The class of 2023’s first year on campus was cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic. They packed up, went home and logged in. Now, four years later between Zoom calls, Blackboard and a long-awaited return to the classroom, they’re logging off.
Please note that some aspects of this story may be triggering as portions of the story contain references to sexual harassment.
After sexual harassment allegations from two women and more than two hours of discussion and debate, the SGA Senate voted 29 to 2 to remove the Speaker of the Senate from the role at Wednesday night’s meeting.
Following the election of Kian Williams to speaker last week, two members of student government used the SGA public forum to speak about alleged sexual harassment they said they had experienced from Williams.
At last week’s Senate meeting, Mary Elizabeth Thornton, at-large senator, said she had been made uncomfortable by Williams. Following her claim, the Senate elected Williams into office by a narrow vote, 22-19.
At this week’s meeting, Thornton, as well as Senate Clerk Nora Malone, spoke about experiences they said they have had with Williams. Williams uses they/them pronouns.
“Last week, my experiences … were invalidated and ignored,” Thornton said. “Last week, this body chose to ignore the problem, condone the problem, and tell every person who has experienced harassment and intimidation in the workplace that their experiences were invalid.”
Thornton went on to say that in her time as student body vice president, she experienced “intimidation attempts” from Williams.
“Instances of these conversions that were met with the condescending tone and inability to finish the statement due to being blatantly interrupted, wandering eyes that made me feel ashamed of my own body … and simply just being ignored are examples of these type of experiences I’m talking about today,” Thornton said.
Following her statement, Malone spoke to the Senate to share about instances when she said she had felt unsafe due to Williams. Malone said that she and Williams used to be friends, but following William’s appointment to Speaker Pro-Tempore of the Senate, she noticed a tone shift.
“(Williams) started to excessively compliment me, telling me things like ‘You’re beautiful’ or ‘That dress looks really good on you,’” Malone said. “Their tone
MISSION
had shifted in a way that began to intimidate me, and the comments were frequent enough that I was made to be very uncomfortable.”
Malone said her discomfort mounted when she went into her office one day and saw Williams walking out of the room. The night before this, Malone said that Williams had given her a letter filled with compliments after a fine arts performance.
“When I got into my office, I saw that speaker Williams left me another letter and other unwanted gifts,” Malone said. “For further context, the door was locked, and Speaker Williams was not one of the people who had a key.”
Malone said the contents of both letters upset her.
“What alarmed me was when I read several lines (of the second letter) that talked about how much Speaker Williams loves me,” she said. “My personal space was invaded, and I felt violated.”
Malone said she felt “so physically unsafe” that she asked Gregory Vandyke Jr., at-large senator, to escort her out.
“Vandyke was kind enough to do that for me for several weeks after that incident,” she said.
Following Thornton and Malone’s speeches, Emanuyel Brown, at-large senator, voted to vacate Williams as speaker, which passed, following discussion.
During debate over whether to vacate Williams from their position, the former speaker said they do not have a proper defense after “just now learning about these allegations.”
“As a victim of sexual assault myself, I understand the vulnerability that it took to stand up here and talk,” Williams said. “I maintain my innocence of any and all allegations of Title IX or Student Conduct and Ethics violations presented here today.”
Williams said, while they were unaware of the allegations, rumors had been spread about them.
“My opponents spread rumors that I sexually assaulted somebody the night of my prom,” Williams said. “The fact of the matter is that that night, I was fed alcohol, drugged, and woke up to being raped.
“Every day, I carry that on my shoulders, letting the weight of it drag me down emotionally and physically. And now I have to relive that trauma in front of all of you, just to defend my character, my future, my position, my passions.”
Williams did not speak after
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this point.
Thornton and Malone’s speeches sparked nearly two hours of discussion, where many senators mentioned separate, personal experiences they had with sexual harassment or assault.
Andrew Bobbitt, at-large senator, said that it is not the Senate’s position to weigh in on the issue of sexual harassment or assault.
“I would ask that all senators listen tonight to what everyone has to say, but I would strongly advise the Senate to remember that there are methods and procedures for addressing these claims, and I do not believe that this is the appropriate forum to do so,” Bobbitt said.
Vandyke disagreed with Bobbitt.
“It is our issue to weigh in on,” Vandyke said. “If we tolerate this; if we allow this, then what type of message is that sending to the rest of the students on this campus?”
Jay Thompson, at-large senator, said he knows Malone and Thornton’s confession “to be true” but said it is not the job of the Senate to assess accusations.
“I want to make clear that I denounce and do not condone any level of sexual harassment,” Thompson said. “Additionally, I do not tolerate not being able to claim your downfalls or your faults. It is not a crime to flirt.
“If it makes someone uncomfortable, up to a certain point, it is their job to voice that uncomfortability.”
Vandyke said he was disgusted by student representatives “contemplating if there’s enough
evidence.”
“If we tolerate these disgusting acts that these people have courageously talked about today,” Vandyke said. “If we tolerate that, then we ask ourselves ‘What are we tolerating on Wichita State University campus.’”
During Thornton’s speech, the senator suggested that issues of sexual harassment or assault within student government are a symptom of a larger problem.
“Over the last year, the Student Government Association has witnessed person after person be intimidated or terrified or harassed to the point of resignation,” she said.
Thornton noted that some people have called the issues pertaining to sexual harassment “drama.”
“Chalking up people’s experiences to drama is so invalidating and dehumanizing,” she said “To everyone who has said that this is just a bunch of drama, check your priorities.”
Several people outside of Senate came to the meeting to support those who shared their experiences, like representatives from FOCUS, the feminist group on campus, and Sexual Health Advocacy, Resources, and Education (SHARE). Alayna Nelson said she was there for Malone.
“I was one of her confidants when everything with Speaker Williams happened,” Nelson said.
“I saw the effect it had on her … She wanted some support, so we showed up for her today.”
The full livestream can be watched on SGA’s YouTube page.
Dogs are in tune with human hormones, smelling when people are stressed, anxious or depressed.
As finals come up, these emotions appear more often, students are more than welcome to play and cuddle with the therapy dogs on campus.
When dogs sense these emotions, they often lay their paws on a person’s body.
Through the feeling of fur and the pressure of the paw, the brain is told to release oxytocin, which calms the nervous system.
“(Dogs) are very good at recognizing those signs in people,” Mahsa Maghsoudi, a counselor in the WSU Integrated Support and Empowerment (WISE) clinic, said. “They read your body language and facial expressions.”
At Wichita State, students and community members can go to the WISE Clinic and play with three therapy dogs –Rex, Cumin and Sam – when they are feeling stressed.
“We have some clients that come in 20 to 30 minutes before their appointment times just to play (with the dogs),” Maghsoudi said.
WISE is also willing to accommodate clients who are scared of dogs.
“I have a client who started off scared of dogs and so I left Sam behind for our first sessions,” Christie Henderson, assistant clinical professor at Wichita State said. “Soon she got more comfortable with the idea, and we slowly introduced Sam and she would slowly pet him.”
“I think having a calm interaction with a dog worked to heal some of the trauma she had,” Henderson said.
Members of WISE have also found that simply allowing people to see the dogs can alleviate fears.
By the end of a semester, previously scared clients become less frightened and more willing to touch them Sam has been fully certified, and on top of working on campus, he also works with seniors through Love on a Leash, a non-profit pet therapy group. As of now, Rex and Cumin have gone through basic training, and their certification training starts next month.
According to Masghoudi, WISE offers free services, and their counselors are graduate students in training under faculty supervision.
For associates and bachelors, tassels should start on the right side of your cap and be moved to the left when your dean tells you to do so. Underclassmen and seniors alike used to wear tassels and move them from corner to corner after each academic year. The current tradition of seniors moving their tassels became popular in the 1970s and is used to signify the transition from an academic to a professional career. Masters and doctoral graduates will keep their tassels on the left side of their caps.
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• Mathematics Physics Public admin. All Doctorates
Brown
• Creative writing
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Salmon
Aging studies
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Orange College of engineering
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Teal Physical therapy
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Applied econ.
