The Fairmount College newsletter is published two times a year. For information, contact Cheryl K. Miller, writer and coordinating editor, at 316-978-6659 or cheryl.miller@wichita.edu.
You’ll find events, photos and articles about our faculty, staff, students and departments.
Photo credits: Cheryl K. Miller and courtesy photos
Andrew Hippisley listens as Greg Houseman, associate professor of biological sciences, describes research opportunities at Youngmeyer Ranch.
Fairmount College Dean Andrew Hippisley has a clear message to deliver: A liberal arts and sciences education is life changing and excellent preparation for a career, not just a job.
“The arts and sciences is a bit like slow cooking. It takes awhile to get ready and
takes a lot more work once you get there,” Hippisley said. “It touches the real humanity
deep down inside of you. But
on the way you’re learning all sorts of extremely important life skills that can help
you in the workforce, like how to approach complex problems, which tools to choose
to solve them and which methodologies are the best to use in the range of different
methodologies that you have for yourself.”
Since becoming dean July 2, he has put much time and thought into how he will put this message into action.
Hippisley, the father of a college sophomore, is fully aware of the pressures many families put on their students to get degrees that will lead to jobs. He wants students to understand that a liberal arts degree prepares them for long-term career success, but he also wants students to study what excites them.
“I would ultimately like it to be the case where every student in the college is allowed to indulge their passion, whatever that might be,” said Hippisley, “and couple that with something else the university does, something preprofessional like a stack of badges, a certificate or a minor.”
For example, a student could follow their love of literature and major in English while picking up a minor in computer science. Both are types of language, and the passion for one may lead to a passion for the other.
He also wants to create more experiential learning opportunities for students. College graduates must be able to apply the fundamentals of their liberal arts education to situations they are likely to meet in the workforce.
In Hippisley’s view, this means that students need opportunities for their transitions to the workforce to occur more naturally. Internships and mentoring relationships give students workplace experience, but there are other ways to help students start the college-to-work transition. Hippisley’s a strong proponent of study abroad experiences, whether they be lab research or internship opportunities.
Andrew Hippisley, Tom Otterness, Millipede, 2008
Hippisley knows he has a wealth of local opportunities and on-campus expertise to tap into while he devises plans to help students follow their passions and get career-related experience.
In recent weeks, Hippisley has been learning as much as he can about Wichita State and Fairmount College.
He’s visited the Youngmeyer Ranch in Elk County, awestruck by the beauty and depth of the Flint Hills and impressed by the research opportunities available there. He’s spent countless hours with department chairs and directors, listening to them describe their departments’ strengths and challenges.
“My impression of this college is that the range of what it does is much, much broader than any other arts and sciences college I know,” Hippisley said, adding that at most universities the schools of social work, public administration and communication stand as their own colleges.
He’s also excited by the amount and breadth of research in Fairmount College.
“The college has an incredible range of research going on,” Hippisley said. “There’s an earnestness about scholarship here, not just in natural sciences, but also in social sciences and humanities.” The faculty’s emphasis on research and scholarship may lend itself to partnerships with students, creating additional learning and career-related opportunities.
Hippisley has also made it a point to talk with supporters off campus. He’s met with potential donors and business leaders, learning what their liberal arts education provided for them and what the college needs to provide to students now.
Hippisley is excited about future opportunities for Fairmount College and the other colleges on campus. All graduates need the liberal arts and sciences as the foreground for their degrees, he said, whether they study nursing, engineering or accounting for their major.
The liberal arts also has important applications for innovation partners located on the WSU campus expansion.
Mike James, alumnus and chair of the Fairmount College Advisory
Committee, visits with Andrew Hippisley.
“We need to showcase for our innovation partners the kinds of problems and issues they want to solve and show how we do that kind of research,” Hippisley said. “It might be called something different but the principles are the same.”
Working with industry entities could lead to internships or research projects for Fairmount College students. Applying research fundamentals to different situations that students are likely to meet in the workforce is a component or a hallmark of a student’s experience in Fairmount College, Hippisley said.
