuru, professor of political science, has learned about politics. 
Her father was a congressman in Guatemala until its political system became an authoritarian regime. Both of her parents were interested in politics, and kept a home library of books on the subject. Her family admired President Kennedy and democracy in the U.S. Her first trip abroad strengthened her political interests.
“When I spent a year as a foreign exchange student with a family in Iowa,” Azpuru said, “I took American politics in high school, and my experience there reinforced my belief in democracy.”
Her interest grew the more she learned, and she decided to study political science when she began her undergraduate degree at Universidad Rafael Landivar, Guatemala’s Catholic university.
“I liked the study of political regimes in other countries and international relations,” Azpuru said. “During my early college years, Guatemala still had an authoritarian military regime, therefore it was challenging to study political science. During college I attended lectures on democracy organized by the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala, and I was always impressed by the level of participation, for instance, in the U.S. political parties’ conventions.”
After she finished her bachelor’s degree, Azpuru continued her studies in Switzerland and the United States.
“Living in those democratic countries made me even more convinced that democracy is the best form of government,” Azpuru said.
Undoubtedly, this influenced her research focus on democratization in the developing world, especially Latin America.
“Through the analysis of survey data, I study public opinion about democracy, democratic values and behavior (for example, voting behavior),” she said. “The overarching name for my research is ‘political culture’. Within that framework, I try to understand why some people support nondemocratic leaders, undemocratic measures and authoritarian regimes.”
She also studies issues related to democracy assistance, especially from the U.S. to Latin America, and is well known for her previous research on peace processes after an armed conflict, especially in Central America.
One of the classes Azpuru loves to teach is Comparative Politics, the study of politics within other countries, and in comparison with the U.S. political system.
“Students comment in that class that they had never realized that there were so many differences in the political systems around the world and so many possible combinations,” Azpuru said. “For example, many people think that the U.S. political system is very similar to that of the United Kingdom, but in reality, there are lots of differences.”
Political structures are also at play during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The coronavirus crisis is affecting virtually every country in the world. At this critical juncture, governments have to respond, and political structures and leadership can have a distinct impact across countries,” Azpuru said. “Journalists and political scientists have been analyzing if authoritarian regimes such as the one in China are better equipped to impose a quarantine on a country than democratic regimes such as the ones in Europe. Or for instance, whether democratic federal systems such as the one in the U.S. and Germany have a harder time imposing national-level measures to combat the virus vis-à-vis countries with unitary systems.”
Azpuru earned her bachelor’s degree in political science and master’s degree in teaching and university research from University Rafael Landivar, Guatemala. She earned her master’s and doctoral degrees in political science from the University of Pittsburgh, in Pennsylvania.
When not teaching or researching, Azpuru loves traveling and has traveled extensively within the U.S. and abroad. She loves learning about different cultures and visiting historical monuments and sites, as well as hiking and being close to nature. Both of her children (Rod, who lives in New York City, and Marcy, who lives in Wichita) have finished college, and her husband, Ramsey, owns a small business. Two dogs, Joy and Lucky, make up the rest of the family.
A professional golfer and business owner, an ambassador, and a physician were inducted during the inaugural Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame ceremony on Dec. 6 in Wiedemann Hall.
Judy Bell, Robert Blackwill and Donna Sweet were recognized for their embodiment of the merits and advantages of a liberal arts and sciences education and their significant impacts on the region, nation and world.
Judy Bell majored in psychology and minored in sociology, graduating in 1961 from the University of Wichita. Bell was the first woman to head the U.S. Golf Association, and began her golf career at the 1950 U.S. Women’s Open at the age of 14. She is also a successful entrepreneur, operating seven businesses during her career. While a student, Judy greatly enjoyed Hugo Wall’s logic courses and believes they opened her mind to many facets of life. She believes that a liberal arts education is important to giving one a broad-based education.
Robert D. Blackwill majored in English and history, graduating in 1962 from the University of Wichita. Blackwill is the former ambassador to India and presidential envoy to Iraq. He has also served as head of U.S.-Russia conventional arms negotiation in Europe, deputy national security advisor, Henry A. Kissinger senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and is an accomplished author. He said he took back east from WSU the values of Kansas and its people: honesty, candor, compassion, hard work, a dogged stamina in the face of challenge and adversity, a sense of humor, and a deep and abiding love of country.
