THURSDAY, APRIL 11, 2019 • VOL. 123, ISS. 52
THESUNFLOWER.COM
WICHITA STATE UNIVERSITY’S INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1896.
Here’s how Wichita State pays for separation agreements, settles lawsuits BY MATTHEW KELLY
Wichita State has paid out just under $1 million in employee separation agreements and lawsuit settlements from one account over the last three fiscal years. These payments, highlighted by a $495,000 settlement agreement reached in February with a former vice president who was suing WSU for retaliation, are made from the university’s VPFA (Vice President for Finance and Administration) Claims Contingency account. Records obtained through the Kansas Open Records Act show that funds in the VPFA account were transferred from WSU’s Fin(ancial) Operations Contingency and Reserve for Budget Contingency. Vice President for Finance and Administration Werner Golling said money is transferred on an
MATTHEW KELLY/THE SUNFLOWER Wichita State Interim President Andy Tompkins speaks to The Sunflower Wednesday morning in the President’s Office in Morrison Hall.
as-needed basis and that none of it comes from students’ fees or tuition. WSU has paid out $983,527 from the VPFA Claims Contingency account since Fiscal Year 2017, which began July 1, 2016. Expenditures from the account totaled $256,752 in FY 2017, $251,225 in FY 2018, and $500,000 in FY 2019, which ends on June 30. Of the nearly $1 million paid out, records show that $292,976 went towards “salaries,” which Golling said “only happens when settlement agreements require WSU to continue wage/ salary payments as part of the claim resolution.” Of the remaining money, $490,629 went towards “other claims- non wage pymp,” $221,350 went towards “attorneys and lawyers,” and $3,023 went towards “other contractual services.”
Meet Dr. Tompkins
Q&A with Interim President Andy Tompkins BY MATTHEW KELLY AND ANDREW LINNABARY
A
ndy Tompkins started his term as interim president of Wichita State Monday. Tompkins, who retired as KBOR president and CEO in 2015, most recently served as Fort Hays State’s interim president from 2016-2017. A 2001 inductee into the Kansas Teachers Hall of Fame, Tompkins was a high school English teacher who became a principal and eventually district superintendent. He served as commissioner of education for the Kansas Department of Education from 1996-2005 before going on to teach at the University of Kansas. Tompkins served two stints as Pittsburg State dean for the College of Education from 1995-1996 and 2007-2010. The Sunflower sat down with Tompkins in the President’s Office Wednesday to talk about his first two days on the job and outlook for the university. Responses have been edited for length. YOU’RE 48 HOURS IN ON THE JOB?
“Yeah, it’s been kind of a whirlwind a little bit. Everybody thought the first day, they’re telling you so much, and I said, ‘In a way, you’ve kind of got to hear
all that so you can sort through it all.’ I’m having to listen a lot and learn a lot.” “When I was at the Regents, I mean, you know the institutions generally. I’ve been on campus a lot — I used to be a superintendent close to here — so I was on campus a lot, but you don’t know it really until you get there. The buildings — I’ve been walking around every morning trying to make sure I got kind of a sense of where all the buildings are.
“OBVIOUSLY, YOU’RE NOT TRYING TO GO START A BRAND NEW DIRECTION BECAUSE YOU’RE KIND OF GETTING THE PLACE READY FOR THAT NEXT PERSON.” —ANDY TOMPKINS, INTERIM PRESIDENT
WHAT IS THE ROLE OF AN INTERIM PRESIDENT?
“The week or two before, when I had time to think, I’m going, ‘Now what is my role going to be here?’ Because in a way, there’s a little difference in it. Obviously, you’re not trying to go start a brand new direction because you’re kind of getting the place ready for that next person.” “Part of it also is you’re trying
to deal with the issues that you’ll have when you’re there. I think part of my role here is making sure I know a lot of the people and listen well and try and be a good listener and a good steward of the place.” “I know some of the people in our community here, but I need to get more closely acquainted — learn more about students that are here. It’s just really learning about the place, getting a sense of what’s happening right now, what are some of the things that are planned for the future, and then trying to make it the best that it can be once we get that new person here.”
EASTON THOMPSON/THE SUNFLOWER
Kari Ossman, Tiffany Jehle, and Lowell Kaughman are Wichita State’s floral department crew. Here they stand behind a tulip bed outside of Ahlberg Hall.
