MONDAY, APRIL 8, 2019 • VOL. 123, ISS. 49
THESUNFLOWER.COM
WICHITA STATE UNIVERSITY’S INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1896.
WSU signs 17 agreements with Butler, remains top transfer destination in state BY AUDREY KORTE
Wichita State and Butler County Community College have signed 17 articulation agreements which will help ease the transfer process for Butler students hoping to earn a bachelor’s degree at WSU. “It’s a way for students to have a guided pathway so that they can make efficient use of their time,” said Linnea GlenMaye, WSU associate vice president for academic affairs. Transferrable articulation agreements allow students to earn their associate’s degree from a community college and then transfer credit toward earning a bachelor’s to a four-year university. The recently signed agreements, called 2+2 agreements, cover 17 different majors. The students at Butler can start out taking identified transferable classes so that they have a curriculum plan for both Butler and WSU from the beginning of their education. “Once they complete those classes, they’ll be awarded their associates degree from the community college, and then they will come here — we hope, anyways — because we’ve created this pathway for them,” GlenMaye said. The 2+2 agreements for Butler are specific to the courses being offered there now. What the students will see is a four-year plan. From there, they can see what they need to take at Butler and what it’s equivalent to at WSU. WSU COLLEGES AND DEPARTMENTS WITH AGREEMENTS FOR BUTLER TRANSFERS
College of Applied Studies Exercise Science Early Childhood Unified/ Elementary Education Elementary Education, K-6 College of Engineering Computer Engineering Computer Science Electrical Engineering Industrial Engineering Manufacturing Engineering Fairmount College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Creative Writing Criminal Justice English History Homeland Security Political Science Psychology Sociology College of Health Professions Public Health Science Health Management GlenMaye said one of the more useful tools for students considering a transfer to WSU is the new Transfer Gateway tool. The app allows students from any school to estimate how many credits will transfer to their desired degree program at WSU. “It doesn’t really tell them what exact course it’s equivalent to, but it does tell them what percentage of their degree has been completed as a result of taking those courses at their university,” GlenMaye said. GlenMaye said Butler is the number-one feeder for WSU when it comes to in-state community college transfers. Establishing these articulation agreements with Butler remains a priority for WSU moving forward, she said. The Kansas Board of Regents recently released its annual Transfer Feedback Report, announcing that for the eighth straight year, WSU is the number one transfer destination for students moving from Kansas community colleges to a public state university. Kansas has 19 community colleges, including Butler, Cowley, Hutchinson and Independence.
KYLIE CAMERON/THE SUNFLOWER
The United States Census defines Fairmount in their data as the area starting at 17th and Hillside, just south of campus, and stretches south to a block after 13th Street at Hillside. It then stretches east and divides Fairmount and Ken-Mar at the Red Bud Trail, which used to be a rail line. The Sunflower will be using these boundaries when referring to Fairmount.
THIS IS FAIRMOUNT
Understanding the stigmas surrounding the Fairmount community
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BY KYLIE CAMERON
riving around Fairmount, it’s clear that the neighborhood has a vibrant history. With a few Victorian mansions sprinkled between the ranch-style homes built after the 1950s, you can tell that’s what it once was — a “fair mount.” Fairmount, one of the few “hills” in Wichita, once overlooked the city before urban sprawl set in after the Second World War, but you can’t tell that anymore with the development surrounding this predominantly black community. The United States Census defines Fairmount as the area starting at 17th Street and Hillside, south of the Wichita State campus. It stretches south to a block after 13th Street at Hillside and east where the Red Bud Trail, a former rail line transformed into an asphalt walking and biking trail, divides Fairmount and the Ken-Mar neighborhood. This is the first in a series of articles analyzing the past, present and future of Fairmount and its relations with WSU. The reporters creating these articles are using the Census boundaries
SELENA FAVELA/THE SUNFLOWER
Street signs at the cross section of 17th and Fairmount street.