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and
(MA)
BY DANIELLE WAGNER suzwagner65@gmail.com
In combining her passions for art and helping others, Jade Warden, a studio art major with a concentration in painting, became a senator for Student Government Association (SGA).
A push from former Student Body President John Kirk helped Warden decide to join SGA. Before the pandemic’s onset, Kirk approached Warden to run with him as a fine arts senator.
“I wanted to work with someone that was going to help me within the fine arts community,” Kirk said. “I knew that she would.”
The conversation with Kirk during her freshman year pushed Warden to join SGA her sophomore year. She held her position as a fine arts senator the remaining three years at WSU.
Fellow Sen. Kylee Hower worked closely together with Warden. In the Ways and Means Committee of SGA, the pair, along with the other members, was able to pass legislation.
Some of the bills they passed included the Senate restructure bill, to change SGA’s processes, and to recognize student organizations.
“She was a huge role model for me in Senate,” Hower said. “Because she wasn’t afraid to speak her opinion on things, which I really admire.”
Though she specializes in painting, Warden’s favorite classes are related to art history, specifically, any taught by assistant professor Brittany Lockard.
“She has such vast knowledge of everything,” Warden said. “Honestly, that made me dive more into my passion because I love learning about all the different types of art.”
After getting her freshman year cut short by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Warden said if she had the power to change her college career, it would be to recreate one without the pandemic.
“My whole college career … got shortened,” she said. “I feel
like I definitely did miss out on a lot more than newer people coming in.”
Despite the setback, Warden said she was ready to experience new things at Wichita State and meet new people following her first year.
“I don’t think anything could’ve prepared me for the groups of friends I would come across,” Warden said.
Warden said one of her favorite things to do on campus is attend events. Shockers After Dark was specifically her favorite.
“I think it’s really fun kind of going outside my comfort zone and meeting people that I’ve never met before,” Warden said.
With four years under her belt, Warden said students shouldn’t be afraid to take chances.
“(WSU students) are some of the most carefree people,” Warden said. “They don’t care where you come from (or) who you are. As long as you give them respect, they will give it right back to you.”
After a recent group gallery
show in Salina, she wants to get her work out there, reaching not only the Wichita area but outside of Kansas as well.
With graduation on the horizon, Warden has started preparing herself for the next step in her life: freelance painting.
Warden said that finishing college and receiving her bachelor’s makes her feel proud.
“It’s kind of a sense of ‘Oh my gosh. I actually did that,” she said.
Sophomore Delaney Jones was walking on Wichita State’s campus a few years ago when someone shouted, “Are you a feminist?” at her. That someone was Kathlynn Short, a former president of FOCUS, Intersectional Feminists On Campus Uniting Students.
After speaking to Short, Jones began to attend the organization’s meetings, eventually stepping into the president’s role for two years.
While president, Jones helped organize meetings and events and supported bills that had to do with gender equality, such as the menstrual bill that was passed last December.
Now a senior, Jones recently stepped down to vice president to give another person experience as president, while she focuses on grad school.
Jones, an honors student with a 4.0 GPA, recently received word of her acceptance into Wichita State’s Master of Arts in English Language and Literature program.
“I didn't want to do them a disservice by being super busy with grad school and then being unable to manage it as effectively,” Jones said. “I'll help out. But all the big responsibilities I'm going to push on to someone else.”
Despite her academic achievement, Jones said her first two years at WSU were challenging as she had been recently diagnosed with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.
Following her diagnosis in 2018 or 2019, she found that she struggled with academic anxiety and experienced imposter syndrome.
“Just the idea of always having to be perfect at everything (is an example),” Jones said. “Always worrying about how others perceive you and if you're doing something right.”
Jones began taking medication in college for her OCD, which helped alleviate her anxiety.
SPRING COMMENCEMENT IS SPLIT INTO THREE GRADUATIONS
9 a.m - Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, College of Fine Arts, Honors College, and the College of Innovation and Design graduates should check in at 8 a.m.
1 p.m. - College of Applied Studies and College of Health Professions graduates should check in at noon.
5 p.m. - College of Business and College of Engineering graduates should check in at 4 p.m.
“I felt like I was in control of how I felt most of the time, and big tasks didn't seem nearly as scary anymore,” she said.
Another step that helped Jones was switching her major from engineering to English.
“I feel like a lot of my professors in the English department were more understanding and willing to work with me,” Jones said. “It's
a little less ‘Right answer, wrong answer.’ It’s more ‘Explain your answer and why you believe it,’ and I feel better at doing that than just hearing, ‘Oh, you're wrong.’”
Following her switch to English, she began tutoring at the Writing Center, where she met Hannah Holliday, a fellow English major and member of FOCUS.
Right now, the two are in Intro to Multimedia and often partner when they can.
“She is so fun to work with and is always a team player,” Holliday said. “She always does her share and then some. She always goes above and beyond to make sure that everything we do together is a good product.”
Holliday described Jones as “bright.”
“She carries herself in such a sunny way,” Holliday said. “She carries herself intelligently and with such positivity that it just makes you feel like sunshine when you're around her.”
Holliday said she admires Jones’ vocalness on feminism and equal rights.
“I don't have the bravery that she does to speak about the issues that she does publicly,” Holliday said. “And she worked so hard for so many different organizations because she really cares about feminism. Even when she was getting hate messages, she kept going.”
Jones worked with Kansas For Constitutional Freedom, Planned Parenthood, and Trust Women last summer to advocate Wichitans to vote “no” on the “Value Them Both” amendment. A few FOCUS members also volunteered.
The group also recently hosted a community care drive where FOCUS worked with Trust Women Wichita to donate menstrual products, binding tape and binders to the Shocker Support Locker.
Before starting her master’s program in the fall, Jones will go on a study-abroad trip with the English department to London.
Jones said her time at Wichita State has impressed her.
“I've made a lot of great connections with students and friends,” Jones said. “Even if I graduate with my master's, I would still love to contribute to the English department if I'm still in the area.”
Chloe Ciecko’s parents and brother were trapped in the Dr. Jim Farha Andover YMCA when word of a tornado reached the center a year ago.
“I was the only one in my family who was not there at the Andover Y,” Ciecko, a Wichita State junior, said.
On April 29, 2022, the EF-3 tornado tore through south-central Kansas, leaving damage to homes, community centers and more.
Ciecko, who was babysitting at the time, moved the kids she was watching to their basement and read stories to pass the time as tornado sirens rang.
Not far off, the tornado destroyed the YMCA, leaving only
BY MIA HENNEN news@thesunflower.com
Stewart McClelland came to Wichita State with an interest in green energy. When he began his education as a mechanical engineering student, he began doing research under associate mechanical engineering professor Ikram Ahmed as part of the honors First Year Research Experience (FYRE).
In continuation of a 2019 study, Ahmed and McClelland sent out a survey in hopes of learning more about carbon dioxide emissions at the university. The questionnaire asks participants to answer questions about their commuting habits.
“If people need to drive long distances to come to this campus, then that means they’re emitting a lot of carbon, especially if they’re driving a car fueled by fossil fuels,” Ahmed said. “If transportation comes out (of the survey) to be a major source of emissions, we (the university) may want to start looking into how to improve our commuting experience here.”
Large emissions of carbon dioxide, a heat-trapping gas, have contributed to climate change. Ahmed said that the connection between energy usage and global warming sparked his interest in sustainability.
“I have been teaching our students here about thermodynamics … the solid science of heat,” Ahmed said. “We teach these things because mechanical engineers are the ones that design power plants, that run power plants and improve power and design.”
Ahmed said he bikes to campus in hopes of inspiring others to do the same.
“I know my biking to campus
a hallway and the locker room where Ciecko’s family and others sheltered.
Back at the basement where Ciecko waited, the sirens soon faded and the childrens’ parents returned home. While talking with them outside — with the tornado receding but visible on the horizon — Ciecko received a call.
“I just hear a panicky voice of like, ‘the Andover YMCA is gone. The roof is gone. Our car’s gone. You need to pick us up,’” Ciecko said.
