Author: Caelin Bragg

The Wichita State men’s track and field team punched four more tickets to the NCAA Outdoor Championships May 30 at the NCAA West Preliminaries at E.B. Cushing Station.

Sophomore Josh Parrish earned his second entry to the NCAA Championships, finishing third in his 110-meter hurdles quarterfinal with a time of 13.56 claim an auto-qualifying spot.

Shortly after, redshirt-junior Yared Kidane punched his ticket with a gutsy finish in the 800-meter quarterfinals, running 1:47.35 to finish 12th overall claim the final qualifying spot.

In the next race, sophomore Jason Parrish auto-qualified in the 400-meter hurdles, running his third-straight sub-50 second race to finish third in his quarterfinal and get the big Q.

Capping the night, the Wichita State quartet of Joakim Genereux, Josh Parrish, Kidane, and Jason Parrish clocked another school record time in the 4×400-meter relay, running 3:06.38 to finish fourth in the second heat. With three heats of quarterfinals, the top three in each heat automatically advanced to the NCAA Championships, and the next three fastest times would fill out the field.

Dear colleagues,

I wanted to provide an update on pay and benefits. As you may remember, we communicated earlier in the semester that the Kansas Legislature approved $1.8 million for our FY26 compensation plan from the State General Fund. This money, in addition to an approximately $1.5 million from the rest of the university’s budget — for a total of $3.3 million investment in compensation — will be used to fund market-based pay adjustments in FY26.

Wichita State’s Market-Based Compensation (MBC) program is a comprehensive compensation plan focused on creating internal and external pay equity and a cornerstone of our campus culture strategy. This year, we established the following MBC goals:

For staff members

• We want to ensure all staff are brought to the minimum of their FY26 pay range.
• Adjust pay for prioritized staff jobs to move them closer to the appropriate quartile within their pay range.

For faculty members

• Bring faculty salaries to the newly established floor/minimum base salary.
• Faculty who were promoted for FY26 have been prioritized for additional market adjustment analysis. Once this analysis has been completed, any changes will be applied retroactively to the beginning of the FY26 appointment.
  • In addition, the promotional amount for tenure track and non-tenure track faculty earning a promotion or professor incentive review was increased to a flat rate for all promotions. The tiered promotional amounts have been eliminated.

Managers will communicate the details of these pay changes to their respective employees throughout June. Employees who will receive an MBC pay increase will see it reflected in the paycheck dated July 3, 2025, for the pay period of June 8, 2025, through June 21, 2025.

In addition to pay, WSU is committed to consistent improvement to health benefits for all employees. To that end, through our state partnership, the university has covered increases in health benefits for the past six years, resulting in no increase to employee premiums.

As we look back on this academic year, I want to thank each one of you for your hard work and commitment to our students and the success of every aspect of the university you touch.

Go Shockers!
President Rick Muma

Lauren’s path from Wichita State to NASA shows what’s possible when education meets opportunity. As an engineering student, she was handed meaningful work on day one, contributing to projects for the International Space Station and Artemis missions.

Do you want to be the star of your own video feature for Wichita State’s social media? Video introductions are now being accepted from students just like you.

You can submit your video through the online Student Stories form. Videos should be under two minutes long and briefly showcase your story and personality. If selected, Wichita State will produce a short feature video to be posted on WSU’s social media.

The following are a few examples of similar features created by WSU:

• From WSU to NASA: My Journey Into Space Innovation
• This Shocker Followed His Passion at Shocker Studios
• This Shocker Made Wichita State University His Home

Here are some topics you can use as inspiration for your submission:

• Academics, applied learning, research
• Innovation, field experience
• Student organizations, athletics/intramurals
• Student life, campus traditions, belonging
• Student success resources, on-campus living experience

For questions, contact Marcus Wright, director of videography in the Office of Strategic Communications and Marketing, at marcus.wright@wichita.edu.

The Office of Strategic Communications and Marketing is seeking students who are comfortable on camera to be featured in an upcoming series of Student Stories videos for Wichita State’s social media.

