MONDAY, MARCH 18, 2019 • VOL. 123, ISS. 43
THESUNFLOWER.COM
WICHITA STATE UNIVERSITY’S INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1896.
END OF AN ERA Wichita State President John Bardo dies BY MATTHEW KELLY
W
ichita State President John William Bardo died last Tuesday at the age of 70. Bardo was hospitalized in November with a chronic lung condition and had been in rehabilitation before returning to Wesley Medical Center. Monday morning’s funeral service will be private, but a public Celebration of Life event will be held on campus later this spring. The funeral procession will drive through campus Monday between 12:30 and 1:30 p.m., making five stops at the Marcus Welcome Center, Wiedemann Hall, the WSU plane crash memorial, the National Institute for Aviation Research, and the Rhatigan Student Center. A university press release announcing Bardo’s death describes him as “an innovator, nationally recognized scholar and deep believer in the value of public research universities.” Kansas Board of Regents Chair Dennis Mullin said Bardo had a “transformational vision” for WSU. SEE BARDO PAGE 6
COURTESY OF WICHITA STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES, SPECIAL COLLECTIONS AND UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES
FILE PHOTO BY MATT CROW/THE SUNFLOWER
President Bardo pictured at the announcement of Wichita State’s move to the American Athletic Conference.
John Bardo teaches in 1976. Bardo was hired as a sociology professor at Wichita State after earning his doctorate.
Revisiting John Bardo’s presidency through the lens of his inauguration speech BY AUDREY KORTE
Dr. John William Bardo was a man of action. He created. He constructed. He challenged. He shook up Shocker Nation. As president, Dr. Bardo steered Wichita State University into unfamiliar territory — implementing strategies for advancement and development with rapidity and ingenuity. He was determined to foster new opportunities for research, technology, and development. He wanted to enhance the university’s relationship with local industry and business. Bardo outlined these goals in his inaugural address. Those who knew little of the man and his methods before that speech walked away knowing where WSU was headed. In that speech, Bardo shared his vision for the future, and his plans. Big plans. Five plans, actually. Bardo’s top five priorities for Wichita State became something of a recurring theme during his tenure. On Oct. 12, 2012, Bardo took the oath of office in a ceremony at the Eugene M. Hughes Metropolitan
From theory to practice: Working with Bardo meant ‘you were a part of something’ BY ANDREW LINNABARY
COURTESY OF JEFF TUTTLE
Bardo gives his inauguration speech in 2012 at the Hughes Metroplex.
Complex. His inauguration theme was based on the title of his inaugural speech: “Ad Astra.” The Kansas state motto, “Ad Astra per Aspera” is Latin for, “to the stars through difficulties.” “While our motto specifically refers to the travails of statehood, we know today that we also live in very difficult times,” Bardo said. “But one part of our state’s motto, ‘Ad Astra,’ to the stars, speaks to how this university can lead the way to a future that is
brighter than we can conceive, and in which our children and grandchildren can live prosperous, meaningful and fulfilling lives. But, to do so, we are going to have to raise our own sights to the stars.” In the last 10 minutes of the speech, he unveiled The Bardo Five, detailing his top priorities for the university and the ways and means to implement them. SEE INAUGURATION PAGE 6
Mark Glaser had just come back to Kansas after serving in the Army when he first met John Bardo. Glaser was one of Bardo’s first students in the 1970s, back when Bardo was an assistant professor teaching sociology. “I was searching for where I should go, who I was, and who I should be,” Glaser said. Bardo helped Glaser with that search. Through courses, laughs, and — equally, if not more important than being in the classroom — real world application. Bardo taught Glaser many lessons, and set Glaser down the path to become the man he is today: a professor in the Hugo Wall School of Public Affairs for nearly 20 years. ‘THEORY INTO PRACTICE’
“If you look at Bardo’s administration, it’s built on the bridge between theory and practice,” Glaser said. “[Bardo] basically argued that theory’s fine, but
theory alone won’t get you all the way there. You’ve got to be able to translate that theory into practice.” Bardo started that idea in the early ‘70s, Glaser said, which was “a period of chaos.” “There was the Cuban missile crisis, then there was the assassination of John Kennedy, then Martin Luther King Jr., then Robert Kennedy,” Glaser said. “And the civil rights movement was going on at the same time. Watergate, the Pentagon Papers, all of those things . . . so it was an unsettling time — a little bit like what we’re seeing now.” Bardo was one of those professors who would say, “Let’s quit wringing our hands and let’s get down to it and start doing something a little bit different,” Glaser said. Glaser had no intentions of ever becoming a professor. “I was sort of just a lost graduate student trying to find a path in life,” Glaser said. SEE GLASER PAGE 2
INSIDE
CENTER STAGE
THANK YOU, DR. BARDO
NIT-BOUND
Wichita State athletics loom large in John Bardo’s legacy.
Jeremy Buoy led WSU theatre on a Shakespearian tour of local high schools.
President Bardo taught us to believe in something and to fight for it.
WSU fell just short of the AAC title game and a shot at the NCAA tournement.
SPORTS/NEWS • PAGE 4
NEWS/CULTURE • PAGE 5
OPINION • PAGE 7
SPORTS • PAGE 8
SPORTSMAN
NEWS
2 | MONDAY, MARCH 18, 2019
www.thesunflower.com
Highlights of Bardo’s presidency
www.thesunflower.com
THE STAFF EDITORIAL
Editor in Chief Matthew Kelly
Wichita State has seen major changes since 2012. Here are some of the most pivotal moments accompanied by the late president’s quotes.
Digital Managing Editor Andrew Linnabary Visual Managing Editor Madeline Deabler Culture Editor John Darr Opinion Editor Austin May Sports Editor Evan Pflugradt Photo Editor Selena Favela Sports Photo Editor Joseph Barringhaus
APRIL 27, 2012
APRIL 2013
John Bardo is named president of Wichita State
APRIL 25, 2013
The WSU men’s basketball team reaches the Final Four
“It’s so great to be home. I can’t think of any place I’d rather be than right here, right now.”
WSU rolls out a new strategic plan
OCTOBER 16, 2013
WSU announces that it will award merit scholarships
“Together, we will move this university forward.”
“Our interest is in making sure we keep the best and brightest people in Wichita so that they become part of the longterm workforce.”
ADVERTISING
Advertising Manager Kylie Cameron
ADVISING
Faculty Adviser Amy DeVault
FALL SEMESTER 2014
Shocker Hall opens, WSU begins offering 100 percent online degrees, students have to pay for parking permits to park on campus
MARCH 31, 2015
WSU announces plans for WSU Old Town “We have an illustrious past — we have a great past — but we’re about the future.”
FEBRUARY 24, 2014
NOVEMBER 2013
Innovation Campus is announced
WSU’s Military and Veteran Student Center opens
“What we’re really trying to do with all of this is get our students and our faculty hooked up with some external people to really encourage evolution of innovation.”
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Send letters to the editor to editor@thesunflower.com or submit at thesunflower.com. Please keep letters to 400 words or less. All letters are edited for clarity and length. Please include your name, WSU affiliation and a phone number for verification purposes.
