Complex is named after former president Eugene Hughes

By Joe Kleinsasser
The five-year leadership of recently retired Wichita State University President Eugene Hughes was recognized in a lasting way by the Kansas Board of Regents last week. The Board of Regents approved naming the Metropolitan Complex at 29th Street and North Oliver the Eugene M. Hughes Metropolitan Complex in his honor.

In addition to naming the complex after Hughes, three rooms in the building were named in honor of two current long-time WSU administrators and a retired faculty member. The Roger D. Lowe Auditorium is named in honor of WSU’s vice president for administration and finance. The Frederick Sudermann Conference Room is named for WSU’s senior adviser to the president, and the Richard Welsbacher Experimental Theater is named in honor of the professor emeritus of theater at Wichita State.

Hughes was actively involved in fund-raising efforts during his tenure and personally secured the gift which made the purchase of the former Faith Metro Church in 1997 possible. The donor, who requested anonymity, felt strongly that the complex should be named in Hughes’ honor.

Hughes wanted the complex to be both a campus and community resource. The complex will house the Wichita Radio Reading Service, a closed-circuit radio station serving the visually impaired in south-central Kansas, the Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic, which provides diagnostic and therapy treatment for those with communicative disorders, and a black box theater.

WSU regularly holds credit classes, continuing education and enrichment courses and meetings at the complex. Special university events including Forum Board lectures, Honors Convocation and awards ceremonies have been held in the facility.

Hughes joins several past presidents who have been honored with the naming of a building — Morrison, Lindquist, Corbin and Ahlberg — for his service to the university and community.