I was honored to have the opportunity to offer a few remarks at last fall’s President’s Gala. Among other observations, I spoke of my affinity with our alma mater, saying that my grandfather taught me an understanding of and a love for Wichita, Fairmount College and the University of Wichita.
By Chris Shank ’69 (Published Summer 2002)
Thus, I have always known WSU is the university of the city of Wichita and that we should be proud of its rich history, because “at the end of the day, that is who we are.” As my term as president comes to an end, those words have become particularly meaningful.
A friend recently asked, “How does it feel to have only 30 days left as president?” How does it feel? There is, I must admit, some relief. After all, the association accomplishes a great deal every year, and the position I have occupied is active and demanding.
There is gratification: the camaraderie of striving to achieve with good friends — volunteers and staff alike — the successes and occasional failures of our undertakings, the reminiscences of a time when everything mattered terribly. There is also melancholy. Not unlike every position of substance, the past 12 months were for me, predictably, a voyage of self-discovery, a revisitation of a past too long forgotten.
I attended WSU during an extraordinary time, the late 1960s. The university had just joined the state system, and the war in Vietnam was in our living room every evening.
It was a surreal and exhilarating time. We believed anything was possible, and, frankly, it was. I still believe that. As a sophomore, I had a literature teacher, whom I only remember as Mrs. Ward, who one day said, “The problem is we’re all here a minute and gone.”
So, too, as your president, am I. As I age, the truth of her utterance becomes more sobering and yet more ennobling. The very brevity of our stay does make everything matter terribly. Thus, I call upon you one final time to support your wsu Alumni Association. Do it because it matters. Do it because it is the right thing to do. Do it because at the end of the day, it is who you are.
