Category: News

The Office of Academic Affairs will interview two director candidates for the Ulrich Museum. Students, faculty and staff are invited to attend a public presentation featuring the second candidate, Joseph Yates, at 2:30 p.m. June 27 at the Ulrich Museum, Beren Gallery.  The presentation will also be streamed live on YouTube.

Joseph Yates is the curatorial director at the KMAC Museum located in Louisville, Kentucky. He will be on campus June 27 and 28.

For more information, visit the Academic Affairs website.

Campus Credit Union is now open on the first floor of the Rhatigan Student Center. The location’s hours of operation are 7:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Monday-Friday. For more information, visit Campus Credit Union website.

Faculty and staff are invited to attend a press conference introducing incoming Athletic Director Kevin Saal at 1 p.m. today in the Charles Koch Arena atrium.

Saal, along with President Rick Muma, will speak to the audience during the event. Because space is limited, the event will also be livestreamed.

The Office of Academic Affairs will interview two director candidates for the Ulrich Museum. Students, faculty and staff are invited to attend a public presentation featuring the first candidate, Vivian Zavataro, at 2:30 p.m. June 23 at the Ulrich Museum Beren Gallery. The presentation will also be streamed live on YouTube.

Zavataro is the director and chief curator at the John and Geraldine Lilley Museum of Art, located in Reno, Nevada. She will be on campus on June 23 and 24.

For more information, visit the Academic Affairs website.

The grand opening for NetApp’s new 168,000-square-foot facility took place June 15 at Wichita State’s Innovation campus. The facility will support WSU’s nationally recognized research programs such as the National Institute for Research and Digital Transformation and the National Institute for Aviation Research. The facility also features an on-site large-scale data center and an Artificial Intelligence SuperPOD/HPC Center of Excellence.

The locations will allow NetApp to partner directly with WSU on any future curriculum applying to NetApp’s core technology and provide WSU students with the opportunity for hands-on training and valuable lab experience before graduation. 

Wichita State University President Rick Muma is excited to announce the hiring of Kevin Saal as WSU’s new Director of Athletics.

Saal, who has been athletic director at Murray State University since March 2019, will take the reins of the Shocker Athletics program from WSU’s interim athletic director, Sarah Adams, effective mid-July.

The College of Engineering is excited to announce the appointment of Ana Lazarin as director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) at the Engineering Student Success Center (ESSC).

In this new role, Lazarin will provide leadership for helping the College of Engineering continue to build a more diverse student body, foster an inclusive environment for our students and collaborate with stakeholders within and beyond the college to address equity issues impacting the success of our students.

“As a first-gen Latina grad from the WSU College of Engineering, I identify with many of the obstacles that our underrepresented students encounter,” Lazarin said. “It’s my greatest passion to support and encourage underserved students to succeed, especially in STEM careers.”

Since 2018, Lazarin has served as director of Recruitment and Outreach for the College of Engineering. Before this, she served as director of Programs to Broaden Participation in Engineering from 2008-2015. In both of these positions, Lazarin has played a critical role in advancing diversity, equity and inclusion goals and initiatives within the college.

“We are nearing completion of a new strategic plan for the ESSC,” said Dr. Jason Bosch, assistant dean for Student Success for the College of Engineering. “DEI is at the forefront of this plan as both a core value of the ESSC and one of four strategic focus areas for the center. We are investing in this important position and we will continue to invest more time, care and resources in supporting the success of our underrepresented and underserved students in the college. With [Lazarin’s] knowledge, experience, and passion for DEI, Ana is the ideal person to lead us in these efforts, and I am excited for her to take on this new role.”

The college will conduct a search later in summer 2022 for a new director of Recruitment.

Wichita State’s Orientation and Undergraduate Admissions staff were recognized by First Gentleman Rick Case, on behalf of President Rick Muma, June 14. The groups were recognized for their commitment to the student experience for helping students’ families have a positive experience while transitioning to WSU.

Rick Rewards is a program by President Rick Muma that launched in December 2021. The program allows President Muma to show his appreciation for the efforts of a member, or members, of the campus community.

Each year prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the NCAA honored selected Division I sports teams by publicly recognizing their latest multi-year NCAA Division I Academic Progress Rate (APR). The academic recognition honors recognize those teams that posted multiyear APRs in the top 10 percent of all squads in each sport.

However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2022 NCAA APR release will not include public recognition awards, APR penalties or loss of access to post-season competition as these elements remain suspended through Spring 2023. The 2022 release will only include the public version of the APR and aggregate data for all Division I institutions.

The four-year APR scores for all of WSU’s 13 sports programs registered a 942 or above to be in good standing established by the NCAA’s standards. Eleven of 13 programs registered a score of 970 or higher. A program is in good standing if it registers a multi-year rate of 930 or above. A team must achieve a 930 four-year rate in order to be eligible for competition in NCAA post-season play.

The APR provides a real-time look at a team’s success each semester by tracking the academic progress of each student-athlete on scholarship. The APR accounts for eligibility, retention and graduation and provides a measure of each team’s academic performance. The most recent multi-year APRs are based on scores from the 2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21 academic years.

The only student-athletes that figure into a team and institution’s APR are those receiving athletic financial aid. A student-athlete receiving athletic financial aid has the opportunity to earn two points each semester – an eligibility point and a retention point. Thus, a student-athlete has the opportunity to earn up to four points each academic year for his/her team and institution. An institution can be discounted the retention point if a student-athlete transfers to another 4-year institution and leaves Wichita State academically eligible or if a student-athlete transfers to a 2-year institution and leaves Wichita State with a 3.30 or higher cumulative GPA.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Wichita State University received one APR Public Recognition Awards for the 2018-19 academic year – men’s tennis. It was the second consecutive year for the men’s tennis team to win an APR recognition award. The Volleyball team previously received seven consecutive APR Public Recognition awards – 2008-09, 2009-10, 2010-11, 2011-12, 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15.

The Women’s Golf team received four consecutive APR Public Recognition awards – 2012-13, 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16. The Men’s Cross Country team won an APR Public Recognition award in 2013-14 and women’s cross country in 2015-16. The Men’s Golf team won public recognition awards in 2010-11 and 2017-18 while the Women’s Tennis team received a Public Recognition Award in 2010-11.

Due to the summer construction at Lindquist Hall, the Shocker Learning Center (SLC) will temporarily move to Hubbard Hall for the remainder of the summer 2022 session.

For more information, please visit 115 Hubbard, or contact slc@wichita.edu.