Students can submit their two minute audition videos through the online Student Stories form, which should briefly showcase their stories and personalities. If a student is selected, Wichita State will produce a short feature video to be posted on WSU’s social media.

The following are a few examples of similar features created by WSU:

• From WSU to NASA: My Journey Into Space Innovation
• This Shocker Followed His Passion at Shocker Studios
• This Shocker Made Wichita State University His Home

For questions, contact Marcus Wright, director of videography in the Office of Strategic Communications and Marketing, at marcus.wright@wichita.edu.

Road striping work will begin over the summer starting Monday, June 9, weather permitting, with work expected to be done by June 27.

Work will occur 7 a.m.-6 p.m., including crosswalks, centerlines, turn arrows and parking lot stalls. One lane traffic will remain open, but expect delays and plan ahead.

The areas that will have work done:

• Mid Campus Drive, up to Wilkins Stadium (construction)
• WuShock Drive
• Research Place
• Perimeter Road, up to Shocker Hall (construction)
• North Isley Lane
• Memorial Drive
• Mike Oatman Drive
• North Harvard Avenue
• Fairmount Street
• Alumni Drive

For questions regarding the road work, contact DeeDee Estill-Matos, manager of Building Trades, at daraleen.estill-matos@wichita.edu.

Dr. Teri Hall, vice president for Student Affairs, has announced her intention to retire at the end of the fall 2025 semester. The university will conduct a national search for her replacement.

Hall has been at WSU since 2017. She came here from Towson University and in her time at Wichita State has been a staunch advocate for WSU’s 17,000-plus students, growing mental health and wrap-around services, increasing housing options and expanding student leadership opportunities.

“Dr. Hall has been an exceptional servant leader, dedicated to fostering a campus environment where every student feels connected and supported,” said Dr. Monica Lounsbery, senior executive vice president and provost. “Her unwavering advocacy has helped shape a culture of inclusivity and belonging, ensuring that the student experience and well-being remains a top priority. Her contributions to advancing mental health support and care on our campus are both invaluable and deeply appreciated.”

Updates on the search process and a retirement celebration will be communicated in the coming months.

“Serving our students at Wichita State has been the honor of my life, and though I will no longer be here on campus, I will always be a Shocker,” Hall said.

A second-floor study room in Wayne and Kay Woolsey Hall is where Ridge Estes goes when he is serious about concentration. Working there eliminates the distractions of studying at home.

“Put yourself in a spot where you’re forced to lock in and use that time wisely,” he said. “My favorite study spot is one of the private rooms in Woolsey Hall. In a good three or four hour session, I can knock out quite a bit.”

Estes, from Bucklin, used his study time and his athletic time wisely during his Wichita State career. He majored in exercise science with minors in health science and entrepreneurship and graduated earlier this month with a 3.473 grade-point average.

High schoolers don’t often get to see what real science is being done every day by researchers. Worst case scenario is that they are dealing with abstract numbers that don’t have any real-world parallels.

But with the help of Dr. Thomas Luhring, assistant professor of biological sciences at Wichita State, students will not only get to work with active data acquired by a real scientist, but the data will also have implications in their neighborhoods.

The opportunity comes through Galactic Polymath — a platform developed by Dr. Matt Wilkins in 2021 to help bridge the gap between scientists with classrooms — and Luhring’s NSF CAREER grant. The platform is now home to a module, free for all teachers to use in their curriculum, on data literacy, which allows students to explore and analyze real datasets to practice their skills.

Dr. Michael Birzer built his first career in law enforcement, rising through the ranks of the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Department while quietly discovering a deeper passion for research and education. That unexpected interest helped him launch a second career shaped by a relentless drive to understand and improve the relationship between law enforcement and the communities they serve.

“I realized I loved college, and when I started getting involved in research, everything just clicked,” said Birzer, a professor in Wichita State’s Cohen Honors College and the School of Criminal Justice.

That realization led him to pursue a doctoral degree in Oklahoma while working full-time in law enforcement, commuting several times a week to complete his studies. Eventually, Birzer made the leap into higher education, joining Wichita State in 2004.