With an eye toward making the liberal arts and sciences accessible to all students, Hippisley also wants to leave them with the idea that they are citizens on a local and global scale.
“A liberal arts and sciences education takes the spotlight off ourselves and what we can gain and puts it much more on the outside of ourselves for what the community can gain,” Hippisley said. “It teaches the students that that’s the great fulfillment. It’s the giving, not the getting.”
It’s part of the life changing gift of a liberal arts and sciences education.
Andrew Hippisley’s life exemplifies the ideals of a liberal arts and sciences experience.
Born in the United States, raised in Scotland, and college educated in England, his interests range from the Russian language to baseball to computational linguistics, and include many subjects in between. However, it was linguistics that served as the bookends of his educational journey.
“Most linguists have a ‘I must have been a linguist but didn’t know it’ story,” Hippisley said. “For me it was learning Latin at 10 years old in Scotland and being the only one who actually enjoyed it, especially the bits that everyone hated: learning verb conjugations and noun declensions. I loved studying the tables, seeing the differences and similarities, and wrestling with the irregulars.”
That love of language and of learning shaped his scholarly choices and encouraged him to tackle difficult subjects. His enthusiasm for challenge spread to life choices others might consider too risky.
When the opportunity arose for him 12 years ago to work alongside well-known linguist Gregory Stump at the University of Kentucky, he bought one-way tickets from Gatwick airport to Cincinnati for himself, his wife, 8-year-old daughter and 3-year-old twin sons. He continues to look for new opportunities, including leisure activities.
Hippisley’s family—Rachel, wife; Natalya, daughter; John and Max, twin boys—occupy much of his free time. They have visited the Sedgwick County Zoo and attended the McConnell Air Force Base air show, and loved both experiences. He described his visit to the Flint Hills as “the most beautiful, peaceful and fascinating moment I’ve had since I came to Kansas. I’ve been able to see some of the real natural beauty of the state and I want to see more.”
Hippisley believes in lifelong learning and credits his liberal arts and sciences education for creating that thirst for knowledge. He holds a doctorate in linguistics from the University of Surrey, and a master’s and a bachelor’s degree in Russian Language and Literature, both from University College London.
Dear alumni, faculty, staff and friends,
You may have been hearing that a liberal arts and sciences education is under threat. It’s more important than ever that we provide our students with as many liberal arts educational experiences as possible, because exposure to the liberal arts is, quite simply, life changing.
First, it produces a love of learning. The jobs of today are seldom the jobs of tomorrow, in Wichita and anywhere else. To prosper in the workforce you therefore need adaptability, which requires learning how to learn.
Second, the liberal arts emphasizes honesty, integrity and an ethical approach to engaging in the world, because it foregrounds the pursuit of the truth, based on facts. It teaches the student that the pursuit itself is thrilling. This generation of students, perhaps more than any other, constantly asks the question: “But is this the right thing to do?”
Third, the liberal arts offers diversity: the value of allowing fora difference of opinion, of assessing multiple approaches and methodologies, of seeking solutions in analogous situations, of listening to and assessing a range of perspectives. It therefore mitigates against this toxic tribal way of thinking—of a loss of independence of thought—that seems to be taking over.
Fourth, a liberal arts experience is multilayered, opening doors for a student to discover what they are truly passionate about, and so helping them to discover who they are and what their unique role is in changing the world. This is key in developing constructive, contributing citizens.
Finally, the liberal arts is an investment, requiring time and tenacity and depth and, yes, resources. And what is the return on investment? The hard-earned skills of critical thinking, analyzing, problem solving, collaborating, listening, and communicating: All of these abilities equip our students to pursue a lifetime of fulfillment, in the workplace and in society.
The liberal arts experience is a gift that we want to offer to as many as possible, working harder than ever to open up possibilities to first-generation students, minorities, and the socially and economically disadvantaged. I am excited to serve a college whose mission is to do just that.
