2012 Washburn University KAW Yearbook

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WASHBURN

Kaw 2012Volume 107

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W U I n f i n i t y

WU Infinity

Since it was founded in 1865, Washburn University has

exceeded expectations, and steadily transformed from

the modest Lincoln College into the university it is today.

It stands as the 160-acre home to the Schools of Applied

Studies, Business, Nursing, and Law and to the College of

Arts and Sciences.

During the 2011-2012 school year, Washburn had its fair

share of triumphs. The university set a new enrollment

record of 7,303 students in the fall, including many in its

sesquicentennial graduating class; the football team won

the most games in university history; and the Mulvane Art

Museum hosted “The Art of the Brick,” it’s most successful

exhibit ever, bringing in over 60,000 visitors. These are just

a few of the outstanding achievements mentioned in this

yearbook.

Speaking of which, what better way is there for faculty,

graduates, and “college kids” to remember this triumphant

and eventful school year than through an NBC’s “The Office”

inspired yearbook? All quotes from this book’s section

dividers come directly from NBC’s “The Office,” and much

of the theme, content, and design has also been inspired by

the TV show. Many Washburn students enjoy watching “The

Office,” so it provides excellent common ground. For those

who haven’t seen it, the Kaw Yearbook staff would like to

recommend at least watching seasons one and two in order to

better understand some of the references related to the show.

It will truly enhance the experience of the book as one relives

Washburn as it used to be.

As for the years to come, who’s to say how much potential

this university has? With thousands of growing minds at

Washburn, in a world desperately in need of great minds, the

possibilities are truly infinite.

Contents4 34 52

1229470

Life43452

TalentsIssues

Academics7094122

AthleticsPeople

I’ve alwaysbeen your

biggest flan.

Royalty. Blake Bryant and Joni Wiley are crowned Homecoming

King and Queen at the 2011 Washburn University Homecoming.

Bryant was nominated by Sigma Phi Epsilon and Wiiley was

nominated by the Future Alumni Network.

Photo by Jordan Loomis

Homecoming

Greeked Out. Members of Greek Life line the hill during the

Washburn University Homecoming Game to root on the Ichabods

to a 45-20 victory over the Fort Hays State University Tigers.

Photo by Josh Rouse

Let them eat cake. Students took part in the WU Chef Cake

Decorating Competition. Although their competition was fierce, the

DeComposers and Sigma Alpha Iota won first place.

Photo by Josh Rouse

Hats Off. As part of the Homecoming festivities, each

student organization designed a Top Hat to be judged.

Photo by Tesa DeForest

Go Ninja, Go Ninja, Go! The Washburn University Marching

Blues get decked out for their halftime performance.

Photo by Josh Rouse

Leadership. Washburn cheerleaders fire up the student section at

the Washburn University Homecoming football game against Fort

Hays State University. The Ichabods won the game 45-20, led by a

two touchdown performance by senior running back Justin Cooper.

Photo by Josh Rouse

Spirit

Haunting Melodies. The Washburn University Marching Blues

sported their Halloween costumes during the Oct. 29 Homecoming

game against Fort Hays State University. Costumes included a

ghost, pictured above, as well as Batman, Gumbwy and others.

Photo by Jordan Loomis

Bod Squad. Washburn’s official student cheering group, the Bod

Squad, brought the noise Oct. 29 as the Ichabods faced the Tigers

for Homecoming.

Photo by Josh Rouse

Yell Like Hell. The Ichabod performs a dance

number at Yell Like Hell.

Photo by Louis Cortez

Blue Man Group. Some Bod Squad members

wore blue suits to show off their school spirit.

Photo by Josh Rouse

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Sports-life

Photo illustration by Tesa DeForestPhoto illustration b

Setting the bar. Freshman running back Sean

McPherson breaks through Fort Hays’ defense

during the WU homecoming game. With an overall

record of 10-3, the Ichabods won the most games in

university history in 2011, including the university’s

first ever NCAA playoff victory against Abilene

Christian University.