Donna Sweet majored in biological sciences and minored in chemistry, graduating in 1970 with her undergraduate degree. Sweet is one of Kansas’s top HIV-positive and AIDS specialists and educators, and a noted national and international speaker on the subject. She credits Josephine Fugate, former dean of women and professor of mathematics, with being a strong woman who helped young women grow and develop and be leaders. Sweet recognizes the importance of a liberal arts education as one that brings about a broad appreciation of the world and all that encompasses.
Neal Allen, associate professor and chair, political science, procured a $5,500 grant from FairVote, a D.C.-based group that does nonpartisan advocacy for voting reform. The grant will support a voter education project about ranked-choice voting, which was used in the May 2 Democratic presidential primary in Kansas.
Carryl Baldwin, Cassat Professor in Aging (psychology), received the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Driver Vigilance Framework Award (for Level 2 and 3 Driving Automation Systems) of $186,000.
Noell Birondo, associate professor of philosophy and chair, won the American Philosophical Association 2019 Essay Prize in Latin American Thought for “The Virtues of Mestizaje: Lessons from Las Casas on Aztec Human Sacrifice.” Additionally, the philosophy department was recently named by Great Value Colleges as one of the best in the nation to study undergraduate philosophy.
Michael Birzer, professor of criminal justice, serves on the State Board of Indigent Defense Services.
Rhonda Lewis, professor and chair of psychology, was named Mental Health Professional of the Year by the National Alliance on Mental Illness –Wichita.
Dexter Mardis, biological sciences, was elected treasurer of the Kansas Herpetological Society.
Cheryl Miller, senior assistant dean, won three awards in the 2020 Kansas Professional Communicators Contest. She won first place for feature story, non-newspaper; first place for personality profile under 500 words; and second place for newsletter editing. The two first place pieces advance to the national competition.
Lisa Vangsness, assistant professor of psychology, recently procured two grants: the Kansas NASA EPSCoR Program Partnership Development Grant ($14,945) and the Regional Institute on Aging Focus on Accessibility, Diversity, and Inclusion Grant Award ($25,000).
Several Fairmount College faculty won awards reflecting high quality aspects of their teaching, research or creative activity. Of those listed below, all are university recognitions except the Barrier Award, which is presented by the college.
Karen Countryman-Roswurm, associate professor of social work, Excellence in Community Research, to recognize an exemplary and demonstrable record of scholarship extended to external constituents resulting in significant outcome for individuals, organizations, or community in problem solving or development.
John Dreifort, professor of history, Leadership in the Advancement of Teaching, to recognize exemplary effort and leadership in improvement and learning at WSU.
Darren DeFrain, associate professor of English, Excellence in Accessibility, to recognize achieved excellence in creating an accessible learning environment for all students.
Rocio Del Aguila, assistant professor of Spanish, Young Faculty Risk Taker, to recognize the importance of positive risk taking outside the norm in teaching, research and service.
Lisa Parcell, associate professor of communication, John R. Barrier Distinguished Teaching, to recognize a well-established record of excellence in teaching; an impact on the lives and career choices of students; and the ability to apply the results of research or the experience of community or professorial service to enliven teaching and enrich the understanding of students.
Alex Shvartsburg, assistant professor of chemistry, Excellence in Research, to recognize establishment of an exemplary record of research that has advanced the university’s research mission.
Dominic Canare, psychology graduate student, was awarded a small Epic Games grant for $65,000. The money will be used to develop a framework for Unreal Engine that will help scientists and researchers build interactive experiments that work across multiple platforms.
Wyel Halimeh, chemistry, is the 2020 recipient of the Rosalee and Alvin Sarachek Award for Scholarly Excellence in the Natural Sciences. The award is given to a graduating senior who has demonstrated intellectual acuity, scholarly breadth and achievements in science as an undergraduate student.
Audrey E. Korte, communication graduate student, has been selected for the Reciprocal Exchange component of the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders. In July, Korte will co-host the Women’s Communication and Leadership Conference for more than 100 professional and semi-professional women in Siera Leone.
Courtney Minor and Odalis Vicencio, political science, have been selected as the inaugural Battin-Lester Research Fellows. The awards, which carry a $1,900 stipend, will enable research on corporate responsibility in Wichita. Susan Castro, associate professor of philosophy, and Neal Allen, chair and associate professor of political science, will serve as their mentors.
Savannah Redfern, psychology, was named a University Innovation Fellow. The program, coordinated by Stanford University Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, empowers student leaders to increase campus engagement with innovation, entrepreneurship, creativity and design, and critical thinking.
