“Excellence in Action” shares accolades from across campus. The newest edition can be viewed online. Learn more…
Emporia State’s Now & Forever campaign has crossed the $50 million mark making it the largest campaign in university history. We made the announcement Aug. 18 during our fall General Assembly through the video above. Learn more…
Graduate School & Distance Education
Hot off the press! The Fall 2016 edition of Student Experience magazine is out. The magazine is published every other year, alternating with Quest research magazine. You can read the online edition of Student Experience on the website. Learn more…
Academic Success
New students at the Second Annual Mini Majors Camp enjoyed activities, games and information from ESU academic departments. Students learned about majors, the department and got to know the faculty during the orientation event.
Dr. Shelly Rowley, assistant professor in sociology, is the 2015-16 Outstanding Academic Advisor, an award from ESU’s Undergraduate Academic Advising Committee. She will receive a $250 award.
Dodie Davis, coordinator of disability services, and Shelly Gehrke, assistant vice president for academic success, attended the AHEAD (Association on Higher Education and Disability) national conference in Indianapolis. They will implement several new student success initiatives, especially regarding accessibility, during the upcoming semester.
Kathy Landwehr, assistant director of the Student Advising Center, is launching a campaign to support and encourage ESU First Generation Students. Step 1 includes distributing buttons and signing up members of the ESU community to identify supporters and potential future mentors.
To complement the ESU Academic Early Alert system, a new pilot initiative this fall focuses on student attendance. Several lower-division courses are participating in the pilot. Faculty will submit an Early Alert for students who miss a class. A member of the Residence Life staff will then do a face-to-face intervention with the student.
ACES (Academic Center for Excellence and Success), ESU’s student success center, offers more subjects for peer-to-peer tutoring this fall. ACES, starting its second year, also offers individual assistance with time management, study skills and balance/prioritization. Learn more…
Athletics
Preseason Rankings
- For the second time in three years the Emporia State football program opens the season in the AFCA Preseason National Top 25. The Hornets check in at No. 24 in the coaches preseason poll and are one of three MIAA teams in the top 25. Defending national champion Northwest Missouri is ranked No. 1 meaning the rematch of last year’s regional final will be the first time two nationally ranked teams have opened the season at Welch Stadium.
- In a conference that sent four teams to the NCAA regional last year, the Emporia State volleyball team is slated for eighth in the MIAA Preseason Coaches Poll.
Emporia State’s Austin Morton is one of 27 kickers from across NCAA FCS, D2, D3 and the NAIA to be named to the Fred Mitchell Award preseason watch list for excellence on the football field and in the community.
Alumni Relations
Eight ambassadors and four Student Foundation members attended the CASE ASAP National Networking Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, to learn best practices that can be applied to each groups’ student programming. They returned with a wealth of knowledge in student programming, fundraising, internal organization practices and more.
Several ESU alumni employed at Payless in Topeka gathered on site at Payless corporate headquarters to meet President Allison Garrett and Business Dean Ed Bashaw on Aug. 16. Special thanks to ESU alumnus Kim (Gibson) Grooms ‘01 for coordinating this opportunity on behalf of the Alumni Association.
The Alumni Association’s South Central Chapter held its 19th annual scholarship golf scramble on Aug. 20. Golfers included President Allison Garrett. The tournament raises scholarship funds for students from the South Central region who attend ESU.
Arts & Sciences
We welcome our newest faculty, Dr. Deborah Hann in geography and Mr. Dillon O’Keefe in history. Both are here for one year. Dr. Hann comes to us from K-State, after having earned her Ph.D. in geography education at Texas State. Mr. O’Keefe is one of our own graduates, having received his M.A. in history here a few years ago. He has also studied in Germany.
Now approaching his 90th birthday, Dr. Loren Pennington has a new project interpreting the early work of William Allen White. Loren’s performance, “Outside Insider: William Allen White’s Editorials, 1895-1925,” will be presented at 7 p.m. Sept. 10 at the North Lyon County Historical Society and Museum in Admire.
Professor Patrick Martin of the Department of Art is doing a residency at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Washington. His work in the studio was live-streamed this past weekend.
Congrats to Katie Weaver (B.S. Biochemistry & Molecular Biology; May 2015; and one of the first students to take advantage of the Dual-degree Pharmacy program at ESU)! Katie finished her pharmacy degree in 2016 and has taken a job at Zumwalt Pharmacy in Stockton, Missouri, She was featured in a recent edition of the Cedar County (Missouri) Republican newspaper.
As the political season heats up, we will see Michael Smith, chair of social sciences, quoted as an expert source by media. His latest input came this past Monday in an article in the Christian Science Monitor. Learn more…
Business
Dr. George Durler, professor and Beta Alpha Psi advisor, accompanied 10 members of Beta Alpha Psi to the national convention in Baltimore, Maryland. Beta Alpha Psi is the International Honorary Organization for Financial Information Professionals (including accounting, finance and information systems). Pictured in the photo above, from left, are Hongwei Xu, Lindsay Cuadra, Shane Garrison, Kalyn Meseke, QianQian Hou and Hailine Chen.
