Shocker News

In 1895 when Nathan J. Morrison accepted the appointment as the first president of the fledgling liberal arts college positioned on the “fair mount” overlooking the Arkansas River Valley, he was well aware of the significant challenges he would face in the undertaking.

Resources were sparse. Following the collapse of Wichita’s economy in 1888, the city appeared an unassuming, even unpromising, field in which to put down roots. Fairmount College, for which Morrison held lofty aspirations, had no dormitories or library to speak of.

Yet, Morrison refused to abandon his post. Despite the obstacles, the first president persevered.

He recruited faculty equally committed to the undertaking — Dean William Isely and professors Samuel Kingsbury, Paul Roulet, Arthur Hoare, Elizabeth Sprague and librarian Alice M. Isely, to name just a few — and, together, they lifted the college from the dire straits of its earliest days.

Hailing from far afield, these faculty and friends had little in common, save a shared, unwavering assurance in the power of education. Their efforts laid the groundwork for the transformation of the college into the Municipal University of Wichita in 1926 and into Wichita State University in 1964, carried forward by many figures along the way: administrators, alumni and countless friends whose stories are interwoven with those of the initial Fairmount Founders.

In June, the WSU Foundation and Alumni Engagement recognized several hundred of these figures at its inaugural Fairmount Forever celebration. Bringing together members from across its three giving societies — the Society of 1895, President’s Club and Fairmount Society — this event honored the many supporters who have made the advancement of Wichita State a part of their life’s work, and whose generosity has helped make that advancement possible.

Among attendees were Don and Elizabeth King, who were named the 2025 recipients of the Fairmount Founders Award. First presented in 1988 to H. Dene Heskett ’35, this award is given annually to those who offer outstanding service to the university — a description befitting the Kings’ Shocker giving history.

Since 1991, Don, retired president of King Construction, and Elizabeth, who retired in 2024 as WSUFAE president and CEO emerita, have supported scores of university initiatives, programs and projects across campus — from the arts to athletics to scholarship development, including, in 2012, the establishment of the Elizabeth and Don King Scholarship for International Students.

“The Fairmount Founders Award is defined by those who possess an unmistakable passion for our university and its rich history,” says Telly McGaha, WSUFAE president and CEO. “With their unwavering commitment to the advancement of Wichita State, Elizabeth and Don couldn’t be more deserving of this recognition.”

From business leaders and educators to aerospace engineers, artists, doctors, authors and nearly every profession between, each Fairmount Forever attendee and the long wave of Shockers that precede them are bound by a common thread: a belief in the goodness and limitless potential of education. And theirs is a conviction as old as the university itself.

View the complete list of Fairmount Founders Award honorees at: foundation.wichita.edu/fairmount-society

Sociologist Sarah Beth Estes steps into new role as dean of Fairmount College

Sarah Beth Estes is the new dean of the Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Bringing a wealth of experience and a deep commitment to student and faculty success with her, Estes comes to WSU from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, where she was dean of the College of Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences and Education. During her tenure there, she led initiatives to enhance inclusive excellence, expand faculty research and align academic programs with workforce needs. Her leadership was key in advancing student success and a collaborative academic environment.

“I’m honored to join the distinguished faculty, dedicated staff and innovative programs of Fairmount College,” Estes says. “The college’s longstanding tradition of excellence has been essential in shaping the future of Wichita State and continues to be a driving force behind key initiatives, including the expansion of applied learning opportunities, the growth of the Innovation Campus and the Wichita Biomedical Campus, and the pursuit of R-1 status.”

A sociologist by training, Estes has a rich background in academic leadership, including roles as associate dean and department chair. Her research focuses on social inequality, gender and the transformative power of education. She earned her doctorate in sociology from the University of Cincinnati.
She began her tenure at Wichita State on July 6.

Richard Muma’s new book chronicles the bold course taken by the university he leads

Wichita State has spent the past decade redefining what it means to be a public urban research university. Through visionary leadership, strategic partnerships and an unwavering focus on students, the university has grown from a largely regional institution into a national model of innovation, applied learning and student opportunity.

