Hughes Metropolitan Complex to be dedicated March 5

By Joseph Kleinsasser

Faculty, staff and students are invited to the formal dedication of the Eugene M. Hughes Metropolitan Complex, 5015 E. 29th St. N., at 2 p.m. Friday, March 5. Also to be dedicated in the complex are the Roger D. Lowe Auditorium, Frederick Sudermann Commons and Richard Welsbacher Theatre. The naming of the facility was approved last month by the Kansas Board of Regents.

The program will include remarks by President Don Beggs, Board of Regents chair William Docking and former chair Frank Sabatini. Each of the honorees will make remarks followed by the presentation and unveiling of plaques.

Hughes personally secured the gift which made the purchase of the property in 1997 possible. The donor, who requested anonymity, felt strongly that the complex should be named in Hughes’ honor.

Hughes was WSU’s 11th president from July 1993 through December 1998. He is credited for identifying WSU’s unique niche in Kansas as “The Metropolitan Advantage.”

Three areas in the complex were named in honor of two current longtime 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. Lowe’s career at Wichita State began in 1961 when he became the university’s controller. In 1987, Lowe was named vice president for administration and finance.

The Frederick Sudermann Commons is named for WSU’s former vice president for research and governmental and industrial relations who now serves as senior adviser to the president. During his 36 years at Wichita State, Sudermann has been an effective spokesperson on behalf of the university to city, county, state and federal government officials.

The Richard Welsbacher Theatre honors a WSU professor and director emeritus of theater. Welsbacher initiated the Experimental Theatre and the Wichita Summer Theatre, and helped faculty start the Readers Theatre, the National Playwriting Competition, and the National Scene and Costume Design Competition, the first of its kind in the United States.