Year: 2024

Lot 41, the parking lot near Woolsey Hall, will be closed Wednesday, May 15 and 16 for events in the building. Faculty and staff that typically park in this lot will need to park in other yellow lots in the area of the building. The YMCA lot is not available for faculty, staff or event guest parking and could result in a citation.

The purpose of lot reservations is to help accommodate large groups of guests visiting campus for events or the event itself. Lot reservations are not to be used for WSU affiliates. Remember, visitors to campus can park without an ePermit up to three times each semester.

Red reserved and ADA stalls are not subject to lot closures and proper use is permitted during this time.

More than 2,400 Shockers were eligible for graduation in spring 2024. As they graduate from Wichita State, they will share the story of Shocker Nation through their work.

Hear from some of the graduates about their time at Wichita State and what they are looking forward to in their futures.

Fairmount Street between 17th Street and Perimeter Road will be closed for repairs and maintenance beginning Monday, May 13. Work is expected to last approximately 10 days. All traffic, ADA stalls and reserved stalls in this area will be suspended during this time.

Wichita State Department of Physical Therapy is hosting iCanBike and iCanSwim camps the week of July 29-Aug. 2, with an orientation the afternoon of July 28.

Join daily that week during a 60-90 min session to help an individual with a disability learn to swim or ride a bicycle. Ability to swim or ride a bike is absolutely not required but volunteering for iCanBike includes jogging alongside a new bike rider.

iCanBike will be held in the Aetna gym at Charles Koch Arena and iCanSwim will be held in the Heskett Center.

• Find iCanBike details and sign-up information.
• Find iCanSwim details and sign-up information.

The Rhatigan Student Center (RSC) will have extended hours Saturday, May 11 for commencement. For specific department/dining hours, visit the RSC hours webpage.

Stacy Christie was recently hired as the project director for the Wichita Biomedical Campus.

Stacy began her role in Facilities Planning on April 1 and helps with the coordination between Wichita State, University of Kansas and WSU Tech, along with the construction company.

She has worked at various architect firms for the last 20 years, including Tessere, Schaefer Architecture and HFG Architecture, and she earned her a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Kansas State University.

Stacy was also recently featured in the Wichita Business Journal’s “10 minutes with…” series (a subscription is required view the article).

Lot 14, the parking lot near The Suites, will be closed Monday, May 13 to Friday, May 17 for lot maintenance. Faculty and staff that typically park in this lot will need to park in other yellow lots in the area of the building. All vehicles must be removed from this lot.

Red reserved and ADA stalls in this lot will not be accessible during this time.

More than 2,400 students are eligible to participate in Wichita State University’s 126th spring commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 11 in Charles Koch Arena. There will be three ceremonies to celebrate the graduates:

• 9 a.m. — Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the College of Fine Arts, Dorothy and Bill Cohen Honors College, and the College of Innovation and Design. The featured speaker will be Shawn Chastain, executive coordinator of fine arts for Wichita Public Schools.
• 1 p.m. — The College of Applied Studies and the College of Health Professions, with featured speaker Marshall Cho, who is a coach, educator and community builder.
• 5 p.m. — The W. Frank Barton School of Business and the College of Engineering, with featured speaker Tanvir Arfi, who is CEO and founder of the Banyan Technologies Group.

All graduates will walk across the stage and be individually recognized. Doctoral candidates will be hooded at the ceremony.

The Cohen Honors College invites the campus community to a recruitment presentation from a candidate for the recruitment and communications specialist position.

The presentation will be from 10 to 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, May 14 in the Shocker Hall Honors Seminar Room, Room A1311.

Wichita State University is updating its organizational structure to better support our vision and mission. With the recent executive retirement announcements, there is an opportunity to reevaluate our current needs, create more efficiencies and advance our priorities. Effective immediately, the following changes will be reflected in our organizational structure:

Title changes

• The position of executive vice president and provost will change to senior executive vice president (EVP) and provost.
• Senior vice president for industry and defense programs will be EVP for research, industry and defense programs.
• Vice president of administration and finance will be senior vice president for administration, finance and operations.

Organizational realignment

Academic research and industry and defense research will once again be united in one office under the leadership of Dr. John Tomblin. This change will allow the university to reunite our academic and industry research efforts, as was the case prior to 2020.

“John Tomblin has been leading our research efforts in industry and federal expenditures for the past 30 years and is considered by our elected officials and regent leadership as the voice of research for WSU,” said WSU President Rick Muma. “We have had great successes in both academic and industry research areas. However, our industry research is outpacing our academic research. We have built up a nationally known capability for applied research, and now is the time to grow our other research capabilities by leaning into these successes.”

To support Tomblin in his new role, a new associate vice president for research position will be added to the university research office. This position will specifically focus on faculty-led academic research, aiming to enhance our applied research efforts and align both with the university’s vision for applied learning.

Dr. Coleen Pugh, who has been serving a dual role as both the vice provost for research and the dean of the Graduate School, will focus solely on her duties as dean, and she will continue to support and advance university research through engagement with the Graduate School.

“As Wichita State University continues to grow in research and enrollment, the time is right to separate the roles of the Graduate School dean and vice provost of research to allow us to bring more intentional focus to the university goals to become an R1 institution and grow graduate enrollment,” Pugh said. “Over the past four years, the amount of faculty-funded research awards has doubled. I am proud of the work of the Office of Research has done to support, recognize and celebrate the successes in faculty-led research. It has been a pleasure to work with such a talented and devoted team in the Office of Research, and I am confident this team will continue to serve us well as we continue to pursue our next milestones.”  

Pugh’s current vice provost for research responsibilities will transfer to the new AVP.

The finance and administration VP is being renamed senior VP for administration, finance and operations, allowing the next SVP hired in this area to add an operational role to the division to care for our rapidly expanding university footprint. 

Finally, as these aforementioned changes are being made, the senior leader in charge of the university in the absence of the president, currently the EVP and provost, will be become the senior EVP and provost.