The call wasn’t Ciecko’s mother’s first attempt to reach her daughter. She was on the fifth or so attempt when the call finally went through.
“As soon as I got that phone call, I just kind of jumped right
away into action, and I stayed pretty calm,” Ciecko said.
During the 10-minute drive to pick up her family, the sky went from dusk to pitch black. In the dark, Ciecko searched for her family, who had to crawl under debris and cars to get out of the building turned to rubble.
“I got them in my car, and then when we got home, we were all just really, really shaken up,” she said. “From what they told me, it was just a really close call.”
Ciecko said she and her family all handled the stress differently, from making jokes to help cope to sitting silently.
Looking back, Ciecko said in the weeks following the tornado, she and her family talked little of what happened but “quietly
recognized” everything that had happened — the events being too much to relive.
“It was a solemn reminder for us of how important it was just to enjoy each other’s presence and enjoy each other as a family,” Ciecko said. “In one night, I was almost the only one in my family left.”
When she sees a thunderstorm approaching now, Ciecko said it can put her on edge.
“I think I get the sense that ‘Oh, my family might be in danger,’” she said. “Even though I know it’s just a thunderstorm, but just feeling the air charged up with that weather.”
Andover neighborhood residents clean up much of the debris created by the tornado
that swept through the town and surrounding areas the previous night.
The Cieckos still live together in the same house close to Andover, Kansas. And although their home was not impacted by the tornado, many nearby lost most – if not all –of their homes.
“I still think it does have a lasting impact on us, both as a community and individually,” she said.
With peak tornado season nearing for the midwest, Ciecko urged individuals to take a tornado warning seriously.
“Please take this seriously,” Ciecko said. “Go and seek shelter in your basements … It’s not some kind of entertainment to go watch.”
is not going to make a dent in anything we do here,” he said. “But before I can encourage the whole campus to start biking, I gotta start.”
Ahmed and McClelland consider the survey and other sustainability-motivated research to be a passion project of theirs.
Ahmed said it is important to teach students to consider the consequences their actions have on the environment.
“Eventually, our students go out in the world and do things and their actions and their work will have effects on the larger world outside of the campus,” Ahmed said. “We need to make sure our students are aware of the consequences of their possible professional work.”
Ahmed said a group of faculty and staff are also working on ways to increase awareness and improve sustainability efforts. He hopes that the university will hire a sustainability officer as well.
“We as faculty cannot really devote enough time and attention to this problem,” he said. “It’s a campus-wide issue, and it needs to be coordinated by someone who has enough of a mandate that comes from the president’s office.”
McClelland said the survey has received about 300 responses so far. The survey doesn’t have a specific close date. Individuals can fill out the survey by using the QR code to the right.
In addition to the survey, McClelland has researched other aspects of the university through FYRE, like electricity and natural gas usage at the university.
“My primary responsibility
this semester has been to catalog the electricity usage and natural gas usage of campus, which we access through the electricity and natural gas bills,” McClelland said McClelland said there are about 60 electricity and 20 natural gas meters on campus to look into. Some of the bills identify the building their usage is coming from, but others don’t, which makes the project more difficult, according to McClelland.
McClelland hopes to make electricity and natural gas data more public at the university.
“I’m sure that we can put out a more average general number of our electricity usage and emissions, but at the same time, that may not be something that the university wants to put out,” McClelland said. “You don’t want to be a leader in innovation and lagging behind on your carbon emissions.”
Regardless, McClelland said he has felt supported by the university in his research
Jaden Wood never thought that her career would involve looking through lenses — lenses for glasses, that is. All it took was a camera lens to set her on the right path.
Wood is a graduating senior, studying optometry, while also being a freelance photographer. Wood had a humble start in photography by taking pictures of almost anything, like animals, using her mom’s phone, and from there, it became a passion for her.
efforts.
“I’d say there’s a lot of support,” he said. “I have not met a single person that has been like, ‘Oh, that’s a bad project. You’re wasting your time.’”
McClelland said he would like to have a few people join him on his project to help generate different ideas and possible solutions.
Those interested in helping can contact him at stmcclelland@shockers.wichita. edu.
“I eventually bought my own camera in, I think, high school and since then, I just take pictures now and then,” Wood said. “I’ve done senior pictures, I’ve taken my own senior pictures and I’ve taken other people’s.”
While she hasn’t done many photography projects, she is still interested in the similar functions of the human eye and a camera lens.
“It’s actually photography that kind of inspired my career into optometry,” Wood said. “I was interested in how a camera lens kind of functions similarly to a human eye and I kind of just went from there.”
Wood’s boyfriend, Caleb Vancuren, said he’s excited to see Wood take the next steps in her academic career.
“She is probably one of the smartest and most hardworking (people) I’ve ever met and pursues her goals with a passion that I find admirable,” Vancuren said in a text exchange to The Sunflower.
After Wood graduates from Wichita State, she plans on attending Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma to study in the College of Optometry.
‘Improve our commuting experience’: Professor and student look to estimate university carbon footprint
When Piper Prichard came to Wichita State four years ago as a filmmaking major, she was unaware that her education would soon be tilted on its head.
In between her sophomore and junior year, Prichard was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. She feared the impact her diagnosis would have on her college career.
“I thought that was like gonna be a major thing that stopped me from continuing college,” Prichardsaid. “I didn’t know what was going on.” While she still attended classes, she felt as though she was not retaining any of the information being presented. She was present but unfocused.
“So I’m still catching up to things I’d probably would’ve retained better if I had not dealt with what I dealt with,” she said.
Despite the difficulties and challenges she has faced, due to her diagnosis and treatments, Prichard said she wouldn’t change anything.
People in the school of digital arts helped Prichard, especially professors and faculty. She feels that if she didn’t have the support system through Shocker Studios, she wouldn’t have succeeded.
“I had the support I needed to be able to come to school and still go and do treatment or surgery,” Prichard said. “When I had to take this last fall semester off, which is what pushed me back a semester for graduating, there wasn’t a moment that I felt like I was going to be left out of anything.”
She said there was one professor who helped her the most with her educational journey.
“Justin Rorabaugh … has been the most understanding and helpful (professor) I’ve had,” Prichard said. “I can easily go to him and talk to him and say ‘this is a problem I’m having,’ and he’s able to help me with that.”
Rorabaugh, director of Shocker Studios, said that Prichard has been a hardworking and dedicated student.
“When faced with major obstacles, she conquered them to keep
moving forward with her goals,” Rorabaugh said in an email.
During her time at Wichita State, Prichard has taken part in the Take36 competition. In the competition, competitors have 36 hours to write, film and edit a short film.
“I’ve done it two times now, and both times (my team) made it into the top 10 and been shown at the Orpheum,” she said. “It’s really exciting because for a long time I didn’t think I’d be able to (because) I’m more of a writer.”
Prichard said she has found her passion in listening to and telling other people’s stories and hopes to be able to utilize this in her career.
“It gives you a different perspective in everyday life,” she said.
After she graduates, Prichard does not have a solid plan but expressed interest in wedding videography. Her dream job is to be a screenwriter.
But no matter what she does, being in a room full of other creative individuals is something that she loves.
“There’s something different
about being able to work with a group of like-minded individuals,” Prichard said. “I feel like no matter who you meet in life, whether you
enjoying going to school, and I had always loved going to school.”
Porter knew it was time for a change.
“I was like ‘when was the last time like I remember myself being truly happy with where I was going my life?’” Porter said. “It was when I was in the theater and so I made the switch.”
Porter had to have an emergency gallbladder surgery, and later found out she has POTS, a disease that can affect the heart.
Constantly being out of the cardiologists’ and doctors’ offices made her think, “Why waste four years of my life doing something that I don’t absolutely love?”
Porter was actively involved in theater in high school, but never considered it an option to pursue as a career.
“I very much, growing up, had that mindset that art was a hobby, not a job,” Porter said.
While Porter had performed on stage in high school, she preferred the stage management aspect.