Three Fairmount College students were presented with the 2020 Outstanding Graduating Senior Award. Seniors are recognized for their accomplishments including academic achievement, campus involvement, leadership responsibilities, and nominations from faculty in their departments or college. This year’s recipients were Brook Talbot, history; Trey Tomlinson, biological sciences; and Inneke Vargas, psychology.
Four Wichita State University students won awards at the K-INBRE symposium held in March. The professional research meeting provides an opportunity for Kansas scientists to present their original research in both poster and oral format. Morgan Bretches, biological sciences, won the Oral Presenter Award for her abstract “Peripheral Nerve-derived Pluripotent Stem Cells as Potential Cell Source to Treat Segmental Bone Defect.” Shang-You Yang, research associate professor, was her advisor. Wyel Halimeh, chemistry, won an iPoster Award for his research “Dependence of Proline Isomerization on the Kinetics of Folding of Anthrax Lethal Factor.” James Bann, associate professor, was his advisor. Jannet Balderrama, biological sciences, won an iPoster Award for “The migration of dental pulp stem cells in 3D culturing of chemotaxis chamber.” Li Yao, associate professor, was her advisor. Shamir Khan, chemistry, won an iPoster Award for “Improving Personalized Medicine Through Systematic Protein Engineering of LDH.” Moriah Beck, associate professor, was his advisor.
The Model United Nations team attended the Midwest Model UN conference in St. Louis in February and the NMUN / Europe conference in Erfurt, Germany last November. MMUN award winners include Ashruta Acharya, Outstanding Position paper, Outstanding Delegate, Delegates’ Choice (Germany on the Security Council A); Jackson Behrens, Outstanding Position paper (Germany on General Assembly 3rd committee); Eli Flores, Honorable Mention (Germany on General Assembly 2nd committee); Mackenzie Gibson, Honorable Mention and Delegates’ Choice (Austria on General Assembly 1st committee); Daisy Kerabo, Outstanding Position paper (Germany on UN Environment Assembly); Cynthia Matson, Outstanding Position paper (Germany on Security Council B); Aaron Mounts, Honorable Mention and Delegates’ Choice (Austria on General Assembly 1st committee); Sarah Myose, Outstanding Delegate (Germany on Economic and Social Council); Zubair Khan, Outstanding Delegate (Germany on Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice); Michael Goddard, Eli Flores, Jackson Behrens, Outstanding Delegation (Germany on General Assembly Plenary); Sarah Myose and Zubair Khan, Outstanding Delegation (Germany on Ecosoc Plenary); Erfurt Germany Award recipients include Ashruta Acharya, Zubair Khan, Cynthia Matson, Adriana Somerville and Stella Yang: Honorable Mention (Nigeria). Carolyn Shaw, associate vice president and professor of political science, and Alexandra Middlewood, assistant professor of political science, serve as faculty advisors.
Students in the Shocker Ad Lab, Elliott School of Communication, won two awards in the 2020 Kansas Professional Communicators Contest. Bailey Shellito and Maclaine Spencer won first place for advertising campaigns, and Madeline McCullough, assistant educator, served as creative director. Hannah Terrill, Connor Freund and Tarin Barnes won first place for ideas for web. McCullough served again as creative director. Jessica Newman, assistant educator, assisted as video tech consultant.
Dear alumni, faculty, staff and friends,
The primary role of the Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is to educate.
But we do this in the original sense of the word: “educere” is Latin for ”lead out”
or ”bring out.” We help bring out from our students new insights that they did not
know they could have; a new way of thinking; the ability to solve a problem—an ability
that they did not know that they had; and importantly, the student’s own creative
nature. To do this kind of education we cannot only target the intellect, though that
is important. When we educate we need to educate the whole. The whole person.
Educating the whole requires us to go beyond the classroom. This could be study abroad through a travel seminar, which I talked about in the last issue of the newsletter. Another way is developing our students to be contributors to the workforce in a meaningful way through a practical experience, drawing on the transferable skills of a liberal arts education. We want to guarantee an internship for every liberal arts student who wants it, so providing a natural arena to apply these skills in a real world setting.
Wide-scoping internship opportunities are typically associated with the College of Engineering and the Barton School of Business, since an internship is often a degree requirement. Our college internships (or clinicals) are common in the expected areas: social work, criminal justice, communication, public administration and clinical psychology. We want to create opportunities for students of any major to have an internship experience.
In partnership with the Career Development Center and the Office of Applied Learning, we are developing a generic internship syllabus with a learning goal to reflect on how the power skills of a liberal arts education are effectively applied in a particular domain. In this way, a history major could have a meaningful internship in an accountancy firm, in human resources, or as level-1 user support in their IT department. The power skills of problem solving, empathetic listening and oral communication would be related to how a level-1 user support role runs diagnostics with a customer calling in for help, for example.
