Author: Sara Ornelas

In the March issue of the Forward Together newsletter, Wichita State President Rick Muma talks about some of the initiatives that are helping Wichita State reach record enrollment numbers during a time when most universities in the United States are struggling.

Late last year, Wichita State University announced that all students, faculty and staff would be required to complete mandatory training on preventing harassment and discrimination.  

This prevention training, which is led through WSU’s Office of Institutional Compliance, is not only important in making our campus a welcoming and equitable environment, but it’s also important for Title IX compliance. If you have completed your training, I want to express my very sincere appreciation for helping us make real progress in making our campus safe, inclusive and equitable.  

If you have not completed the training, it is very important that you do so no later than today, March 18. The “Preventing Harassment and Discrimination” training is accessible on the Faculty/Staff tab on the myWSU page under “Employee Required Training.” Student employees can access the training on the myFinances tab under “Student Required Training.”  

University supervisors should follow up with their employees to ensure that they are completing the training by the March 18 deadline. Supervisors are expected to work with employees needing accommodations or extensions as necessary. 

Sincerely,

Rick Muma, WSU president

In accordance with recently updated guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, masks will no longer be required for students, employees or visitors, regardless of vaccination status, while on or in Wichita State University premises or while attending campus activities or athletic events (unless otherwise noted). This includes all indoor and outdoor campus locations.  

The university continues to strongly recommend that all individuals engage in COVID-healthy behaviors including, but not limited to, being vaccinated if able, wearing a mask where social distancing is not possible, testing, and staying home if you feel ill. COVID testing and vaccines are readily available at no charge to WSU students and employees at the WSU Student Wellness Center. No appointment is necessary. Additional information about the vaccine and available locations can be found at www.vaccines.gov. For more information about testing sites, please visit the Sedgwick County Health Department’s webpage.  

Although the university has rescinded campus-wide mask mandates, please keep in mind that, in certain cases, there may be programmatic or facility requirements dictating the wearing of masks — for example, in our patient-serving clinics or students on clinical practicums and rotations, or in those instances where close contact cannot be avoided and additional precautions may be warranted. Please consult with your supervisor and/or instructor for further instructions, and be sure to follow all posted facility requirements.  

Additionally, pursuant to U.S. Department of Transportation policy regarding public transportation, masks will still be required on all university shuttles through March 18.  

The university will continue to monitor the COVID situation on our campus and in our community and will be prepared to pivot back to a mask mandate if the situation warrants. 

Printable signs for office and building use are available. 

In the next steps toward the creation of the University Village, Wichita State University is seeking public feedback and engagement on the lead proposals.

Public meetings will be on Wednesday, Feb. 23 in the Shirley Beggs Ballroom of Wichita State’s Rhatigan Student Center. These sessions will be offered in-person and virtually via Zoom (Meeting ID: 956 5059 0889, Password: 598259). There will be three meetings:

• 2 to 3 p.m. for Wichita State students, faculty and staff
• 4 to 5 p.m. for everyone on Wichita State’s main campus and Innovation Campus
• 6:30 to 8 p.m. for the Wichita community

A bequest from the estate of Richard “Dick” Smith will provide about $5.5 million each to Wichita State University and the University of Kansas to endow full-ride scholarships for students at each university.

A longtime resident of Wichita and the founder of Range Oil Co., Smith died in January 2021 at the age of 87.

The estate gifts were announced at a news conference on Feb. 9 attended by WSU President Rick Muma and KU Chancellor Douglas Girod, as well as Smith’s widow, Sondra Langel. Elizabeth King, WSU Foundation president and CEO, and Dale Seuferling, president of the KU Endowment, also attended.

The Association of American Colleges and Universities recently announced that Wichita State University has been selected as one of 29 institutions to participate in the 2022 Institute on ePortfolios.  

“This institute is an opportunity for us to work across disciplines and areas to integrate ePortfolios more intentionally into our campus and curriculum,” said Dr. Kimberly Engber, institute team member and dean of the Cohen Honors College.

