Year: 2024

Women’s basketball hosts its Educator Appreciation Night game against Prairie View A&M at 6 p.m. Monday, Dec. 2 in Charles Koch Arena.

All educators, including Wichita State faculty and staff, can receive a GA ticket at no charge when they present their school employee ID at the Shocker Ticket Office before the game. Additional tickets for family, friends and other guests can be purchased online in advance at goshockers.com/tickets.

In November every year, the Teaching Today newsletter takes a moment to give thanks and recognize the value of connection. In this year’s Thankful edition, OIR staff shares what they’re thankful for at Wichita State. You will also find a piece on connection and loneliness that encourages you to think about how you are connecting with others. There is also a piece on Blackboard Annotate and all of the tools available for instructors to use there

The WSU Foundation and Alumni Engagement team was pleased to welcome more than 100 familiar faces back to campus for the annual Retired Faculty and Staff breakfast, featuring a campus update from President Rick Muma. Additionally, 33 faculty and staff members were honored at the Bender of Twigs ceremony, which recognizes individuals who have served the university for 25 to 50 years.

Dr. Shirley Lefever, executive vice president and provost, was also recognized as the 31st recipient of the Laura Cross Distinguished Service Award. Named in honor of Laura Cross, a 1925 graduate of Fairmount College who served WSU for more than seven decades, this award honors faculty and staff who have dedicated themselves to enriching the university through their service. WSUFAE is thrilled to celebrate the contributions of Dr. Lefever, who will be retiring after the conclusion of the fall semester.

The Shocker Career Accelerator is collecting Post Graduation Outcomes (PGO) for all undergraduate and graduate students who plan to graduate in fall 2024. Previously called the First Destination Survey, post-graduation outcomes collected via Shocker Central provide insights into recent graduates’ employment status, further education and other career-related activities. The information collected provides clear, concise and consistent data on the outcomes associated with a college education on a national scale.

Outcomes include:

• Types of employment — full or part-time, contract, freelance, other
• Additional education, e.g. accepted to graduate or professional school
• Still seeking either employment, further education or military
• Starting salary for those employed full-time

How can you contribute to the success of collecting post-graduation outcomes? 

• Encourage your graduating students to take this short (three to five minutes) survey
• See below for example marketing text you can email to your fall 2024 graduates or add to your classroom Blackboard

“Congratulations on your upcoming graduation from Wichita State!

You’ll receive a FREE WSU Alumni T-shirt by completing this brief survey.

Here’s how to participate:

1. Log in to Shocker Central: Use your WSU SSO credentials to access your account.
2. Complete the Survey: You will be prompted to complete the survey after you log in. If you don’t see it, navigate to the “Outcomes” box and click “+Report Status.” for Post-Graduation.

Your input is invaluable to us, and it will help us track the success of our graduates. We’re eager to hear about your future endeavors, whether you’re pursuing graduate school, entering the workforce, or taking a different path.

Learn more“

The December 2024 Food For Fines will take place Dec 2-6. Food for Fines is an initiative to support the Shocker Support Locker while providing a cheaper alternative to pay parking citations. All donations for Food for Fines can be dropped off at the Student Government’s Office in 219 Rhatigan Student Center or the Parking Services building.

Note that donations can only be accepted during the donation period and that citations can not be more than two months old. Questions can be directed to sga@wichita.edu.

Shocker Athletics invites all of Shocker Neighborhood to the men’s basketball game against Alcorn State at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday Dec. 4 at Charles Koch Arena.

Claim $15 tickets to the game for you, your family and friends by using promo code “NEIGHBOR” at goshockers.com/redeempromo.

For the first time, Wichita State University has entered the top 10 in the country in engineering research and development (R&D) expenditures, according to data announced this week by the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Higher Education Research and Development Survey.

Wichita State is also ranked No. 1 for aerospace engineering R&D expenditures for the first time in its history.

For fiscal year 2023, Wichita State’s total of $327 million from all funding sources for aerospace ranks ahead of Georgia Institute of Technology ($294 million), Utah State University ($271 million), Johns Hopkins University ($196 million) and the University of Colorado ($90 million).

These rankings put Wichita State among other prestigious engineering universities such as the Georgia Institute of Technology, Johns Hopkins, Notre Dame, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Texas at Austin, Purdue and Stanford.

Jeremy Kohn, ChFC, TIAA financial consultant, will be available for in-person meetings at Wichita State Dec. 3 and 4. At these meetings, Jeremy can help you confirm that you are on track for retirement and provide specific investment recommendations for your TIAA accounts.

If you are interested in meeting with Jeremy, schedule a time to meet, and have your TIAA login credentials handy. If you need scheduling assistance, you can call the TIAA scheduling team at 800-732-8353.

If you are not able to schedule a meeting with Jeremy because appointments have filled and you do not see a virtual option on another day, you can email Jeremy directly at jeremy.kohn@tiaa.org to schedule another appointment and his team will assist you.

Newsweek magazine asked Usha Haley, W. Frank Barton Distinguished Chair in International Business, whether Disney could face adverse actions from the incoming administration.

Wichita State faculty and staff can purchase their tickets to the Shocker men’s basketball game against Kansas State at 6 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 21 at home in Charles Koch Arena prior to the public sale.

Want to get your tickets now? Go to goshockers.evenue.net, click “Enter Promo Code” on the top right of the page and enter promo code “ACCESS” to get early access to the Dec. 21 tickets.