I'm A Hornet from President Michael D. Shonrock

October 9, 2014

• Highlights from The Sound of Music and Wicked were among the Broadway Blockbusters performed by the Emporia Symphony at the Granada Theatre the other evening; Emporia State Professor Jeremy Starr served as Conductor and Provost David Cordle served as Master of Ceremony.
  
  
• Emporia is a University Community: today’s statement during a joint meeting of the commissioners of Lyon County and the City of Emporia. What it means is that the county and city recognize the university’s impact to economic development and will find ways that the county, city, and university can invest for the future economic development of our area! 
  
  
• Some 500 students in 3rd through 8th grades, parents, teachers, and librarians attended the 62nd annual William Allen White Children’s Book Awards at the Memorial Union; Major Jon Geitz and President Michael Shonrock extended greetings this past weekend in the Memorial Union; lots of “Go Hornets” and “Stingers Up” in the audience!
  
  
• Foundation President DenaSue Potestio, Foundation Board Chair Kim Penner along with Michael Shonrock hosted a bell ringing to celebrate a generous donation of Roger and Carla (Bailey) Smith; the gift was in excess of $1 million to Now & Forever campaign.
  
  
• During Family and Friends Day, the ESU Alumni Association recognized the Grimsley family with the 2014 Hornet Heritage Award, which honors multi-generational families of ESU alumni.  Members of the Grimsley family have earned 14 ESU degrees!
  
  
• Emporia State University recently announced the fall 2014 enrollment of 6,114 students.  To view the bell ringing celebration of this great news, please visit http://bit.ly/ZBZtbY.
  
  
• The ESU Foundation Strategic Planning Committee met on October 3 to develop drafts of new mission, vision, values statements, and goals aligned with the university’s new strategic plan; Stephen Williams, Foundation Vice Chair, and DeWayne Backhus, ESU Strategic Planning, facilitated the morning and afternoon sessions.
  
  
• The Kansas Board of Regents visited Emporia State University the early part of this week; highlights included a tour of the ESU Nursing department and mini-seminars from the School of Library & Information Management, new Honors College, Hornet Connected Learning, Koch Center for Leadership and Ethics, STEM and the new Master’s in Forensic Science, Learning Analytics & Immersive Media; Regents also learned about the university’s progress with the new Strategic Plan and upcoming Higher Learning Commission on-site visit (March 23-25, 2015).
  
  
• Dr. Tom Eddy (Professor, Biological Sciences) was recently recognized as the 2014 recipient of the Stephen L. Timme Excellence in Botany Award by the Kansas Native Plant Society.
  
  
• The Counselor Education department has received a five-year grant of nearly $1 million from the U.S. Department of Education; the grant will offer an online master's degree to address a critical shortage of qualified Rehabilitation Counseling personnel in rural Kansas and Nebraska.
  
  
• Brent Thomas, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences; June Coleman, Director of Career Services; and Tyler Curtis, Executive Director of Alumni Relations, met with Wolf Creek representatives on site at the power plant last week; nearly 50 Hornets are currently employed at the nuclear power plant. 
  
  
• The William Allen White Library is now offering students 16 laptops, 4 MacBooks and 4 iPads 24 hours a day, 7 days a week; the self-service lending machine uses the Hornet ID card for quick check-outs.
  
  
• The adaptive special education graduate program awarded over $45,000 in scholarships; nearly doubled last year’s amount.  Students interested in applying for scholarships for the next year can visit http://www.emporia.edu/elecse/sped/adaptive.html.
  
  
• 900 scholarship recipients attended “Thank You Notes and Root Beer Floats” on September 30; the event was hosted by the ESU Foundation and the Office of Student Financial Aid, Scholarships & Veterans Services.
  
  
• Michael Shonrock has been invited to be part of a new workgroup with the Kansas Board of Regents to to develop a draft proposal related to Performance Based Funding for public colleges/universities.
  
  
• As part of her internship experience for her coursework in the Mental Health Counseling program, Sarah McKernan, Executive Assistant to the President, assisted with Depression Screening last week.
  
  
• Congratulations to Carrie Boettcher, ESU Public Service Executive, on receiving the Outstanding Emergency Manager of the Year award from the Kansas Emergency Managers Association.
  
  
• The annual ESU Marching Band Festival was held October 1 at Welch Stadium, which included approximately 1,200 students; special thanks to festival coordinator Tracy Freeze, Associate Professor, Music, for organizing this successful event.
  
  
• The Information Technology department will be hosting an “Ask the Experts” OnBase workshop on October 9 beginning at 2:30 p.m. in the Richel Lab in Cremer Hall.
  
  
• Congratulations to everyone that made the annual ESU Constitution Day a huge success. This event attracted more than 100 middle school students (future hornets) to the campus on September 17.
  
  
• The National Student Clearinghouse has successfully activated 25 colleges and universities to implement electronic transcript processing and delivery in 15 minutes or less; Emporia State was one of the first universities to implement eTranscripts!
  
  
• The School of Business hosted its first Corporate Days event with Phillips 66 enhancing collaboration with students, faculty, and staff.
  
  
• Congratulations to ESU alumnus Andrew Page (B.S. Biology, '12) on being named the new Area Manager at the Perry Reservoir within the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism.
  
  
• Congratulations to the following biology students, faculty and alumni who recently attended the 66th Annual Meeting of the Kansas Ornithological Society: Eric Wilson (graduate student), Benjamin Kerbs (undergraduate student), John Kraft (B.S. Biology '13), Jean Schulenberg (Curator, ESU Herbarium) and Bill Jensen (Associate Professor, Biological Sciences).