Forward Together: President's March 2022 Message

While colleges and universities across the nation are struggling from declining enrollment, Wichita State University is humbled and elated to be celebrating a record numbers of students.

But our rising enrollment wasn’t simply a stroke of luck. Everyone in Shocker Nation has worked tirelessly and strategically to build our campus, programs and policies in such a way to support our students and our community.

Our efforts haven’t gone unnoticed on a national level. In fact, the Chronicle for Higher Education recently published an article titled “The Missing Hispanic Students: Higher ed’s future, and the economy, depends on their coming back to college.” While the article expresses alarm over the declining enrollment of Hispanic students at universities across the country, it lauds Wichita State’s ability to buck that trend.

The Chronicle highlights that Wichita State had “a 25% jump from 2020 to 2021 among Hispanic first-year students. The Kansas institution saw enrollment grow by 3.5% overall in the fall of 2021, and is closing in on 15% Hispanic representation. That bucks the trend in Kansas, where four-year college enrollment declined 8.6% in the past five years.”

So, what are we doing right? And how can we ensure that Shocker Nation will continue to flourish?

Succinctly put: We listen.

We listen to students and Kansas families when they tell us they want more affordable higher education.

• We’ve made it a priority to raise need-based aid to remove financial barriers for our students who demonstrate extraordinary financial need.  
• We’ve grown our Shocker Promise program to include all of Sedgwick County. This is a last-dollar-in scholarship to cover any remaining gaps students may have for tuition and fees for those with exceptional need.
• We’re working with our state legislators and donors to expand the Shocker Promise to all low-income residents of Kansas.

We listen to Kansas businesses when they say they need employees to help them grow.

• It all starts with applied learning. More than 5,000 of our students have found internships, research opportunities and other academically aligned experiences to not only enhance their education at Wichita State, but also to prepare them for their future careers.
• We build our portfolio of academic offerings based on employer needs. For instance, in 2021, the Kansas Board of Regents approved four new degrees to align with the university’s efforts around digital transformation. 
• When Kansas businesses needed a facility to help them through the COVID-19 pandemic, Wichita State answered the call with the Molecular Diagnostics Lab (MDL), which opened in October 2020. Since then, the MDL has processed thousands upon thousands of COVID tests for hundreds of partners, which include schools, businesses, government agencies and individuals. This has allowed for quick quarantine and treatment for those infected, allowing Kansas to stay open for business.
•  Wichita State is home to one of only three Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul programs in the world. Through the WERX Lab at WSU’s National Institute for Aviation Research, Wichita State and WSU Tech have partnered with two private aviation firms on two enormous projects: special-mission modifications of the Boeing 737 and modification of the Boeing 777 from a passenger aircraft to a freighter.

We listen to our state leaders when they work to help the Kansas economy to thrive. 

• Wichita State is a national leader in digital transformation. I’ve written about this before, and it’s such an exciting field with limitless growth potential. From academics to research to applied learning, digital transformation touches all we do, and it is the future of Wichita State and all of Kansas.
• Earlier this year, we announced plans to create the Health Sciences Education Center alongside the University of Kansas. The HSEC will draw talent to the Wichita area, help maximize the growth potential for Kansas’ health care sector, and drive the prosperity of our region.
•  The growth of the Wichita community is pivotal to the overall prosperity of our state. To that end, we’ve built several initiatives to meet the needs of Wichitans. Those opportunities around engagement include University Village, which is helping to create a vibrant community in our Shocker Neighborhood, free mental health counseling for anyone who needs it, supporting educational efforts to boost literacy for our future Shockers, and archeology digs to ensure the preservation of indigenous peoples’ culture.

These are just a handful of initiatives around our journey to build a stronger Kansas, and I encourage you to click on any of the links above to learn more about how you can participate in the growth of Shocker Nation.

Go Shockers!