Tenacious to the end. The fifth-ranked Lady

Blues, swept their first two opponents in

the NCAA Volleyball South Central Region

Tournament, before losing to the University of

Central Missouri, with an overall record of 32-3.

Setting the bar. Freshman running back Sean

McPherson breaks through Fort Hays defense during the

WU homecoming game. With an overall record of 10-3,

the Ichabods won the most games in university history

in 2011, including the university’s first ever NCAA playoff

victory against Abilene Christian University.

Moving backwards can be awesome. The Washburn Rowing Crew prepares for competition. The crew

participated in both competitive and noncompetitive events in association with the Topeka Rowing Association.

Photo by Tesa Deforest Photo by Jordan Loomis

Photo by Louie Cortez

A worldIn judging if a university is living up to its expectations,

the powers that be tend to measure based on outcomes such as graduation. In measuring the

growth of the school though, Washburn has focused in on an ever growing number, enrollment increase.

Unlike other schools such as Emporia State, The University of Kansas or Kansas State University, Washburn saw yet another year of growth in the student population. While other universities around the state have remained either flat or seen modest decreases in enrollment, Washburn’s 2011 enrollment numbers paint a picture of growth for the school.

The university announced a new record in enrollment, with 7,303 students attending class in the fall of 2011.

“We’ve been focused in on building relationships with [high school] counselors around the area,” said Richard Liedtke, Washburn dean of enrollment management. “The increase we have seen in straight from high school enrollment has been gratifying to see.”

With an increase of 12 percent in students coming from high school in 2010, Washburn had high hopes coming into this year that another increase would be possible. While only a 6.2 increase in 2011 was set, Washburn still continues to see growth in other ways.

“We had another great year of enrollment from current high school seniors who are getting their first college credits while still in high school,” said Liedtke. “a [17.6] percent increase is something we are really proud of because it will help us in growing next year when, hopefully, those students will choose Washburn for college.”

While Washburn has taken steps to increase its enrollment via offering in-state tuition prices to some out of state areas, Washburn still is overwhelmingly a Kansas first campus with 6,730 of the record 7,303 enrolled coming from the sunflower state. Washburn President Jerry Farley praised the efforts of Liedtke and his staff for working to make sure Kansas students

think about Washburn when looking for post-secondary education opportunities.

“We pride ourselves on helping to attract and keep the best students that we can get from our state,” said Farley. “Keeping the native talent that Kansas has to offer is one of the goals we have in helping to grow our community and our state.”

Despite the increase in enrollment, the Washburn University Board of Regents still raised tuition prices for the 2011 academic year in the previous spring. The increase of less than 5 percent overall still managed to keep the price of tuition below what students attending Kansas Board of Regents schools like ESU, KU and KSU payed for 2011.

“Part of our success has been keeping school as an affordable of an option as possible,” said Farley. “We recognize that part of what makes Washburn so attractive is that we offer a quality education without the higher cost that many associate with going to college. I think that the enrollment numbers show that our efforts on that front have been a success.”

With possible changes to online classroom software and the ever increasing efforts on student retention, Farley still expresses optimism that Washburn will continue to grow.

“Obviously there are still challenges for us to face but I feel confident that with the faculty and staff that we have at Washburn, we will continue to offer a great experience here.”

Story by Rob Burketttt

Photo illustration by Tesa DeForeesssttttttt

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d of WU

Stickwork: The creations of Patrick Daugherty stand outside the Mulvane

Art Museum. Since 1980, Daugherty has made over 200 sculptures that

have withstood all the seasons, year after year.

Photo illustration by Matt Kelly

Scapin @ WU

Performances of the play “Scapin” took place five times over a two-week period in the Garvey Fine Arts Center at Washburn. Based

on the 1671 production of Les Fourberies de Scapin, the comical play originated in Paris, but was given a fresh telling by the Washburn Theatre department in the fall of 2011.

The play debuted with a strikingly unexpected introduction, when a perturbed stage manager loudly informed the audience that the cast was late for the show. Actors slowly trickled on stage and it was revealed that the cast was just playing the first of many jokes.

