THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2018 • VOL. 122, ISS. 36
THESUNFLOWER.COM
WICHITA STATE UNIVERSITY’S INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1896.
Sex offender list becomes available on WSU police website BY JENNA FARHAT
Wichita State’s sex offender list became available on the WSU police website Tuesday. Previously, the list was only available as a hard copy at the university police department. The list reveals that there are five registered sex offenders on Wichita State’s campus. The list is updated three times a year — once before the start of each semester, including the summer. The list was last updated before the start of the spring semester, according to university police. The full list, including names, photos, and physical descriptions of the registered offenders, is available on the WSU police department’s website at http://webs.wichita. edu/?u=police&p=/sex_offender_list/. Four of the five registered offenders at WSU are registered in Sedgwick County. One is registered in Cowley County. The Campus Sex Crimes Prevention Act, a federal statute that went into effect in 2002, requires universities to provide information concerning registered sex offenders. The Kansas Bureau of Investigation is required to notify WSU police about registered sex offenders attending classes at or employed by the university.
Discarded cigarettes ‘most likely cause’ of fire at Flats BY JENNA FARHAT
A report of a fire at The Flats was most likely caused by a discarded cigarette, Director of News and Media Relations Joe Kleinsasser said. An employee at The Flats reported that mulch on the west end of the building was smoldering Saturday afternoon. A WSU police officer sprayed down the area where he saw flames until a Wichita Fire Department truck arrived, Kleinsasser said. Kleinsasser said the officer observed several cigarette butts in close proximity to the area that caught fire. Kleinsasser said the cigarettes were “the most likely cause of the fire,” and that it appears to be accidental. A university initiative banning the use of tobacco on campus went into effect July 1. The policy resulted in the removal of ashtrays from campus. With no true power to penalize tobacco users, the university organized a group of “Tobacco Free Campus Ambassadors” to monitor tobacco usage on campus. Their job is to provide tobacco users with smoking cessation aides and information regarding the campus tobacco-free policy. University police chief Robert Hinshaw said he isn’t sure if there is a link between the removal of ashtrays from campus and the increased likelihood of fires started by the improper disposal of cigarettes. “I would be hard-pressed to say that this fire was a consequence of removing the ashtrays from campus,” Hinshaw said. “I would say that fires are more likely to happen when burning materials are not disposed of properly – regardless of whether an ashtray is close-by.”
read LEARNING
COLLABORATION
FREE SPEECH
PRIVATE SCHOOL ALLIANCE ENGINEERING WICHITA laboratory EDUCATION EXPERIENTIAL INNOVATION BARDO PARKING
FAMILY FUNDED
WONDER?
CAMPUS
COLLEGE
BUSINESS
CHILDREN
CONCEALED CARRY STUDENT GOVERNMENT
kochtopus
KOCH
CHASE AND ANNIE
WICHITA
PARKING GARAGE
CRITERIA
SCHOOL EDUCATION WICHITA EAGLE NO SMOKING* CHASE AND ANNIE americans for prosperityAPPLIED LEARNING STUDENT
FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT
teach industry partners
marketplace of ideas
BY CHANCE SWAIM
W
onder about Wonder? You’re not alone. After a story in the Sunday Wichita Eagle broke the news that a Koch family-funded private school — called Wonder — is opening on Wichita State’s campus this fall, community members raised a number of questions and concerns through social media. Wednesday, WSU attempted to answer those questions through a Q&A page on its website. Based on the information posted there and a lease agreement between Wonder and Wichita State Innovation Alliance obtained through the Kansas Open Records Act, here’s what we know so far:
1
WONDER IS A NONPROFIT funded by Annie and Chase Koch, son of Wichita billionaire Charles Koch and president of Koch Disruptive Technologies. Mrs. Koch and Zach Lahn, a former fundraiser and state director for Americans for Prosperity, a Koch-backed conservative political advocacy group, are the founders of the school. Charles Koch is notorious for his political and economic network sometimes referred to as the “Kochtopus.” The primary political advocacy arm of that network is Americans for Prosperity, which promotes Charles and his brother David’s political agenda. Mrs. Koch and Lahn said the school is intended to be an “open marketplace of ideas” and “won’t advocate a religious, social or political philosophy.” Wonder’s business filing as a nonprofit limits its political activities. The school “shall not carry on propaganda or otherwise attempt SEE WONDER PAGE 4
PHOTO COURTESY WICHITA STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES, SPECIAL COLLECTIONS AND UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES
A 1958 watercolor rendering of Frank Lloyd Wright’s plans for Corbin Education Center (left) and the “elementary school of tomorrow” — or University of Wichita Elementary School, referred to as the “Juvenile Cultural Center for the University of Wichita” (right) — which was never completed. Photo copyrighted by the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation.
the experimental elementary school
that never was Fluid grade levels, rearranged classroom spaces, college students observing children for learning outcomes — that sounds familiar. Before Wonder, 60 years before, an experimental elementary school was planned on what is now Wichita State’s campus. Frank Lloyd Wright, considered by many to be the greatest 20th century architect, designed two buildings on campus in 1958: Corbin Education Center and University of Wichita Elementary School. The elementary school never materialized, but it had big plans. In that story, the school was dubbed the “elementary school of tomorrow.” ThenDean of the College of Education Jackson O. Powell explained how the laboratory school would be “used to develop instructional procedures” for students. Kingergarten, first, and second graders would enter the school and remain in that
level until “equipped to handle the responsibility required for the higher grades,” the 1958 story said. From third to sixth grades study would be “departmentalized along major disciplinary lines.” The most cutting-edge tool planned for the school was the closed-circuit television college students would use to monitor the elementary school students as they progressed through their classes. “Every precaution will be taken to prevent intrusion by undergraduate students upon the elementary school,” Powell told The Sunflower in 1958. The goal of the research elementary school was to “place emphasis on subjects that have been neglected in public schools today, such as cultural aspects learning.” In the 1964 edition of “The Kansas Teacher,” Powell said it would be for “research to cut the gap between the known in education and the practice.”
SGA proposes election changes, hopes for diversity BY RAY STRUNK
BRIAN HAYES/THE SUNFLOWER
Senators Michael Bearth, Walter Wright and Courtney Wages listen as Vice President Breck Towner addresses senate during the February 7, 2018 meeting.
A proposed change to the student government elections was presented to the Wichita State Student Government Association on Wednesday, to concerns of timeliness and transparency. In previous student government elections, candidates for student senate would either be grouped with a presidential ticket or run as a write-in candidate. The proposed amendment would get rid of the tickets entirely. Student Body Vice President Breck Towner said the amendment would encourage more people to run for positions and result in a more diverse student
government. “In the past, we’ve seen elections where there is two tickets and they all do a complete split and we have you versus them,” Towner said. “That’s something that we want to try to avoid and that’s something that this bill will do away with.” The proposal comes one month before campaigning is set to begin. The deadline to file for SGA elections is March 14 and the election will take place April 2-4 Nancy Loosle, WSU director of student involvement and SGA advisor, said she began working on the amendment last semester, SEE SGA PAGE 2
INSIDE
SGA SURVEY
CODING KIDDOS
SGA releases raw data from student survey.
OPINION • PAGE 2
CLOVERFIELD PARADOX
WOMEN’S BBALL BATTLE
WSU student teaches kids a new skill.
This film flops.
Shockers fight in the American.
CULTURE • PAGE 3
CULTURE • PAGE 3
SPORTS • PAGE 4