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The WSU Foundation is hiring for a Vice President of Alumni Engagement (VPAE) to support university priorities and champion lifelong connections between students, alumni and friends of Wichita State.

The VPAE will work to plan and implement programs to engage alumni and create experiences designed to elevate, celebrate and advance WSU, reporting to the President and CEO of the Foundation. This newly created position will work with teams throughout the Foundation to align alumni relations, development and financial stewardship to actively contribute to the ongoing mission and vision of the WSU Foundation and WSU.

Parker Executive Search Firm is assisting the Foundation with the search process, and applications can be found on the Parker Executive Search Firm website.

The parking garage next to the Rhatigan Student Center will be closed July 9-10 for cleaning. It will be re-open for parking on Monday, July 11.

During the summer 2022 session, Wichita State students are allowed to park in any lots with the green “Students” signage for free without an ePermit. Normal parking procedures will still be enforced in the following lots:

• Non-student lots with yellow faculty/staff signage
• Lots and parking spaces marked with red reserved signage
• Time-limited zones and
• The Rhatigan Student Center parking garage

Enforcement for all lots will resume Aug. 22. Fall and spring 2023 student ePermits are now on sale.

The Wichita State University Foundation houses funds for departments, organizations and student groups across campus. If you manage a fund or wonder if your group has a fund, please fill out the WSU Foundation Funds survey. A representative from the WSU Foundation will reach out to you with fund allocations and additional information.

With 155,000 employees around the world working to nourish communities in a safe, responsible and sustainable way, Cargill knows a few things about helping the world thrive, but their commitment to that mission goes beyond daily business operations.

Cargill Protein—North America has designated $250,000 for the Shocker Success Center at Wichita State; an endeavor that will help all students at the university thrive by providing better access to important resources.

Robert Gates has spent almost 27 years of his life working in intelligence for the government, but he wants to honor his childhood in Wichita and the values he learned with a planned gift to Wichita State University in his parents’ names.

“Great universities are a sparkplug for a community,” Gates said.

Born in the classrooms of Wichita East High School, Credit Union of America began when a group of teachers pooled funds to create a loan for a fellow educator in need.

While the name has changed since then, the company remains committed to its educational roots, recently pledging a gift of $250,000 to support WSU’s College of Applied Studies.

When Nighat Ara was 16 years old, she boarded a plane in Pakistan to fly 7,000 miles around the world to Wichita State University. What began as a lonely journey turned into an unforgettable community — one that included her future husband.

To recognize their experience, Ara and her husband, Mosaddaq Turabi, have created an endowed scholarship for students following in their footsteps, with a nod to the electrical engineering program that brought them together.

Priorities and plans are taking shape as the consolidation of the Wichita State University Alumni Association into the WSU Foundation enters its next phase. Earlier this month, members of task force, who are charged with setting guiding principles and key initiatives for future alumni engagement efforts, met for the final time.

Among the task force’s top subjects of discussion was how the combined organization would offer the most effective network for ongoing alumni engagement, including evaluating its current membership and benefits structure.

With the formation of the new alumni engagement office, there are still several actions that need to be taken before a comprehensive and strategic plan can be implemented. For example, a national search to fill the new position of vice president of Alumni Engagement (VPAE) will need to be conducted. The goal is to have the VPAE on the job by late summer or early fall.

As of July 1, Wichita State University faculty and staff will no longer have access to parking lot 34, which is located at the University United Methodist Church at the corner of 21st Street and Yale.

The university had been leasing the parking lot from the church, but very few members of the university community had been using the lot, so the decision has been made not to renew the contract going forward.