BUSINESS
Blackwell Featured Speaker
Robert Blackwell ’66 returned to his alma mater in March as keynote speaker for the Barton School of Business’ Fifth Annual Business Week. Blackwell, who owns the largest minority-owned management and information technology company in the Midwest, Blackwell Consulting Services in Chicago, discussed his experiences and his philosophy about entrepreneurship with students in attendance.
Blackwell began his business career with IBM right out of college, putting in a successful 26-year stint with the company before venturing out on his own in 1992. Blackwell Consulting Services offers a range of IT services, from Web portal development to messaging systems and workflow application work, and its clients include a number of Fortune 1000 companies and government institutions.
Other presenters at Business Week included Brooke Bauersfeld, Wichita franchisee for Sheridan’s Frozen Custard; Judge Robert E. Nugent, bankruptcy judge; and Chris Lamb, WSU volleyball coach.
LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES
Active Duty
Cathleen Lewandowski, associate professor of social work at WSU, is helping soldiers in Iraq cope with life in a war zone. As a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve, Lewandowski has been on active duty for nearly a year at a camp between An Najaf and Al Kut in southern Iraq. The camp, which is surrounded by 12-foot barriers, serves as a military truck stop. Soldiers use the camp as a brief respite from their travels and take advantage of the opportunity for a hot meal.
Lewandowski is a team chief for her unit, which is responsible for combat stress operations. Her unit’s primary mission is to look after the mental health of soldiers and ensure their readiness for combat. The unit provides classes on stress and anger management, suicide prevention and relaxation. Lewandowski also teaches tobacco-cessation classes.
In addition, she and her team serve as crisis counselors, conducting debriefing sessions after difficult or exceptionally distressing events. She describes her work as “meaningful” yet difficult: “It’s like living in an emergency room 24/7 for 12 months.”
Lewandowski is scheduled to return to the United States later this spring and plans to return to teaching at WSU in the fall.
The Anthropology of Food
A new course was added to the menu of anthropology department offerings this spring, the Anthropology of Food. The course, explains class teacher and creator Amy Drassen Ham ’93/97/01, expands student perspectives on food. “From an anthropological perspective, food is so basic and so important when it comes to understanding many aspects of a culture,” she says. How a culture gets its food, what kinds of food are taboo, how food is distributed and who controls it reveal key insights about a society.
Drassen Ham teaches primarily in the College of Health Professions, but her background in anthropology (she holds both bachelor’s and master’s degrees from WSU in anthropology) led her to develop the class as an outgrowth of her work toward a doctorate in medical anthropology from the University of Kansas.
Drassen Ham says the course focuses primarily on food and drink in America and discusses corporate and cultural influences. For instance, she says, corporations such as McDonald’s have influenced everything from the type of potatoes grown in the United States to people’s way of life. “The neat thing about food as a topic,” she adds, “is that people feel very emotional about it. It carries such meaning.”
Sunshine Coalition
Beginning in August, the Kansas Sunshine Coalition for Open Government will be housed in WSU’s Elliott School of Communication. Randy Brown, ESC faculty member, will serve as its executive director. The coalition works to educate citizens about public access to government.
UNIVERSITY NEWS
Arts Honors
WSU First Lady Shirley Beggs hn ’04 and music professor J.C. Combs have been honored by the Arts Council during its 35th annual art awards ceremony, as Arts Advocate and Arts Educator, respectively.
New Digs for WSU Westside
WSU’s Westside campus is bursting at the seams. In January, WSU President Don Beggs hn ’04 announced plans for a new Westside site at 37th Street and Maize Road to be home to a 24,000-square-foot building, compared to the 8,450 square feet now available at the Central and Ridge Road location.
“This is a great opportunity for us to better meet the needs of our students, and places Wichita State University in a major growth area,” says Beggs.
“It also will be more attractive and conducive for faculty to provide quality education.”
The new building will house 13 classrooms that range from a capacity of 35 to 70 students, and will feature a computer lab, general science lab, interactive distance learning classroom, lounge and room for a possible bookstore. The university is paying for the new facility by reallocating resources made available by closing WSU Downtown and a reduced presence at the Southside Education Center.
When WSU westside opened in 1994-95, 106 classes were taught. This academic year, more than 300 classes are being taught. The new WSU Westside is expected to open for classes in January 2006.
