The Sunflower v.123 i.32

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THURSDAY, JANUARY 31, 2019 • VOL. 123, ISS. 32

THESUNFLOWER.COM

WICHITA STATE UNIVERSITY’S INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1896.

crunch time EASTON THOMPSON/THE SUNFLOWER

Teri Hall, vice president for student affairs, speaks to attendees during the town hall meeting in Beggs Ballroom on the third floor of the Rhatigan Student Center Wednesday.

Town hall tackles fee questions, what comes next if referendum fails BY MATTHEW KELLY

Faculty and administrators were well-represented, but no more than 10 students showed up for the first all-student town hall Wednesday to discuss the infrastructure referendum slated for early March. The proposal is a $6 per credit hour fee hike to bond $38.5 million for campus facilities upgrades across all colleges. More than half of the money raised — $20 million, would go towards the construction of a new business school on Innovation Campus. Engineering graduate student Laura Sanchez said the proposed

upgrades for her college — renovating and modernizing wind tunnel labs — are “minimal.” “It kind of feels like they took something, very needed of course, but they took a little bit of every single college and put it into the basket just to kind of hold our colleges hostage to be able to fund the new business building,” Sanchez said before the town hall. State law does not require Wichita State to follow the will of the student body, but Provost and acting President Rick Muma reiterated that if the vote fails, fee hikes will not be forced on all students. SEE TOWN HALL PAGE 2

Referendum steering committee fighting student apathy within itself Wichita State tops Southern

BY ANDREW LINNABARY

Methodist 85-83 for second

As the referendum approaches, the Shock the Future steering committee is trying to combat student apathy — while at the same time combating apathy within the steering committee. Monday’s committee meeting included a complaint by health professions representative Max Karst, who handles logistics for the committee. Few members of the committee, made up of students representing different colleges, have been signing up for town halls and tabling events, he said.

conference victory of the year JOSEPH BARRINGHAUS/THE SUNFLOWER

Wichita State freshman Erik Stevenson and sophomore Brycen Bush celebrate at center court after beating SMU on Wednesday at Charles Koch Arena. Wichita State senior Samajae HaynesJones receives a hug from Assistant Coach Tyson Waterman after scoring the game-winning shot. The hug was premature as the Southern Methodist coach Tim Jankovich called a timeout with one second left in regulation.

SEE MEN’S BASKETBALL PAGE 6

“We have a lot of blank spaces,” Karst said. “We had a tabling today, but nobody could do it.” That led Associate Vice President for Student Affairs Aaron Austin to chime in: “[Max] is doing a great job of carrying the load for everybody — but he’s carrying the load for everybody.” Students on the committee are tasked with gathering feedback from their respective colleges, and with making sure students are aware of what exactly is happening with the referendum. SEE REFERENDUM PAGE 2

‘Artificially growing the state of Kansas’

Expanded in-state tuition offering aims to grow workforce, fill student housing BY MATTHEW KELLY

Kansas is a state of 2.9 million people, but Wichita State will have a pool of 31 million people to draw on for in-state tuition this fall. The expansion of the “Shocker City” initiative along the I-35 Corridor means WSU can offer in-state tuition to more prospective students than any university outside of California. At a Jan. 10 WSU Board of Trustees meeting, Vice President for Technology Transfer John Tomblin called it “artificially growing the state of Kansas”. The offering is on the table for residents in specific Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, Illinois, and Colorado counties. Residents of all Oklahoma, Texas, and Missouri counties not included in the Shocker City program qualify to

pay in-state tuition plus 50 percent. “What we want to do is put them in an applied learning job and then keep them,” Tomblin said. “That’s the end goal, and it’s working.” I-35 enrollment at WSU rose to 794 students last semester — a 35 percent increase from 2017. People are moving out of Kansas, Tomblin said, and if WSU wants Innovation Campus to be an appealing destination for industry partnership, they have to have the workforce to back it up. Tomblin also serves as president of the Wichita State Innovation Alliance, the non-profit organization that manages Innovation Campus. Other universities offer in-state tuition to certain states or pockets of cities, but WSU Chief of Staff Andy Schlapp said the Shocker City program is unique. “Nobody’s doing an I-35

Corridor where you’re looking at economic trade roots for where you’re drawing your population from,” Schlapp said. The increased focus on out-ofstate recruitment could have major implications for student housing at WSU, where just 12 percent of students currently live on campus. The goal is 25 percent, Tomblin said, noting that WSU’s student housing is currently at 130 percent occupancy. The first week of January is when WSU benchmarks paid housing contracts for the coming school year. “Last year, we set a record at this time of 263 contracts for housing — paid contracts for housing. This year, that’s 700,” Tomblin said. “It’s this I-35 draw. They want to come to Wichita and they want to live on campus.” SEE I-35 PAGE 2

INSIDE

MIND OF A KILLER

PAYBACK

AFTERSHOCKS

Student Affairs event provides stress relief and a custom-painted tile to take home.

Serial killer Ted Bundy recounts his crimes in chilling Netflix mini-series.

The WSU Women’s Basketball team got paybackby knocking off Eastern Carolina.

A roster of Shocker basketballl alumni will compete in a tournament hosted by WSU.

CULTURE • PAGE 3

CULTURE • PAGE 4

SPORTS• PAGE 6

SPORTS • PAGE 6

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