WSU’s springtime gardens rooted in tulips, tradition BY ANDREW LINNABARY
WHAT QUALITIES ARE NEEDED IN THE NEXT LONG-TERM UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT?
There are more tulips than students at Wichita State this spring — more than 19,000 tulips, to be exact. Kari Ossman, Lowell Kaufman, and Tiffany Jehle make up Facility Services’ floral department and are WSU’s main tulip tenders. Between October and Thanksgiving, they and about 15 other Facility Services workers hit the tulip beds and get to work planting bulbs. The tulips have been a WSU tradition since the 1970s, Ossman said. The crew works in the mornings. Some workers dig holes. Others put the bulbs in the holes. Everyone works for four hours
“Higher-ed is a changing field. Enrollment is a big issue in higher education. If you’re out here thinking you’re going to get a lot more students, it’s not going to happen. So you’re having to look at other things, in your instance, the I-35 corridor, in hopes to find a new way to attract more students to your institution, because enrollment matters — especially when you have less involvement from the state.” SEE TOMPKINS PAGE 5
each morning for a week straight filling the beds. The crew uses string tape measurers, and plants the tulips six-by-six — “real uniform,” Ossman said. Ossman has tended WSU’s gardens for 26 years. Then the bulbs are watered, if it’s not a wet season. Finally, usually around early April, the tulips bloom into beautiful shades of red and yellow. The tulips bloom from April to early May. Then they go to new homes — the gardeners dig the tulips up and give them away before they’re out of season. There are never any leftover tulips. The tulips are free, but Ossman encourages people to participate SEE TULIPS PAGE 5
Wichita State and Fairmount share a long, complicated history BY BEN JACOBSON
The Fairmount and Wichita State communities share a rich history together. In fact, for many years, their success was inextricably linked as the creation and expansion of Wichita State served as a launching pad for further development of the area south of 17th street. But as the years pass, the relationship between the university and the surrounding community has become less clear — as has the responsibility of the university as a steward of the community. Wichita State University was founded in 1895 under a different name, but one that is surely familiar
to current students and residents of the surrounding area: Fairmount College. Out of the six colleges planned for the area, Fairmount was the only one to survive the pre-planning stage to become a reality. The development of the surrounding neighborhood was based largely on the success of Fairmount College as faculty and college staff flocked into the one- to two-bedroom houses that populated the neighborhood. The primary motivation for the formation of the university was the idea that Wichita could be a city of professionals that, in turn, could attract potential homebuyers for the surrounding area.
In a recent interview with Sunflower staff, history professor Jay Price said, “Almost every city in Kansas exists because somebody wanted to make a buck in real estate.” Wichita is not an exception to this rule, but rather one of its more successful examples. However, after the real estate boom of the 1880s went bust, so did the appetite for expansion. It wasn’t until another real estate boom in the 1920s that Fairmount College and the surrounding area experienced substantive housing and economic growth. It was around this time that the university was handed over to the municipality in
the hopes that new funding could save it from the financial problems it experienced after lackluster enrollment caused by stifled expansion. After the coupling of the university with the city, Fairmount College became known as The Municipal University of Wichita, or, more commonly, Wichita University. It wasn’t until 1963 that the university entered into the state system and obtained the name Wichita State University. Enrollment problems were solved when further development of the area coupled with the advent of the G.I. bill made higher education and housing more affordable for veterans returning home from World
War II. But while the university was experiencing success with increased enrollment, the Fairmount community was facing challenges of a different nature. During the 1950s the, country was grappling with the passage of fair housing ordinance and the landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling, which ordered communities to work toward integrating schools. Wichita had a dual system; students could be admitted to schools in their neighborhood or in “optional attendance areas” potential students attended designated white or black schools. SEE FAIRMOUNT PAGE 5
INSIDE
RIVER RENEWAL
TORRES TO TRANSFER
OPPORTUNITY LOST
Dental hygiene students are looking for volunteers to get their teeth examined.
A new initiative aims to clean the banks of the Arkansas River.
Ricky Torres announced Wednesday that he will not play his senior season at WSU.
Shocker baseball stranded too many runners on base in a 0-1 loss to OSU.
NEWS • PAGE 2
NEWS • PAGE 3
SPORTS • PAGE 6
SPORTS • PAGE 6
BARE YOUR TEETH