In his new book, “Student Centered, Innovation Driven: A Guide to Transforming Higher Education,” WSU President Muma tells the story of that transformation. “Even under the best of circumstances, change is difficult,” he writes. “Institutional change is, frankly, agonizing, and it requires a tolerance for pain, a stubborn willingness, and a fierce conviction that today’s adversities
will be tomorrow’s victories.”

Through its Innovation Campus, new facilities, record enrollment and expanding applied learning opportunities, Wichita State has taken on present-day challenges and charted a bold course for the future.

“Student Centered, Innovation Driven” is available from University Press of Kansas and
wherever books are sold.

WSU nursing students strengthen confidence, empathy through visual arts

A group of students huddle around a composition by Gordon Parks at the Ulrich Museum of Art, tasked with describing what they see. One student describes the subject, Harlem gang leader Red Jackson, as sad, downtrodden. Her peer counters, saying Jackson appears simply tired. Each, both, could be correct.

The students are not practicing to develop as photographers or artists themselves, but as healthcare professionals. Inspired by a visual perception activity at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for NYPD officers, the program has become a standing appointment for students in the nursing department. “We bring our biases when we interpret art, just the same way a healthcare student may bring their bias to assessing a patient or situation,” says Brenda Lichman, associate director of education at the Ulrich Museum of Art. Lichman encourages students to evaluate each piece as they would a patient, careful to avoid language that dismisses others’ observations.

The visual thinking strategies assessment has been enthusiastically embraced by faculty across the nursing department, who report that the activity has eased the transition from classroom to clinicals. “Nursing students, they’re very worried about making a mistake that may cause others harm,” says Stephanie Nicks, teaching professor in the department. “Here, they’re learning from each other, using the same skills — assessment, empathy, communication and listening — that they will use in the hospital.”

History & Hope

Dollar in, dollar out: It’s a lifestyle every public radio professional knows well, and
Debra Fraser at KMUW is no exception.

A veteran of the airwaves, Fraser spent 25 years at KUHF Houston Public Media, a service of the University of Houston. She worked her way up to manager before joining KMUW as general manager in 2014. After nearly four decades in public radio, she’s all too familiar with the industry’s many crests and troughs.

While the financial turbulence of public radio is nothing new, the federal defunding of National Public Radio that took effect this past July heightened the fiscal vulnerabilities of NPR’s more than 1,000 member stations across the United States, each of which is independently licensed and operated. NPR reports that more than half of its stations are licensed to a college or university. KMUW is a case in point: Its license to broadcast is held by Wichita State, meaning, among other things, that the station’s fundraising efforts are inextricably connected to those of the university and its philanthropic arm, the WSU Foundation and Alumni Engagement.

In fact, KMUW receives 17% of its funding from WSU, which, Fraser says, pays rent for the station’s facility in downtown Wichita and four professional staff positions. Another 7% of the station’s funding came from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, with foundation (2%) and state (1%) grants also providing support. “Even still,” she adds, “we pay our electric bill, for toilet paper and paper towels. We clean up after ourselves, since we can’t afford custodial services.”

The bulk of KMUW’s operating costs are funded by private donations, what Fraser calls “paying on the honor system” — 13% from business sponsorships and 60% from individual listeners’ donations, to be specific. When the economy is uncertain, the job market’s in flux and inflation’s on the rise, that’s “a scary place to be,” Fraser says. After taking up the GM mantle, Fraser implemented the Sustaining Membership program, which allows listeners to make an automatic monthly contribution in support of the station. “People give $5, $10 a month, so, individually, these aren’t major gifts,” she says. “But, combined, they give us an income we can depend on, so we’re not just worrying about if we can pay the electric bill next month.”

For everything else, she says, they simply depend on history and hope.