FALL 2015
WSU launches a microcredit badge course program
Our Mission
The Sunflower — both in print and online — will be a timely resource of information about the Wichita State University community. It will report on news, issues, activities, academics and athletics, in addition to offering a forum for discussion, reviews and commentary. It will also be an effective learnig experience for students, who will have the final authority over what is published.
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FEBRUARY 15, 2018
CONTACT THE SUNFLOWER
“It would really focus not on transferring intellectual property to business, but would focus on trying to create applied STEM work that would benefit faculty, benefit students, and benefit the economy of the area.”
The Sunflower (published for use by WSU students, faculty and staff) is private property and unlawful removal or use of papers is prosecutable. One copy may be taken for free. Additional copies must be purchased for $1 each. The Sunflower is also partially funded by the Student Government Association at WSU. The opinions expressed in The Sunflower editorials, columns, guest columns, reviews, advertisements, letters and editorial cartoons are not necessarily those of the staff, publications board, student body or university. The Sunflower reserves the right to edit or reject any submission. We also reserve the right to edit or reject any advertisement.
MARCH 15, 2017
Students hold a sit-in outside of Bardo’s office demanding transparency from the university administration “Change is always difficult, and I appreciate that all of us who love Wichita State may have different ideas about the best way to position our university for future success.”
APRIL 7, 2017
WSU athletics switch from the Missouri Valley Conference to the American Athletic Conference “It was important to move quickly to become part of one of the best conferences in America.”
Bardo speaks before the U.S. House, calling on Congress to pass legislation encouraging universities to partner with outside entities to stimulate local economies
019 Elliott Hall 1845 N. Fairmount Ave. Campus Box 134 Wichita, KS 67260-0134
FEBRUARY 2018
NOVEMBER 15, 2017
“We’re encouraging those students to be engaged with us from the time they’re little children.”
“The economic success of this state is at the very heart of what Wichita State does, and informs every decision that we make.”
JULY 14, 2017
WSU shutters Fairmount Towers residence hall after 50 years and moves students to The Flats, a new private apartment complex
The board of Regents approves a merger between WSU and WATC to create WSU Tech
WSU announces that Wonder, a private elementary school, will open on campus
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SUNFLOWER OFFICES Front Desk: 316-978-3640 ADVERTISING Kylie Cameron: 316-978-6906 admanager@thesunflower.com EDITORIAL Matthew Kelly: 316-978-6905 editor@thesunflower.com ADVISER Amy DeVault: 316-978-6052 amy.devault@wichita.edu ---------ONLINE www.thesunflower.com FACEBOOK www.facebook.com/sunflowerwsu TWITTER @sunflowernews INSTAGRAM @thesunflowernews
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Muma: Bardo was ‘a professor at heart’ BY ANDREW LINNABARY
President John Bardo’s legacy is defined by bringing the university and community together under a common goal, Provost and acting President Rick Muma said Thursday night in a Thursdaynight interview. “He liked to talk — about the news, things going on at the university,” Muma said. “I think people will miss that opportunity because he’s very knowledgeable.” When Bardo was in the office, he liked to sit near his assistant and talk directly with members of his team, Muma said.
GLASER
FROM PAGE 1 But the more he worked with Bardo, the more he came to appreciate learning — and teaching. “Until that point, you went to class to get a grade,” Glaser said. “After that point, you went to class to learn for life.” Building on the platform that he learned from Bardo, Glaser has spent time on numerous projects in the Hugo Wall School and the Public Policy and Management Center. These projects aim to learn about and help better WSU and its surrounding community, particularly the Fairmount neighborhood. The projects may start and end in the classroom, but much of the research and real work is done in the community. BARDO’S LEGACY
CORRECTIONS This space is reserved for corrections. Spot an error? Call us at 316-978-6905.
“John helped me and I don’t know how many other students,” Glaser said. Glaser and other students gravitated to Bardo, even outside of the classroom — to the point of getting him in a little bit of trouble with
“He was very informal” in his approach,” and he was “a faculty member first.” “Sometimes, you’d be sitting around talking, and you’d forget he’s the president,” Muma said. “You feel like he’s a professor at heart.” Bardo was “unassuming, quiet,” and very “candid about the direction of the university,” Muma said. One of the things Muma most appreciated about Bardo was that once he was comfortable with someone, “he didn’t really care” how you did a project, as long as you finished it and did it well. He trusted his team.
Muma said when he interviewed for the vice president of strategic enrollment management job, Bardo told him “we’re all going to go northwest. I don’t care how you go. You can go left, right — as long as [in the end], we’re all moving in the direction that the university is going toward.” That direction can be defined by Bardo’s strategic plan that the university is following, which includes the Innovation Campus. “He has made a roadmap for where the university is going to go,” Muma said. “A lot of strategic plans sit on a shelf. This one is not sitting on a shelf. Bardo was
really proud of the strategic plan, and the plan actually happened.” The Kansas Board of Regents will meet within a week to begin the search process for the next president. Until a new president — or a different interim — is put in place, Muma will continue the role of acting president. He plans to continue fulfilling the strategic plan that Bardo laid out. “Every time I went to the hospital, we talked about the strategic plan and the future of the university,” Muma said. “You know me — I’m a deliberate man, and I plan to execute on the strategic plan.”
professors neighboring his office. “We’d get President Bardo in trouble as an assistant professor because we’d collect around his office, and if you get a little collection, you get a little noise . . . You get a little noise, other people get disturbed,” Glaser said through a grin. “We would do things like that.” Bardo enjoyed spending time with his students outside of the classroom, and outside of his office, Glaser said. “He’d call you up on Saturdays,” Glaser said — usually to rally students together to help out in the community. “I remember one Saturday in heavy snow, cars were stuck on Kellogg,” Glaser said. “They’d get in [where Kellogg dips down], and get stuck. So me, Bardo, and another graduate student or two, we spent the whole day pushing cars out of the snow and getting them rolling again.” Bardo was always the “action person,” Glaser said. “That’s really where he’s been trying to take this university. He recognizes that academia is going to have to become germane if we’re going to have better communities, better countries. And
to do that, we have to cross the bridge between theory and practice. “That was one of the things [Bardo] was very interested in — building that bond together.” That bridge between theory and practice is, to Glaser, Bardo’s legacy. “Assuming that President Bardo’s legacy continues, we’ll see more and more of that,” Glaser said. “People obviously see the connection between engineering and industry, but there’s all different kinds of ways faculty from disciplines can work with staff and students to develop creative ways of doing and thinking about things. “And John Bardo’s mind was always spinning, always spinning. While you’re busy trying to get a little rest, he’s thinking of the next thing. He wears you out just trying to keep up with him.”
on where we’re coming from.’ And so, just because you have a PhD or doctorate in front of your name, it doesn’t make you better than anyone else. “That was one of his major things. And that is instrumental in making higher education work. When you worked, even as a student, with Dr. Bardo, you felt like you were a part of something — not some student who was irrelevant to everything.” Even after Bardo’s passing, and after being a professor for decades, Glaser said he still feels like he’s Bardo’s student, even though “we’ve worked together for about 45 years.” “I got to know him pretty well,” Glaser said. “I still haven’t had the energy he had at any point in time, but if you ever wrote with him, you might end up on the Internet exchanging edits at 12 o’clock at night. So, I have personally benefited tremendously, and there are lots of people out there like me — including professors, students, and other people — who have settled into their various positions in the world [because of Bardo]. “I owe him a great debt, and I will always be grateful.”