“I’ve always been (a) very type-A person,” Porter said. “I love making things run smoothly.”
BY JAYCIE NELSON editor@thesunflower.comWichita State wasn’t Alexys Porter’s first choice and neither was being a theater major, but she couldn’t imagine her school and major any other way now.
Porter, also earning a certificate in stage management, planned to move away for college, but when her grandfather was diagnosed with terminal cancer, she decided to stay at home to be close to him.
Even though the school wasn’t her first choice, she had an older
sister who had attended, and Porter still thought Wichita State was a good school.
“I’ve always had high opinions of WSU,” Porter said. “I grew up watching WSU basketball.”
When Porter got to WSU, she enrolled as a business major, but right before the pandemic hit, she became sick and was in and out of the hospital.
“It kind of really made me stop and like look at my life, and I wasn’t happy with what I was doing,” Porter said. “I wasn’t
Throughout Porter’s years at WSU, she’s taken on various leadership roles, and is currently a student assistant in the office of School of Performing, as well as being a stage manager for shows such as the “Wichita Contemporary Dance Theatre Concert.”
Cheyla Clawson, Director of the School of Performing Arts, said Porter has qualities that are rare to find.
“She’s able to see, like, a big picture (and) at the same time be very detailed,” Clawson said.
Clawson added that Porter is a facilitator and community builder because she can see what’s important and what the
get along or not, you can learn something from everyone you encounter.”
community needs, while valuing others’ opinions and input.
“She just can do so much at once, and it’s pretty brilliant,” Clawson said.
Reflecting back on her college experience, Porter said “college has been a wild ride.”
When she came to the university, she was searching for a community and she got to experience that a little when she switched to being a theater major, but then the pandemic hit. However, once students got to go back to school, Porter said she found that community.
“There’s something so unique and amazing about just the community that’s created here within this school,” Porter said.
Porter said that being able to work with women who are powerful leaders helped shape her into who she is today, as she wasn’t too confident in herself when she entered college.
“I’m a lot more confident in my abilities. When I walk into a room, I know that I deserve to be there now … That’s a lot of growth for me,” Porter said. “In theater, I know that I’m good at what I do, but I also know I have so much to learn, and that is so refreshing to be able to say ‘I’m good at where I’m at, but I can also still grow.’”
Sarah Bussard, Program Director for Tech & Design, said Porter has grown as a person and an artist.
“She feels really confident about speaking out not just for herself, but like advocating for other students,” Bussard said.
Bussard said Porter has a humility about her, and it’s one of the reasons she’s been able to jump so far ahead because she’s able to admit where she needs to learn.
“Once she kind of was able to process the emotional reaction
of ‘this didn’t go well, and I’m upset about it,’” Bussard said. “She was able to jump right back in and figure out how to solve the problem.”
After Porter graduates this May, she’s attending graduate school for production and project management at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA).
She said it’ll be a big culture shock, as she’s never left home.
“I’m super excited for her,” Clawson said, “But I’m just as, if not more, excited for them (UNCSA) for making it the right choice to have her.”
Porter said her end goal is to work in academia as one of her life mottos is “give back what gives to you.”
“Academic theater has given so much to me,” Porter said.
This year, Porter has been able to help mentor some of the younger theater students, and watching them be successful and helping them find their passion has been an aspect Porter has enjoyed.
“I want to do that for the rest of my life,” Porter said.
“She’s the sort of person who, other students aren’t necessarily put off by the fact that she’s so good at her job because she’s very good at mentoring her own students and kind of welcoming them in,” Bussard said.
Bussard said that because of Porter’s temperament and personality, students will come to Porter for her opinion because they trust her experience.
“To be so happy and feel so loved with where I’m at right now, it just feels worth it,” Porter said. “WSU wasn’t my plan, theater wasn’t my plan, but I cannot imagine doing theater anywhere else but here.”
The most important part of wearing a paper dress is to not get it wet, and not because it’ll dissolve — because it’s flammable.
Helen Jean, Jacquie Dorrance Curator of Fashion Design at Phoenix Art Museum, visited the Wichita Art Museum on Friday as part of the Howard E. Wooden Speaker Series. Jean discussed “Generation Paper,” the time for the fashion fad of “paper dresses,”which lasted from 1966-1970.
“Now, this is the 1960s, so we have the rise of leisure activities, really having lots of backyard picnics,” Jean said. “Lots of events with flames, everybody smoking everywhere. So this was a very, very risky fashion moment.”
Jean started the lecture by explaining some of the purposes of fashion, such as to protect and cover, but said there’s a lot more fashion can do.
“It’s an escape. It’s an adventure. It’s an exploration. It’s curiosity. It’s technology. It’s the future,” Jean said.
Paper fashion blends with other industries such as chemical companies and paper manufacturers. The dresses weren’t actually made out of paper, like copy paper, but materials very similar to it.
“Paper’s the exciting word,” Jean said. “Because to say, ‘oh, I’m wearing a paper bikini to the beach today,’ that caught everyone’s
attention.”
The collection in the Phoenix Art museum was gifted by Kelly Ellmen, a longtime supporter of the museum, who spent about 25-30 years collecting about 85 paper garments.
“She understands that it is a record of our experiences,” Jean said. “That it ties us to one another, that it links us to our activities. It is a record of our finances, of our technology, of our automotive, of our industry, of our architecture — fashion records all of that.”
Jean said fashion also records special things from individual people.
“If you ever sewn a patch onto a military uniform for someone, you’re stitching protection with every stitch,” Jean said. “If you’ve mended something for somebody that you care about, you put that time into it, you’re investing love into those textiles.”
The paper dress moment started as a way for chemical and paper companies to experiment and show off their materials.
“Fashion was the playground they chose to experiment in,” Jean said.
Scott’s Paper Company was a paper producer and started a mailing campaign where you could send in $1.25 (which includes your return stamp) and pick from the red bandana or the black and white pop art dress.
Jean said the dresses would come with instructions, such as to not get them wet, iron on cool,
don’t wash, but you can cut it shorter. The dresses were only supposed to be worn 3-5 times.
“This is a gimmick,” Jean said. “It’s a moment. It’s not intended to be what you wear forever. This is a flash in the pan moment. It’s a moment of experimentation.”
Jean said this wasn’t a trend because it was too short lived.
“This is a very short moment that just happened because it was the right art, the right aesthetic and the right user,” Jean said. “They were willing to jump on this highly risky, exciting opportunity.”
Some of the companies were “The Disposables,” “Wastebasket Boutique” and “Candy Wrappers.”
The clothes created were rompers, dresses, hats, earrings, childrens clothes, menswear, bathing suits (that you couldn’t swim in) and more.
The clothes were “walking billboards,” with Campbell’s soup on some, and presidential candidates on others.
However, this trend was quickly in and quickly out because of the rise of the environmental movement, the rise of craft and the fact that the garments weren’t comfortable or practical.
Jean ended the presentation with a quote from the president of the Palawan Corporation in 1967.
“Paper fashions are, at best, a conversation piece. To put on a paper dress is like taking that first step towards the moon.”
BY VICTOR DIMARTINO vvjjdd@yahoo.comWhen senior Gabi Johnson started going to Wichita State, her freshman year got interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in theater with a certificate in directing, a lot of the connection with others was lost by doing theater through Zoom.
Nearing the end of Johnson’s sophomore year, she and the rest of the theater department could put on live shows again. Johnson was able to play Victoria in “The Monty Hall Problem,” which was a filmed play. The performance followed all of the COVID protocols, such as wearing masks between takes and taking them off only when the director said action.
“COVID school was tough, but I still feel like I learned a lot,” Johnson said. “It was a lot of self-motivation, so it made me more self-reliant … to push myself forward rather than relying on people around me.”
After things started to return to normal, Johnson was able to assistant direct “Pippin” and direct both “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” and “Vanities,” with “Vanities” being her senior capstone project. Johnson is an actor and director and is equally passionate in both.
“Now that I just directed ‘Vanities,’ I realized that I’ve been really missing performing,” Johnson said. “I just auditioned for The Crown because I was like, man, I just miss performing.”
