Category: Faculty and Staff Resources

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. HOPE Service encourages you check in with yourself and access resources using the free, anonymous mental health screening tool at wichita.edu/freescreen.

Periodically, information will be posted regarding Watermark’s Course Evaluations & Surveys (CES) tool to help users better understand Wichita State’s course evaluation tool.

Today’s focus is on response rate.

• A response rate widget will appear on the instructor’s dashboard when the semester’s project starts. However, data for a course may not appear until that course evaluation is available to the students.
• In the list below, there are some suggestions to potentially increase response rates and receive useful and constructive feedback.
  • Designate time in class for students to complete evaluations.
  • Add a blurb about course evaluations in the syllabus.
  • Let students know that you value their honest and constructive feedback and tell them how you use their feedback.
  • When evaluations open for the course, remind students that they are available.
  • Remind students that evaluations are completely anonymous, and results are not available until after grades are turned in to the Registrar’s office.
  • It is best to complete the evaluations sooner in the evaluation period rather than later. Blackboard will be affected if the student has not taken some action regarding the evaluation towards the end of the administration period.
• There is a dedicated CES website that includes additional information.

For questions, contact Sandra Ranney at evaluations@ces.wichita.edu.

The monthly Faculty Research Collaborative will be from 2 to 3 p.m. Wednesday, April 29 in 262 Rhatigan Student Center, Herrman Room. The event will feature short presentations by three teams awarded 2025 Mutual Mentoring Grants from the Office of Faculty Advancement, Retention, and Excellence, followed by free time to connect among colleagues. Drinks and snacks are provided by FARE.

The Faculty Research Collaborative is a research-oriented faculty club that creates space for faculty to share brief presentations on research projects in their early stages as a way to recruit collaborators or solicit feedback in a low-stakes, collegial environment. This year has been spearheaded by faculty members Susan Castro, Nils Hakansson, Irma Püskarević and Twyla Hill.

The Research Collaborative on April 29 will be immediately followed by a presentation by the University Press of Kansas from 3 to 4 p.m. on how to go from an idea to a published book or edited volume. That event is open to all members of the WSU community.

Contact fare@wichita.edu with questions about either event.

Leo Wetta, investment adviser representative with Voya Financial, will be available for in-person meetings at Wichita State Wednesday, April 22. Faculty and staff can get one-on-one advising and review their Voya Financial accounts as part of their KBOR retirement plan, or new employees can receive assistance in enrolling in their KBOR plan.

There is a weekly Thursday option to meet if all meeting times on April 22 are taken. You can select a time and a place of your choosing for the meeting.

If you are interested in meeting with Leo, you can schedule a time to meet and select the “Wichita State University – Rhatigan Student Center Room 313 (Prairie Room)” location. Time slots are limited, so reserve a time soon. For questions, you can call Voya Financial Advisors at 316-686-2428.

New episodes of the “Teaching Matters” podcast are now available, featuring conversations with units across campus working to support teaching and learning. These episodes are designed to help faculty better understand the services available to them — and how partnering with campus experts can enhance student success.

Recently posted episodes include discussions with colleagues focused on online and adult learning, accessibility and inclusive practices, and first‑year advising. In these episodes, campus partners share what they do and practical ways their services can support course design, instruction and advising.

Whether you’re seeking support for teaching in new modalities, building more accessible learning environments or guiding first‑year students, “Teaching Matters” connects you to the people and resources that can help. Episodes are brief, conversational and faculty‑centered — perfect for listening between meetings.

Join the next meeting of the WSU Faculty/Staff Club from 3:30 to 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 28 at Club 95 in Partnership Building 11. The event will feature the College of Engineering, Barton School of Business and the Graduate School with a rotating slide presentation.

There will also be three live presentations starting at 4:30 p.m. from:

• Joe Jabara, director of the Hub for Cybersecurity Education and Awareness and assistant educator in the School of Computing, on “Cyber League in the Curriculum”
• Murtaza Nasir, assistant professor of business analytics in the Department of Finance, Real Estate and Decision Sciences, on “AI for Everyday Life: Enhancing Personal and Professional Productivity”
• Rocío Del Águila, chair of the Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures and associate professor of Spanish, on “Example of Assessable and Engaging Graduate Recruiting”

Come have fun and enjoy the company of your colleagues as well as some good music, food and drink.

A representative from University of Kansas Press will be on campus from 3 to 4 p.m. Wednesday, April 29 in 262 Rhatigan Student Center, Herrman Room to present “From Idea to Publication: Publishing Your Book or Edited Volume.” While many faculty may have contributed as an author to an edited volume or multi-author anthology before, this presentation will shed light on what the process looks like to take your own concept for an edited volume and see it become reality.

The event is sponsored by the Office of Faculty Advancement, Retention, and Excellence, in partnership with University Libraries. All members of the WSU community are welcome to attend. Contact fare@wichita.edu with any question.

The publishing event will follow FARE’s monthly Faculty Research Collaborative, from 2 to 3 p.m. in the same room. This month’s Research Collaborative will feature some of the awardees of last year’s Mutual Mentoring Grant competition, who will share about projects from the past year.

Shrinking budgets have required a high level of flexibility and difficult decision making this year. That will be the focus on the Faculty Support Network gathering from 3:45 to 4:45 p.m. Thursday, April 16 in 102C McKinley Hall. Join Rhonda Lewis, professor of community psychology, to process the impact of fiscal stress and discuss a path forward the embraces the reality of the moment and refocuses on your role.

The Faculty Support Network is a forum sponsored by the Office of Faculty Advancement, Retention, and Excellence to provide a safe social and emotional space for faculty to process together the challenges they face and receive mutual support. Email fare@wichita.edu for more information.

The table below is to assist instructors with certain dates regarding CES. These dates are for the spring 2026 semester.

• The first column includes the various start/end (part-of-term) dates for spring semester courses.
• The second column includes dates meant for instructors. This is the timeframe when instructors will receive emails about the CES process and procedures that they should complete. Instructors will receive additional emails during and after the student CES access dates.
• The last column includes the dates that CES will be available for the students to complete course evaluations.

The full CES administrative schedule can always be found on the website.

If your course is in bold, then your spring 2026 CES evaluation process will start soon. Review the start/end dates in each column so you know when your access to the CES system will start and end.

The table below is to assist instructors with certain dates regarding CES. These dates are for the spring 2026 semester.

• The first column includes the various start/end (part-of-term) dates for spring semester courses.
• The second column includes dates meant for instructors. This is the timeframe when instructors will receive emails about the CES process and procedures that they should complete. Instructors will receive additional emails during and after the student CES access dates.
• The last column includes the dates that CES will be available for the students to complete course evaluations.

The full CES administrative schedule can always be found on the website.

If your course is in bold, then your spring 2026 CES evaluation process will start soon. Review the start/end dates in each column so you know when your access to the CES system will start and end.