David\nLetterman probably did much to instill the notion of \u201cTop 10 Lists\u201d in our\npopular culture. But decades before the late-night host did his thing,\nnewspapers were culling past editions to create year-end round-ups of their top\nstories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ten is a good number; after all, it\u2019s what we can count on our two hands. So in keeping with tradition, here\u2019s a list of the top 10 news items at Fort Hays State University this year. The list, roughly in chronological order, is certainly not all-encompassing \u2013 there are great stories and good news every day at FHSU \u2013 but it does provide a means of looking back and recounting some of the many blessings we enjoyed in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In\nJanuary, the Pathway to Help, Hope and Success initiative received its first\ninstallment of the Garrett Lee Smith Campus Suicide Prevention Grant from the\nSubstance Abuse and Mental Health Services Association. The Kelly Center\nprovided a record-breaking 4,084 personal counseling sessions last year and\ncontinues to find ways to positively impact our students\u2019 mental health and\nacademic success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In\nMarch, a baker\u2019s dozen of organizations that evaluate online higher education\nprograms ranked 40 online degrees and programs at Fort Hays State University\namong the best in the nation for 2020. The rankings include seven national No.\n1 rankings and one statewide No. 1 rating. A total of 25 Fort Hays State online\nprograms were among the top 10 in the nation in the various rankings, and all\nbut two placed FHSU among the top 20 in the nation. In all 40 rankings, Fort\nHays State was rated the best in Kansas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In\nApril, Fort Hays State\u2019s chapter of the Technology and Engineering Education\nCollegiate Association won five individual national championships and the\nall-around national title in nine competitive events at the 82nd annual\nInternational Technology and Engineering Educators Association conference in\nBaltimore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In early June, our decision we made to forgo an in-person commencement ceremony broke my heart. But we were still able to mail close to 1,800 \u201ccommencement-in-a-box\u201d kits to graduating students. These kits included the traditional cap and gown, along with the appropriate accessories that represent the degrees and accolades earned by each student. One of my favorite commencement stories involved Patrick and Andrew McGinnis, a father and son who graduated together. I smiled and was reminded of the dual FHSU graduation of Nola Ochs (the oldest person at age 95 to graduate from college) and her granddaughter from several years ago. I love those special moments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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 at both the\nbachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degree levels. FHSU started classes in the summer of\n2020 for its Master of Social Work (MSW) online program. The university\u2019s\nDepartment of Social Work also received official accreditation approval from\nthe Council on Social Work Education for its online bachelor\u2019s degree. Fort\nHays State is one of only a handful of universities in the United States \u2013 and\nthe only one in Kansas \u2013 to offer the Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) online.\nFHSU also is the only university in the state to offer the MSW online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In\nAugust, the Fort Hays State Department of Criminal Justice and University\nPolice Department signed an agreement to join an expanding network of regional\nde-escalation training centers that teach law enforcement officers techniques\nthat help officers peacefully resolve potentially dangerous confrontations.\nThis move places FHSU at the forefront of this important law enforcement\ntraining initiative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although\nwe missed cheering on our Tiger athletes for cross country, football, golf,\nsoccer, tennis and volleyball, November brought the opportunity for us to be social-distancing,\nmask-wearing, hand-washing Tiger fans for winter sports. We even had the\nopportunity to listen to our outstanding pep band and watch our cheer and dance\nteams perform. Amazing!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Who\ncan forget the night of Dec. 8, when our mighty Tiger men\u2019s basketball team\nupset the Big 12\u2019s Kansas State University, 81-68, on the Wildcats\u2019 home floor?\nIt was the first Tiger win in this series since 1938. What a great moment of\npure joy and excitement in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I am happy to report that Dec. 18 was the first day of our intersession classes, and we ended 2020 with record enrollment, celebrating a 20-percent increase in students as compared to intercession 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finally,\nI must say that during this year of challenges and opportunities, I am very\ngrateful that in 2020, FHSU continued to focus on caring for our people. We\nrefunded pro-rated room and board fees to our residential students who were\nasked to vacate their rooms last March and distributed CARES Act financial aid\nto students. All student employees remained on payroll from March until the end\nof the semester \u2013 regardless of whether they were able to work \u2013 and the FHSU\nFoundation stepped up to fundraise for the student emergency fund and other\nstrategic initiatives. And as always, our philanthropists continued to fuel our\nsuccess. We also accommodated faculty and staff in moving to remote work\nschedules. In 2020, no employee was furloughed and no employee lost a job due\nto a COVID-driven reduction in force. We are a strong, nimble university,\nthanks to our current people and those who came before us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So,\nI end 2020 and begin 2021 by expressing my deepest gratitude to our faculty and\nstaff for their resilience and innovation while navigating a semester of\nuncertainty, never losing sight of our enduring commitment to caring for our\nstudents. Simply put, the faculty and staff rose to the challenge in 2020 and\ncontinued to deliver robust support services and outstanding teaching and\nlearning experiences in thoughtful, impactful and personal ways. I also thank\nour students for having faith in Fort Hays State University and working\ntogether to create an environment of respect and kindness through these\nchallenging times. I am equally grateful for the support and guidance given to\nus by our city and county commissioners; our county health administrator, Jason\nKennedy; and CEO Eddie Herrman and\nMedical Director Dr. Heather Harris at Hays Medical Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Happy New Year to you and yours, and to FHSU!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tisa Mason is president of Fort Hays State University.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" David Letterman probably did much to instill the notion of \u201cTop 10 Lists\u201d in our popular culture. But decades before the late-night host did his… <\/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-57895","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\/57895","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=57895"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57895\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57896,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57895\/revisions\/57896"}],"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=57895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=57895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=57895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}