PART OF SOMETHING
Something special about Bardo that resonated with Glaser was how he viewed people. “He didn’t see people as higher or lower,” Glaser said. “He just said, ‘We’re all just doing different things — making our contributions based
NEWS
www.thesunflower.com
MONDAY, MARCH 18, 2019
|3
LIFE WELL-LIVED FILE PHOTO BY MATT CROW/THE SUNFLOWER
SELENA FAVELA/THE SUNFLOWER Top, John Bardo speaks at a pep rally celebrating Wichita State’s inaugural season in the American Conference. Above, flowers and cards are placed on Bardo’s desk in memorial of his passing.
COURTESY OF JEFF TUTTLE Bardo dances with his wife, Deborah, during his inaugaration ceremony in 2012.
COURTESY OF JEFF TUTTLE
COURTESY OF JEFF TUTTLE
Left, Bardo speaks to Shirley Beggs, the former president, Don Begg’s wife, while getting ready for his inauguration. Above, Bardo laughs during a luncheon at the president’s campus home, located on the 17th and Hillside corner of campus.
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SPORTS/NEWS
4 | MONDAY, MARCH 18, 2019
www.thesunflower.com
Bardo was a hands-on advocate for WSU athletics BY EVAN PFLUGRADT
JOSEPH BARRINGHAUS/THE SUNFLOWER Wichita State paid tribute to former President John Bardo by adding a patch to their jeresys with his initials. Bardo died eariler this week.
‘Honor Dr. JB’: Wichita State played in honor of late president BY MARSHALL SUNNER
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Wichita State Head Coach Gregg Marshall wrote four messages on thewhitbeoard. One in particular stood out. “Honor Dr. JB.” Wichita State’s president died Tuesday, losing a battle with a chronic lung condition. At a team practice Tuesday, players and coaches learned of Bardo’s death. As a team, players decided they would honor Bardo with patches on their jerseys. Marshall has continued to write “Honor Dr. JB” as a motivator for his team, which road a six-game winning streak American Athletic Conference tournament semifinals before losing a nail-biter to No. 24 Houston. Bardo was a recognized fan of sports. When he arrived at the university, he inherited a successful basketball program. The Shockers went to the Final Four in Atlanta his first year with the university. The following year, the team went 35-1. In 2017, Bardo
accepted the phone call invitation to leave the Missouri Valley Conference for the AAC. “He’s made Wichita our home,” Marshall said. “Those are the leaders you need for a coach like me to want to be somewhere and stay. That guy, I love what he stands for as a man. “I love what he did for our campus and community,” Marshall said. “What he has started at Wichita will change the community for years to come. He was a visionary. He did so much in such a short period of time.” Team manager Kellen Marshall said the inspiration to honor the late president is more than a motivator. “It’s also about being grateful for that day,” Kellen Marshall said. “You’re never guaranteed a day, so we need to play like we are thankful to be here. That extends to everyone in the room.” “We want to go hard for him,” Samajae Haynes-Jones said. “This means a lot to us. Putting [his initials] on our jersey just puts another chip on our shoulder.”
Former community liaison remembers Bardo’s passion, devotion for Fairmount BY AUDREY KORTE
Darryl Carrington has been a fan of John Bardo’s for some time now. Not only is he a recent graduate of Wichita State, but he worked under Bardo as the community liaison to the Fairmount neighborhood, located across 17 Street from campus. “Very few, I think, people had this unique experience and relationship with him. It's just, it's so valuable,” Carrington said. When The Sunflower interviewed Carrington on February 22, 2019, Carrington praised Dr. Bardo and said he was a visionary who was committed to the Fairmount community. "Truly, truly, Dr. Bardo is the man,” Carrington said. “He's the one who gave us the resources — the green light to go into that neighborhood and do a comprehensive needs assessment.” Carrington described Bardo as passionate and devoted. He said Bardo’s background in urban sociology gave him the expertise necessary to begin cultivating a better relationship between the university and the Fairmount neighborhood. According to Carrington, Bardo said, “We want to find out how we can be a better neighbor.” In 2015, the university received a $250,000 grant from the Kansas Health Foundation to implement a three-year Fairmount community centered project that would address such topics as safety and community-building, as well as improving the dialogue between the university and the Fairmount community.
Bardo put Ted Ayres in charge of the three-year campaign. Ayres — who had just retired as vice president and general counsel emeritus at Wichita State — developed and directed the Office of Community Engagement and Opportunity. Ayres hired Carrington, who was president of the Fairmount Neighborhood Association at the time, to head community relations between WSU and Fairmount. Carrington worked for WSU on the resulting programs, surveys, and outreach activities for 30 months. Carrington came to know Bardo during that time. “Not that the Bardos have adopted me, but I really feel a loss,” Carrington said of Bardo’s death. “He was an advocate. “I think his life and death as it applies to Fairmount — we are the sole beneficiaries of his life and I think his death. I really do.” After Carrington received news of Bardo’s death, he went to the president’s office in Morrison Hall to pay his respects. There, he was told about the funeral procession traveling through campus on Monday. “I was in Morrison today and they showed me the map that they're going to do, where they're going to go around the WSU community,” Carrington said. “I was told by Anna Lanier that he wants that procession to come in at the main entrance, which is at 17th and Fairmount, because he wants to include the community. “That sounds just like him to me.”
President John Bardo was around during the good years of Wichita State football. He described these memories fondly, and let many believe he would be the one to resurrect the school’s football program. With teases on social media, a prized black Shocker helmet in his office and a $60,000 feasibility study, it would appear football was the late president’s big sports project. Bardo never lived to see the project reach completion. Wichita State’s interest in football stymied in 2016. Still, Bardo said “doors were never closed” but said he felt confident a revival wouldn’t happen until after he was gone. Yet, that’s not to say that Bardo, a described agent of change, didn’t have plans to expand Wichita State’s competitive sports teams. “I think eSports will be the next thing added to intercollegiate competition,” Bardo told The Sunflower in October. “That will be next.” eSports wasn’t Bardo’s stopping point. Why Bardo wanted football was to offer students an entertainment attraction early into the fall semester. Basketball, the school’s largest entertainment attraction, doesn’t play its first games until November. Wichita State is most likely to face retention issues in the first eight weeks of the semester. Bardo thought that if he could find a way to keep students in Wichita on the weekends, retention numbers would grow. His solution? “It’s possible men’s and women’s soccer,” Bardo said. “It’s gaining popularity in this part of the country particularly.” How serious were these considerations? Enough that Bardo said he had multiple conversations with Athletic Director Darron Boatright about the possibilities. “Darron Boatright certainly understands the interest I have in that,” Bardo said. Wichita State hasn’t jumped into soccer because, Bardo said, the school is still “digesting the (2017) move to the American Athletic Conference.”
COURTESY OF JEFF TUTTLE President John Bardo celebrates after winning regionals to advance to the Final Four in 2013.