Congratulations to the Beta Gamma Sigma Chapter for being the “best in business” and qualifying for Highest Honors Chapter for the 2015–16 academic year from Beta Gamma Sigma Global Headquarters. This status is indicative of a campus where academic excellence is valued and where the faculty officers of the chapter work diligently to enhance Beta Gamma Sigma’s stature on campus.
Piper Brooks, Shane Garrison, Saad (Seth) Kattan, Ebrahim Kayali, Michael Meloy and Dallas Shafer worked on research projects this past summer through ESURP (ESU Summer Undergraduate Research Program). The purpose of the program is to provide opportunities for students to pursue indepth, relevant studies in their discipline by collaborating with a faculty mentor.
Dr. Ed Bashaw, School of Business dean and Jones Distinguished Professor, continues to meet with alums, executives and/or business owners in Emporia, Topeka, Wichita and Kansas City (see attached picture) since his arrival in June. He is pictured above with Kent Heermann, director of the Regional Development Association of East Central Kansas, and Randy Hizar, Detroit Diesel Plant Operations Management.
Library & Information Management
Assistant Professor James Walther joins the Kansas Humanities Council Speakers Bureau with the topic “Free Speech in an Information-Overloaded World,” as part of The Pulitzer Project in Kansas: William Allen White and Freedom of Speech.
Assistant Professor James Walther received a $3,000 Teaching Grant from the Koch Center for Leadership and Ethics. His research examination will allow for an exploration of advocacy and organizational messaging within the field of librarianship.
Jenay Solomon (MLS ‘15) is the new Diversity Resident Librarian at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro.
ESU President Allison Garrett, Dean Wooseob Jeong and department faculty and staff welcomed 50 students into the Emporia Fall 2016 cohort on Saturday, August 6. Dean Jeong welcomed 28 students into the Oregon Fall 2016 cohort on Saturday, August 13.
SLIM with Regional Director Pierina Parise graduated 16 students from the Oregon cohort on Sunday, August 14.
Associate Professor Andrew Smith received a 2016 Assessment Champions Award for his dedication in reviewing and revising MLS curriculum to further align with ALA Core Competences.
The Teachers College
Art therapy faculty member Libby Schmanke attended the NAADAC/Association for Addiction Professionals conference in Lincoln, Nebraska, this past summer.
International Education
This summer the OIE hosted 20 students who attended ESU’s Summer International Program. Students spent six weeks on campus learning about U.S. culture and campus life, reinforcing their English language skills and earning academic credits.
In Fall 2016, ESU welcomed 132 new students as the Fall 2016 international cohort. The students represent 26 countries, including two U.S. territories as part of students joining ESU through the National Student Exchange (NSE). Among the newly arrived international students, six will be athletes in the soccer and tennis teams.
Three newly arrived international students joined ESU with the prestigious Fulbright scholarship. Cynthia Saldana (Colombia) will study in the Master of Forensic Science. Dea Febriani (Indonesia) will study in the Master of Psychology. Finally, Mustafa Ahmed (Egypt) will study graduate-level courses in English while serving as Foreign Language Teaching Assistant (FLTA) for the Arabic language.
Presentations
SIDLIT
During the Summer Institute on Distance Learning and Instructional Technology conference at Johnson County Community College, ESU staff and faculty from across campus gave presentations:
- Art Gutierrez and Bethanie O’Dell, faculty in University Libraries and Archives, presented on their use of a popular video game in their Research Skills, Information and Technology course (UL100).
- Terri Summey, faculty in University Libraries and Archives, presented on how her use of a social media project, #DearNextPresident, was integrated into her sections of UL100 to help engage students in current issues and events. Terri also presented with Mark Summey, Information Technology, on their development of a librarian role to integrate librarians and library instruction into Canvas at ESU.
- Dodie Davis, coordinator of disability services, and Anna Catterson, educational technology coordinator in IT, presented “Designing an ADA Compliant Course.”
Drs. Ellen Hansen, Ed Emmer and Charles Brown recently returned from the 11th World Congress of the International Society for Universal Dialogue in Warsaw, Poland. All three gave presentations, and Dr. Brown, pictured above, was elected board president.
SLIM Assistant Professor Sandra Valenti presented “One of these things is not like the other – The joy of a diverse environment,” at the Oregon Library Association Support Staff Division conference in Portland, Oregon, on July 15.
SLIM Associate Professor Andrew Smith recently presented a paper “From small beginnings: The role of informal digital libraries in supporting e-philology” at the International Scientific Conference: Philology of Culture in Belgrade, Serbia.
Art therapy faculty members Gaelynn Wolf Bordonaro, Libby Schmanke and Jessica Stallings attended the 47th annual conference of the American Art Therapy Association in July in Baltimore, Maryland. Wolf Bardonaro and Valarie Colgate (MS '16) presented a workshop at the conference; Schmanke presented a workshop and a Master Supervision session.
Publications
SLIM Dean Wooseob Jeong and Laura Ridenour published “Are we there yet? Calculating wait time for popular digital titles,” in Public Library Quarterly Vol. 35, Issue 2.