And that’s why we need to move forward together by getting the message across to students, parents, businesses, and society at large that a liberal arts and sciences experience is a key ingredient in creating a more fair, more tolerant, and more positive society.
Sincerely,
Andrew Hippisley, Dean
Matt Baird, graduate student in chemistry, has been selected to represent WSU in the category of mathematics, physical sciences, and engineering for the Midwest Association of Graduate School’s outstanding thesis competition.
Reed Bowles, undergraduate student in physics, received the 2018 Rosa Lee and Alvin Sarachek Award for Scholarly Excellence in the Natural Sciences. The award is bestowed each spring to a graduating senior majoring in biology, chemistry, geology or physics who has exhibited exceptional scholarly achievement within and beyond the classroom.
Lillian Dickerson, graduate student in English from the Hall Center at KU, was awarded a grant for her work on disabilities studies and George Lippard. She presented her research at the University of Kansas as part of its Haunting Humanities program.
Julian Liby, Wesley Rice, and John Willome, graduate students in communication, competed in the Summer 2018 Tallgrass Film Association’s annual “Down to the Wire” contest where teams have 24 hours to make a six-minute film given random elements. Out of 33 competing teams, the film made by these three students placed in the top 10 and was shown at the Orpheum to a full house. Also, the team won the Student Spotlight Award for outstanding student-led team. You may view the film at https://vimeo.com/278184490/bfcc63d0c4
Sydney Martin won second place and $500 and Ami Martinez received honorable mention for their submissions on Matthew McIntosh’s novel, “theMystery.doc,” to a national competition sponsored by Grove Atlantic. Both are graduate students in the English department.
Sydney Martin, Jessica Parke, Mariah Perkins, and Becca Yenser, graduate students in creative writing, taught fourth-graders enrolled in a Wichita-based literacy program that reaches underserved Kansas children “lacking the quality literacy tools to help them succeed in school and life.” The students taught the children how to write stories as part of the StoryTime Village program. The summer school culminated in the children each writing and illustrating a book published in hardcover and sold at a giant celebration at the Wichita Art Museum.
This reef aquarium sits in the geology library and is funded through the John Gries Fund for Innovation in Earth Science Teaching, with the continued support of Marine Extreme. Geology student Valerie Ibarra is the primary researcher and reef manager. Students in Toni Jackman’s Issues in Marine Environments course learn about the many environmental threats to the oceans. Coral are under threat of bleaching in response to climate change, acidification, pollution, rapidly rising sea levels and stronger storms. Starting from a few “live” rocks and a couple of damsel fish, the reef now hosts increasing diversity and the development of symbiotic relationships among organisms. It has also proven to provide a relaxing scene for stressed out students.
Rebeccah Bechtold, assistant professor of English, is the recipient of the Jerome Stern Award. Given by the Popular Culture Association in the South and the American Culture Association in the South, it recognizes the best original article from the prior year’s issue of Studies in American Culture. Bechtold received the award for her article “Feeling Right: The Limits of Sympathy and the Problem of History in Making a Murderer.”
Noell Birondo, associate professor of philosophy, was recognized by the American Philosophical Association for his teaching innovation. Birondo has also been invited to serve on the program committee for the APA’s 2019 Central Division Meeting.
Darren DeFrain, associate professor of English, received the 2018 John R. Barrier Distinguished Teaching Award. The award honors humanities and social sciences faculty who exhibit excellent teaching and influence upon the lives and career choices of their students.
Mythili Menon, assistant professor of English, was awarded a faculty fellowship from the WSU Tilford Commission on Diversity. The new diversity-related course, “Languages and Language Attitudes in the USA,” will be taught next spring. She was also appointed an associate editor in the open access Journal of South Asian Linguistics.
Rhonda K. Lewis, professor and chair of psychology, received the 2018 Minority Mental Health Awareness Champion Recognition Award.
Cheryl K. Miller, senior assistant dean, was elected president of the Kansas Ornithological Society. Miller was also recently appointed as an at-large board member for Wichita Professional Communicators.