The station’s history traces back to Tuesday, April 26, 1946, the date WSU officially joined the “golden age” of broadcasting as the voice of an announcer came crackling across the airwaves: “This is KMUW, the new FM radio station of the University of Wichita.” With its call letters derived from the first letters of the state and university of its origin, KMUW has come a long way since its ground-breaking beginning as a 10-watt noncommercial FM station, the second FM station and the first noncommercial FM station in Kansas — and the first noncommercial FM station to go on-air in the United States. Its primary function was serving as a training station for students intent on exploring careers in broadcast journalism. From that humble transmitting-power start, KMUW increased from 10 to 250 watts in 1962, to 10,000 watts in 1970 and, in 1987, to 100,000 watts.

In 1981, the station relocated from its first on-campus bases of operations to the now demolished Blake Hall at Holyoke and 17th Street. When it outgrew that facility, it moved operations away from WSU’s main campus in 2016 to its current digs in WSU Old Town.

Today, a most impressive cadre of broadcast journalists, sound engineers and programmers have, at one point or another during their careers, called KMUW home. On staff now, in addition to Fraser, are 22 seasoned pros, many of whom are Shocker alumni, and three interns: Jenni Anima, Maddy Busby and Amina Jenkins. Anima is learning the ropes through an internship with Radio Real as the station’s Spanish language news intern, while Busby is working through News Lab in cooperation with WSU’s Elliott School of Communication. Jenkins is the 2025 KMUW Korva Coleman intern who served a 10-week stint from May 27 to Aug. 1 reporting and writing for both broadcast and digital platforms.

In July, after Congress cut $1.1 billion in funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting,
Fraser and her team took immediate action. In an emergency fundraiser, the station raised just over $225,000, which was the amount of federal cuts affecting KMUW. “We were fully prepared to go all day, every day until we covered the funds lost,” Fraser reports. “Our listeners and supporters came through for us in two days.” Without their support, she says, the station could have lost at least three full-time staff members. The funding will help KMUW maintain its news coverage, local music programs and reporting in rural parts of western Kansas, where, without public radio, many communities risk living in news deserts, in which inhabitants have limited,
if any, access to local news.

Such a quick and decisive response from KMUW supporters, who include WSU President Rick Muma and First Gentleman Rick Case, has bolstered Fraser’s sense of hope for the future of not only the station she leads but public radio in general. She says it makes her feel hopeful to get the chance to elevate voices that a listener might not otherwise hear. It makes her feel hopeful to be a part of the nonprofit StoryCorps’ initiative to bridge listeners across the political spectrum through the One Small Step program.

It makes her feel hopeful when KMUW simply broadcasts its wide-ranging programming — on its own distinctive KMUW 89.1 wavelength. “Because the news we share with our listeners is so often so very serious, tragedies and political turmoil and the like, we do try to not take ourselves too seriously all the time,” she says. “We see ourselves as a bubble of curiosity, as lifelong learners — as quirky.”

When the WSUFAE announced in April that it had added a full-time gift officer position with dedicated time for helping fundraise for the station, Fraser gained another reason to feel hopeful. The position was incepted by Telly McGaha, WSUFAE president and CEO and a strong advocate for public radio.

“Since his arrival last year, Telly couldn’t have been more welcoming,” Fraser says.“I almost wanted to cry in a good way because he was that welcoming, that supportive.” Aiden Powell ’25 was hired to fill the new position and now serves as assistant development director for two WSU colleges and KMUW.

While Fraser’s hopeful outlook for the future of public radio doesn’t erase any of the uncertainties inherent in her work at the station, that sense of hope, combined with KMUW’s own longstanding history of adapting to change, has given her something — and many someones — to believe in.

“Being so dependent upon people, individuals, offering up their personal treasure and earnings — that’s scary, yet remarkable,” she says. “It tells you a lot about the Wichita community, which supports us because they care about what we do and believe in our mission.”

It’s a mission that, with a healthy dose of hope, Fraser expects to persevere.

Lily Parker ’23/25