Author: Carolyn Shaw

Are you interested in learning more about the work of an organizational ombudsperson? Curious about the standards of practice employed by ombudpersons? Considering serving as a faculty ombudsperson in the future?  Join professional ombuds trainer, Donna Louden, from 9 a.m. to noon Friday, May 10 via Zoom.

Send an RSVP to Carolyn Shaw at carolyn.shaw@wichita.edu to receive the Zoom link.

As faculty and staff start planning for the fall semester, listen to the panelists from the April Teaching Matters event as they share their insights on the incoming freshmen for the semester.

The podcast is available online and featured three local high school instructors with tips on how to meet new students where they are.

For anyone who was interested but unable to attend the final Teaching Matters session April 7, the podcast is now available.

The event featured a panel of three local high school instructors sharing their insights on the incoming freshman class. To listen or to view the content from previous Teaching Matters sessions, visit the Teaching Matters homepage.

The high school class of 2023 will join Shocker Nation soon. Join the Retention Faculty Fellows for lunch and a conversation about incoming freshmen students during its Teaching Matters series at 11:30 a.m. Friday, April 7 in 142 Rhatigan Student Center.

Local high school teachers will share what they have observed about the effects the pandemic has had on the class of 2023 to prepare faculty to meet the students where they are. Panelists for the event are Melissa Buteyn, Northwest High School; Mike Harris, Southeast High School; and Shelly Salley, East High School.

RSVP for lunch by Friday, March 31 to Karla Morton-Jordan, executive assistant at the Office of Academic Affairs, at karla.jordan@wichita.edu.

The Faculty Senate has invited Donna Louden, a principal instructor with the International Ombudsman Association, to provide introductory Ombuds training for faculty or staff members who are interested in participating this spring.

Participants are under no obligation to serve as formal ombudspersons on campus. The sessions will be from noon to 4 p.m. on April 14 and 21 via Zoom. Capacity is limited. RSVP to carolyn.shaw@wichita.edu.

Faculty Senate ombudspersons are available to provide assistance to faculty members in the identification or articulation of internal disputes that arise within the university. The ombudsperson’s role is to listen to concerns arising from disputes within the university, provide resources, and clarify procedural options and may facilitate a satisfactory settlement of the dispute without necessitating the filing of a grievance.

Chartwell’s Dining Services recently featured a waste-not day and collected all remaining food scraps from Shocker Dining Hall for a day. During this event, students could see the accumulated result of wasted food, with a large barrel being collected by the end of the day.

By the end of the day, Chartwell’s collected 70 quarts of waste and had more than 70 people sign a pledge to reduce food waste. Chartwell’s provided all participants with 50 Parsley planters, 50 confetti packs (a confetti style seed), and 69 reusable steel straws and cleaners.

Chartwell’s also encouraged students to support a food packaging event, preparing 600 non-perishable packages for the Lord’s Diner, including personalized messages of encouragement for those receiving the meals.

Wichita’s State’s Green Group launched a new initiative during spring 2022 to reduce waste related to move-outs from Shocker Hall. As students packed up to move home, the group collected appliances, furniture and used textbooks.

These items will be stored by Physical Plant during summer 2022 and will be made available to new students moving in for the fall 2022 semester. The students hope to reduce the number of durable goods going to the landfill and provide incoming students useful items for their dorm rooms and save money on textbooks.

The Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) Team Award is given to teams of faculty and staff who have made a notable contribution in our efforts to meet our Strategic Enrollment Management goals. Awards are given for two categories: Academic Programs and Recruitment and Success programs.

The SEM offices is pleased to recognize the 2022 award winners and runners up:

• Academic program winners: Gery Markova and Chris Stone for their advancement of the Human Resource Management program in the Barton School of Business.
• Academic program runners up: Sharon Goodvin, Maggie Hairabedian, Aaryn Ludens, Madison Lukert, Emily Stevens, Julie Thiele, and Jill Wood for their advancement of the Teachers Apprentice Program in the College of Applied Studies.
• Recruitment and Success program winners: Chelsea Dey, Stephanie Cockrell, Alicia Newell, Ashlyn Riley, Kim Sandlin, Stefanie Stallings, Vaughn Sweet for their coordinated care and wrap around support of our students in the Office of Student Success and the CARE team.
• Recruitment and Success program runners up: All of the offices and individuals who implement our re-registration campaigns each semester: Sheri Barnes, Caroline Beach,  Angela Blackerby, Daniela Blair, Zachary Brown, Kaytie Brozek, Jade Bryan, Tony Calvert, Blake Cicenas, Whitney Crager, Christina Folkerts, Tiffany Franks, Aaron Hamilton, Maggie Hairabedian, Kay Head, Julie Holmes, Addie James, Janet Jensen, Jacqueline Johnson, Mandy Konecny, Nancy Krehbiel, Sherena Langley, Lena Lemai, Maria Lucas, Mercedes Lubbers, Madison Lukert, Richard Mai, Mika Moss, Tierney Mount, Alicia Newell, Patricia Phillips, Ashlyn Riley, Angela Scott, Jaime Scherer, Erin Shields, Chelsea Smidt, Emily Stevens, Gina Stewart, Vaughn Sweet, Jason Teubner.

Our new SEM 2025 goals include expanding our enrollments to 17,000 students, increasing our first-to second-year retention rate to 75%, and closing the equity gap for our underserved students.  Everyone on campus plays a direct or indirect role in the recruitment and retention of our students.  Promoting student success is at the heart of what we do.

Objective 1.4.1: Identify and leverage ways for students to share their positive experiences at WSU with prospective students, as well as community members, to enhance WSU’s reputation.

• Ideas for the classroom:  Share success stories of students in your program with students in your classes.  Connect their experiences with opportunities available to other students.
• Ideas beyond the classroom:  Create regular newsletters or social media posts to reach alumni and community members about recent student successes.

Shout out to Strategic Communications for the many feature stories on our outstanding students

For more information, contact Dr. Carolyn Shaw 316-978-7130 or carolyn.shaw@wichita.edu.

The Shocker Store has taken several steps to reduce the impact of single-use plastics by customers. For example, when customers checkout, they are asked if they want a bag to reduce unnecessary bag use.

Since implementing this policy, bag usage has decreased from 75,000 per year to 25,000 in the past ten years. These bags are made of poly-plastic recycled film and are durable enough for multiple uses.

Additionally, all pre-ordered books are packaged for students each semester in re-usable totes. Students can use these totes again or return them to the Shocker Store so they can be re-used for another semester.