Peer Moore-Jansen, professor of anthropology, was quoted in an article on Mashable March 12, 2018. He discussed the difficulty in finding Amelia Earhart’s bones, and said that the likelihood that they have been found is greater now than it ever was before. https://bit.ly/2SbeIVo
Nickolas Solomey, professor of physics, won one of NASA’s coveted Innovation and Advanced Concept Awards for his research to create a neutrino detector for close sun orbit. Solomey’s research proposal was selected by NASA for its potential to transform future human and robotic exploration missions, introduce new exploration capabilities, and significantly improve current approaches to building and operating aerospace systems.
Joel Suss, assistant professor of psychology, has procured a $453,158 sub-award from the National Institute of Justice Grant for “Assessment of Cognitive Performance-based Training to Improve Police Decision Making.” Suss is working with Jeff Rojek, University of Texas at El Paso; Geoffrey P. Alpert, University of South Carolina; and Brian Lande, Polis Solutions, Inc, on this study.
Eric M. Wilson, associate educator and outreach director, Elliott School of Communication, was selected to present at the Public Relations Society of America’s International Conference. Wilson is current president of the PRSA Kansas Chapter.
Neal Allen, associate professor of political science, has been named chair of the department of political science. His primary research interests include American politics, Congress and the politics of race. He teaches courses in American politics and law. He regularly provides political commentary about local and state elections on television and radio and was recently quoted in Rolling Stone.
Brien Bolin, professor and director of the School of Social Work, has agreed to serve in the role of associate dean of student success for Fairmount College. Bolin will be responsible for data-driven retention initiatives; recruitment initiatives; assessment and program review; course scheduling; enrollment goals; curricular development; and consulting with the Fairmount College Student Advisory Council.
David Eichhorn, professor and chair of the department of chemistry, has agreed to serve in the role of associate dean of faculty development and research for Fairmount College. Eichhorn will be responsible for major annual cycle events including tenure and promotion, faculty evaluations, and support of the faculty hiring process; all internal and external grant activity; major award nominations and applications; faculty research achievements and recognitions; and faculty personnel issues.
Cheryl K. Miller has taken on new responsibilities in the role of senior assistant dean for academic and staff operations for Fairmount College. In this capacity, she will assist the dean in strategizing effective staff organization within the college and department units. A primary function of the position will be working with all staff of the college, with both personnel and professional development issues. A secondary role will be maintaining outreach relationships with the college’s alumni, faculty, students and community members. She will also serve as communication liaison between the dean and the chairs and directors, and between the dean and faculty.
Melissa Walker, associate professor of public administration, has been named interim director of the Hugo Wall School for Public Affairs. Her primary teaching responsibilities include the capstone course, human resource management, and fundraising and financial management in nonprofit organizations. Walker has evaluated services for uninsured individuals who have diabetes, for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities funded by Medicaid and, most recently, for a drug court.
Louis Medrene, professor of psychology
Patrick Kehoe, 77, died July 26. A professor of Latin and Greek, he taught at Wichita State University for 30 years. Memorial donations may be made to the Parkinson’s Foundation, 200 SE 1st Street, Suite 800, Miami, FL 33131 or parkinson.org.
C. Patric Mitchell, 52, died April 16. A lecturer, he taught calculus, algebra and other courses for the department of mathematics, statistics and physics for more than 10 years.
Christopher M. “Chris” Rogers, 62, died Oct. 8. A professor of biological sciences for 16 years, he was devoted to the teaching, research and conservation mission of the WSU biological sciences field station on the Ninnescah Reserve. Memorials may be made to the University of Wisconsin Field Station Memorial Fund. Please send in care of: Memorial gift to Dr. Christopher Rogers, Cedarburg Bog Plank Memorial, UWM Office for Development, 3271 N. Lake Drive, Milwaukee, WI 53211.
Correction: Philip H. Schneider’s name was misspelled in the obituary notice that appeared in the Spring 2018 issue of the LAS Newsletter. We regret the error.