“Right now, it’s the wrong time to get into anything,” Bardo said. “Soccer, down the road, might be possible.” “Those were more of preparatory conversations than anything,” Boatright said this week. “With the way our Title IX numbers are currently and the way the percentages work out with our undergraduate numbers, we have the right amount of sports that we do right now.” Swimming and diving and sponsoring bowling were also considered options, Boatright said. That considered, Wichita State is still searching to fulfill Bardo’s mission of providing a fall sports entertainment option for students in the first eight weeks of the fall semester. “We had multiple discussions as an executive team about those very important first eight weeks of classes,” Boatright said. “Your decision, the statistics will say, you will decide your freshman year, the first eight weeks, if that’s the institution you’ll graduate from. “That would have been a reason why he (Bardo) would mention
another fall sport is he was looking for another entertainment option,” Boatright said. Bardo was clear with his intentions with athletics. He wanted to win, Boatright said. “He would never shy away from that,” Boatright added. “The only thing Dr. Bardo was adamant with me on was studying conference affiliation and studying feasibility for football,” Boatright said. “He was demanding in that we were going to look at them. And if we found that we’re where we need to be, that’s fine.” Bardo’s success with the university includes Wichita State’s expansion on its east campus addition known as Innovation Campus, but also leading Wichita State’s move to the American Athletic Conference, Boatright said. “I’d be hard-pressed to find an example of a president in such a short period of time that had such a lasting and profound impact on a community and university,” Boatright said.
NEWS/CULTURE
www.thesunflower.com
MONDAY, MARCH 18, 2019
|5
Student organizations ask for funding increases Here is a summary of organizations’ requests for student fees allocations fiscal year 2020. Included are this year’s requests, along with last year’s allocations. The student fees committee begins deliberations on requests Monday. BY ANDREW LINNABARY
New this year: • A separate line item for Varsity Esports requesting $85,556 for the first time to “expand the number of competitive opportunities” and “increase support for the current ESport Sport Club.” • A Victim Advocate position funded through Student Life. The Advocate would be a direct resource for students who are victims of sexual assault or domestic/relationship violence. Will be Student Affairs position.
TOTAL STUDENT FEES BUDGET $9,637,314 FY 2019 UP TO (BASED ON REQUESTS) $10,071,348 FY 2020. EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY FUND - $257,586 FY 2019 UP TO $258,016 FY 2020
•
Only increase is addition of ADHD/LD Assessment Scholarship Fund, a $450 request.
• • •
STUDENT AFFAIRS - $2,871,059 FY 2019 UP TO $3,016,476 FY 2020
• • • • •
Student Involvement increase from $983,505 to $1,020,400. Student Health increase from $943,505 to $952,000. Child Dev. Center Assistant Teacher Program increase from $320,300 to $340,664. Counseling and Testing Center increase from $198,307 to $229,983. Student Conduct and Community Standards
increase from $108,105 to $118,099. Safe Ride Prevention Services Program decrease from $70,000 to $45,000. Office of Diversity and Inclusion increase from $47,337 to $54,466. Student Life increase from $89,136 to $145,000 to fund a new position, a Victim Advocate. The Advocate would be a direct resource for students who are victims of sexual assault or domestic/relationship violence. Will be Student Affairs position.
RHATIGAN STUDENT CENTER $5,004,750 FY 2019 DOWN TO $5,003,000 FY 2020 THE SUNFLOWER STUDENT NEWSPAPER - $75,000 FY 2019 UP TO $153,000 FY 2020
•
Personnel expenditures
increase from $75,000 to $117,975 along with $35,025 in operation expenses. CAMPUS RECREATION - $1,027,412 FY 2019 UP TO $1,048,388 FY 2020
• • • •
Operating expenditures increase from $739,513 to $753,078. Capital equipment reserve increase from $20,000 to $25,000. Sports Clubs stay the same at $30,000. WSU Rowing Team increase from $237,899 to $240,310.
OTHER PROGRAMS
• • • • • • •
STUDENT GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION - $256,207 FY 2019 UP TO $280,000 FY 2020
• • •
Office expenditures up from $184,007 to $206,825. SGA allocations stay at $60,000. Student Advocate salary increase from $12,200 to $13,175.
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Baja Team SAE up from $11,250 to $13,000. Formula Team up from $49,550 to $60,000. Mikrokosmos down from $3,710 to $3,500. Model UN stays the same at $20,000. Shift Space Gallery stays the same at $67,067. College of Fine Arts programming up from $40,000 to $45,000. A new program, Varsity Esports, is requesting $85,556 for the first time to “expand the number of competitive opportunities” and “increase support for the current ESport Sport Club.” Graduate Student programming stays the same at $10,000.
Sunflower Archives — Apr. 30, 2012
Welcome home, Bardo
Kansas Board of Regents names 13th WSU president BY ROBERT HITE
COURTESY
Jeremy Buoy (center) directed and acted in “the Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged).”
Jeremy Buoy brings a dream to life with WSU’s first theatre tour in over a decade
BY JOHN DARR
Presenting all of Shakespeare’s plays in the runtime of a single production isn’t exactly traditional. Yet, when WSU Theatre Performance senior Jeremy Buoy wanted to direct “The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged),” it wasn’t the play itself that was the problem. The theatre just didn’t have an open spot in its schedule for the play to be presented. So Jeremy leapt at the opportunity to buck tradition in another way — he became the director of Wichita State’s first touring theatre production in over a decade. The road wasn’t an easy one, but Buoy was determined to do the play anyway. “Part of the difficult part for me was contacting and getting consent to come [to each venue],” Buoy said. He met with the drama programs of Wichita high schools across the district in order to get each show off the ground. Putting in the foundational work eventually allowed Buoy to make the ambitious, complex project a reality. Even after the dates for the play were set, there was the matter of making content high-school appropriate. “With all the high schools, I sent out the scripts so they could let me know if there’s anything we needed to change,” Buoy said. With Kapaun Mt. Caramel, a Catholic high school, Buoy had to specially amend the script. “The words I had to cut were ‘bitch’ and ‘shit,’ even though you hear that on TV almost every day,” Buoy said. Even with all the groundwork laid, the tour was still an intimidating prospect. “Touring it in itself was a risk — not knowing how well it would play off or if schools would enjoy it,” Buoy said. Thankfully, Buoy had the drive and experience to make the show’s success likely. He’s been engaged with theatre since high school, first working on the technical side before successfully auditioning for his school’s one act plays. His acting and technical experience have both informed him as a director. “As an actor, I prefer when the director is more hands-off in a sense and lets you have the character,” Buoy said. He loves being able to incorporate his own temperament and
life experience into the characters, and he says this understanding gave him the drive to let his actors do the same. “It allowed me to be more free in my direction,” Buoy said. His range of experience on the technical side also gave him the ability to handle the vast amount of responsibilities required to bring a chaotic comedy like “Shakespeare (Abridged)” together. “It even comes down to little things like props and your set and how that all works together to create the whole aspect and story of the show,” Buoy said. “With a comedy, you have to build in essentially to allow for and gauge timing with laughs. “You never know what an audience will laugh at.” Under Buoy’s guidance, the show was a huge success. Each school received the play really well, Buoy said, and WSU has been invited back to do more productions in the future. That probably has a lot to do with Buoy’s intentions with the play in the first place. With “Shakespeare (Abridged),” he aimed to bring life to Shakespeare through the kind of witty and physical humor that often gets missed in the classroom. As a comedic actor himself who looks to actors like Zach Galifinakis for effective humor, Buoy was especially drawn to the play’s ability to make the most of Shakespeare’s material. “Not all Shakespeare is dry . . . It can be very funny and highly entertaining, and it’s still highly relevant to today’s society,” Buoy said. “The scene I loved the most was also the most difficult scene in the show. At the very end of the play they run Hamlet — all of Act 2 is Hamlet — they run Hamlet fast, then faster, then backwards fast.” Buoy’s love of theatre runs deep. He’s found support from family members that has propelled him forward, especially from his grandmother, who attended his shows even when he had an unsubstantial part. As much as Buoy has given the community by bringing comedy to the high schools of Wichita, he said he gains back in experience and love of the theatre. “I’ve learned a lot about myself — especially when directing,” Buoy said. “It helped me to confirm future career plans and also helped me to become more confident about myself and my abilities.”
