MONDAY, APRIL 23, 2018 • VOL. 122, ISS. 55
THESUNFLOWER.COM
WICHITA STATE UNIVERSITY’S INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1896.
Mathematics instructor remembered as a ‘protector’
‘Bitter or better’
BY JENNA FARHAT
Friends of math instructor C. Patric Mitchell knew him as a protector — loyal to his family, his students, his colleagues, and his dogs. “He liked to guard his pack,” said math instructor Nathan Thompson, who met Mitchell in 2006 when they were both students. “If you got into his group, then he was going to do everything he could to look out for you. That’s the thing I admired most about him, was looking out for the people that he cared about.” Math and physics professor Elizabeth Behrman remembers Mitchell as a guardian. She recalled a time when a student, upset about his grade in her class, came to her office and threatened to “inflict bodily harm” on her. “Patric, who was in the outer office, could hear what was going on,” Behrman said. “He came and he stood in the doorway, looming over this guy, and said ‘You need to leave right now!’” Behrman said the student left without another word “I will never forget how he bodyguarded me,” Behrman said. “He was very, very sweet. He was a really good person.” Mitchell, 52, died of natural causes in his office last week, a university spokesperson said. Thompson said Mitchell liked to tell stories about his time in the cavalry division of the army, stationed in Germany as part of the tank crew. Thompson said the sense of order and community Mitchell picked up during his time in the army was replicated in his work environment. “I think it goes back to his roots. He had that taskmaster element to his personality,” Thompson said. “That sort of regimented thing where people had a place and
BRIAN HAYES/THE SUNFLOWER
Shelby Rowell, the vice president of the 61st SGA session, stands on the third floor balcony of the Rhatigan Student Center. Rowell plans to use her past experiences to “give back” to students and make sure they have a voice during their college experiences.
Student body vice president rises through tragedies BY CHANCE SWAIM
W
hat do you do when what are supposed to be the best years of your life turn into the worst? For newly elected Student Body Vice President Shelby Rowell, the answer to that question is what led her to Wichita State and, ultimately, to her leadership role with WSU’s student government association. It’s been a rough few years for Rowell, a senior, with one tragedy after another shaping her life. After graduating from El Dorado High School, Rowell, the middle sister of fraternal triplets, went out of state to pursue a degree at Coe College, a private liberal arts college in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Rowell and her two sisters, Sally and Hanna, all three chose to attend different schools. Sally went to Manhattan Christian to play basketball and study education. Hanna went to WSU to pursue a degree in nursing. Rowell chose Coe for its strong writing focus and impressive degree program in
“MY DAD WAS, LIKE, MY PERSON. HE WAS ALWAYS THE PERSON THAT I WENT TO FOR ADVICE AND HE HAD A VERY SIMILAR PERSONALITY TO MINE, AND WE ALWAYS JOKED AROUND THAT I WAS THE SON OF THE GROUP.” —STUDENT BODY VICE PRESIDENT SHELBY ROWELL
international studies. “We had a saying at Coe, ‘Coe sweet home,’ and I absolutely felt that,” Rowell said. But before her first semester finished, she would find herself back in Kansas. Her sister, Sally, was killed in a car wreck. “She had just played her first basketball game at Manhattan Christian College and she was coming home to see a friend in the hospital when it happened,” Rowell said. “She was the purest soul I think probably ever. She’d be a great education senator.
I think about that a lot, but she was just a wonderful, wonderful person. I can’t say enough good things about her,” Rowell said. Rowell came home to be with her family in the aftermath of her sister’s death. She finished her semester from home. One semester turned into two, and then she eventually decided to stay around, in part, to be close to her sister, Hanna. “We were always very very close,” Rowell said, “so after this happened, that’s one of the reasons I didn’t go back to Coe is because I knew it would be devastating for Hanna, so that’s one of the reasons I stayed. “We’re very close. We live together, talk together all the time — she’s awesome,” Rowell said. But that wasn’t the end of the tragic circumstances of Rowell’s college years. Shortly after being elected as a student senator last spring, Rowell’s dad died. “My dad was, like, my person,” Rowell said. “He was always the person that I went to for advice and he had a very similar personality to mine, and we always joked SEE ROWELL PAGE 6
SEE MITCHELL PAGE 4
Student finds freedom in drag show BY KYLIE CAMERON
BRIAN HAYES/THE SUNFLOWER
Parking garage will transition to payby-hour parking, as originally planned BY KYLIE CAMERON
At the beginning of the school year, Wichita State announced that the new parking garage would be treated the same as a surface lot, allowing anyone with a permit to park there. The parking garage was originally intended to be pay-bythe-hour parking, but the pay stations were backordered. This week, the university announced that starting May 13 the garage will be used as it was originally intended as a pay-bythe-hour garage. “The pay stations were installed in October and the university planned to switch to hourly parking only over the holiday break,” said Troy Bruun, associate vice president of financial reporting in
an email. “The SGA (Student Government Association) asked that the university to not make changes during the academic year to avoid confusion.” The first level of the parking garage will still be reserved for red permits and the fourth floor will be for yellow permit holders. The second and third level will be hourly parking. Visitors will have to pay $1.50 an hour, with a daily maximum of $15, and can pay at one of the six kiosks in the garage. “Anyone may utilize the hourly parking,” Bruun said in August. “The kiosks will accept credit cards, cash, and coins. Please note the kiosks will not give change, but they will give a receipt for additional time that you can use on your next visit.”
Drenched in rain, then-freshman Jonas Zabriskie watched in awe of the drag performers at the annual campus drag show put on by the Student Activities Council. The show had a lasting impact on Zabriskie, and a year later he was on stage as Faux L’Beau — French for ‘fake boyfriend’ — performing alongside other drag queens and kings with years of experience.
“I REALIZED THIS IS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR ME TO TAKE THOSE EXPECTATIONS OFF MYSELF AND BE THE EXACT OPPOSITE. I FEEL RELEASED.” —JONAS ZABRISKIE
Zabriskie went to his first drag show in his home state of Minnesota at age 18. But it wasn’t until about a year later at the seventh annual WSU drag show that Zabriskie decided to do drag. “Last year’s drag show, I waited hours to get in the front row,” Zabriskie said. “After the show I was like, ‘I’m doing this.’ I asked my friend how long it takes to decide to do drag and then perform, and they said it took about a year and I wanted to do it, like, tomorrow.”
KENZIE BORLAND/THE SUNFLOWER
Faux L’Beau passes out clown noses on stage at the 2018 annual WSU drag show on Friday night. L’Beau, aka Jonas Zabrinski, has the support of his family.
Zabriskie’s character, Faux L’Beau, is “completely feminine” compared to other drag queens. “I think I did that because I grew up being so athletic and was expected to be super masculine, working out, hanging out with the guys, doing my sports and being
that jock,” Zabriskie said. “When I decided to do drag, I realized this is an opportunity for me to take those expectations off myself and be the exact opposite. I feel released.”
SEE DRAG QUEEN PAGE 5
INSIDE
DRAG LIKE YOU MEAN IT
WE FUCKED UP
PARADISE LOST
Ultimate hangover food.
This is one sexy circus.
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Who’s left of the Shocker men’s basketball team?
CULTURE • PAGE 3
OPINION • PAGE 4
CULTURE • PAGE 4
SPORTS • PAGE 6
CHEETOS + QUESADILLA