NEWS | 3
SPORTS | 4
OPINION | 7
NEW DIRECTION
COMEBACK
DIVERSITY
A recent WSU graduate dicusses how she found her passion during the pandemic.
Men’s basketball makes a triumphant return after a significant loss.
The opinion editor’s open letter to campus regarding diversifying our newsroom.
WICHITA STATE’S STUDENT NEWS SOURCE SINCE 1896 MONDAY
Volume 125
www.thesunflower.com
Feb. 1, 2021
Issue 13
What students can expect from in-person activities BY JULIA NIGHTENGALE copyeditor@thesunflower.com / @JuliaNightengale
COURTESY OF KHAN AND GUMBS
Rija Khan, student body president
COURTESY OF KHAN AND GUMBS
Kamilah Gumbs, vice presidential candidate
Student body president Rija Khan announces re-election campaign BY LINDSAY SMITH editor@thesunflower.com / @Lindsay_KSmith
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urrent Student Body President Rija Khan is running for re-election, the campaign announced Monday. Kamilah Gumbs, current Student Government Association underserved senator and the diversity, empowerment, and inclusion committee chair, will be running for vice president. Khan, a junior majoring in criminal justice with a pre law track, has been a part of SGA since her freshman year. She has served as a freshman senator, a liberal arts and sciences senator, and was the first ways and means committee chair. Khan said she is running for a second term because she believes one term wasn’t enough to achieve her goals. “Whatever the work the 63rd session has started, we just want to continue because those are issues that require more time,” Khan said during her and Gumbs’s virtual reveal party Saturday. “It requires more attention because no issue can be solved in one term.” Gumbs is a junior studying political science and minoring in communication serving in her first session of SGA
“Whatever the work the 63rd session has started, we just want to continue because those are issues that require more time ... no issue can be solved in one term.” RIJA KHAN Student Body President
as underserved senator and diversity, empowerment, and inclusion committee chair. Khan and Gumbs put their goals into two sections: new initiatives and continuing ones. In their new goals, they want to make SGA more of an associated student government. “[We want] to provide our students with more voice and more say,” Khan said. Khan said they also want to build more connections. “We also want to create better connections with our outside entities so our
students can advocate for issues that are not just revolving around one area, but multiple different [areas],” Khan said. Their new goals also include fixing orientation for international, transfer, and returning students, having sustainable energy, and others. In their continuing goals, Gumbs said that they want to continue working on providing affordable childcare. “We do have a lot of students on campus who have children and we believe this is crucial,” she said. Gumbs said that they want to make student health services a more welcoming place for students. “We just want to make sure it is more diverse, inclusive, so that all of our students feel comfortable, and of course make it more accessible and more affordable as well,” Gumbs said. Their continuing goals also include building more transparency, addressing food insecurity, and working on disability services, among others. Student Government elections are slated to take place April 5-7. Any student interested in running for spots has to declare their candidacy by Feb. 22.
Despite all in-person events being cancelled last November, Vice President of Student Affairs Teri Hall said they are trying to find a path to safely put on in-person events this semester. “There’s some guidelines being distributed to registered student organizations right now that allows for some mission-critical events like recruitments or elections … to take place as long as they can take place within the county guidelines of 25 or fewer people in a group,” Hall said. Student involvement purchased six outdoor heaters through a grant that student organizations can use to hold safe in-person, outdoor events. “In the spring, there will be an opportunity for student groups to reserve those heaters to be able to have larger events outside,” Hall said. Hall said that while student organizations should consider how their events could possibly transition to a virtual format, she said that she is hoping to find a middle ground so students can enjoy events while still staying safe amidst a pandemic. “We’re trying to help student groups as best we can … I’ve been proud of the work that they have done, but we still have to hold the course, we’ve still got to get through this for the next couple of months because we’re not out of the woods yet,” Hall said. When attending in-person events, Hall said students should remember to stay six feet apart and wear their masks correctly. All of the rooms in the Rhatigan Center have hand sanitizer stations for students to use. Hall said students should help to keep each other accountable, by reminding them to wear masks and follow social distancing. “People want to see each other, students in particular want to see each other and do things together, but it’s still not completely safe,” Hall said. “We’re gonna get through this, and we just need to remind each other to keep at it, and to make good decisions.”
Muma not planning to use new KBOR termination policy BY LINDSAY SMITH editor@thesunflower.com / @Lindsay_KSmith
Interim University President Rick Muma has no intention of utilizing the new Kansas Board of Regents temporary policy that allows him to suspend any faculty, he said during a town hall with faculty Monday. The new KBOR policy— which is an effect until Dec. 2022— has faced a substantial amount of backlash since it was passed by the board Wednesday. “Any policy that revokes tenured faculty puts faculty in a position where they can be terminated just for having opposing viewpoints, they could be fired for being outspoken against a policy or a procedure, they could be fired because their research is
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considered controversial at the moment,” Sternfeld-Dunn said in an interview with The Sunflower. Muma said that thanks to the university’s work on managing their finances, he doesn’t believe utilizing the policy will be necessary. “I told [KBOR] that we would not be utilizing [the policy],” Muma said. “The processes we always used to make cuts— reallocate, raise tuition — that’s always worked for us. “We know where we are, we know where our gaps are, [and] we know how to fill those.” Wichita State is currently in the middle of its next presidential search. Chair of the search committee Dan Peare said that the university could likely announce the new president by summer — while the temporary policy is in
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place. Muma said it is unclear if the next president will be able to utilize the policy. “The real intention of this policy is to make this temporary, and to allow institutions to make more flexibility to manage their finances,” Muma said. “Your question is really will the next person who comes to be the permanent president, will they be able to do this. “I hope not.” Faculty member Chase Billingham encouraged faculty serving on the search committee to make sure that whomever is recommended for presidency has no interest in using the new policy. “It would be my hope … that there would be no candidates recommended for that job, who does not give an explicit answer saying that they will not implement
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LENA ALHALLAQ/ THE SUNFLOWER
President Rick Muma converses among the guests during the groundbreaking celebration for Wayne and Kay Woolsey Hall on Oct. 22.
this policy if they’re selected,” Billingham said. The Faculty Senate will discuss endorsing a statement by the
council of faculty presidents in regard to the policy during their first meeting of the semester Monday, Feb. 1.