John William Bardo was named the 13th president of Wichita State on Friday. “It’s so great to be home,” he said. “I can’t think of any place I’d rather be than right here, right now.” The Kansas Board of Regents unanimously approved Bardo’s appointment Friday morning in the Rhatigan Student Center before faculty, staff and students. The search and selection process took five months. Bardo will replace current President Donald Beggs, whose resignation is effective June 30. Bardo, 63, served as chairperson of the Department of Sociology and Social Work at WSU from 1978-1983 and graduate coordinator of the Master’s of Urban Studies Program Center for Urban Studies from 1976-1977. His wife Deborah grew up in Wichita, graduated from West High School and earned three degrees from WSU. “This university has a deep history of excellence in teaching, engaged scholarship and public service that’s so critical to the future of this city, this metropolitan region and this state,” Bardo said. He said WSU is posed to address the future. “All of the elements are here at this university to continue to make a difference in the lives of the people of this city, this region and this state, he said. Ed McKechnie, chairman of the Board of Regents, said they chose Bardo for many reasons: he’s familiar with WSU and Wichita (necessary for an urban university), understanding of
organizing a strategic plan to move the university forward, and has a proven track record. “We believe there will not be a delay in the good work that’s been going on at WSU,” McKechnie said. “His performance during the interview was outstanding. His depth and knowledge lifted him in a significant way.” Bardo, who has family living in the Wichita area, said the WSU president’s job is the only he applied for. Since leaving WSU, he has kept in contact with colleagues and stayed informed about the Beggs’ contribution to WSU and what’s been happening in Wichita. “It felt to me like the kind of experiences I’ve had might be useful here,” he said. Bardo said his first days at WSU would be spent getting to know people and discovering what their interests are at the university. The next months will be spent getting to know the community and how it interacts with the university. “It’s really just trying to get hands on—what’s here, what the budget looks like, what the enrollment looks like—the big picture,” he said. Bardo’s first day back at WSU included meeting people and interviews with media. He hasn’t seen the university’s budget yet, but said he knew about classified staff members not receiving raises for the past four years because the same thing is happening at universities around the country. “Most states are experiencing the same thing,” he said. “The people of the school where I was last at hadn’t had a raise in four years either. It’s for the same reasons. The economy has made it difficult, and
tax revenues haven’t been as good as one would hope.” Bardo said he understands this affects people’s lives and wants to do something about it. He reduced Western Carolina University’s budget 13 percent in his last year as chancellor there. “It’s on my mind and on my agenda,” he said. “This is a national problem.” Bardo said another financial issue was the need for building maintenance. “It was something I noticed when I walked around campus,” he said. An urban sociologist by trade, Bardo said he hasn’t been president long enough to understand the crime issue around the WSU campus. At WCU, a rural university, he installed video cameras to record license plate numbers. Several armed robberies have occurred near WSU in the past year. “We have to get our hands on it, what is feasible,” Bardo said. He intends to be open with all campus information. “Overall, we don’t have a lot of secrets,” he said. “I don’t have hidden agendas. So, if somebody, wants to know something, I’ll try to get it to them.” He wants to get WSU athletics to the “next level.” “It’s a good rallying point for this campus,” he said. “It’s a good rallying part for this city.” Bardo will begin working on these issues from the president’s home in July. “Over the years, we talked about, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to get back to Wichita State,’” he said. “I’m excited to be back in the area of which I’m trained and to be part of that.”
CULTURE
6 | MONDAY, MARCH 18, 2019
www.thesunflower.com
The Cavves’ ‘Holy Water’ drowns in, then transcends, its religious suffering
Tuesday
Wednesday
Time: All Day, reception Tuesday, March 19 at 5 p.m.
Time: 10:00 a.m.
EXPOSURE PHOTOGRAPHY COMPETITION EXHIBIT
ELLA DOMINGUEZ MUSIC CRITIC
Grab a box of tissues, y’all — the Cavves are back with a new single, and it’s going to make you cry. Less than a year after the release of their debut album, “Learn to Swim,” the Cavves have returned with their first single from “Venture Out,” their sophomore record, due in early April. The track, titled “Holy Water,” is simultaneously a banger and a tearjerker. Clocking in at just under seven minutes, “Holy Water” is hypnotizing despite its lengthy run time. This song feels older, deeper, and more meaningful than previous tracks by the Wichita natives. Depicting the dark side of The Cavves’ Catholic school roots, “Holy Water” strays from the band’s typical sunshine and surfboard personality. This song digs up skeletons in the band’s closet. A church is supposed to be a place of refuge and peace, but it can become a place of suppression, sexism, and overwhelming guilt. “Holy Water” tells the story of all the anxiety that is locked up
INAUGURATION FROM PAGE 1
His purpose was to take the university higher — to get WSU to reach for the stars. The five points in this plan were to improve overall quality of education, increase enrollment, enhance basic research, pursue technology invention and industry partnerships, and improve the quality of student life. THE BARDO FIVE
• Improving quality of education: Focusing on increased excellence in teaching, student support, administration, outreach. Finding new ways to increase student learning and student satisfaction, while reducing cost. “We need to focus on quality in everything that we do.” And we have to start with our undergraduates, and make sure that our undergraduates have the best opportunity and that we are drawing the best and brightest.” • Increasing enrollment: “I’m asking the faculty to consider forming a residential honors college. Not just an honors program but a residential honors college focused on keeping the best and brightest here so that they can work with you. This college should be open to every college in every major. Let’s get to the situation where students choose us over Princeton because they get a better education at a better cost right here at home.” • Enhancing basic research: Building more research facilities, upgrading laboratories and raising the university research capacity. “We need to continue to build our capacities in graduate education, in postgraduate education and in research. We are making some moves today by restructuring the office of Research Administration to try to provide greater support for funded work.” • Pursuing technology transfer: Taking the ideas and research of faculty, staff and students to the marketplace and enhancing public/ private partnerships. “It is really key that we engage systematically in technology transfer. That we systematically take the products of your minds and get them out to the community to improve the quality of life, improve this region’s global competitiveness, to assure that the industries that are committed to Wichita have the best capacity to compete globally.” • Improving the quality of student life: Making campus more attractive and convenient for students while giving students more opportunities to connect with their campus. “I’ve heard from students over and over about their love for Wichita State and their great desire to have more opportunities to engage with the campus, to improve their learning, to increase the quality of their campus experience. Now President Beggs took a major step when he authorized for the Rhatigan Student Center to be rebuilt and to be expanded. That will make a big difference. But we have to find other ways to enhance the quality of student life.”