“Scapin” was an adaptation of a comedy about a troublemaking servant named Scapin, who plays tricks on two neighboring families.

“The plot is simple and straightforward,” said Paul Prece, the play’s director and Washburn theatre professor. “The characters find their bases in stereotypes. Miserly fathers object to the marriage of their children. Mistaken identities and misunderstandings are tangled and unwoven by the trickery and confusion created by the servants of both households until a happy conclusion is reached.”

Adaptations to the original were seen interwoven throughout the play. Several contemporary references were made, such as when one of the characters quoted popular movie lines and when the cast poked fun at Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback’s policy regarding public arts funding.

“It was really an interesting adaptation of Molliere’s original play,” said Sanford Pomerantz, Washburn student and audience member. “It was interesting, bringing in local things, especially Brownback.”

The play made ample use of a strategy known as breaking down the fourth wall when actors directly addressed the

A 17th Century play reinventedStory by Nicholas Birdsong and Matthew Kelly

audience for comedic effect. At one point, an actor held up a sign with “exposition” written on it while another actor engaged in an exposition explaining the setting for the play.

The performance of “Scapin” was the latest in a series of plays presented by the theatre department that was designed to reflect a cross-section through world theatrical history.

“Offering performances from various genres, and in differing styles, and representative of different eras allows student participants and audiences to experience the variety,” said Prece. “Moliere’s comedy requires dexterity and comic style and timing on the part of actors, so it is an exercise in playing style.”

Photos by Robin Warren

Troublemaker. Brandon Blick plays the role of the title

character Scapin, a master of deceit who always manages

to find a way out of trouble he makes for himself.

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Life changes, and there’s no way to stop it or slow it down. Instead, the time we’re given is meant for us to use in our own way. We just

have to figure out the answer to one central question: What do you want to do before you die? Duncan Penn, Jonnie Penn, Ben Nemtin and Dave Lingwood; the cast of MTV’s “The Buried Life,” have been asking this question to audience’s around the United States for over six years now on both their television series and on college campus visits, including their visit to Washburn University.

“We’ve been speaking at Campuses ever since we first started this project six years ago in a garage, long before the show and all of the publicity,” said Penn, the business leader of the cast. “We just enjoyed going to universities and talking to the student body about the question, ‘what do you want to do before you die?’”

The question, according to Penn, is also the title of their book. “The four of us basically collected our favorite 10,000 list items, narrowed it down to 250 and then got six artists to illustrate them,” said Penn. The book was later released on March 15th, 2012.

When asked to think about their favorite experiences while crossing off list items, all three men had different answers.

“Delivering a baby was definitely interesting,” said Penn, “I thought it was very cool.”

Lingwood, the adventurous member of the cast, spoke of a wild experience. “Crashing the playboy mansion was probably my favorite experience,” said Lingwood. “It was a personal favorite of mine because it was like living a little mission impossible.”

Nemtin, the ringleader of the cast, chose to talk about his proudest moment. “Making a television

show was No. 53 on our list,” said Nemtin. “It took three years of hard work and a lot of ups and downs but we were able to make it. It’ll always be my favorite experience.”

Together, the three men agreed that their favorite experience they all participated in happened in 2010, when after months of hard work, they were invited onto the White House grounds and played basketball against President Obama.

Later on, with a heartfelt presentation, the men spoke to the student body about how they accomplished more than they had ever dreamed, simply through hard work and determination when asked the question—What do you want to do before you die? All three men took turns telling stories of laughter, misfortune and emotional triumph.

Lingwood, for example, spoke of a personal experience involving his item on the bucket list, to ride a bull, and how things went different than he’d planned when he landed on his wrist. Nemtin then spoke of an experience that he said changed his life, when he, along with this cast mates, helped raise money to buy a truck for a man wanting to pay back a home dear to him because of his childhood.