We know that many companies crave the special skills that liberal arts students acquire, communication being at the top of the list. This initiative will prove that this is true, both for our partner companies but more importantly for our students.
The liberal arts must argue the case for its relevance. This initiative foregrounds the case that studying humanities, social sciences and physical sciences furnishes students with valuable transferable skills, and at the same time gives students in these disciplines the confidence to promote themselves as an asset to the workforce, with an experience to back it up. NetApp, Koch Industries and Cargill are all Wichita-based companies that could benefit from such students.
Stories of a positive experience will percolate and attract attention, encouraging other companies to participate at this level. We need to leverage our alumni and donors to help us provide internships with learning outcomes. We want to ensure that each instance of an internship is a partnership between the student, a faculty member and company/entity supervisor. If you would like to partner with the college in this way, I would be delighted to hear from you.
Yours,
Andrew Hippisley, Dean
@WSUDeanLAS
The Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences continues to grow and provide new academic program offerings. Our graduates complete their programs having gained the hard-earned skills of critical thinking, analyzing, problem solving, collaborating, listening, and communicating. Our students are equipped to pursue a lifetime of fulfillment in the workplace and in society.
Graduate certificate in space science
Undergraduate certificate in environment and sustainability
Bachelor’s degree in applied linguistics
Law 3+3 program with the University of Kansas
3 Doctorate
16 Master
40 Bachelor
1 Associate
5 Certificates
As the largest college at Wichita State University, we offer the greatest diversity of programs. From anthropology to women’s studies, students can find something to fit their interests. For those wanting a more individualized program of study, academic advisors can help students tailor a bachelor of general studies degree or a field major, both of which include focus on three content areas.
37 Student Organizations • 8 Centers and Institutes • 17 Departments: 5 Humanities, 5 Natural Sciences / Mathematics, 7 Social / Behavioral Sciences
5,471 Declared majors
577 Graduate (3,968 Credit Hours)
4,894 Undergraduate (39,726 Credit Hours)
Sex type: 37% Male, 63% Female
First Generation: 1,270 Students or 26% of Fairmount College Undergrads
Out of State: 1,280 Students or 26% of all Fairmount College Students
197 Total Faculty
52 Non-tenured
145 Tenured or Tenure-track
Sex Type: 56% Male, 44% Female
Humanities: 345
Natural Sciences and Mathematics: 783
Social and Behavioral Sciences: 2,030
LAS other*: 1,622
* Interdisciplinary bachelor of general studies and field majors, undecided, intensive English and guest students.
Humanities: 91
Natural Sciences and Mathematics: 161
Social and Behavioral Sciences: 544
LAS other*: 107
* Interdisciplinary degrees, bachelor and associate degrees not affiliated with a department.
Our academic advisors do more than show students how to build schedules. They also help students understand the purposes of higher education; define and develop unique abilities, goals and aspirations; clarify values and educational and life goals; define realistic academic and professional goals; and create an individual academic plan of study for the student’s selected major.
In-person appointments: 7,909
Phone calls received at the main desk: 12,566
Emails answered via lasadvisor@wichita.edu: 1,067
Emails and phone calls by advisors to students: 9,214
Scholarship support can make the difference for a student wanting to enroll in college. Our generous donors have made scholarships possible for hundreds of students.
| Year | Dollar Amount | Amount of Awards |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | $605,265 | 353 |
| 2018 | $657,125 | 382 |
| 2017 | $612,776 | 371 |
Through our partnership with the Wichita State University Foundation, donors have helped us surpass our goals for scholarship and research support. Thank you.
| Project | Goals | Actual |
|---|---|---|
| Current undergraduate scholarships | $275,000 | $307,522 |
| Endowed undergraduate scholarships | $6,468,750 | $8,868,844 |
| Research | - | $162, 941 |
Just as students are expected to engage in activities that support their learning, faculty are expected to remain at the forefront of their research and creative activity. They are also expected to procure funding to support it. Fairmount College faculty have much knowledge to share and strive to add to the knowledge base.
4 books published
109 book chapters / journal articles published
143 conference presentations
External Grants: $7,041,741
Internal Grants: $42,749
56 Fairmount College students participated
7 students studied at Université d’Orléans
7 students participated in the Puebla Summer Program
>42 students studied abroad in Belize, England, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, Paraguay, South Korea and Spain