MONDAY, MARCH 18, 2019 • VOL. 123, ISS. 43
THESUNFLOWER.COM
WICHITA STATE UNIVERSITY’S INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1896.
END OF AN ERA Wichita State President John Bardo dies BY MATTHEW KELLY
W
ichita State President John William Bardo died last Tuesday at the age of 70. Bardo was hospitalized in November with a chronic lung condition and had been in rehabilitation before returning to Wesley Medical Center. Monday morning’s funeral service will be private, but a public Celebration of Life event will be held on campus later this spring. The funeral procession will drive through campus Monday between 12:30 and 1:30 p.m., making five stops at the Marcus Welcome Center, Wiedemann Hall, the WSU plane crash memorial, the National Institute for Aviation Research, and the Rhatigan Student Center. A university press release announcing Bardo’s death describes him as “an innovator, nationally recognized scholar and deep believer in the value of public research universities.” Kansas Board of Regents Chair Dennis Mullin said Bardo had a “transformational vision” for WSU. SEE BARDO PAGE 6
COURTESY OF WICHITA STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES, SPECIAL COLLECTIONS AND UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES
FILE PHOTO BY MATT CROW/THE SUNFLOWER
President Bardo pictured at the announcement of Wichita State’s move to the American Athletic Conference.
John Bardo teaches in 1976. Bardo was hired as a sociology professor at Wichita State after earning his doctorate.
Revisiting John Bardo’s presidency through the lens of his inauguration speech BY AUDREY KORTE
Dr. John William Bardo was a man of action. He created. He constructed. He challenged. He shook up Shocker Nation. As president, Dr. Bardo steered Wichita State University into unfamiliar territory — implementing strategies for advancement and development with rapidity and ingenuity. He was determined to foster new opportunities for research, technology, and development. He wanted to enhance the university’s relationship with local industry and business. Bardo outlined these goals in his inaugural address. Those who knew little of the man and his methods before that speech walked away knowing where WSU was headed. In that speech, Bardo shared his vision for the future, and his plans. Big plans. Five plans, actually. Bardo’s top five priorities for Wichita State became something of a recurring theme during his tenure. On Oct. 12, 2012, Bardo took the oath of office in a ceremony at the Eugene M. Hughes Metropolitan
From theory to practice: Working with Bardo meant ‘you were a part of something’ BY ANDREW LINNABARY
COURTESY OF JEFF TUTTLE
Bardo gives his inauguration speech in 2012 at the Hughes Metroplex.
Complex. His inauguration theme was based on the title of his inaugural speech: “Ad Astra.” The Kansas state motto, “Ad Astra per Aspera” is Latin for, “to the stars through difficulties.” “While our motto specifically refers to the travails of statehood, we know today that we also live in very difficult times,” Bardo said. “But one part of our state’s motto, ‘Ad Astra,’ to the stars, speaks to how this university can lead the way to a future that is
brighter than we can conceive, and in which our children and grandchildren can live prosperous, meaningful and fulfilling lives. But, to do so, we are going to have to raise our own sights to the stars.” In the last 10 minutes of the speech, he unveiled The Bardo Five, detailing his top priorities for the university and the ways and means to implement them. SEE INAUGURATION PAGE 6
Mark Glaser had just come back to Kansas after serving in the Army when he first met John Bardo. Glaser was one of Bardo’s first students in the 1970s, back when Bardo was an assistant professor teaching sociology. “I was searching for where I should go, who I was, and who I should be,” Glaser said. Bardo helped Glaser with that search. Through courses, laughs, and — equally, if not more important than being in the classroom — real world application. Bardo taught Glaser many lessons, and set Glaser down the path to become the man he is today: a professor in the Hugo Wall School of Public Affairs for nearly 20 years. ‘THEORY INTO PRACTICE’
“If you look at Bardo’s administration, it’s built on the bridge between theory and practice,” Glaser said. “[Bardo] basically argued that theory’s fine, but
theory alone won’t get you all the way there. You’ve got to be able to translate that theory into practice.” Bardo started that idea in the early ‘70s, Glaser said, which was “a period of chaos.” “There was the Cuban missile crisis, then there was the assassination of John Kennedy, then Martin Luther King Jr., then Robert Kennedy,” Glaser said. “And the civil rights movement was going on at the same time. Watergate, the Pentagon Papers, all of those things . . . so it was an unsettling time — a little bit like what we’re seeing now.” Bardo was one of those professors who would say, “Let’s quit wringing our hands and let’s get down to it and start doing something a little bit different,” Glaser said. Glaser had no intentions of ever becoming a professor. “I was sort of just a lost graduate student trying to find a path in life,” Glaser said. SEE GLASER PAGE 2
INSIDE
CENTER STAGE
THANK YOU, DR. BARDO
NIT-BOUND
Wichita State athletics loom large in John Bardo’s legacy.
Jeremy Buoy led WSU theatre on a Shakespearian tour of local high schools.
President Bardo taught us to believe in something and to fight for it.
WSU fell just short of the AAC title game and a shot at the NCAA tournement.
SPORTS/NEWS • PAGE 4
NEWS/CULTURE • PAGE 5
OPINION • PAGE 7
SPORTS • PAGE 8
SPORTSMAN