COURTESY
alongside textbooks and pills in Catholic school lockers. Lyrically, “Holy Water” is a stunner. The chorus, “Graduate with honors and take your pills with some holy water,” stands as the most impactful part of the single. When the immense pressures of faith and education intertwine, “drowning feels a bit like walking home.” The lyrics are devastating, but the music itself is upbeat, skillful, and exciting. The Cavves function as a cohesive unit, with Lou Heldman, now vice president for strategic communications, heard the inaugural address that day. “Although some of the language changed over the course of six and a half years, there’s a pretty clear through line from the inaugural speech to the end of his time as president,” Heldman said. The plans Bardo shared during the ceremony were surprising, he said. “He came with a clear-cut vision. The most typical thing for a new president would be to say, ‘First I’m going to do a lot of listening, and then, you know, sort of a year from, now I’ll tell you what I think we need to do,’” Heldman said. Bardo told people what he thought needed to be done at WSU from the get go. “He wasn’t coming in as a new president normally would. He was someone coming in who already had roots and branches on campus,” Heldman said. Heldman said because Bardo began his teaching career here and was friends with many WSU faculty, he was comfortable enough with WSU and confident enough in his decisions, to share his vision at the inauguration. He was honest from the start. “He expressed a dissatisfaction with things as they were and said, ‘Not only do we have to be much better, but Wichita has to be much better,’” Heldman said. “Clouds right now are on the horizon for Kansas. And we all know that clouds can bring storms and storms can be very dangerous in this state,” Bardo said. “We have a great danger in this metropolitan area in that the vast bulk of our exports are in one industry, aircraft. For us to remain competitive, we’re going to have to think differently about what our economic base looks like.” Bardo then announced the creation of a $50,000 fund to provide grants for students who engage in faculty-mentored research. He said he would be exploring ways to free up money to build more research facilities and upgrade laboratories. He discussed plans to build a new residence hall, Shocker Hall. “We are going to be moving quickly, quickly to build the first new residence hall on this campus since the 1960s,” Bardo said. “We need to provide strong living, learning environments for our students so that they can get full benefit of the educational experience.” Shocker Hall, an 800-bed dormitory, opened in 2014. Next, he challenged the faculty to create an honors college. They did. Heldman said the honors program has been extremely successful. “We’ve gone from something like 200 students to more than 600 students, and the students are in all majors,” Heldman said. He credits this increase to a few decisions Bardo made early on. “Because of the commitment that Dr. Bardo made and the leadership of Dean (Kimberly) Engber, the WSU Foundation was able to secure a major gift from Dorothy and Bill Cohen,” Heldman said. “And in the
band members working together seamlessly to create a tune that rips. This song is poetry set to music about the detrimental effects of high school bigotry. “Holy Water” is a testament to the fact that The Cavves are here to make music and have a good time, despite what they experienced in their past. If “Holy Water” is any indication of what’s to come in “Venture Out,” fans of The Cavves are not likely ready for this rollercoaster ride. past six months or so, they’ve given a second major gift.” In recognition of their first donation of $5 million, the College was named the Dorothy and Bill Cohen Honors College. They pledged their second gift of $2.5 million three years later, in 2018. The other topic Bardo discussed was how to improve relationships with local business and industry sectors. “Wichita State, given its mission, can be the center of business innovation for this state,” Bardo said. “We can become the center of development of SBIR (Small Businesses Innovation Research), of technology transfer, and of making sure that the knowledge that we gain from our research makes a difference for the quality of life for the people we serve.” This became Dr. Bardo’s most widely known initiative and resulted in both the Innovation Campus and the creation of the office of technology transfer. Located at WSU’S eastern edge, on the former Braeburn Golf Course is this research park, the Innovation Campus includes three engineering buildings, the Wichita-Sedgwick County Law Enforcement Training Center, two residence halls, the AIRBUS partnership building, and three retail buildings. A YMCA and student wellness center has broken ground. A hotel and aviation crash lab are in the works. Plans for a new $50 million business school are currently on hold after WSU students recently rejected a referendum to raise student fees again. The proposed fee increase would have accounted for $20 million of the cost of building, the remaining $30 million being provided by private donors. Innovation Campus has raised eyebrows for a number of reasons. Some are impressed. Others still are critical of business decisions associated with the venture. Others aren’t sure what to think. Dr. Bardo wrote a message to the university about Innovation Campus to address concerns, saying, “Innovation Campus itself has become controversial in some quarters because it involves public-private partnerships, known as P3s, that have been common in American higher education for decades, but are still relatively new to many in Kansas.” It remains a complex issue. Regardless, it’s sure to be the keystone in Bardo’s legacy. Innovation Campus was his biggest initiative — an initiative to enterprise academia. Bardo will be remembered for this ambitious priority and for his commitment to Wichita and the university that bears its name. “WSU is an intellectual giant in the middle of the country that is awakening,” Bardo said at his inauguration. “It is setting direction and is moving with purpose. It is that giant that can reach higher than anyone ever expected.” “You have the capacity to reach the stars. Friends, you are that good.”
SENIOR WEDNESDAY: FINDING THE EXTRAORDINARY IN THE ORDINARY
Location: RSC Cadman Art Gallary
Location: Ulrich Musuem
Cost: Free!
Cost: Free!
The Cadman Art Gallery always provides a wonderful place to get a glimpse of student art, but this week, there’s a special breadth of wonderful work to peruse. The Exposure Photography Competition, now in its 37th year, showcases the excellent work of WSU students who have selected their best work in the Digital, Analog, and New Media Categories. There will be a reception and awards ceremony at 5 p.m. Tuesday, but if you can’t make that, the exhibit will be on display all week! Show your support with a stop by when you’re at the RSC.
The Poet Laureate of Kansas will be appearing at the Ulrich Museum of Art for a special talk this Wednesday. Even if you don’t know a thing about poetry, this talk is for you. Poet Laureate Kevin Rabas will be exploring how the ordinary events and objects in our day-to-day lives are both sources for poetry and can be navigated using it. Rabas, a jazz musician, will also be using song to bring the talk to life. It’s sure to be a wonderful presentation for anyone curious about how poetry can impact their lives, and it’s an opportunity to meet a true Kansas artist.
Wednesday Wednesday KMUW’S LITERARY FEAST Time: noon – 1:00 p.m. Location: KMUW Cost: $10 Are you a media nerd who loves literature and radio? Then KMUW’s Literary Feast is for you! The event is an openbook discussion led by KMUW that features both food for the mind and food for the stomach. Discussion is lead by KMUW book nerds Lu Anne Stephens, Beth Golay, and Sarah Jane Crespo, while food is provided by Public at the Brickyard. Get in the literary groove with “Black Leopard, Red WOlf” by Marlon James, this month’s focus of discussion, then grab your tickets at http://www. kmuw.org/kmuw-literary-feast.
