THE WWW.THESUNFLOWER.COM
SUNFLOWER WICHITA STATE UNIVERSITY’S STUDENT-RUN NEWS SOURCE
WEDNESDAY • OCTOBER 15, 2014
VOLUME 119, ISSUE 33
Tennis: Doubles team wins championship Page 3 | Sports: Men’s golf wins first title of the season Page 4
Comm Week celebrates the 25th anniversary of the ESC By Paulo Lazo STAFF REPORTER @Paulo_JLazo
Photo by Kevin Brown
Youngermeyer Ranch recently donated 4,600 acres of land to Wichita State to allow further research on prairie ecology and natural resources.
Youngmeyer ranch donates land to Wichita State University By Paulo Lazo STAFF REPORTER @Paulo_JLazo
An hour east of Wichita, located within the Flint Hills, lays Youngmeyer ranch. Youngmeyer ranch is located
south of Beaumont, Kan. Of that land, 4,600 acres were given to Wichita State as a gift due to the Youngmeyers’ devotion to the university, and the land currently provides numerous research opportunities in the fields of biology and anthropology. The money came
from the foundation of the estate of Earl and Terri Youngmeyer. Mike Lamb, vice president for Planned and Principal gifts with the WSU Foundation, praised the variety of options for researchers at the aforementioned ranch.
“It gives our faculty and students a large and diverse ecosystem where they can study grasslands, woodlands, bodies of water, vegetation, and animals,” he said. University researchers will study plants, animals, insects, geology and more on the land.
What Taylor Dietterich learned at Communication Week has accompanied him through his professional life. When the Elliott School of Communication alumnus stated the importance of this event, he emphasized the importance of the opportunity to network with professionals within the Communication field. “It’s a great opportunity to network, and to get to know those people,” he said. “There’s more emphasis this year of professionals that are five to 10 years out.” Dietterich consequently praised the two contests in which communication majors have had the chance to participate. For the first one, groups of three to four students have gathered to helm in a week a campaign for the Kansas Humane Society and focused on one of seven programs thereof, which include adoption, recycling, and Community Service Saturdays. While this competition is marketing based, the other one focuses on journalism and electronic media, as students need to write, shoot, and edit a news story in 12 hours. See COMM WEEK on page 2
WSU student finds help from campus police By Kevin Brown STAFF REPORTER @krbrownjr
Although bicycle theft on the Wichita State campus has been down, biology student Di Wu has had one problem — he has been without a bicycle to help with transport to campus. One WSU police officer saw an opportunity to help a student out — one that was right in front of him. “He lives at 15th and Chautauqua and I didn’t want him walking back and forth,” said WSU police officer Tyler Carmichael. “He is always over in McKinley Hall studying and working on his research. I really felt bad for him.” Carmichael, a WSU police officer who has been a member of the WSU police force for one year, was the officer that responded to Wu’s call of his second stolen bicycle. Realizing that he had an opportunity to make a difference, Carmichael picked up the phone and worked to make magic happen. “[Carmichael’s] mother is a personal friend of my wife’s and they go back way when and they know what we do — we have ben doing this since ‘73,” said Michael Scanga, owner of Bicycle X-Change. Continuing on a tradition that his father put into place, Scanga said that Bicycle X-Change has been refurbishing bicycles since the early-70s and donating them to individuals who need them. Wu happened to be one of those people needing transportation. After working with Scanga, Carmichael arranged to have a new bicycle for Wu, filling a void in Wu’s experience at WSU. “The officer who worked the case visited with his family who knew Bicycle X-Change and, ultimately, they donated this bicycle to this young man so
that he could continue to go to school and such,” Garwood said. Early Friday afternoon, in the spitting rain, Wu met at the University Police headquarters and was presented with a shiny dark Huffy bicycle by officer Carmichael, chief Morris and a few others. The actions of Carmichael have not gone un-noticed, however. “We don’t always get officers who have that compassion and, right now, I have a whole department of them — it is so awesome,” chief Morris said. “[Wu] wasn’t just a case, he was a person.” “He is an awful nice kid,” Scanga said. “I would put most of the thank you on him since he saw a need and acted upon it.” Wu, a student from China, has depended on his bicycle to arrive on campus from his home at 15th and Chautauqua. Safe transportation is a requirement, something that even his family back home cares about. “My mom always told me: ‘I don’t care about how much money you earn, but I really worry about your safety when you are studying abroad,” Wu said. Wu is a student who came to WSU in hopes of building a grand knowledge base — with his work on cancer research in the bioengineering sector, he has found WSU to be a home away from home. “Cancers. We are dealing with prostate cancers, skin cancers and breast cancers,” Wu said. There have been two problems with Wu’s experience here at WSU, however. “I have had two bikes stolen,” Wu said. “One I even had parked in my back yard — someone came in my back yard while I was at the airport picking someone up and stole my bike in two or three hours.” One of his bicycles was stolen
Photo by Kevin Brown
University Police Chief Sara Morris shows student Di Wu a place he could engrave identifiable material into his new bike, such as MyWSU ID number, phone number, or other identifiable information in case of bicycle theft.
out of his back yard near 15th and Chautauqua while he was not at home, and the other was stolen while he was on campus. According to the WSU Police department, bicycle theft on campus has been down compared with past years. Through better education and a push for bicycle safety awareness, bicycle theft on campus has been declining with a sharp drop-off this year. “This year has been down quite a bit,” said WSU Police Sgt. Kyle Garwood. “Two or three years ago, Fairmount Towers was easy picking,” said Sara Morris, University Chief of Police. To prevent these thefts from happening in the future, WSU police have given some tips for students with bicycles to abide by. Officers say that, most
importantly, a good lock is the best line of defense when it comes to bicycle theft. “The lock we suggest is from a company named Kryptonite,” Garwood said. “We are not supporting them or anything — they just make really good locks. They are in the shape of a ‘U’ and you will need a grinder or a torch to get through them.” Even though Wichita State is a central hub for on-campus life, having reliable transportation is something that is grossly important to many students from around campus. From the recent parking debates and policy changes over the course of this past semester, transportation continues to be a hotly-discussed topic at WSU — especially for students who live off-campus. Although students who drive
to campus have had something to talk about with the parking permit changes this year, students who take alternative transportation to campus have also had something to talk about — those who come to campus on two wheels rather than four. Along with securing bicycles with a strong lock, University Police staff recommends to engrave your WSU ID, phone number or other personal identifying information into a place on the bicycle, typically on the frame. They also recommend writing down and filing away a copy of the serial number , as well as a photograph of the bicycle. For more information on bicycle theft or safety, email WSU police at police@wichita. edu or stop by their headquarters east of Ablah Library.