At Fort Hays State University, our No. 1 priority is taking care of our students. We work intentionally to create a level of personalized care that goes beyond friendly and nice. Tiger Nation connects deeply and sincerely. Our welcome is genuine. From Day One, faculty and staff invest in each student, taking time to make one-on-one contact, build confidence, and nurture each Tiger to their personal success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nbest evidence of this philosophy can be witnessed at the annual Fischli\u2019s\nExcellence in Higher Education annual banquet, hosted by the Fort Hays Honor\nSociety. Students gather to celebrate, thank, and honor the faculty and staff\nmembers who made Fort Hays State a remarkable experience. It is indeed one of\nmy favorite events. I always leave there joyful and thankful for our incredible\nfaculty and staff who care so deeply for our students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This year was no exception. The keynote speaker, Dr. David Fitzhugh, gave a heartfelt presentation on connecting with students. Every Monday morning, Dr. Fitzhugh, associate professor of health and human performance, asks his students about their weekend. He creates an environment where everyone connects with one another and shares their life. He also takes time to notice when someone doesn\u2019t appear to \u201cbe themselves\u201d and reaches out to them in private.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr.\nFitzhugh shared a beautiful story of a student who started to withdraw. The\nprofessor noticed. He followed up. It made a difference. A couple of years\nafter that student graduated and went on to have a successful career, she wrote\nDr. Fitzhugh a letter to let him know the deep impact his outreach had on her\nlife during a very difficult time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
During\nthe banquet dinner, I marveled at the genuine exchange among the people at my\ntable \u2013 two faculty members and five students. Ken Windholz, instructor of\npsychology, was talking with Jozlyn Brown, a student who commutes from Russell.\nPart of their conversation was about texting for clarification on assignments\nand class materials. I mentioned how amazed I was that the students had their\nfaculty members\u2019 cell phone numbers. The students at the table indicated they\nhad the cell phone numbers of many of their professors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Also\nat my table was Dr. Emily Weber, an instructor of biological sciences. Windholz\nshared how impressed he was with Dr. Weber\u2019s ability and dedication to learn\nthe names of every student. He shared that she arrived early to her classes,\nstood at the door, and greeted every student by name. Each of her classes had\nbetween 35 and 48 students. Another student shared that she had Dr. Weber for\none class and enthusiastically agreed how special her daily greetings were. The\nnext semester, this student bumped into Dr. Weber, who greeted her by name and\nasked her how she was doing. Extraordinary!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And\nthen there was the story of Dr. Robert Lloyd, assistant professor of\nmanagement. The fact that he teaches management is even more significant to\nthis account. Apparently, in Dr. Lloyd\u2019s class, there is a final paper due.\nThen, on the scheduled exam day, students gather in the class. Their final exam\nis to name every student in the class and say something you learned about each\none. That is what I call modeling the way. I love that!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Story\nafter story, students talked about how faculty and staff nurtured a sense of\nbelonging and how that feeling of mattering helped them succeed at Fort Hays\nState. Our faculty facilitate relationships that intentionally create\nenvironments to prepare them for a truly prosperous future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because\nour engagement with each student matters deeply to us, we deliver a high-value\neducation based on responsiveness, positivity, and kindness. That is Fort Hays\nState University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tisa Mason is president of Fort Hays State University.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" At Fort Hays State University, our No. 1 priority is taking care of our students. We work intentionally to create a level of personalized care… <\/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-65136","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\/65136","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=65136"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65137,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65136\/revisions\/65137"}],"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=65136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=65136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=65136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}