Johnson currently works at Piatto Tanya’s and at the Andover Dance Academy
as an Acro teacher in Wichita and does not plan to leave soon after graduating, “I love Wichita. This is my town,” Johnson said.
“There’s a lot of really amazing opportunities here that I kind of want to milk before I leave.”
Johnson had made lots of friends during her time at WSU. One of those friends is Sophie Pickett, who has worked with Johnson on a lot of the same projects. Pickett said how much of a pleasure it is to work with Johnson.
When asked where Pickett sees Johnson in 5-10 years, Pickett didn’t want to imagine a world without Johnson at first.
“She said she wanted to leave Wichita. Which I could totally see. I feel like I could see her staying here for a year or so, then I know she said she wanted to go to New York,” Pickett said. “I see her living in a different country. I believe she could be in Japan or Canada, like anywhere and still be working and performing.”
On the stage and off, Johnson does her best to make sure everyone is heard and cared for.
“I think I’m a fun person to work with,” Johnson said. “(I) try my hardest to make everyone in the room smile.”
Born, raised, staying: Theater major hopes to show what Wichita has to offerHelen Jean visited the Wichita Art Museum on April 28 for a discussion of paper dresses worn in the 1960s. | Photo by Jaycie Nelson / The Sunflower
Inside an old church with stained glass windows in Topeka, Kansas, senior Alyssa Pfeifer shot part of a film she’s longed to create for years.
“Seeing her face as she realized her dreams are coming true … it was really incredible,” Emery Downs, fellow film major and close friend, said.
Pfeifer is majoring in media arts with an emphasis in filmmaking and minoring in graphic design. Her film for Media Arts Practicum III, the program’s cumulative course, brought her to the church, but Pfeifer has worked on many projects at many locations while attending Wichita State.
Growing up in Lee Summit, Missouri, Pfeifer planned to study astrophysics. The self-described “space nerd” said film was an outlet while taking stressful classes. She only changed career plans after her teacher submitted her project to a New York film festival—and it was accepted.
Alongside filmmakers from her high school, Pfeifer watched her film in the AMC Theatre near Times Square.
“It was a breathtaking experience,” Pfeifer said. “If it wasn’t for my teacher seeing that potential in me, I would not be here doing the things I’m doing today.”
While Pfeifer initially wanted to study outside the Midwest, she “fell in love” with Wichita State’s film program upon visiting. Since starting in fall of 2020, Pfeifer has collaborated on professors’ films and worked on projects with the dance and theater programs.
“It’s constant work, and it’s constant being on set and having late nights, but I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Pfeifer said.
Outside of school, she does wedding videography and works in sports media with Wichita Wind Surge and Butler Community College.
“She is so incredibly professional,” Downs said. “She loves what she does, and she’s good at it.”
While balancing projects, Pfeifer works to bring her practicum film to life as director, wrapping her first shooting in the Topeka church in March. Pfeifer said each chapter of “Prism” follows a different LGBTQ character and their journey, which she plans
to interweave in the finale.
The project is personal to her as a queer woman in film, one she’s planned to create for years.
“I have a lot of queer friends who have very unique stories,” Pfeifer said. “I think it’s important that those stories get showcased just as much as your typical coming out story or ‘you’re in love with your straight best friend’ (story).”
To create the film, she drew inspiration from her journey and those close to her. One chapter follows a transgender character exploring sexuality and gender expression with their family. Another chapter, mental health. And another, asexuality.
“I identify on the asexual scale spectrum, and I have never really seen that depicted in media,” Pfeifer said. “It’s very hard for the general public to be accepting of something where they aren’t necessarily aware of it.”
While Pfeifer said religion and sexuality often “butt heads” in queer media, she wanted her film to convey that religion isn’t always negative.
“I have a lot of friends whose religion and spirituality brings a lot of peace (with) their self-identity,” Pfeifer said.
Pfeifer takes portraying diverse stories seriously. Downs said before Pfeifer started making “Prism,” she sent out a survey, asking people about their identities and what stories and tropes they wanted to see more of.
“She really wants to create media that she feels reflect everyone as opposed to just the same story told over and over again,” Downs said.
Pfeifer said the film’s conclusion will be “a celebration of joy,” which would’ve helped her with her identity growing up. As a filmmaker, she hopes this story can help generations, young and old, be authentically themselves.
“I want to make stories that I connect to, that people will connect to,” Pfeifer said.
While Pfeifer hopes to finish shooting “Prism” in October and editing before her December graduation, her recent work can be seen in “Compendium,” an anthology of four short films the School of Performing Arts premiered in April. Pfeifer served as director of photography for two films and edited a third, which clocked in at 25 minutes.
That film was the longest project she edited so far — a challenge, Pfeifer said, but the result was “top-notch,” according to Justin Rorabaugh, the director of School of Digital Arts and Shocker Studios.
“Alyssa is very dedicated and hardworking,” Rorabaugh said. “She’s one of those students that will put in the extra hours and go the extra mile to make something that much better.”
Pfeifer isn’t afraid of challenges. In March, she participated with a team in Take 36, a Tallgrass Film Association contest where participants must write, produce and edit a short film in 36 hours.
She also stepped into the position of Director of Media for Student Government Association this year, an offer that took her by surprise when approached by a mutual friend of hers and former SGA President John Kirk.
“I immediately jumped for it, because I think that’s what you have to do in media arts,” Pfeifer said. “You just have to go and say yes to anything and see what can become of it.”
Apart from her projects, Pfeifer takes time to help others. Downs befriended Pfeifer while attending a digital media technology program in high school together, and, as a year younger, Downs said Pfeifer is always patient and helpful for answering questions.
“Alyssa is endlessly uplifting and inspiring to me, and she’s a wonderful teammate,” Downs said.
Pfeifer encourages other filmmaking students to embrace discomfort and connect with professors and peers.
“It’s so scary to be approached by an upperclassman and be asked to be on a film set when you have never been on a film set before,” Pfeifer said. “(But) you start making those connections, you start learning.”
With graduation approaching in December, Pfeifer said she doesn’t have concrete plans, but her greatest passions are cinematography and editing. Some options she’d like to pursue include working in sports entertainment overseas, editing a feature film and working on shows.
“Really, I want to try everything,” Pfeifer said. “I think that this industry is scary because there’s not a lot of stability, but I think that it’s also so much fun because you can try anything and everything and just see what fits.”
went to New York City in fall of 2022 with drawing and painting professor Robert Bubp.
“Along with many other things, we went to a major Jean-Michel Basquiat exhibition. Sam and I (and others, of course) were moved by his work, but for Sam, there was a relationship to his life and art to some of their own experiences,” Bubp said in an email.
After returning, Bubp said Gales began making “some of the most interesting work she had yet made.”
“I did this series … a year and a half ago … about identity. That’s kind of where it all started,” Gales said. “Now all my stuff is based on that one series about being mixed.”
BY SASCHA HARVEY arts@thesunflower.comSenior Sam Gales switched her major to applied drawing because of something that, alternatively, pushes students out of the arts school to other careers: money.
Gales started college as an agriculture major. She switched to a biology major for a little, and then was briefly an art education major. Now, she’s getting ready to graduate as an applied drawing major.
“I wanted to (pursue) a job that involved money. But then I was like, ‘This is stupid and hard. I don’t want to do this for the rest of my life,’” Gales said. “I was good at
it, but it wasn’t something I wanted to do.”
Art education was better than her prior majors, but still wasn’t the right fit. She was worried about the climate of teachers, especially art teachers, and disliked having to use “cheap” materials.
“We had to use (things) like crayons and, like, cheap-o materials, because my teacher would say … ‘you need to use stuff that the kids will use.’ And I was like,
‘I bought all these nice materials.
I can’t even use my Prismacolor pencils,’” Gales said. “Yeah, I’m gonna just take my chances as a freelancer.”
From that point, she switched her major to applied drawing.
Gales’ loved ones have been supportive of her career change. If you see a social (work) and a communications major at an art show featuring Sam Gales, chances are, they’re her two best friends of more than 10 years.