BARDO
FROM PAGE 1 “He led the development of Innovation Campus, which brought new buildings and improvements to Wichita State that are remarkable,” Mullin said in a press release. “However, even more important are the opportunities for students that he worked so hard to create. His action positioned the university as an economic driver and a leader in applied learning.” Bardo was selected in 2012 to succeed Donald Beggs as WSU’s 13th president. He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1948. He graduated from the University of Cincinnati with a bachelor’s degree in economics, and from Ohio University with a master’s degree in sociology before
BASEBALL AND SOFTBALL VS. KANSAS Time: 6:00 p.m. Location: Eck Stadium (baseball) and C. Howard Wilkins Softball Facility (softball) Cost: Free Student Tickets! Ring in the beautiful spring weather by coming out to support your fellow Shockers in a rivalry match! With both Shocker teams heading into home games against the University of Kansas, there’s no better time to hit the ballpark. Be sure to grab your free student tickets ahead of time by visiting the ticket office during the week. The office is open from 8:30 a.m to 5 p.m. and an hour before games as well. Go Shockers!
earning his doctorate from Ohio State in 1973. Fresh out of college, Bardo was hired on as a sociology professor at Wichita State, where he served for five years before becoming the liberal arts and sciences dean at Southwest Texas State University — now Texas State. Bardo then served in administrative roles at the University of North Florida (1986-90) and Bridgewater State College (1990-93). He was named chancellor of Western Carolina University in 1995, and held the position for 16 years. In April 2012, the Kansas Board of Regents named Bardo president of WSU. Bardo is survived by his wife, Deborah — who he first met at WSU as a young professor — and their son, Christopher. Provost Rick Muma has been serving as acting president since January.
FREE VISION SCREENINGS 11 AM - 1 PM MARCH 26 256 RSC FROM STUDENT HEALTH & THE MEDICAL SERVICES BUREAU
Need your eyes checked? Get a quick vision screening for free!
Student Health Services| 209 Ahlberg Hall 316.978.3620 | wichita.edu/shs
OPINION
www.thesunflower.com
MONDAY, MARCH 18, 2019
|7
FILE PHOTO BY BRIAN HAYES/THE SUNFLOWER
Wichita State President John Bardo listens as Tom Gentile, Spirit Aerospace president and CEO speaks during an event announcing a partnership building with Spirit Aerospace and Wichita State University.
Believe in something and fight for it In April 2012, John Bardo returned to Wichita State as one of five candidates for the president job. “There’s work to be done, and I intend to do it,” Bardo said. “If I can’t, I’ll quit.” He never quit. When Bardo, 70, was admitted to the hospital for treatment of a chronic lung condition last November, the retirement question was inevitably floated. But retirement wasn’t in the cards for Bardo. There was work to be done, and he intended to do it. “I’m in good spirits and continue to work with members of the Executive Team on
STAFF
EDITORIAL university issues,” Bardo wrote in a November letter. “I’m looking forward to being back on campus and seeing you in the new year.” Bardo would make just one more trip to campus — in the back of an ambulance. According to a WSU press release, following a visit to the hospital two weeks ago, Bardo asked the ambulance driver to take him on a drive through campus. He hadn’t been in three months. As recently as February, Bardo
was reassuring colleagues that he planned to come back as president. His work wasn’t done. He intended to finish it. John Bardo had a steadfast commitment to Wichita and the university that bears its name. He was on a mission to usher in a new era of higher education by championing the ideals of public-private partnership, applied learning, and community engagement. He poured time and resources into establishing WSU as the economic driver of the region. He set a course, and he stayed the course. His methods can be
scrutinized. They have. Controversy is inescapable. He never backed down. Bardo believed in something bigger than himself, and he fought for it. “Tell me anything worthwhile that has ever happened in the history of the world that hasn’t been controversial,” Bardo said in 2017. Bardo had an unwavering desire to achieve — to push WSU and Wichita at large to aspire to be better. John Bardo rejected the status quo. His presidency was a masterclass in tenacity. He taught us to believe in something and to fight for it. Thank you, Dr. Bardo.
SGA elections: Why you should care The university is undoubtedly in a period of change. On top of the recent Shock the Future referendum, upcoming SGA elections will allow you the students to provide some serious input on the future direction of the university as a whole by voicing your opinion with a vote. Last year, with only one unified party running candidates, the direction was all but decided prior to the casting of ballots. This year, however, four tandems are vying
AUSTIN MAY
OPINION EDITOR
for the presidency and vice presidency. Additionally, each college will elect several senators, and at-large senators will be chosen by the entirety of the student body. In summary, each and every one of us has a number of opportunities to make our voices heard. The voter turnout in last years SGA election was 12.3 percent, and the referendum saw a bump to 28.7 percent turnout, but both of these numbers are ridiculously low, given
Make American Politics required Two weeks ago, NPR’s 1A news and debate program featured two historians sparring over the nation’s founding — specifically, the meaning of Ben Franklin’s quote telling a woman that we would have a republic, “if you can keep it.” The two men set out diametrically opposed frameworks for reuniting the divided nation, with one (whom I thought to be a revisionist historian) proposing that we must set aside our differences and simply celebrate the grandeur of America, and the other proposing that it is in those stark differences where salvation lies. This battle between acceptance of the political other and demonizing them is at the forefront of American discourse wherever you look. It seems to me that completely accepting those who you disagree with is an incredibly privileged point of view — one where the disastrous effects of policy failures toward the most disadvantaged among us are completely ignored. Completely demonizing those people is equally ignorant and does nothing but further dangerous ideological entrenchment. Finally, remaining ignorant or
JUSTIN GORDON COLUMNIST
apathetic toward politics and governance is possibly the most destructive position of all, as our government only works for all of us when we all work for it. However, it is practically impossible for young Americans to adequately understand the nuances of ideological compromise without a complete understanding of how our political process fundamentally functions. Government, politics, public discourse — these are aspects of our lives where high-minded debate between people who disagree should be welcomed, even encouraged. Students must be taught the basics of high-minded debate, the history of our politics, and the consequences of government action.
The easiest and most efficient way to create learning these learning spaces is to require students to take an American Politics course. There, every single student who graduates from Wichita State could learn to understand and discuss our nation, facilitated by an impassioned professor, without fear of vitriolic retribution. That being said, these classes should not tolerate the views of neo-Nazis, blatant bigots, or conspiracy theorists who continually act in bad faith. The vast majority of conservatives are not bigoted monsters, bent on homogenizing America into a white nation, just as the majority of liberals are not communist sympathizers, desiring to overthrow every American tradition. Bridging this divide between focusing on what unites us and focusing on what divides us will take thoughtful dedication by faculty and students, but it cannot happen until we all decide to partake in political discourse. We cannot accept or demonize, but rather attempt to understand our political others, and it is in these attempts at understanding where empathy and respect for all Americans will flourish.
how long it takes to cast a ballot. With an investment of 10 minutes on your way to class, you could help to decide the election not only for yourself, but also for the vast majority of us who are leaving it entirely up to our peers. As far as being informed on candidates and/or ideologies on key issues in this election, you have already come to the right place. The Sunflower will provide coverage on all of the proceedings of the election cycle all the way up to
the voting deadline. Additionally, candidates will be hosting town hall meetings during the week of March 25, and debates for presidential and vice presidential tickets will take place on March 29. The most important thing, however, is to simply remember to cast a ballot. The ballots will be open from April 1-3. Surely, you can find at least 10 minutes over the course of three days to decide your own fate.
