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Beggs
hits the road
By
Tammy Allen
Last
spring and this summer, President Beggs hit the road to listen to
community leaders around Kansas.
This
fall, he’ll do it again.
As
Wichita State University serves a much broader audience than the
city of Wichita, Beggs believes it’s important to understand
the needs of communities outside the immediate area and how WSU
can serve those needs.
In
May, Winfield Courier publisher Dave Seaton hosted a lunch for a
small group of Winfield business leaders, inviting Beggs to give
an update on Wichita State and open a discussion on how WSU could
serve Winfield’s needs in partnership with Southwestern College
and Cowley County Community College. That meeting, and one following
with a group of Arkansas City educators and Board of Regents member
Bill Docking, led to discussion about how WSU could address issues
related to intensive English instruction for an anticipated influx
of workers for a new Future Beef plant.
In
July, Beggs met with Hutchinson city leaders, hosted by WSU alumnus
and city manager Joe Palacioz. That meeting led to a follow-up visit
for Ulrich Museum director David Butler to WSU alumnus and Kansas
Cosmosphere director Max Ary to explore ways the two organizations
could work together.
A visit
to El Dorado is tentatively scheduled for October, with Topeka on
the fall visit list as well. Other communities will be added for
future visits.
"Part
of our responsibility as a higher education institution is to listen,
understand, and respond as best we can to the needs of Kansans,"
Beggs said. "And if we can do that better by hitting the highways,
we’ll keep doing it."
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