THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2019 • VOL. 123, ISS. 30
THESUNFLOWER.COM
WICHITA STATE UNIVERSITY’S INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1896.
Flats developers to co-chair Senate bid as company brings in millions from WSU BY MATTHEW KELLY
Two major Innovation Campus developers — Ivan Crossland and David Murfin, also a member of the Kansas Board of Regents — are co-chairing a 2020 Senate bid for Republican State Treasurer Jake LaTurner. Crossland and Murfin are each partial owners of The Flats of Kansas, LLC, the development company Wichita State is leasing The Flats apartment complex from. WSU is paying Crossland and Murfin’s company a base rate of $1.96 million plus 70 percent of gross rental revenue. Based on university occupancy projections, WSU expected to pay The Flats of Kansas, LLC more than $2.5 million this year, but Vice President for Student Affairs Teri Hall said The Flats is above occupancy,
MURFIN
CROSSLAND
meaning WSU is paying more. Director of Housing and Residence Life Scott Jensen was unable to provide The Sunflower with exact occupancy rates. WSU will pay Crossland and Murfin’s company even more next school year when university-owned Shocker Hall becomes a freshman-only facility, meaning upperclassmen who want to live on campus will be directed to The Flats or The Suites, a lower-priced Flats of
Major changes likely to come for student fees process
BY DANIEL CAUDILL
With student fee deliberations only weeks away, Student Government Association approved legislation that will bring major changes to the process. At its Wednesday meeting, SGA passed a student fee reform bill that would combine the Student Fees and Educational Opportunity Fund (EOF) committees into one. If signed by Vice President of Student Affairs Teri Hall, the bill would also potentially increase the number of student representatives involved in the student fees process. The Student Fees Committee is responsible for hearing budget recommendations from organizations funded by student fees every year, as well as making their own recommendations to the Student Senate. If passed by the senate, recommendations are then sent to the university president for final approval. In years past, a separate committee was responsible for deliberating over the Educational Opportunity Fund, which is a fixed-line item in the student fees budget. The fund is primarily used to provide financial assistance to students by supporting programs that offer scholarships, need-based grants, or salaries for those working in service programs. Under the bill passed Wednesday by SGA, the Student Fees Committee would take on the EOF committee’s responsibilities, as well as one of its members — the director of finance. The Legislative Journal, which acts as a constitution for SGA, currently outlines the Student Fees Committee to include the vice president of student affairs, vice president for finance and administration, and SGA’s president and treasurer. Under current bylaws, four seats are reserved on the committee for student representatives nominated by the student body president and approved by the senate. Instead of four student representatives on the committee, the bill proposes one representative from each of the 13 Student Senate voting blocks, which correspond to fields of study such as business and fine arts. Also recommended in the bill is a significant change to the Student Senate’s level of input on the overall budget. Previously, senators could vote to change funding allocation for non-fixed line items once the overall budget was brought to the Student Senate for approval. The new legislation allows senators to only vote “yes” or “no” on the overall budget and not to delve into specific items. “Essentially, what it means is every [budget item] is fixed,” Student Body Vice President Shelby Rowell said. SEE SGA PAGE 3
Kansas-leased residence hall set to open this fall. “Our decisions for Shocker Hall’s residents (1st year only) is not related to the agreement with the Flats/ Suites and does not impact our agreement with them,” Jensen wrote in an email. Jensen said he did not wish to comment on Crossland and Murfin’s political activity. Hall said she was unaware of it. “I was not aware of what you mentioned in terms of the campaign and all those other kinds of things,” Hall said. “The reality for us here is we need more housing on campus, and I don’t know how else we would have got more housing on campus if not for the arrangement that we currently have.” When asked via email if
placing upperclassmen exclusively in Crossland and Murfin’s private housing facilities — thereby financially benefiting two political actors with clear agendas — poses a conflict, WSU Chief of Staff Andy Schlapp responded with one word — “No.” Schlapp did not respond to a follow-up email asking for elaboration. WSU’s current lease agreement for The Flats was approved by the Regents in December 2017. “If the Kansas Board of Regents approves it, to me, that means it must past the smell test with them, right?” Hall said. “I don’t want to get into if it’s politically right or not to do it, but if it’s seen as a legal function and the Kansas Board of Regents approves it, then I’m going to be okay with it.” In his capacity as a regent, Murfin abstains from votes that involve his
company’s finances at WSU. Regents spokesman Matt Keith did not respond to The Sunflower’s email inquiries Wednesday. Katie Austin, marketing and outreach coordinator for Housing and Residence Life, said WSU operates The Flats just like Shocker Hall — complete with RAs and a full-time residence life coordinator who lives in the facility. “You wouldn’t be able to tell a building like Shocker Hall that we operate apart from The Flats,” Austin said. “[The Flats of Kansas, LLC] are not involved in the day-to-day. They’re just like a property manager — or, not even a property manager, because we do all the facilities work.” SEE FLATS PAGE 3
Rick Muma: PA, provost, acting president — and crisis controller INTERESTS Books Recently read this year’s common read, “Just Mercy.” Likes biographies. Movies Recently saw “The Green Book” and “Bohemian Rhapsody” — “both were great.” Music Listens to all kinds of music — classical, pop, new age. No hip-hop. Big on Lady Gaga and George Winston. Other interests Spends what little free time he has gardening and going on walks through his neighborhood.