The professional development opportunity aligns with Wichita State’s strategic priorities to be a leader in digital transformation and student-centered education. Engber said that several departments currently use portfolios to meet course or program requirements, but “we haven’t engaged in a campus-wide conversation about ePortfolio strategy.”

The goals of the ePortfolio initiative are to foster student self-authorship, demonstration of learning and development, and program assessment.

“We’re considering electronic portfolios as a capstone requirement for honors students, for example, but we don’t want to make this decision in isolation from national conversations about best practices or from initiatives on our own campus,” she said.

Students may use ePortfolios to collect their work for a course or select evidence from an applied experience. An electronic portfolio typically requires reflection as well, asking students to connect learning across courses or from a course assignment to a work environment. EPortfolios are designed to integrate learning and build personal and academic identities. Faculty design and evaluate assignments within electronic portfolio systems, and the university might sample work from electronic portfolios to support program-level assessment.

Wichita State’s ePortfolio team consists of Elaine Bernstorf and Cheyla Clawson-Chandler from the College of Fine Arts; Drs. Kimberly Engber and Kevin Harrison from the Cohen Honors College; Chelsea Redger-Marquardt from the College of Applied Studies and Honors College; Carolyn Speer from Instructional Resources; and John Watkins from the College of Engineering.

The Women in Public Service (WPS) meet-up will take place 4:45-6 p.m. Jan. 27 at Jenny Dawn Cellars. WPS inspires current and future generations by addressing topics relevant to women in public service while instilling knowledge through education, networking and professional development that strengthens leadership in local government and communities. The meet-up will allow participants to connect and share about opportunities, challenges, new job positions and job changes.

Dr. Voncella McCleary-Jones, associate dean for academic affairs in the College of Health Professions, has been appointed to a two-year term on the National League for Nursing’s Academy of Nursing Education Review Panel.

McCleary-Jones was named an Academy of Nursing Education Fellow (ANEF) in 2016. ANEF is a national distinction recognizing individuals who have contributed to nursing education in sustained and significant ways.

As community leaders plan for the future economic prosperity of our state, Wichita State University and the University of Kansas schools of Medicine and Pharmacy in Wichita are moving forward with plans to establish a joint WSU/KU Healthcare Sciences Educational Center (HSEC) in Wichita.   

The center — which is a combined effort among Wichita State, WSU Tech, the University of Kansas School of Medicine-Wichita, and the KU School of Pharmacy in Wichita — will centralize health care programs from each institution to provide state-of-the-art health care education that would ultimately improve the quality of health and health outcomes for Kansans.   

In addition, this collaboration will strengthen synergies and teamwork and allow for interprofessional learning activities while drawing from a long history of successful academic programs, and a health sciences educational center would greatly contribute to our community.   

“Not only is this new center important to improving the health outcomes for Kansans, any city that’s growing or wants to grow, has this type of facility at its core,” said Dr. Rick Muma, president of Wichita State. “Building an academic hub to educate a proficient and highly skilled medical workforce is critical to increasing health care access and outcomes for everyone in our region.”  

Muma — who is a licensed physician assistant and has been integral in reshaping health profession education at Wichita State — said that bringing together the educational facilities from several institutions into one shared health sciences complex would help WSU meet community needs and demands and provide state-of-the-art care and technology to Kansans.  

The HSEC will also serve to attract and retain talent in the Wichita area, as well as boost the economic success of Kansas.   

“The health care sector has enormous growth potential, and it’s critical to the prosperity of the greater Wichita area as its population grows and diversifies,” Muma said. “As we continually work to meet the needs of Kansas employers and improve the economic vitality of our region, we must offer new opportunities that attract and retain talent to Wichita.”   

Given the current headcount for the four institutions involved in the center, it’s estimated that the HSEC’s combined enrollment should start at more than 2,500 students.   

A generous grant from the Kansas Health Foundation will supplement the universities’ funds to commission services of an architect and other professionals to integrate the vision for the project, affirm space needs, explore ways to create efficiencies, validate site information and location, and create a conceptual plan for pricing the facility.   

Dear Shocker family: Thank you for all you’ve done this year to help our Wichita State thrive and for all you’ve done to support our students, our university, and all of Shocker Nation.