The Sunflower v.123 i.29

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THURSDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2018 • VOL. 123, ISS. 29

THESUNFLOWER.COM

WICHITA STATE UNIVERSITY’S INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1896.

Farewell, Fairmount

For more than half a century, many Shocker students called Fairmount Towers home. HANNAH RUTH TABLER

BY JENNA FARHAT

D

emolition has started on Fairmount Towers, Wichita State’s former student dorms and home to many Shockers for more than 50 years. No long-term use has been determined for the site of Fairmount Towers, university spokesman Joe Kleinsasser said Wednesday. Last year, the abandoned buildings were used as a part of training for regional fire departments. In the summer of 2017, Wichita State announced that Fairmount Towers would close after more than 50 years of operation, saying that the student dorm building had “reached the end of its useful life.” About 300 students that had signed up to live there were moved to a private apartment complex on campus, The Flats, after they failed to fill up. When the university announced the closing of the student dorm, WSU still had five years worth of debt to pay off for Fairmount Towers — partially due to debt transferred from Wheatshocker Apartments when it was demolished in 2014. Fairmount Towers was built in the 1960s and is located caddy-corner to WSU’s main campus, across 21st and Hillside. The demolition process is expected to be complete before the spring 2019 semester. Around 40 percent of WSU buildings are in the same or worse condition compared to Fairmount Towers. According to a Kansas Board of Regents report on building conditions at state institutions, 34 out of 84 campus buildings at WSU are in the same or poorer condition than Fairmount Towers. The report rated Fairmount Towers a 76 out of 100, which falls into the “fair” category. Buildings in worse conditions than Fairmount Towers include Henrion Hall, Clinton Hall, Devlin Hall, the Engineering Building, McKnight Art Center, and Wilner Auditorium.

Lived in Fairmount Towers: 2016 “A group of probably six to eight of us got stuck on the elevator the day of move-in. I thought I was going to die in there. Fairmount always felt a bit like a death trap.”

GABRIELLE OWENS

Lived in Fairmount Towers: 2013-2015 “I wish they would’ve tried to salvage it so that students could still have the option to live/eat there. I specifically remember, from undergrad, having late-night in the cafeteria. We all congregated, ate, laughed, all that. It was so nice having all my friends in the same central location. It felt like a sleepover with your best friends every night.”

PAYTON MORGAN

Lived in Fairmount Towers: 2016-2017

SUNFLOWER FILE PHOTO

LUKE MCADAM

Lived in Fairmount Towers: 2012-2013

SELENA FAVELA/THE SUNFLOWER

Demolition on Fairmount Towers has begun. Fairmount Towers was formerly student housing located across the street from campus at 21st and Hillside.

Innovation Rebranded Wichita State public relations push to change the image of Innovation Campus BY MATTHEW KELLY

If you’ve read a piece of Wichita State promotional material this semester or listened to an administrator talk up new public-private partnerships, chances are, you’ve heard about upcoming developments on the “east side of campus” or “campus expansion” — not Innovation Campus. WSU is making a concerted effort to rebrand Innovation Campus — the 120 acres of land on the grounds of the former Braeburn Golf Course that operates as WSU’s hub for industry partnership. It’s a departure from the mantra of “innovation” that has pervaded campus since John Bardo became president in 2012. “We’ve been using some new language to describe the campus expansion because we’re expanding in a lot of ways beyond Innovation Campus,” Vice President for Strategic Communications Lou Heldman said.

“My mother ran the TRIO Upward Bound Math and Science program and every summer, students from all over Kansas would come and live there for the summer. So from birth, I spent summers with her students . . . I grew up in Fairmount and spent most of my summers there, so I have lots of memories. It makes me very sad to see it close. I remember my freshman year, living there with my roommate and the long walks to campus every morning. I had fun there and felt it was easy to make friends there. A strong sense of community on every floor. It also helped that it was somewhat affordable compared to the other on-campus living options.”

Heldman said the “innovation” terminology is simply evolving. “It’s not falling away so much as it’s evolving,” Heldman said. “It’s not going away but it’s growing in other directions.” In his February newsletter, Bardo wrote that “‘Innovation Campus’ has come to mean a mindset as well as a physical place.” “We’ve begun to think about Innovation Campus as any place where the university has the opportunity to put the strategic plan, vision and mission into action,” Bardo wrote. Last year, in partnership with WSU Tech — formerly Wichita Area Technical College — WSU opened the Shocker Studios recording studio on south Harry. This September, WSU and WSU Tech held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a satellite campus in the same shopping mall facility. SEE REBRAND PAGE 3

“My first night in the dorms set the pace of what wild shenanigans were to come from my fifth-floor comrades. I was setting my dorm room up as I heard an uproar from a few doors down. The result of the noise came from cheers of people being tazed at will . . . Throughout the school year, I obtained a core group of friends. From making a questionable-looking snowperson during a snow day to playing Super Smash Brothers in the lobby, my friends and I were always on missions to entertain our naive selves. I will always be thankful for the exposure of people from all walks of life that I was able to call my friends.”

Presidential day of remembrance upends finals prep BY MATTHEW KELLY

With finals week looming, Wichita State joined Kansas government offices in closing Wednesday to honor the late President George H.W. Bush, who died last Friday. The cancellation complicated end-of-the-semester schedules in many classes where final projects and presentations were due Wednesday. Despite Gov. Colyer’s executive order to close state agencies, both the University of Kansas and Kansas State remained open Wednesday as students prepare for finals. With WSU President John Bardo currently hospitalized, Provost Rick Muma made the call to cancel classes. “I recognize this will be a hardship for some students and instructors,” Muma wrote in the announcement Monday. Days off are a luxury for many students, but freshman health sciences major Alexandria Dunham said the cancellation could not have come at a worse time. Her anatomy class had a study session

EASTON THOMPSON/THE SUNFLOWER

Wu looks to the flag during the national anthem at WSU’s game against Missouri State on Nov. 10 in Koch arena.

scheduled for Wednesday. “We had a study session that we could only go to on Wednesday and school decided to cancel and now we can’t go to that,” Dunham said. With her anatomy test set for Thursday, Dunham said she’s worried a missed study session could hurt her final grade. “It’s going to have a great impact on the grade that I get for this class, which is phenomenal,” Dunham said. “It lowkey makes me feel like they just want me to spend more

money to retake the class.” John Willome, a communications graduate teaching assistant, said his students have been working hard to finish projects and wrap class up before finals week. That’s no longer an option. “It means I have to bring in both of my classes next week — finals week — even though everything was supposed to be due this week,” Willome said. SEE REMEMBRANCE PAGE 5

INSIDE

MORE THAN A RECORD

ADA PARKING FEE

PRESIDENTIAL VISIT

Donate food for parking fine forgiveness through an SGA initiative.

World-record mural celebrates overlooked Wichita communities.

WSU added a $10 ADA parking fee for men’s basketball game days.

WSU’s 1989 College World Series team visited President George H.W. Bush.

CULTURE/NEWS • PAGE 5

CULTURE/NEWS • PAGE 5

SPORTS• PAGE 6

SPORTS • PAGE 6

THAT’S THE TICKET


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