when referring to the neighborhood and any data that goes along with it. Despite its history, many people in the WSU community view Fairmount as an area that has a high crime rate — a place to avoid, especially since the rape and murder of Leticia Davis at Fairmount Park in November 2014. Since 2016, coverage of the Fairmount community has been slim. Most coverage in The Sunflower since then has focused
on crime in the area. With the following series of stories, The Sunflower plans on digging into what is really going on at Fairmount and talking to the people who live there. STUDENTS, FRATERNITY LIFE, AND FAIRMOUNT
While some students feel that it’s an area to avoid, others live on the edge of Fairmount, along 17th Street. Three of WSU’s six fraternities in the Interfraternity Council, separate from
multicultural fraternities, have houses in the area. Non-university affiliated student housing, such as the Seventeen60 apartments, also line the 17th Street corridor. According to the 2010 Census, about 44% of residents in Fairmount are black, roughly 26 percent are white, and 18 percent are Asian. Most of the white and Asian residents live in student housing along 17th Street. Julian Kincaid, a junior art education major, said he sees Fairmount as an area of cultural diversity — a place where students can learn. “I think it can be a resource,” Kincaid said. “It can be a resource for students who want to study more into local history. “It can be useful for students who want to get more involved in community outreach — especially if it’s part of your program like McKnight’s community and social art programs. You can learn about policy and how it affects that community and urban planning. All these different things, we can learn from Fairmount because right now, it just seems like sort of in this island setting.” SEE FAIRMOUNT PAGE 4
Schlapp on Bardo empowering executive team: ‘If you bought into his vision and mission, he left you alone’ BY MATTHEW KELLY
Wichita State Chief of Staff Andy Schlapp reflected on John Bardo’s legacy at Thursday’s WSU Board of Trustees meeting — describing the late president as a visionary who charted a new course for WSU during a tumultuous era of higher education. Bardo put great faith in his executive team, Schlapp said, but it took time for that team to buy into his approach. “For about a year and a half, he just talked, and no one on the executive team was willing to do it,” Schlapp said. But Bardo was persistent.
Public institutions were leaching money, he said, and WSU couldn’t keep doing what they’d always done. Eventually, the executive team started to listen, Schlapp said. “Okay, maybe you’re right. I can’t listen to you anymore and not do anything,” Schlapp said. Strategic enrollment management, applied learning, and industry partnership were the pillars of Bardo’s vision for making WSU a sustainable operation. Once he had buy-in from his executive team, he gave them plenty of space to operate, Schlapp said. “If you bought into his vision and mission, he left you alone.
‘Go do it. Come back, tell me what you’re doing,” Schlapp said. He said Bardo understood that success meant taking risks. “One of the things that doesn’t happen in Kansas, surely doesn’t happen in Wichita, and was not happening on our campus, is this idea of failure,” Schlapp said. “We could committee anything to death. Anything. And we could make sure that we mitigated all risk through that process, so whatever we did really didn’t do anything.” Schlapp said Bardo’s “gift to the university” was empowering its leaders to take risks — whether they ultimately ended in success or failure.
“Here’s what we can do to participate in being a sustainable university in this world, and if you do it, I’ll let you fail,’” Schlapp said. “And by the way, people hate change, so you’re going to be in conversations where people are angry and upset, and that’s okay. You’re going to face people who say this is the worst thing you’ve ever done, and that’s okay.” When faced with adversity, Bardo always asked the same two questions, Schlapp said — “Are we doing the right thing?” and “Is [Wichita] going to be better 20, 30 years from today?” SEE BARDO PAGE 5
INSIDE
SURVIVING SEASON 38
VISITING POET
CHANGING THE GUARD
It’s time for Wichita State to establish designated dog petting zones on campus.
Can Survivor: Edge of Extenction overcome its slow start?
Esteemed poet Jericho Brown reads Tuesday at “Reading Now / Writing Now.”
Without McDuffie and Haynes-Jones, new leaders will have to step up for WSU.
OPINION/CULTURE • PAGE 2
CULTURE • PAGE 3
NEWS• PAGE 5
SPORTS • PAGE 6
PETTING ZONES, PLEASE