“They come to, like, every one of my shows,” Gales said. “They’re always there. And it’s nice that they come even though they don’t understand the art.”
Within artists’ spaces, though, Gales has found an environment she flourishes in. She draws inspiration from Jean-Michel Basquiat and Trenton Doyle Hancock for their illustrative techniques and use of color.
Gales and other art students
That series sparked her inspiration for the rest of her works, with shared themes throughout.
“Before that (series), I didn’t know what the hell I wanted to do,” Gales said. “That is my favorite series where I started using a lot of black and white and mixed media.”
Within her unconventional supplies, Gales is pushed to source materials out of necessity.
“I’m like a scavenger,” she said. “I have to just find trash and use it.”
Gales has experimented with everything from fabric and skateboards to more common art materials like ink and acrylic paint.
“I usually like to use
unconventional stuff that you don’t see a lot,” she said. “I think that it makes more of a compelling piece, rather than just painting it on canvas.”
Her classes have pushed her to experiment with her style in a creative environment. The higher level skill the class requires, the more Gales enjoys it.
“I’m in an advanced class right now. It’s very much like independent study,” she said. “You can do whatever you want.”
Gales has been heavily inspired by her art professors, specifically Bubp and professor of painting and drawing Levente Sulyok.
“Sam Gales has been a terrific student to work with,” Bubp said. “She’s been one of the most dedicated and inquisitive students we’ve had in the art program, and because she works hard and wants to get better, she’s always a pleasure to have in class and she’s very respected by their peers.”
Gales’ art leans more towards stylized than naturalistic, meaning the form is not meant to be representative of real life but rather tailored more toward the artist’s own themes or interpretations.
“There’s always gonna be somebody that’s always better than you,” she said. “You just have to be confident in your own skills and believe that you will make it as an artist.”
Junior Secondary Education
“Don’t buy textbooks automatically from the bookstore… Take it (school) seriously, because I didn’t take my first semester, first year, very seriously and I did not do very well.”
I recently returned from studying abroad in Thessaloniki, Greece. I have always dreamed of traveling the world, and a huge reason I chose Wichita State University was because of their opportunities abroad.
CONNOR
Junior Engineering
“Make connections with your classmates and people that you work with.”
DIEGO
Engineering
“Keep going, keep trying, don’t let yourself get too let down if stuff doesn’t go according to plan.”
Studying abroad was so impactful that I plan to move my entire life to Europe after graduating this spring. I fell in love with the European lifestyle and have never been happier somewhere. All European countries are extremely different from one another, so my next step is to find the best option for me.
With that being said, here are just a few reasons why you should consider studying abroad.
Regardless of if you plan to ever move or work outside of the United States, there are so many benefits to taking part in a study abroad program in college.
The world is so much bigger than your home
I have lived in the same house for 22 years. My neighborhood is a middle-class suburban town with the “big city” just a 45-minute drive down the road. The same grocery stores, gas stations and food chains from my childhood.
Most people go on to live a perfectly content life in their bubble without ever questioning leaving, because why fix something that isn’t broken? I could have easily stayed in my bubble, but I chose adventure.
Studying abroad allows you to not only escape the community you have grown up with, but also the life you have developed.
Junior Psychology
“Don’t miss out on your orientation. Stay involved in college and all the activities WSU has to offer, because they’re good, and there’s CARE team if you get a little bit of anxiety.”
Now that I think of it, maybe “escape” isn’t the right word. For some, studying abroad is an escape from their reality, in which they will return soon enough, and for
BY NATALIE NOLTE natalienolte10@gmail.comAs a first-year student on campus, joining The Sunflower staff was the best decision I could have made.
Despite being on staff since August of 2022 and spending almost every Wednesday night of my year in the basement of Elliott Hall, my name is featured only a handful of times in the paper. When scrolling through the staff page on The Sunflower website, if that’s something you do for some reason, my page is blank.
So how did I end up writing a column in the graduation issue of the paper, as a non-graduate?
Believe me, I have no idea either.
My role on the staff is simply to put the words on the pages.
By that, I mean literally taking the stories and putting them into an InDesign file that will eventually print and become
others, it is just the first step in the journey of a lifetime.
Leaving the comfort of your hometown/state/country pushes you to learn about the world and confront how massive it truly is — not only the actual physical size, but the infinite amount of opportunities, cultures and experiences outside of what you have always known.
Education — in and out of the classroom
As important as school is, I have learned more outside of the classroom than I ever have in a course, and studying abroad is no different.
The conversations I had with peers from different cultural backgrounds transcended my expectations and taught me more than any curriculum could have.
I have learned more about different health care systems, political systems, social networks, countries’ values, languages and more. I have been able to have revelations with other international students after comparing the different ways of life.
For example, did you know that the United States has far less paid time off (PTO) and maternity/paternity leave than most European countries? Or did you know that there is a bigger emphasis on working 40+ hours a week and making money in the United States than in Greece? I’ve learned about this and so much more outside of class.
As a senior at Wichita State, I can honestly say I prefer the European way of learning in college. While Wichita State focused on doing coursework outside the classroom, the Greek college I attended, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, focused on working in the classroom.
the newspaper. It is hard-hitting journalism at its finest. I’m essentially a hired-on middle child between the editors, reporters and photographers. My roles on staff extend far beyond my Adobe Suite skills, though. I also take up the position of storyteller, interior designer, DJ, and a world-class over-sharer of all personal experiences. Whether I’m at production night until 6 p.m. or 11:45 p.m., staff members will be treated to an evening of distractions and a slew of random facts that they’re not interested in hearing.
I do still take my job very seriously, don’t be confused. My time on staff has been nothing but informational and truly eye-opening to the field of journalism.
I started at the paper with zero knowledge about sports but have since learned what a free-throw line is, why it’s called a deuce in
I could not be more thankful for the people I met while living in Greece and while traveling to surrounding countries.
Leaving your family and friends back home to live in a completely different part of the world can be terrifying, but you are not alone. No matter how alone you may feel, there are thousands of other students feeling the exact same way. The study abroad community is immensely supportive.
When you are thrown into an unfamiliar environment it can be easy to hide and become homesick, but as soon as you reach out and get to know those in your surrounding community, a whole new world appears. I have met some of the sweetest and most interesting people outside of the U.S.
My closest friends include students from France, Poland, Germany, Portugal, Greece, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy and the list goes on and on.
I have no doubt that although the study abroad experience does not last forever, the relationships I made along the way will be forever. No matter where I end up in the world, I know that through the help of social media and modern technology, my new friends and I will be able to keep up with one another, and hopefully, one day meet again.
When you leave what you know and dive into the unfamiliar and uncomfortable, you discover so much about yourself.
The experience pushes you past the things you thought were “problems” and teaches you to be independent.
You learn how to do daily life in an unfamiliar environment entirely on your own. You meet others along your path, but at the end of the day, it is your journey alone.
tennis, and even who Kevin Saal is. This is information I will carry with me throughout my life.
All jokes aside, I do truly believe joining The Sunflower staff was the best decision of my academic year. I was introduced to people I would have never met otherwise, and who have become the dearest friends to me.
I stepped completely out of my comfort zone by applying. What could have been a missed opportunity became a job that led me closer to my goals.
So as my time at Wichita State and The Sunflower comes to an abrupt end, my memories here will remain a colorful place to return to.
I want to give a massive thank you to the editors who trusted me with an entire issue while they were out of town, and the writers who put up with me changing their headlines because “it’s just a
Struggles with homesickness and loneliness force you to confront yourself and what is truly important to you.
It gives you time to analyze what you want in your future and how you may get there one day.
It took time alone for me to discover that I wasn’t lonely, I was just happily lost in a new and unfamiliar adventure.
While abroad I got a tattoo on my left arm to remind me of the this chapter in my life. It reads Ευτυχισμένα
(ef-tee-heesmen-ah ha-meh-ni), which means happily lost.
Growing up, I didn’t learn much about life outside of my home country. I have always had a strong desire to travel but never thought about truly living anywhere different because why would I?