RICK AND RICK
SELENA FAVELA/THE SUNFLOWER
Provost and acting President Rick Muma speaks during an interview with The Sunflower Friday, Jan. 11.
Rick Muma has been at WSU over 20 years. In that time, he has gone from a physician’s assistant to, currently, acting president of the university. Here’s how he got to that point.
I
BY ANDREW LINNABARY
t’s 1985 — the hospitals in Houston-Galveston are overfilled with patients. HIV has just been identified as the pathogen that causes AIDs. And a 23-year-old Rick Muma has just entered the physician’s assistant field. Fast forward to 2018. WSU President John Bardo is hospitalized for a chronic lung condition. It’s a situation the university has never dealt with. And a 56-yearold Rick Muma has just become provost. On Jan. 2, he was named acting president. Dealing with crisis has defined Muma’s career, in many ways — though being provost pales in comparison to taking care of terminally ill patients, Muma said on a winter break Friday afternoon. Muma was a few minutes late to the meeting, held in the provost’s office in Morrison Hall. That’s because he was running there from another meeting during another 14-hour day.
“YOU CAN’T JUST MOVE FORWARD WITH VISION. YOU HAVE TO MOVE FORWARD WITH EXECUTION.” —RICK MUMA , ACTING PRESIDENT
Walking quickly but not hastily, he apologized for being so busy, offered a drink, and settled down to talk. PICKING A PROFESSION
A middle child with two sisters, Muma was born in Wichita but grew up in Houston. His dad’s family was given land by the federal government to homestead in Maize. That’s where his parents met. He moved to Houston at the age of two with his dad, an electrical engineer. Anatomy and physiology interested Muma as a teenager. At the time, being a physician’s assistant was a relatively new profession, started in the mid-60s. His high school choir teacher set him down that path. His teacher came into class one day and
Rick Muma and Rick Case, district director for the Farm Services Agency of the USDA in Wichita, have been partners for 13 years. In 2012, they created WSU’s first scholarship to benefit gay students — the Richard D. Muma and Rick A. Case Equality Scholarship. “When we were students in college, we didn’t have any support like this,” Muma said to the WSU Foundation in 2012. “There were no groups that supported gay people and there was not any kind of financial support for them.”
said he was going back to school to become a PA. Muma decided he’d give it a go too. Muma graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Physician Assistant Studies from the University of Texas Medical Branch-Galveston. His first job was in oncology. Once he started his practice, it was largely made up of patients with HIV and skin cancers, which he began research on. The problem-solving, analytical diagnosing skills he learned in the medical field are central to what he does now as provost — and as acting president, Muma said. Muma practiced as a PA up until 2010. FROM PA TO PROVOST
Muma joined the university in 1994 as a PA program professor. He was named associate vice president for academic affairs in 2011. In 2016, he was promoted to senior associate vice president for strategic enrollment management. SEE MUMA PAGE 4
Muma and Case met at College Hill United Methodist Church, where they both are active members. Their first interaction was during a church service — “I turned around said ‘hi, how are you doing?’” Muma said. They were married in Quebec City, Canada. Case, scared of conforming to his parents’ expectations, spent 20 years in denial of his sexuality before telling his wife. When Case opened up to her about it, they agreed to end their marriage, which had produced two sons. Those two sons are now Muma’s step kids.
EDUCATION
Earned Bachelor of Science in Physician Assistant Studies from the University of Texas Medical Branch-Galveston Earned MPH in Community Health from the University of Texas Health Science Center-Houston Earned PhD in higher education administration from the University of Missouri-St. Louis
INSIDE
WEATHER WOMEN
WINTER ESSENTIALS
BEATS AND MEATS
FLIPPING THE COIN
Wichita women bundled up for the third annual Women’s March Saturday.
Here’s everything you need to get through the January drudgery.
Kirby’s Meat Fest drew the crowd in with sounds and smells.
Is the NFL’s OT coin-toss rule outdated? The Sunflower sports team debates.
NEWS • PAGE 2
CULTURE • PAGE 5
CULTURE • PAGE 6
SPORTS/OPINION • PAGE 8