It goes\nwithout saying that this summer looks and feels different than those in the\npast. While we try to make health and safety decisions on behalf of our\ncommunities \u2013 in a swirl of constantly\nemerging expert information \u2013 one thing that has remained constant is the\nvitality of Fort Hays State University. Our purpose, people, and place continue\nto not only remain relevant, but to thrive. Here are just a few of the many\nsuccess stories to celebrate from the past two months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Driving forward\nour mission of creating engaged global\ncitizen-leaders, and a\ncause for celebration, was the official accreditation approval this summer from\nthe Council on Social Work Education for our online bachelor\u2019s degree. Social\nwork is one of the fastest-growing careers in the country, and Fort Hays State\nUniversity continues to find ways to reach students studying for both\nbachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degrees. Fort Hays State is one of only a handful of\nuniversities in the United States \u2013 and the only one in Kansas \u2013 to offer the\nBachelor of Social Work (BSW) online. FHSU also is the only university in the\nstate to offer the MSW online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Following the\ndeath of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minn., this spring, our Criminal Justice\nchair, Dr. Tamara Lynn, wanted to make a difference by creating a culture that\nemphasizes de-escalation to benefit students pursuing careers in corrections,\nprobation and parole, juvenile services, and other positions where situations\nmay escalate quickly. Toward that end, we recently signed a preliminary\nagreement for our Criminal Justice and University Police departments to explore\nthe opportunity to establish a regional training center for the National\nDe-escalation Training Center (NDTC) on the FHSU campus. The NDTC is located at\nWayne State University in Detroit and facilitates innovation, research, and\ndevelopment of best practices in law enforcement de-escalation training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These two\npowerful examples are some of the many ways we have been relentlessly pursuing\nour mission. We have also been focused on taking care of our place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Have you been\non campus lately? It is beautiful! Our grounds crew in particular has been\nnurturing and caring for our physical campus in Hays, America. I often walk the\ncampus with my dog, Gracie, and bask in the beauty of the many flowers, plants,\ntrees, and well-cared-for grounds. I hold deep admiration and gratitude for the\nmany colleagues who work hard during the hot, muggy, and often windy, summer\nmonths to create such a beautiful environment for all us to enjoy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While our\ngrounds colleagues toil over the land, our facilities planning team has been\nequally busy \u201ckeeping our house in order.\u201d In addition to the building of the\nnew Fishli Wills Center for Student Success, progress this summer includes\nrenovation to the Black and Gold Room in the Memorial Union, and a roof\nreplacement, HVAC upgrades, and new carpeting for Martin Allen Hall. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sheridan Hall\ngot a bath, so to speak, with masonry cleaning and sealing. I love how well our\nteam takes care of our beautiful campus limestone. Meanwhile, our team\ncompleted Phase 6 of our exterior lighting project: replacing street,\npedestrian, and building lighting with LED fixtures. Gustad Bridge also got a\n\u201cfacelift\u201d with repairs to concrete columns and the redesigning of metal guard\nrail attachments. Albertson Hall also received updates to its roof.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Saving the\nbest \u2013 our people \u2013 for last, many of our colleagues received accolades over\nthe summer. Fort Hays State University senior Anna Deal was awarded the\nprestigious American Advertising Federation of Kansas City Foundation\nscholarship. This is a big deal (pun intended). Anna, a communication studies\nmajor from Hutchinson, was one of only 17 students from universities across\nKansas and Missouri to be selected as a recipient. We are so proud of her!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Faculty and staff have spent countless\nhours this summer working through the redevelopment of courses for new delivery\nmethods, incorporating the use of existing and new technology, and overall\npreparation for the deployment of fall courses at FHSU. I am so thankful\nfor their care for the students\u2019 experiences in the classroom \u2013 whether that be\nonline, on campus, or through our international partnerships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile,\nour alumni have been investing in their alma mater in partnership with the FHSU\nFoundation by establishing new scholarships. For example, alumni and retired\nfaculty Gary and Ila Hulett established a scholarship in support of students\nstudying chemistry. The scholarship is in honor of Ila, a long-time professor\nof chemistry, who was known for helping students no matter what time of day. In\nmy book, Gary and Ila are a power couple as they continue to fuel the success\nof this university in so many ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another power\ncouple, Merrill Milham, retired research physicist, and Dr. Ann Davidoff, a\nretired professor, created the Milham-Wasinger-Davidoff Mathematics Scholarship\nand the Milham-Wasinger-Davidoff Physics Scholarship. They join so many others\nwho have provided for the future of students and our world and demonstrate on a\nvery personal level how every gift matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As we hunker down and reshape our plans in a\nCOVID world, our Journey capital campaign is rapidly approaching the finish\nline and continues to push toward its goal of $100 million by Fall 2021. To\ndate, the Foundation has received more than 65,000 campaign gifts from nearly\n23,000 donors. That is called extraordinary generosity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
At Fort Hays\nState, resilience reigns and success endures. And even in these uncertain\ntimes, ones of a nature that none us of have experienced before, I can be\ncertain of one thing \u2013 as a colleague of mine said recently, not everything is\nabout COVID-19!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tisa Mason is president of Fort Hays State University.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It goes without saying that this summer looks and feels different than those in the past. While we try to make health and safety decisions… <\/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-55933","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\/55933","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=55933"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55933\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55934,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55933\/revisions\/55934"}],"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=55933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}