Category: News

The Barton School of Business is excited to announce that Chase Koch, an entrepreneur known for scaling disruptive, bottom-up solutions, has been named the school’s Entrepreneur-in-Residence and will serve as the James Schwartz Distinguished Keynote Speaker for spring 2025. Chase is executive vice president of Koch and is recognized for his work building transformative partnerships in business, technology, social change and music. He will speak at a fireside chat titled “The Sound of Change: Music as a Catalyst for Social Impact.”

The fireside chat is scheduled from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 30, followed by a networking reception in Woolsey Hall. The conversation will be moderated by Marquis Bradley, CEO of Omnicut Motivational Fitness. This event will provide attendees with a unique opportunity to hear firsthand the vision behind Somewhere Fest & Conference— a community-driven music festival that combines entertainment with social impact. Chase will share how the festival, now in its second year, has evolved into a movement that blends culture, artists and social change to bring people together and create value for local communities. 

This event is open to the public, and all are welcome to bring colleagues, associates and friends. This event is expected to reach maximum capacity quickly, so attendees are encouraged to RSVP as soon as possible to reserve their spot.

The Capitol Graduate Research Summit took place in Topeka March 25. Over 40 graduate students from various Kansas public universities presented their research and how it contributes to the economic development of the state.

Two Wichita State students were awarded at the summit, Mary Peterson and Adithya Melagoda, both electrical engineering majors. Mary’s poster was entitled, “Solar Energy to Improve Electrical Service Reliability During Winter Weather” and Adithya’s was entitled, “Power Distribution System Restoration During Extreme Events: Equality or Equity?”

Both of these students were advised by Dr. Visvakumar Aravinthan, chair and professor of electrical and computer engineering.

Do you want to be prepared to care for patients with non-English language preference? Alce su Voz’s professional development videos examine the best practices for the care of linguistically diverse patients, clinician language proficiency testing, and clinician language self-assessment.

The annual update for the CourseLeaf CIM and CLSS systems will take place at 5 p.m. Friday, March 28 through Monday, March 31. During this time, access to the systems will be unavailable. This includes the approve pages for proposals currently in the workflow.

Access to CIM and CLSS will be restored by Tuesday, April 1.

Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) undergraduate and graduate students joined Katharine Fitzharris, associate clinical professor, to provide free hearing screenings in Hays, Kansas March 22 for a Special Olympics Healthy Hearing Event.

The event was held during the Hays State Basketball Tournament from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Gross Memorial Coliseum for a day dedicated to improving athletes’ health and wellness. They served over 50 participants at the event.

On March 16, the university discovered flooding in the lower level of Ablah Library. Currently, the lower level is closed as clean-up work is underway, but the rest of the library remains open.

Water did not reach the bottom shelves of the R-Z call number ranges on the lower level, which cover medicine (including nursing), engineering and technology, and quick action by library staff kept significant water out of the vaults of WSU Special Collections and University Archives, so there was no damage to materials.

The materials in the R-Z call number ranges are being packed up and moved to off-campus storage so that water can be extracted from under the shelving. All microform collections are also being moved to off-campus storage. An exact timeline for the return of these collections to campus has yet to be determined, but it is expected to be several months.

Researchers who need print materials from those subject areas are encouraged to use the library’s interlibrary loan services. All WSU digital collections (including streaming audio and video) remain active and can be accessed via the library’s discovery function. Materials from the WSU Special Collections and University Archives will be available to researchers by request.

President Rick Muma and First Gentleman Rick Case will be on KMUW starting at 7 a.m. Thursday, March 27 during KMUW’s spring pledge drive. Listen in on 89.1 FM.

They will be matching listener donations. Listeners can make a donation by calling 316-978-6700, using the KMUW smartphone app or visiting the website.

If you’re an aspiring entrepreneur with a business idea, now is the time to take action. Submit your pitch video and application for the Shocker New Venture Competition by noon Thursday, March 27 for a chance to compete for prizes, mentorship and valuable networking opportunities.

What to submit:

• A pitch video introducing your business idea
• A completed application form

To apply, visit the Shocker New Venture Competition website. Click on the “How to Compete” button to find out how to compete in the competition.

Hop back into your work week after Spring Break with the spring Teaching Today newsletter. In this issue, learn more about AI, as well as the updates Blackboard has seen the past few months. 

The elevator in Duerksen Fine Arts Center is temporarily out of commission. Facilities Services is working to get a replacement part for the elevator, but there is no estimated repair date yet.

The university is working to make accommodations for affected classrooms. Students concerned about accommodations can reach out to the Office of Student Accommodations & Testing at 316-978-3309 or OSAT@wichita.edu.

The university will update campus with more details regarding the length of the elevator outage.