I know plenty of international friends who have loved their abroad experience, but still want to go back and live and work in their home country, but I also know of some with different plans. I’ve made the decision to only apply for jobs in Europe.
The choice to move was not easy, but after learning about different governmental structures, health care opportunities and human rights protections in countries other than my own, I know it is the right move for me.
I highly encourage you to do your own research on living away from what you’ve always known.
Even if you want to come back home eventually, there are still so many connections to make and knowledge to gain from studying abroad. If you would like to see more of my adventures abroad in Greece, or my future travels, you can check out my travel blog, travel instagram and YouTube!
As the semester ends, I am left wondering if maybe the real sunflower was the friends we made along the way.
“WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO INCOMING FRESHMEN?”JULIANNA ANGLETON WELCH VARGAS Junior YULESDY PEREZ Shelby Parscale during a sunset in Santorini, Greece / The Sunflower
Graduation weekend is quickly approaching, piling onto the stress of finals.
As a community college graduate, I’ve done this already. Granted, community college is significantly smaller in class sizes, but the gist of it is the same. So here’s a quick rundown of what to do for the big day.
Relish it
This is your big day. You’ve worked four or five or however many years to get here. Take a breath to take it in and acknowledge the accomplishment it is.
You want to figure out things like parking for yourself and guests.
The last thing you want to do is drive around campus more mad about the parking situation than usual.
Have a game plan ahead of time for arrival, which is usually about 15-30 minutes before the college recommends. Just know between the parking and amount of other graduates, you don’t want to be exactly on time but fighting a rush.
It’s good to let guests know that seats are first come first serve, and masks are not mandated but encouraged if anyone wants to wear one.
Get the stupid pictures, just to commemorate the occasion
I promise once the burnout finally stops two or three years down the road, you’ll wish you had something to show off: “Yeah I did that, and survived.” Do not, and I repeat do not, decorate your cap on the day of. The glitter won’t stay, the glue will not dry, and for some reason, the printer won’t be working. Walmart won’t print a meme of Kevin from The Office because it’s copyrighted. Just take an evening a couple of days before to sit down and get it done, so that way any hiccups can have a game plan and time to fix them.
Don’t brush it off
It’s your day; you should be proud of how far you have come. If anything, I am proud of you, as the stranger across the screen. Because that’s a lot of work and a lot of dedication.
Congratulations to all you graduates this semester — you did it, and you’re at the finish line. Go get that degree.
Wichita State provides all information that graduates need to know and tell their guests, such as reminders of the clear bag policy and times of different ceremonies.
To find more info, visit wichita.edu/ about/commencement/
Graduation time has reared its head yet again and while this can be an exciting time, graduating is a fundamentally challenging and daunting experience.
This liminal crisis is the catalyst for Mike Nicols’ 1967 romantic satire “The Graduate.”
Ben Braddock, the titular graduate played by Dustin Hoffman, is back home after receiving his undergrad degree from an East Coast school and he is utterly directionless.
He tries to find direction in an affair with an older woman (Anne Bancroft) but when her daughter (Katharine Ross) returns from college, Ben falls deeply in love with her instead.
Hoffman, Bancroft and Ross are so deeply invested in their characters and their psychology.
THE EDITOR
For the past five years here at Wichita State, I have done many things and learned from so many different students, staff, and faculty. One of the biggest things that I have learned while being a student here is to never stop trying.
There were many times that I wanted to give up and throw my hands in the air and drop out, but I always had someone pushing me to remind me that it’s never okay to stop trying.
My fiancé Kourtnee Cude, my brother Matthew Harkins, and my Fraternity Phi Beta Sigma fraternity Inc. along with many other people always reminded me that hard times come, but regardless of anything, they were always there for me.
Everybody walks a different path than somebody else, and nobody can walk somebody else’s road, and I would never change my experiences from the past to altar, where I am today.
My time at WSU has given me the opportunity to meet government officials, recruit, meet my amazing fiancé, sing concerts in states around Kansas, and serve as the 116th student body president of Wichita State.
Every person that starts their journey as a freshman, regardless of your age at Wichita State, has the ability to write an amazing story, because you are the author of your book.
I’m so thankful for everything that everyone has done for me at this university, and I can’t wait to start my graduate degree in the fall.
Final thing I would leave you with a quote from Dr. Seuss that says “don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”
This is goodbye for now, but this is not farewell! I love this University and everyone in it, and I hope that you always shoot for excellence and do exactly what your heart calls you to do!
– John Kirk, Former SGA PresidentAs the headline says, assuming I do well in my last Spanish project and test, I will be graduating this May.
To all the current students, do as I say, not as I do. Trust me, although it makes for an interesting headline, you don’t want to be in your last semester wondering if you’ll pass your last language class.
I know telling a college student not to procrastinate is pointless, but watch that deadline if you are a procrastinator. I know you feel like you can pull an all-nighter but remember that they’ve done studies linking lack of sleep to an increased risk of heart attacks.
That being said, I did one last week.
It’s been a bit of an extended journey, but I’m glad to be here. What I thought was going to be two years at Wichita State turned into four, but that’s how it goes.
If I hadn’t taken the extra time, I don’t think I would’ve found the people and organizations that I’ve enjoyed so much. If you want to be more involved, join a club, they really do help you make friends.
While I just started working for The Sunflower this semester, it has been one of the best experiences I’ve had during college. My biggest wish is that I would have joined much sooner.
I feel that my writing has improved so much from the
feedback I get from the editors and the past few months have flown by for me.
If you’re even remotely interested in journalism I would urge you to join The Sunflower before your last semester. The staff is a great supportive resource that will help you improve so much. To Amy DeVault and any staff member that encouraged me to join: Thank you.
I’m not really sure what the future holds for me, but I look forward to seeing where it takes me.
Many articles we’re publishing this week talk about students who have jobs lined up and plans made, but if you don’t yet, that’s OK. We’ve got our whole careers to figure it out.
I hope you all know this column was turned in at the last minute, like every single thing I have ever turned in during college.
My college experience can be summed up in two words: fast and chaotic, from start to finish.
I started at Hutchinson Community College when I was 15, and since then I have been doing nothing but school and work. I just wanted to get out and get going with my dreams as soon as possible. And I kept with that mentality for the next five years.
But because my time as a student was so fast, I never got engaged with the campus or community around me. I would just breeze through, the only places I had were the newsrooms.
I joined student journalism on a whim, after attending a day camp at HutchCC for the journalism program. I walked into that camp completely uninterested, and I walked out with a 10-year plan for my life and so much enthusiasm. Since then, I've been on two
fantastic student newspapers, The Collegian and The Sunflower, and had opportunities to work in the field outside of school.
Without these opportunities or the people I met through them, I wouldn't have a place on campus. They gave me at least a small sense of belonging when I was on campus, through the connections I made there or just a place I could microwave my lunch and work in peace.
I didn’t understand the value of a community on campus until this last semester, a little too late. But I can offer some advice — don't make my mistake.
To any incoming transfer students or any students at all — get involved. Find your people, a community. Somewhere you can go reheat your chicken nuggets and vent about the parking.
You know that activities fair you go to at the beginning of the year, then trash all the pamphlets? Keep those and sign up for things. Make your mark on the campus. We can’t let them put us in debt and forget about us.
I’m going to wrap this up with a few thank-you’s to those who were in my community and helped me get to the cap and gown. Thank you to my parents, Brad Hallier, Avery Guffey, Rachel Rudisill, Emmie Boese, and the staff of both newspapers over the past couple of years.
It’s been real you guys. I've no idea where this tornado is spiraling toward, but hopefully somewhere on a beach with lots of books.
Bancroft as the old seductress Mrs. Robinson is intense and oddly comforting until she absolutely loses it. Hoffman plays innocent in such a way that only a freshly graduated college student could make cocky.
