Category: News

The College of Engineering has been ranked 18th nationally out of 521 colleges and universities in the Cyber Power Rankings, which were created by Cyber Skyline in partnership with the National Cyber League (NCL). The rankings represent the ability of students to perform real-world cybersecurity tasks on the Cyber Skyline platform.

Cybersecurity students from the School of Computing within the College of Engineering competed in the NCL competition throughout the fall 2023 season. Teams and their rankings were as follows:

• World Wide Wheat (Khang Tran, Quentin Nelson, Carlos Figuerora, Adrian Yip, Hyacinthe Howell, Aidan McGillivray): 15th
• TH3 3 H4CK3T33R5 (Prem Muvva, Don Alfaro, Nikilesh Murthy): 34th
• Annie Linux and the Ctrl Fs (Josh Brenner, Arron Russell, Seth Windsor, Ke’Auna Edmondson, Annie Wilson, Emily Evans, Brandon Castile): 56th
• System Shockers (Ana Varghese, Michael Foster, Hao Yin, Devon Crawford, Hao Slaine, Divy Patel): 60th in the advanced division
• Pink Team (Hannah Brumley, Thao Pham, Leopoldo Picazo, Priscila Picazo, Micah Wallace, Jose Guiterrez, Peter Saw): 80th
• Bluey (Drew Nguyen, Phillip Espinosa, Alejandro Valdovinos, Oriol Guillen, Carolyn Tran, Trevor Schmitt, Yoel Woldeyes): 108th
• Yetistan Natives (Marshall Morris, Jacob Smith, Eli Curry, Jerret Delancy, Landon Conyers, Alexander Pickett, Cole Carothers): 113th

The Office of Diversity and Inclusion aims to cultivate and sustain an inclusive campus. It strives for academic excellence by creating an environment that educates, empowers and mobilizes the students, campus and community. In the community, members view themselves as ambassadors for fundamental freedoms and respect the differences in others.

The office provides dynamic programs, which range from speakers and film showings to award ceremonies, cultural festivities and LGBTQ+ programming, each representing a small piece of the diversity displayed on the WSU campus.

Photos from the 2023 Service Recognition events are posted and available to view online on the service recognitions website. These events recognized colleagues who reached a milestone of five to 50 years of service with the State of Kansas, those inducted into the Bender of Twigs and those who’ve retired from the university.

Thank you again to all the honorees for your dedicated service to Wichita State and to those who helped WSU celebrate and recognize them. Collectively, 4,914 years of service were recognized. Congratulations again to all the honorees.

Nominations for Excellence Awards in research, creativity activity and community research are now being accepted by the Office of Research.

All full-time faculty, including distinguished professors and endowed chairs, who have served at Wichita State for at least three years, are eligible. Faculty who hold an administrative position above that of chair are not eligible.

Previous winners of the award are ineligible to be nominated for a period of five years following the award. Visit the Office of Research website for additional details and electronic nomination forms. Nominations must be received by Friday, Dec. 8 to be considered.

The Barton School of Business is adding John Cantele, co-founder and principal at Lexima Hotel Management Services, to its Dean’s Advisory Board.

“I’m looking forward to bringing my perspective to the board as we help prepare Barton School students for successful careers in business,” said Cantele.

As principal at Lexima, Cantele leverages his extensive 35 years of industry experience to provide third-party management services for the company. Prior to co-founding Lexima, he served as the executive vice president and chief operating officer for CorePoint Lodging Inc., a publicly traded real estate investment trust created to own the La Quinta real estate assets. In 2016, he served as the executive vice president and chief operating officer for La Quinta Holdings, LLC, where he was the operational, sales, and revenue management lead for the company and pivotal in positioning the business for sale to Wyndham in 2018. In 2000, Cantele helped launch LodgeWorks and worked as the company’s senior vice president of operations. During his time there, he led the operation repositioning Sierra Suites into Hotel Sierra and co-led the company’s shift into the boutique hotel market with the AVIA brand, while successfully managing more established brands including Hilton, Starwood and Hyatt.

The Barton School of Business and the Kansas Insurance and Financial Services Education Foundation (KIFSEF) have joined forces to create a new Certificate in Financial Services through the Barton School. This certificate reflects the modern and interconnected financial services sector, and comes as the result of a direct need for banking, insurance, healthcare and other industries.

“Frankly, there is a talent shortage across our industry,” said Jannett Wiens, executive director, KIFSEF. “The Barton School’s effort including the formation of its financial services certificate will help to provide students with the acumen needed to thrive in an industry that continues to grow and diversify.”

As part of the collaboration, KIFSEF will provide $1,000 scholarships for students who complete the certificate.

“This certificate will provide Kansas companies with a pipeline of students who will be knowledgeable and excited about the possibilities the sector provides,” said Dr. Timothy Craft, Barton School associate professor and leader of the program. “We’re very grateful for the support from KIFSEF to help us make this certificate a possibility.”

Preston Schroeder, formerly the assistant director in the Office of Civil Rights, Title IX & ADA Compliance (CTAC), has been promoted to director of investigations to reflect his increased scope managing the university’s investigations and informal resolution processes pursuant to equal opportunity, affirmative action, ADA/Section 504 and Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972.

Preston recently joined WSU after 13 years of service with the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office. While with the sheriff’s office, Preston served as a detective in the Exploited and Missing Child Unit’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. Preston later served as a sergeant in both the Investigations Division and Professional Standards Unit.

The fifth annual Stock the Shocker Support Locker challenge between faculty and staff has concluded. This year, a total of 4,328 items and $155 were donated by university employees to support the locker.

And the winner of the friendly competition to collect the most items this year was the staff. Staff donated 4,240 items and $145 and faculty donated 88 items and $10. Congratulations to the staff on winning the competition for the fifth year in a row, and thank you to all employees who donated items or funds to support this important resource for our students.

The HR Total Rewards team reminds staff and faculty that the priority deadline for spring 2024 tuition assistance applications is Friday, Dec. 1, with the final deadline extended to Jan. 5.

Reminder: Tuition assistance applications for spring 2024 are submitted through the online application form.

Awards for applications received after the priority deadline will be based on availability of funds. Due to the volume of applications received each semester, requests to submit late applications will be automatically denied with no exceptions.

Questions may be directed to TuitionAssistance@wichita.edu.

Do you know a WSU employee who deserves special recognition for their contributions to Wichita State? The Staff Senate invites the campus community to submit nominations of outstanding staff members for the President’s Award for Distinguished Service by 5 p.m. Jan. 26.

These awards recognize the dedication and excellence of WSU employees who have provided exemplary, dedicated and caring service to the WSU community that is beyond the expectations of the duties and responsibilities of their position. Selected honorees are recognized at the annual Shocker Pride Celebration.

Award details and the nomination form can be found on the Staff Senate Awards website. Nominations can be submitted to marissa.kouns@wichita.edu.