Shocker spirit shines across Wichita State campus
August proved to be an exciting month for Wichita State and a time when we all made a turn to a form of normalcy. For quite a few months, as I and my dog Rudy walked around the campus every day, it seemed the only people we would come upon were the extraordinary team taking care of our campus, including facilities, landscaping and police.
That has all changed since the new semester started. How wonderful it has been to see our students back on campus, spending time together in the student center or in small groups walking to classes together — all the while being responsible by wearing their masks and abiding by appropriate social distancing.
I have witnessed one-on-one music lessons being taught outside in front of my office with the student and faculty member safely distanced from one another, outdoor faculty lectures with students seated in pre-drawn circles painted on one of our grass malls. Even our coaches are creative in the ways they are working with their teams. I recently went to the first day of softball practice and watched as the team took the field wearing masks and keeping socially distanced by using both dugouts and the stands.
It is very important to me that I continue my efforts to be accessible and interact with our student body. I am in the midst of holding town halls with each college; and this past week, I launched Friday with Jay for casual meet-and-greets with students. Fridays with Jay will meet on campus every other Friday, and the next one will be Sept. 11.
And, of course, I make sure to walk around campus every day. Our Shocker students are consistently telling me one thing: how being back on campus with their friends, and a daily routine of class and studying has had a wonderful, positive effect on their mental health. My goal — and I know that of our administrators, faculty and staff — is to do everything we can to continue a safe, healthy and enjoyable academic year.
In addition to the return of our students, we enter September on the tailwinds of additional exciting news – a bit of Shocker Pride!
Last week the National Science Foundation announced the results of a highly competitive process to select a new national institute aimed at driving major advances in artificial intelligence. The AI Institute for Foundations of Machine Learning was announced as a one of the winners and will receive $20M. The team includes the University of Texas-Austin, University of Washington, Microsoft Research and Wichita State University! This is a wonderful recognition of the growing national recognition by our peers of the research prowess of Wichita State. This will also serve as a strong platform of our recently announced National Institute of Digital Transformation and of the number of new digital transformation graduate degrees approved in the Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the College of Engineering, and the W. Frank Barton School of Business – all focused on providing an impactful education and career opportunities for our students.
Later this month, we will be hosting city, county and community leaders as well as developers for the kick-off of an important redevelopment partnership initiative around our campus. It is an effort to bring many of the amenities and services that our campus and community desire. Looking a bit further out, leave your October free as we celebrate our 125th anniversary with a number of events that will be broadcast in the very near-term.
Finally, you might recently have heard about former Wichita State head football coach Ted Lasso, who is receiving much attention as the new coach of English soccer team AFC Richmond. Well, actually, Ted is a fictitious character in the new Apple TV+ show called “Ted Lasso,” starring Jason Sudeikis who is a Kansan and star of “Saturday Night Live” and a host of movies. Wichita State is receiving plenty of fun exposure, and we are exploring ways to work with the show to further advance our national brand.
As always, I'm proud to be a Shocker!
Jay