Ross is a rock star in this. “The Graduate” is her breakout role and for a good reason. The script asks her to ride an emotional rollercoaster with her feet in the air and Ross does it without a hitch. Its humor is buried in the absurd and the uncomfortable. On his 21st birthday, Ben flaps out of his house in a head-totoe scuba suit that he is expected to demonstrate in his parents’ six-foot-deep pool.
While it is a funny moment, the genius of this moment is in a deep-cut metaphor for being thrown into a situation that you are overtrained for.
When he is sitting at the bottom of this pool with flippers and a harpoon, I wanted to laugh but I also wanted to cry. This is just an overwhelming sense of doom about Ben in the beginning of this movie.
Set to the somber sounds of Simon and Garfunkel, the combination of Nichols and Robert Surtees execute a quiet image that screams into a void.
At multiple points in the film, Hoffman’s dead face sinks into a black void of his bed while “The Sound of Silence” echoed off in the background.
Growing up in the Apatow-era of comedy, the structure and technical skill used in “The Graduate” is making me reevaluate what comedy can be.
“The Graduate” is essential viewing for any and all graduates whether you know what happens next or not. And Ben, I’m so sorry you had to work for a college paper.
Illustration by Wren Johnson / The SunflowerDon’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened
‘The Graduate’ perfectly displays postgrad crisisPhoto courtesy of Embassy Pictures
After the Oakland Athletics selected infielder Brock Rodden during the 10th round in the 2022 Major League Baseball Draft in July 2022, the sophomore infielder has decided to return to WSU. | Story by
Director of athletics Kevin
announced Wedge’s departure from the program on Dec. 8 in a press release. In October, Wedge stepped away from the program temporarily to focus on personal health related matters. |
Softball is ranked No. 18 in the country, the highest in school history in May 2023. The team has only ever been ranked as high as No. 20. | Story by
The Shockers will return to postseason play for the first time since 2018 after being selected to play in the National Invitational Volleyball Championship (NVIC) Sunday evening. | Story by
The women’s tennis team finished the season with a 7-0 record at home. The Shockers spent 67% of their season on the road including six straight matches during March. | Story by Trinity
BY AUDREY MENZIES audrey.menzies04@gmail.com
From beginning her career at the University of MissouriKansas City to winning a Female Shocker Award at the Gold Carpet Awards and being nominated for NCAA Woman of the Year, Megan Lucas has a name that will be remembered according to head coach Tom McCurdy.
While Lucas did not begin golfing competitively until high school, she began playing as a young child during the summers with her family.
“I grew up playing golf, but it was more of just a summer activity,” Lucas said. “I predominantly played other sports growing up, I was always more interested in soccer and basketball but my dad was and still is a very big golfer.”
Her father, Gary Lucas, played golf for Wichita State from 1985-1987. Gary tied for fourth at the 1986 Missouri Valley Conference Championship and helped capture that year’s championship title under Rod Nuckolls.
Following her high school career, she committed to and played two seasons at UMKC before the program was ultimately cut.
After the news broke, McCurdy was one of the first to reach out to Lucas. McCurdy tried to get Lucas to the Shockers’ squad since her high school
days.
“(UMKC was) playing in a summer tournament and the team found out via social media that UMKC was cutting the program,” McCurdy said. “It was awful … It was later that afternoon when her dad gave me a call. As soon as I had heard what was going on, we got right back into communicating with Megan and trying to get her down here.”
Lucas had the talent but what really drew McCurdy to her as a player was her attributes off the green.
“She was obviously a good golfer but she was also really positive, very organized, extremely smart and very team oriented,” McCurdy said. “She also has fantastic leadership skills and is just a very mature person. We didn’t have any concerns about her practicing on her own or what she was doing in the off time.”
Lucas’ personal connection to Wichita State made the decision to become a Shocker much more lucrative.
“My family grew up being Wichita State basketball fans, so having that connection to the school through my family really stuck out to me,” Lucas said. “My roommate at the time, Kenni Henson, had actually already committed to Wichita State to play golf and so I could transfer with one of my teammates and best friends and not have to
Women’s basketball lost their leading scorer from the 2022-2023 campaign.
Jane Asinde has officially signed with the University of Texas at El Paso, following former Wichita State coaches Keitha Adams and Ewa Laskowska, UTEP announced on Wednesday.
UTEP’s roster lacked a veteran post presence last season. One of their starting forwards and the team’s leading scorer, Elina Arike, entered the transfer porter two days after Adams’ hire was announced.
Adams hopes that Asinde can fill in as a leader and bring consistency to the UTEP roster.
“Jane is a very talented, athletic forward that really knows how to play this great game,” Adams said in the UTEP press release. “She
has tremendous ability to play around the rim and can really explode to the basket. She’s very competitive and has a high-energy game.”
She was named Third Team All-Conference in the American this past season and put up 11 double-doubles.
Asinde’s standpoint performance of the year came during their Feb. 15 win against Tulsa when
she put up 27 points and 12 rebounds. That was her third straight 20-point game.
Asinde came to Wichita State from Grayson College, a junior college in North Texas, in 2021. In the Ugandan native’s two seasons for the Shockers, she averaged 10.9 points, 9.1 rebounds and 1.4 assists.
go in totally alone.”
The biggest factor in her transfer to Wichita State ultimately came down to the coaching staff.
“Most of all though, probably just the coaches here,” Lucas said. “The coaches and everyone at the school and athletic department I could tell were great people and I really felt like if I came here I was gonna be supported and provided everything I would possibly need.”
Lucas feels that she has found much success and created lasting bonds during her time at tee for Wichita State.
“Our team won the tournament we played at Creighton this year,” said Lucas. “It was really fun and actually an emotional thing to get that win and to do it together as a team. My team here are pretty much my best friends and not every other college athlete is lucky enough to say that.”
Outside of golf, Lucas credits the staff at Wichita State for helping her grow as a person.
“I’ve grown as a person a lot, if not more so than even as a golfer,” Lucas said. “Whether it was through my coaches or through the other support from the athletic department, my advisors and my teachers, I always felt like people were there to help me achieve what I needed to achieve. And by no means was I ever put to a disadvantage
by being a college athlete. My coaches always worked around my schedules to make sure that I could pursue every goal I had.”
McCurdy described Lucas as “wise beyond her years” and knows she will be successful in her future career. His advice to her was to stay true to herself and keep on course.
“She manages her personal relationships very, very well. She doesn’t have any enemies. If you know Megan, you love her,” McCurdy said. “Just be yourself. If she does that her life’s gonna be set.”
Megan Lucas plans to take her CPA (Uniform Certified Public Accountant) exam following graduation. The CPA is a four part accounting exam that allows for accountants to have a higher licensing.
After that, she will move to Kansas City and accept a position working for an accounting firm. She also plans to keep golf in her life by competing in tournaments from time to time.
“That’s what I love about golf, the fact that it’s really a lifetime sport,” Lucas said. “I’ll definitely still try to play competitively on my own …. I’ve always been a competitive person and I can’t totally throw that part of myself away.”
Softball has had a busy final week of the regular season thus far. Here’s an update on all things Shocker softball: Clinched the AAC Regular Season Title
After a sixth-inning rally in Game 3 of their series against Tulsa, the Shockers were able to clinch the American Athletic Conference regular season title outright and the No. 1 seed in the AAC Championship tournament.
They will receive a first round bye for Round 1 and will play the winner of No. 2 UCF and No. 7 Memphis in Round 2.
The team captured No. 1 in 2021 with a 41-13 record and won the tournament after beating UCF in the final, 7-4.
Ranked No. 18 in the country, setting the school record
For the first time in school history, the softball team broke the top 20 in a national poll.
They are ranked No. 18 in the National Fastpitch Coaches Association and NCAA Ranking Power Index. In the USA Softball poll, they are ranked No. 19.
In 2021, they were ranked No. 20 by the RPI and
Softball America poll. Sydney McKinney named finalist for USA Softball’s Player of the Year
For the second season in a row, McKinney has been shortlisted in the top 10 for Player of the Year from USA Softball. McKinney is on track to repeat as the NCAA batting average and hits champion. She would be the first person to repeat these accolades in back-to-back seasons.