the
SUNFLOWER
THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 2016 VOLUME 120, ISSUE 62
Rained out
Photo by Manny De Los Santos
Campus was nearly empty Tuesday after university administrators made the decision to cancel classes and other activities in precaution for threatening storms.
Campus closes Tuesday in advance of threatening severe weather EVAN PFLUGRADT
C
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF @evpflu
louds rolled in over the skies of Wichita State on Tuesday, and students, faculty and staff rolled
out. The university closed at noon Tuesday in preparation for severe thunderstorms and the threat of tornadoes. At 3:30 p.m. rain gravitated to the campus area, and in the oncoming hours it progressed to
severe thunderstorms with two-inch hail reported. Lou Heldman, vice president for Strategic Communications, said campus police and administrators monitored the weather closely early Tuesday morning. “We started serious discussions about closing Tuesday morning when we were getting reports of pretty dire forecasts,” he said. Administrators were presented with a webinar with the National Weather Service at 11:30 a.m. before making public their
decision shortly after noon. “We announced the closing five minutes after noon,” Heldman said. “We wanted to make sure, even though we weren’t able to have it out by exactly noon, that we could get the word out before 12:15 (p.m.) classes started.” Other surrounding area campuses followed suit and closed their campuses shortly after WSU. Heldman said the decision to close at noon was based on forecasts calling for severe weather as early as 1 p.m.
“In some ways we may have acted too cautiously, but Kansas weather is anything but a precise science,” Heldman said. Heldman said they monitored property damage to the university, but kept their focus on safety. “We didn’t want to take any risk with our students, faculty and staff,” Heldman said. “We have students who drive in from Hutchinson and even farther away; we wanted to make sure people coming from a distance stayed where they were, and gave
appropriate time for others to get home.” Wichita resident eyewitnesses reported larger than golf ballsized hail. Some city streets were flooded. The university’s physical plant reported no damage to campus property other than minor cleanup to a few basements with water leaks, which they reported is typical with large amounts of rain. “Our decision proved to be the right decision this time,” Heldman said Wednesday.
Graphic design seniors ‘freak’ for final show MARISSA CAMPBELL
REPORTER
Photo by Manny De Los Santos
Comedian Marlon Wayans entertains the crowd Wednesday evening at the Hughes Metroplex. Wayans has starred in the “Scary Movie” among many others.
Marlon Wayans: an act not for the easily offended If it weren’t for crude humor, Marlon Wayans wouldn’t have much of a COLUMN BY ANDREW show. LINNABARY Which isn’t to say there weren’t some decent jokes — there were a few, but many were dragged out to the point of exhaustion. Wayans performed Wednesday night at the Hughes Metroplex to a roughly two-thirds full crowd. Amongst the nearly continuous laughter from the crowd were more than a few groans, given Wayans’ tendency to focus on racist or crude sexual jokes. His niece, Chaunté Wayans, opened the performance, and was arguably a stronger act than Marlon. She is a proud lesbian, and focused a large part of her set on her sexuality. “I don’t want gay marriage,” Chaunté said. “When I used to mess up in my relationships I’d use the fact that it wasn’t legal as my go to. I’d be like, ‘Baby, if gay marriage was legal I’d be marrying you right now.’” After her twenty-or-so minute
set, she introduced Marlon, who jumped out from behind the curtain rapping along to Meek Mill’s “Dreams and Nightmares.” After his introduction, Wayans quipped, “That’s how we know we’re in Wichita, cause you’re all sitting here silent during the track like, ‘He’s singing poems of the streets.’” Early in his set, Wayans joked about the weather in Kansas. “I heard there was a hurricane yesterday, or a tornado. You all are too calm, like, ‘It came, it went.’” Wayans compared it to the weather in New York. He said he dislikes humidity, leading him to joke for five minutes about sweaty genitalia. From there, Wayans then expressed his jealousy of college kids. “You have so much life ahead of you,” Wayans said. “I failed at school, I failed everything. The only thing I learned was partying.” Later on, Wayans got on the topic of Prince.
SEE WAYANS • PAGE 2
@soupitup13
Walking through the WSU Shift Space gallery, patrons can see the works of 18 senior graphic design students hanging throughout the space. During their years at WSU, these students have been working toward creating portfolio pieces, as well as work for the “Senior BFA Exhibition: Freak Show, Graphic Design Rarities & Oddities.” Since April 20, the students’ pieces have been displayed in the Shift Space gallery located at 416 S. Commerce in downtown Wichita. From 5 to 10 p.m. Friday, the art will be shown for one last night during Final Friday festivities. “Our final product [in the show] is years of work,” said Megan Stessman, graphic design senior. “The actual material you see is probably from the last full year and a half, but everything we’ve been doing has been building up to this show — all of the classes, everything underneath and all of the projects that we’ve been brushing up on and spending hours on, in order to put in the show.” Senior Sahara Small said there are many different aspects to graphic design that the audience does not necessarily notice when walking through the gallery. “Seeing everything finally put up that I have worked on, and probably will continue to work on, will be a big relief,” Small said. “But like Megan said, no one is going to see all the hours I have stayed up late working, they aren’t going to see my X-Acto knife cuts, they are just going to see the completed project.” During the closing reception, the students will discuss their work with the viewers and participate in the freak show aspect of the gallery. Although the work shown does not mirror the theme, the class came up with it during a two-week discussion that included intense debates and reasoning about which theme
Photo by Jessica Green
Seniors in the graphic design program in WSU’s School of Art, Design and Creative Industries will display their work at Shift Space for Final Friday.
was better, visiting assistant professor of graphic design Jenny Venn said. “Ultimately we all decided that Freak Show was the best,” Stessman said. “We wanted to augment a side of each designer in the show.” Each student has taken on a character to be in the show. Each has come up with a reason for their character choice and made a costume to wear to the show. From a fire breather, the human cannonball, the futura teller and many more, each student created a work dedicated to their character and the graphic design meaning behind it. For example, the futura teller came up with her name based on typography. The students came up with their characters by combining actual ‘freaks’ seen in a show with a graphic design element. “One thing that we realized in discussion with the class was that all of us throughout our studies of graphic design have been considered ‘odd,’ or ‘a freak,’ for studying art or what we wear, what we collect, or
“
We found this common thread of finding beauty in the freak, and that it’s actually a positive.” JENNY VENN
Visiting assistant professor
what we do,” Venn said. “There’s always been moments that we have all encountered for being a freak for studying art, so we found this common thread of finding beauty in the freak, and that it’s actually a positive.” As the freak show wraps up during the Final Friday celebration, Stessman and Small are excited to show off their work and interact with the patrons that visit the gallery. “I think that graphic design exhibitions are really unique in that it is an event,” Venn said. “All of us have designed the evening as the theme is being carried out in the food, the signage and the outfits that everyone will be wearing. That’s why it’s really fun and unique to go to a graphic design show, because it’s not just the work, but an experience.”