Category: News

Harold Wallace III joins Wichita State as the new director for the Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI), effective Feb. 19. Harold is a proud Los Angeles native and is rejoining his alma mater from Austin Peay State University, where he served as the director of the Wilbur N. Daniel African American Cultural Center. In addition, he also served as the assistant director of Student Diversity Programs at Pittsburg State University.

He has created and implemented programming to enhance the atmosphere of diversity on the various campuses he worked at. During his time at Pittsburg State, he was a professor of freshmen experience and academic advisor for the undeclared student population.

His educational background includes a bachelor’s degree in ethnic studies, business and sociology from WSU and a master’s degree in college student personnel from Arkansas Tech University. Harold is excited to move ODI’s mission, vision, and values and pursue inclusive excellence at WSU.

The Frank Barton School of Business has awarded Isabella (Bella) Kilman, a senior from Valley Center High School, the 2023 Clay Barton Scholarship. The $50,000 scholarship is one of the largest business scholarships in Kansas.

Kilman, who plans to major in marketing, was named the 2023 Barton Scholar after competing against numerous other high school seniors in a series of speeches, group exercises and other activities.

Along with securing a perfect 4.0 GPA, Kilman is involved in cheer, DECA, Principal’s Advisory Council and Site Council at Valley Center. She also works as the business development intern with the USD 262 communication office. She will begin taking classes at WSU in fall 2023.

The Department of Women’s, Ethnicity and Intersectional Studies (WEIS) in the Fairmount College is accepting applications for the Carol Konek Legacy Award. This is a new annual award open to tenured, tenure-track and non-tenure track faculty who teach or cross-list courses in WEIS. Applications are due by April 7.

Funds will be used for projects that allow faculty to become more involved in their studies, research and professions through leadership development and education projects, or allow individual members to attend a conference that relates to their work. The annual award is $1,000.

No individual will be excluded from consideration on the basis of age, ancestry, color, disability, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information, marital status, national origins, political affiliation, pregnancy status, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, or status as a veteran.

For more information, contact Robin Henry, interim chair of WEIS, at robin.henry@wichita.edu.

Wichita State University has transitioned its model release form to a digital format that can now be filled out and signed from a computer, phone or tablet, allowing users to complete them on-location or in advance more easily.

Submitted model releases are sent directly to Strategic Communications to be archived and retrieved if needed. The form can still be found at wichita.edu/ModelRelease, but users can use the direct link at wichita.edu/scModelRelease as well.

The College of Innovation & Design and the Center for Entrepreneurship have named Lance Minor as the new director of the Kansas Family Business Forum (KFBF).

The KFBF has been supporting and promoting family-owned businesses for more than 27 years.

As director, Minor envisions a deliberate growth strategy to increase KFBF’s local presence, expand membership, and deliver valuable and timely programming, regardless of the stage of growth they are in. His first day was Jan. 9.

Minor is no stranger to campus, before joining the College of Innovation & Design, he was an ecosystem and alliance manager for Deloitte’s Smart Factory @ Wichita on the WSU Innovation Campus. Prior to that, he was a partnership manager for the Shocker Career Accelerator, as well as the CEO of his own family-owned business, Aero Plains Brewing.

Minor is a military veteran, having served 21 years in the U.S. Marine Corps. He earned his undergraduate degrees in English and education from The Citadel and the University of Maryland and his graduate degree in English from Florida International University. Minor’s career in higher education also includes eight years teaching for Hawaii Pacific University.

The College of Health Professions (CHP) has three patient-serving clinics that are open to the public. All clinics are accepting new patients and provide high-quality, affordable health care to the community.

• The Evelyn Hendren Cassat Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic provides speech-language and hearing services to people across the lifespan. The clinic faculty specialize in speaking, hearing, swallowing and spoken and written language impairments. The clinic offers a wide variety of audiology services, including hearing aid fitting and hearing aid repair of all makes and models.
• The Delta Dental of Kansas Foundation Dental Hygiene Clinic offers a wide range of low-cost preventative, therapeutic and educational dental hygiene services.
• WSU’s General Dentistry’s services include cleanings, fillings, teeth whitening and dental implants. The dental clinic provides services in periodontics, endodontics, oral surgery and prosthodontics.

The Shocker Support Locker will be closed on Friday, Feb. 17 and Tuesday, Feb. 21 due to staff development.

There are diverse experiences all around, some people may never know exist. These invisible diversities are given a chance to shine at the Humanities Conference. Any topic under the theme “Lost Voices: Diversity in Experience,” from any major or academic level, can be submitted.

Brought to WSU by the Philosophy Society, Sigma Tau Delta (English Honors Society), the Linguistics Club and EGSA, the conference will be held in late April. The deadline to submit an abstract is Saturday, Feb. 25.

Tuition assistance applications for summer 2023 are now being accepted through the online application form. The online application will be available through April 17 and will close at the end of the application period.

Due to the volume of applications received each semester, requests to submit late applications will be automatically denied without exception.

Questions can be directed to TuitionAssistance@wichita.edu.

Thanks to COVID relief funds, Wichita State has been able to offer free human captioning on Panopto videos for the past three years. The funding has since been spent, and the service will discontinue as of the last day of February.

Human captioning services through Cielo24 will not be available in Panopto as of March 1, but AI-generated captions will remain available in Panopto. Any questions about how to access AI-generated captions can be directed to the Office of Instructional Resources at OIR@wichita.edu.