In this month’s edition, I hope to share with you some key updates on how Wichita State University continues to manage during the global pandemic while, importantly, working hard to advance the institution to even greater heights.
OPEN CAMPUS
While last week was shortened as we honored those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for our nation, it proved to be a very important week for Wichita State University.
First, our campus welcomed back our faculty and staff on the day after Memorial Day. This went very smoothly and is a testament to the hard work and dedication of a vast number of professionals who developed and implemented detailed health and safety plans, reconfigured offices and open spaces, and created revised business operating plans. While we never stopped operating as a university during the pandemic and continued to provide our students with a high-quality education, it was heart-warming to see many of our staff come back on campus. I am making it a priority to walk around to the various divisions and personally thank everyone for their dedication during these difficult times. I have even tried my hand at baking and delivered homemade chocolate chip cookies to our wonderful staff.
ATHLETICS
Last week included my attending day-long virtual meetings with all of my peer presidents in the American Athletic Conference (AAC), including the commissioner and his staff as we discussed what college athletics may look like this fall and academic year. As it stands now, we expect to have our student athletes return to campus on schedule and begin workouts and practices under very strict and thorough health and safety guidelines developed by a team of leading health professionals from members of our conference institutions. Each and every one of the presidents’ and athletic directors’ first and foremost concern is the health and well-being of our student athletes.
Right now, we are expecting to start fall sports around the regular time schedule. I think we all are aware that there certainly can, and most likely will, be some potential interruptions in the schedules as the possibility exists that any national or conference team or team member will test positive for the virus. However, all contingencies are being developed. There has been no decision regarding fan attendance – it is still a bit too early to know what that will look like at this time.
FALL SEMESTER
After engaging many across the campus, we made an announcement last week regarding fall semester. The length of our fall semester will remain unchanged. Students
will return to campus prior to when classes will begin Aug. 17, and the semester will end on Dec. 10. Faculty, under the leadership of the provost, are finalizing plans for specific courses in regard to all in-person or some for hybrid, depending on the type of course and enrollment of each class.
However, we have made two adjustments to previously-scheduled breaks:
- First, we have canceled the two-day Fall Break. We are using the two days of Fall Break to accelerate Thanksgiving Break, which will now begin Monday, Nov. 23. This means that all in-person instruction must be completed by Friday, Nov. 20.
- Students will not return to campus after Thanksgiving and will instead complete the semester — including the remaining four days of instruction, study periods and final exams — remotely. We will be adjusting housing and meal plans as well.
I truly believe this is the correct approach for our institution. Again, it is only four days of instruction that all classes will be done remotely. For many of our students, not having to fly home for Thanksgiving, back to WSU, and then back home when the semester ends will not only reduce health risks from COVID-19 as well as the flu season and, it may also save families the additional costs of travel.
I have already seen that many institutions across the country have subsequently announced similar plans for the fall. By no means does this indicate any change of plans for the spring 2021 semester. We are still planning for students to return to campus for the spring semester.
SHOCKER PRIDE
Each month I want to share with you a bit of Shocker Pride and interesting facts. Our wonderful university has an incredible history of individual and team achievements, and today many Shockers continue to showcase our collective talents.
ACADEMIC UNIT
This month I would like to highlight our College of Engineering. Recent national rankings by the federal government and by U.S. News of all U.S. colleges and universities documented that:
US News & World Report
The College of Engineering was just announced as the
highest-ranked academic graduate engineering program in Kansas by U.S. News & World Report, and is in the top-100 nationally.
Research
Growing our research power across the university is one of our priorities and very important because it will greatly benefit our students and our state’s economy. In the most recent annual research report from the federal government, the College of Engineering is the top ranked engineering program in Kansas in terms of research expenditures and is in the top 50 for the entire nation.
This is an incredible achievement when you consider each state has multiple public research universities, as well as numerous private research universities such as MIT, Johns Hopkins, Stanford, Cal-Tech, Rice, etc. This is just one example across the campus of how we are focused on academic and research excellence to support our students and our state’s economy.
Space Grant
Finally, under the leadership of Dr. Scott Miller, chair of aerospace engineering, Wichita State University was just named one of the few NASA Space Grant universities. This is similar to Kansas State University, which serves as a land grant institution. Our designation included a multi-million-dollar grant from NASA.
ALUMNUS
Anne Boyer ’97 was awarded the highly prestigious Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction for her memoir, "The Undying: Pain, Vulnerability, Mortality, Medicine, Art, Time, Dreams, Data, Exhaustion, Cancer and Care."
ATHLETICS
From 2010-2020, our men’s Shocker
basketball team has the
fifth best winning percentage in NCAA division 1 behind only Gonzaga, another team in our state, Duke and Kentucky.
Similarly, our
baseball team, which has made the College World Series seven times and won the national championship in 1989, has the
eighth highest winning percentage in NCAA Division I baseball history.