SPORTS
8 | MONDAY, MARCH 18, 2019
www.thesunflower.com
Shockers fall one possession shy of AAC Championship Game
McDuffie, Haynes-Jones lead Wichita State to final push BY EVAN PFLUGRADT
Gregg Marshall pulled Dexter Dennis in close. He leaned in and delivered his message to the team. “Eight weeks ago, three weeks ago, would you have taken down eight with 10 minutes to go in the game for the right to play for the American Athletic Conference tournament championship?” Marshall asked. “Yes, of course,” Dennis responded. Wichita State as a whole responded. With 10 minutes left in the game, Wichita State put itself within a possession of the American Athletic Conference tournament championship game. Markis McDuffie missed a shot to tie the game in the final seconds, and Cincinnati hung on to win 66-63. Cincinnati advanced to the championship, as did Houston, for the second straight year. Wichita State had done the improbable. “This is a microcosm of how they’ve never given up,” Marshall said. “There’s been disappointment. There’s been shortcomings. There’s been doubt. But the way that they have handled not only their business but the example that they’ve set for the young players, for me, as a 56-year-old man, has been incredible.” That’s just it. Eight weeks ago, players would not have envisioned an opportunity to play for a conference championship, nonetheless hang with No. 24
Cincinnati in a neck-and-neck battle for the spot. WSU players will remember the season for the resiliency they had to turn the program’s worst conference series into the AAC’s hottest winning stretch. Dennis remembers the exhausting practices it took to reach that point. Each day was met with mental and physical intensity to match the expectations required of a Marshall-led Wichita State program. “Those were some of the toughest days I’ve ever been through dealing with basketball,” Dennis said. “Imagine having like a nice, nice, nice horse and all of a sudden it dies — and you get something that’s just average, and now you have to train it to be like the horse you used to have,” Dennis said. “It was super, super hard.” Before Thursday, McDuffie was the lone Shocker to have experience in the AAC tournament. With 10 newcomers, the Shockers entered the season as one of the most inexperienced teams in the country. Picked eighth, WSU was expected to have a rebuilding year. Instead, the Shockers turned a 1-6 start to conference play into a stretch of 11 wins of its last 13 games. It was behind McDuffie that the Shockers advanced to the semifinals. His career-best 34-point performance lifted the Shockers above a Temple team vying for an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. It was again McDuffie who put the Shockers
JOSEPH BARRINGHAUS/THE SUNFLOWER Wichita State seniors Markis McDuffie and Samajae Haynes-Jones walk back from the press conference. McDuffie and Haynes-Jonespaused a moment to take photos with fans before walking across the court in Memphis for the last time.
in contention for a trip to the tournament championship game. It was only fitting that McDuffie would take the final shot of the game. Down two points, WSU had a chance to tie the game and force overtime. Not liking how the defense was set, Marshall called a timeout. The play was for McDuffie. At the rim, there was contact but no foul. McDuffie finished with 18 points. Senior Samajae
Haynes-Jones had 17 points — 10 in the second half. WSU didn’t have a made basket in the final 3:10 of the game. “From where we came from, there’s a lot of positivity you can look at,” Haynes-Jones said. “How we ended, there’s a lot of things we can be thankful for. I’m thankful to be alive and play with this team.” In the AAC’s five-year history, two six seeds have advanced to the finals of the conference
tournament. WSU fell short to join UConn (2015) and Memphis (2016) as the third to do so. It took the conference player of the year, Jarron Cumberland, and a string of experienced players for Cincinnati to knock WSU out of the tournament. With a 19-13 record, the Shockers will not receive an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. This will break Wichita State’s streak of seven consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances.
Wichita State to play Furman on Wednesday in the National Invitational Tournament BY EVAN PFLUGRADT AND MARSHALL SUNNER
Wichita State will play in the National Invitational Tournament. The Shockers drew a 6 seed and will play 3-seed Furman in the first round of the tournament. Furman, as the higher seed, will host the game at 6 p.m. (CT) Wednesday at Timmons Arena in Greensville, South Carolina. The winner of that game will play the winner of 2-seed Clemson versus 7-seed Wright State on Friday. The semifinals and finals of the NIT are played in Madison Square Garden. This is the team’s first appearance in the tournament since 2011 when WSU won it all. Gregg Marshall’s young team finished the season at 19-14 and won its
last six games before its semifinal exit in the American Athletic Conference tournament. Wichita State was a No. 4 seed in the NIT when the team won in 2011. This is the first time in eight seasons that Wichita State is not in the NCAA Tournament. The NIT is a tournament made for teams on the bubble of the NCAA Tournament — teams that played well and turned heads down the stretch, but like WSU, didn’t win the an automatic and didn’t do enough to warrant an at-large berth. WSU, which has made 10 consecutive post-season appearances, presents an interesting case. Surprising to many, the team finished 10-6 in conference play. The Shockers became the first team in conference history to finish with more than seven wins
in the conference after having won just one their first seven. “We lost a good amount of games that we should’ve won, but we came back and won a lot of games, too,” senior Markis McDuffie said. “We had to keep fighting to the end.” WSU won just one game against teams that finished in the top five of the conference. That lone win came in Wichita against Central Florida. Otherwise, the Shockers couldn’t steal a win against the better competition. The team did its damage against the bottom half of the conference, sweeping teams such as Tulane, East Carolina and Southern Methodist. “We’re willing to take it,” freshman Jamarius Burton said of a pending NIT invite.
JOSEPH BARRINGHAUS/THE SUNFLOWER Wichita State guard Dexter Dennis dunks in the final seconds of the second half of the game against Temple Friday at the FedExForum in Memphis, Tennessee.
Jamarius Burton: ‘This program is heading for brighter days’ BY MARSHALL SUNNER
Wichita State senior Samajae Haynes-Jones sees promise in freshman point guard Jamarius Burton. “He grew so much,” Haynes-Jones said of Burton. “He makes great plays, picks up defenses, and has become more vocal.” In the American Athletic Conference semifinals, Burton scored nine points and had five assists and five rebounds. “These guys have played so many minutes now, it’s hard to say that they’re freshmen,” Wichita State Head Coach Gregg Marshall said. “Many of them have played 500 or 600 minutes of college basketball, and they’re getting better. They’re not even close to hitting their ceilings yet.” Having averaged just six points this season, Burton said his focus this offseason will be shooting. Yet, as a point guard, Burton will need be more than just his jumper. “As a team, we just need to get our chemistry up a little bit more,” Burton said. “Then, next year, we will be even better.” Dexter Dennis, another of Wichita
JOSEPH BARRINGHAUS/THE SUNFLOWER
Wichita State freshman Jamarius Burton celebrates after dunking during the first half of the game against Cincinnati Saturday at the FedExForum in Memphis, Tennessee.
State’s seven freshmen, showed flashes of the future of Shocker basketball. He scored 19 points and had 12 rebounds for a double-double in the semifinal game. “It can be anyone of us,” said freshman Erik Stevenson of the team’s freshmen. Stevenson built confidence shooting the ball and became a roll player for Gregg Marshall. Asbjørn Midtgaard and Isaiah Poor
Bear-Chandler added depth to WSU’s front court. Rod Brown provided brief relief to Markis McDuffie’s scoring — adding points of his own in limited minutes. “We just have to keep working,” Midtgaard said. “It’s up to us to see where this goes.” “We’ve got to continue to be positive. We have to be there for each other,” Burton said. “This program is headed for brighter days.”
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