Author: Caelin Bragg

Wichita State University will be closed Thursday, June 19 in observance of Juneteenth.

Juneteenth commemorates the end of slavery in the United States. It was recognized as a federal holiday in 2021, and Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly declared it a state holiday in 2023.

Eligible employees will receive the day as a paid holiday, and the time will be automatically recorded on eligible employees’ timesheets. Holiday hours will be added according to each employee’s standard hours per day, and no action is required from employees who report leave via leave reports.

Wichita State University will be closed Thursday, June 19 in observance of Juneteenth.

Juneteenth commemorates the end of slavery in the United States. It was recognized as a federal holiday in 2021, and Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly declared it a state holiday in 2023.

Last month’s edition of President Rick Muma’s Forward Together newsletter focused on the past year of Wichita State, including:

• Our spring 2025 class of Shocker graduates
• President’s Distinguished Service Awards and University Faculty Awards
• The recent groundbreaking of the new Internet Exchange Point
• A look back at the entire academic year, through photos

The NCAA announced that the 2026 and 2027 Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament (WBIT) semifinals and finals will be at Charles Koch Arena on the Wichita State campus. This will be the first year that Wichita will host the final WBIT games. Wichita has experience hosting women’s basketball tournament games, most recently when it hosted a March Madness regional in 2022.

WBIT semifinals and finals will be broadcast on ESPN platforms. Below are the dates for the semifinals and finals in Wichita:

• 2026: March 30 (semifinals), April 1 (final).
• 2027: March 29 (semifinals), March 31 (final).

The Wichita State women’s tennis team was mentioned multiple times June 4 when the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) announced the Mid-Major and Regional Rankings for the 2025 season.

The Shockers were ranked No. 15 in the ITA Mid-Major Poll, their highest ranking in the poll since its establishment in 2021, surpassing their previous No. 25 ranking from the 2023 season. In the Central Region, the Shockers were ranked seventh as a team. Their highest Central Region ranking since 2018, when they were fourth.

Additionally, sophomore standout Xin Tong Wang became the first Shocker since 2018 to be ranked in the Central Region top 20 in singles, appearing at No. 11.

After a year marked by significant improvement, the Wichita State men’s tennis team was ranked No. 7 in the Central Region by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) in their end-of-year regional rankings June 4.

Additionally, Kristof Minarik was ranked No. 20 in the Central Region in singles, marking the first ranking since 2023, when Minarik was also ranked No. 20. 

More than 2,400 Shockers were eligible for graduation in spring 2025. As they graduate from Wichita State University, they will share the story of Shocker Nation through their work.

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

Thank you to those who volunteered to help with the high school state baseball, softball and track events that took place on campus recently. There were over 35,000 students, coaches and spectators in attendance, a record number. Volunteers gave over 6,000 people golf cart rides and helped staff Fan Alley, providing additional food, activities and other goodies to attendees.

Thank you again to all the volunteers for helping welcome these visitors to campus and providing a positive experience. Mark your calendars for next year’s events, May 29-30, 2026.

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