Care.\nInnovation. Grit. These three words capture the personality of Fort Hays State\nUniversity, and have for nearly 120 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Those\nwords show up in our culture \u2013 independently and collectively. And as in any\ngood story, they show up in the legendary tales told and retold by our\nstudents, faculty, and staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One\nparticular story, recently told to me by a former student and now alumnus,\nCraig Garvert, really made me smile. Craig, a 2020 graduate, shared that during\nhis sophomore year, he \u201cplanked\u201d against a professor after a test in a computer\nscience class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Planking\nis an isometric core strengthening exercise that involves maintaining a\nposition similar to a push-up for the maximum time possible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\nprofessor, Dr. Hong Biao Zeng, had started sharing in class his methods for\nstaying in shape and eating healthy. He would update the students every week on\nhis new feats. The class of about a dozen computer science majors was\ndefinitely enjoying these tangents. But, according to Craig, the students had\ndoubts about some of their professor\u2019s claims. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr. Zeng\nmentioned that he could plank for six to seven minutes. (According to Men\u2019s\nHealth,<\/em> a healthy, fit person should be able to hold a plank for two\nminutes. The writer, Lou Schuler, shared that his longest plank was \u201cthree\nmiserable minutes.\u201d) The average person sets one minute as a personal goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Given\nthose statistics, one cannot blame the students for questioning Dr. Zeng\u2019s\nclaim, right? <\/p>\n\n\n\n So, the\nstudents asked Dr. Zeng to prove it. They had no idea what they were asking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\ninnovative and wise Dr. Zeng embraced the dare and presented the students with\ntheir own challenge. Following the next test in his class, Dr. Zeng said he\nwould give extra credit to any student who could plank longer than him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\nthought we had it in the bag,\u201d Craig said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As Craig\ntells the story, on test day, Dr. Zeng walked in with a yoga mat and his usual\nbutton-up shirt and khaki dress pants. A few of the students were dressed for\ngym class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After\nthe test, Dr. Zeng unrolled the mat and got in planking position. One by one,\neach student challenger dropped before he did. As each student conceded, Dr.\nZeng would resume proper form for the next challenger almost immediately. Craig\nestimated that Dr. Zeng held a plank for 10 minutes off and on during a\n15-minute span. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There\nwas no extra credit awarded to students that day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe were\nall defeated by our middle-aged professor in business-casual attire,\u201d Craig\nshared. \u201cI gave up after a minute.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I found\nthe story totally amusing and very endearing. Curious, I contacted Dr. Zeng and\nasked him about the challenge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Zeng\nsaid the reason he challenged his students that day is because most computer\nscience majors (and later professionals) sit in front of the computers for a\nvery long time \u2013 too long \u2013 every day. This, Dr. Zeng said, is not good for the\nstudents\u2019 health or their careers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He\nbelieves that a good teacher not only passes on his or her professional\nknowledge to students but also guides students to establish healthy ways to\nhandle their studies. Developing habits and thoughts that will both sustain and\nnourish the students on their journeys also can set the tone for their\nprofessional careers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Zeng\ntells his students that even though they really \u201cdon\u2019t have time\u201d to exercise,\nlearning to do exercises, such as a plank, when they have been sitting in front\nof the computer for a couple hours, will help them be more successful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Craig,\nnow a software specialist at Adams, Brown, Beran and Ball Financial Services in\nHays, has fond memories not only of that challenge, but his experience at Fort\nHays State as a whole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt goes\nto show the relationship the professors have with students,\u201d Craig said. \u201cI saw\na lot of positives from just that instance. We as a class were all working\ntogether.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s a\ngreat story. But even more importantly, this tale serves as one of many\nsoon-to-be legendary accounts that demonstrate the Tiger culture of grit,\ninnovation, and care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Clearly,\nplanking against each student took grit for the professor. Plank-challenging\nthe students for extra credit was great out-of-the-box thinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Creating this challenge based on Dr. Zeng\u2019s conviction that self-care and wellbeing is essential to both student and professional success, illustrates the caring spirit for which Fort Hays State University is known \u2013 and always has been.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tisa Mason is president of Fort Hays State University.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Care. Innovation. Grit. These three words capture the personality of Fort Hays State University, and have for nearly 120 years. Those words show up in… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37698,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12323,55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-life","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Mason-Tisa-040A6662.jpg?fit=750%2C1050&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55773"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55774,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55773\/revisions\/55774"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}