NEWS | 2
SPORTS | 3
OPINION | 6
PARKING
MENTAL HEALTH
BAD LUCK
Students raise frustration over WSU’s parking policy amidst the pandemic.
Alterique Gilbert opens up about overcoming his mental health struggles.
Arts and Entertainment Editor Tabitha Barr shares her bad start to the new year.
WICHITA STATE’S STUDENT NEWS SOURCE SINCE 1896 www.thesunflower.com
TUESDAY
Feb. 16, 2021
Volume 125 Issue 14
Frozen February
PHOTOS BY KHANH NGUYEN AND CALEN MOORE / THE SUNFLOWER
Faculty, students and staff have braved the snow and ice this week as Kansas has been hit by a cold front. Dangerous wind chills and forecasted snow caused the university to close campuses Monday, Feb. 15. All classes, including online, are cancelled and students and employees are asked to not come to campus. The end of next week is projected to be a little warmer, turn to page two for next week’s weather week in brief.
Performing arts professor focuses on changing the world one class at a time BY TABITHA BARR arts@thesunflower.com / @Tabbiejanelle
Change is inevitable. It always has been and will be. Most people resist change, but some embrace it. Ed Baker, Wichita State University’s Associate Professor and Technical Director of School of Performing Arts, understands that things in the world happen, most of the time without our control. It is how we react and the following actions we take afterwards. Baker started his career in the acting business and made a living for himself in New York. But after being in the industry for a while, he decided to come back home to family. “It was a high stress industry and it required more spoons than I owned,” Baker explained. His next passion is carpentry, which he pursued a job in and became high up in the chain within the first month. He soon realized that while working
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“Why didn’t anyone ever tell me I could be a teacher? ‘Cause this is what I’m meant to do.” ED BAKER Performing Arts Professor
with wood was intriguing, he wanted something else. It didn’t strike him until he was talking to his mentor, Dick Welsbacher that being a teacher is right up his alley. “Why didn’t anyone ever tell me I could be a teacher? ‘Cause this is what I’m meant to do.” Baker found this position at WSU and said he enjoys every minute of it. Baker works in two different areas of life, the entertainment industry, and the education industry. While those may seem like very different areas of expertise, he says that they are quite similar, good and bad. Both are growing and expanding, but are stuck in the past. @sunflowernews
PHOTO BY KHANH NGUYEN / THE SUNFLOWER
Professor Ed Baker teaches a class in Wilner Auditorium at Wichita State.
“They have lots of different moving parts, and they are not easy to change. . . . Yes, there are always changes, but they are usually very small.” In these industries people
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are expected to focus on work 100%, instead of their own lives. SEE PROFESSOR PAGE 2