The most promising moment of the presentation was at the end though, when the cast stepped aside from the microphones and asked the students of Washburn to be brave and tell them their own bucket list items. Many stories of strength were shared amongst the crowd and the cast even asked select students to speak to them after the show in the hopes of fulfilling their list items—in giving them a taste of “The Buried Life”

The Buried LifeStory by Jordan Loomis

18 Life

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The stuff of life. Dave Lingwood from MTV’s

“The Buried Life” spoke to the Washburn

student body about the importance of living

life to its fullest.

Photo Illustration by Tesa DeForest

What started out as a simple podcast assignment quickly became a weekly radio show at Washburn University.

Derek Huff and Austin Abernathy were both enrolled in the Mass Media Bootcamp class in the fall of 2011, where they first discussed the idea of a radio show on campus. They presented the idea to the student media board, were granted permission and funding to proceed, and Internet radio was born at Washburn on Oct. 13, 2011. Huff and Abernathy’s show, “The Dn’A Show,” was the first to air on AirBods Internet radio.

Every week, they met before the show to scour the Internet for news sources and trending topics, creating a basic outline for the show. The show always began with broad topics such as international, national and regional news—and whittles down to campus events.

“Since this is the first show on AirBods radio, we kind of cover everything,” said Huff. “We interview department heads from student life and Greek life, and basically anyone with an event to promote. Who our guest is usually depends on what’s going on that week. We tend to have at least one guest per show, but most of the time we have two or more.”

Although Washburn’s mass media department has always provided a variety of opportunities for its students, radio technology and training has been

living in the shadows for years, so it’s no surprise that students and faculty were excited to finally see a radio show at Washburn.

“If you really think about it, we have so many other venues for mass media students,” said Maria Stover, mass media professor. “It seemed we could provide yet another medium, which was radio.”

The first two weeks were the most difficult for Huff and Abernathy, but during their third broadcast, Huff said he found hope that the show would be a success.

“We saw how many live listeners we had and it was very reassuring,” said Huff. “It made us feel good that people were getting interested.”

The show is recorded in the basement of Henderson in the instructional media center—where AirBods has had a fair share of technical difficulties. During one show in particular, Dn’A actually had to cancel for lack of audio. Even with the technical difficulties, Huff and Abernathy hoped their fellow students would be interested in being a part of AirBods radio.

“We’re constantly looking for people who want to contribute just doing field news stories or even if they want to host their own show, we want to have as many people contributing as possible,” said Huff. “We want to get it to where KJHK is at KU.”

AirBods RadioStudents create a weekly internet radio show at WU

Story by Chelsey Moran

20 Student Radio

A new mass medium. Derek Huff and Austin Abernathy started an Internet radio

show at Washburn with help from the mass media department. Sharing an interest in

radio, they would never have been aware of their common ground if they hadn’t both

enrolled in the Media Bootcamp class in the spring of 2011, which required every

student to make a podcast. For most of the class, this was nothing more than an

assignment, but for Huff and Abernathy it was a source of inspiration.

Photo illustration by Tesa DeForest

Melissa Villasenor, stand up comedian and impressionist, performed for a packed house in the Washburn Room in the spring of 2012

as part of her continuing pursuit of a lifelong dream. Villasenor first grasped her knack for comedy when she was 12 years old.

“I was singing when I realized I could start doing impressions,” said Villasenor. “For example, I learned Brittney Spears.”

The next day Villasenor shared the impression with her friends at school and realized her newfound passion in the midst of their laughter.

“It just made sense,” said Villasenor. “I love making people laugh, therefore, I wanted to be a comedian.”

With her shy personality, Villasenor didn’t showcase her newfound talent until her sophomore year of high school, when she told herself she absolutely had to take part in her high school talent show. When she received a standing ovation, Villasenor realized she had truly found her calling.

With the help of a friend, Villasenor performed her singing impressions and comic act in Seattle for the judges of “America’s Got Talent.”

“I went in thinking that I shouldn’t expect anything

Story by Jordan Loomis

elissa Villasenor: M

2012 Washburn University KAW Yearbook

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