Wichita State University, located in the southcentral part of Kansas, offers its faculty and staff a 330-acre oasis of learning within the borders of Wichita - a metropolitan area of nearly 600,000 that is Kansas' financial, cultural, health care and media center. This uniquely metropolitan university, founded in 1895, enhances the traditional classroom experience by providing students greater opportunities in resources, contacts with business and government leaders, and internships. Yet, a 15-minute drive takes a visitor out of the city to quieter, rural areas surrounded by wheat fields and fishing lakes.

Serving nearly 15,000 students, Wichita State University has a diverse mix of "traditional" undergraduates coming directly from high school, a significant percentage of returning adult students in both graduate and undergraduate programs, and a global population, with students from almost every state in America and more than 110 foreign countries.

The university offers more than 60 undergraduate degree programs in more than 200 areas of study through six colleges: the Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the W. Frank Barton School of Business, the College of Health Professions, the College of Fine Arts, the College of Education and the College of Engineering. Graduate School offers 56 master's degrees in more than 100 areas plus additional specialist and certificate programs, and 9 doctoral programs.

Plaza of Heroines

WSU's main campus is located in northeast Wichita approximately three miles northeast of downtown Wichita. Three satellite campuses also provide students options for classes: a Downtown Center, a Southside Education Center and the Westside Center.

Wichita State University (WSU) is a Division I institution and fields teams in tennis, cross-country, basketball, track, golf, crew, bowling and men's baseball and women's volleyball and softball. WSU's baseball team, under college baseball's most winning coach - Gene Stephenson - is often nationally ranked and its storied history includes a College World Series win. WSU men's basketball team is rebuilding under coach Mark Turgeon, and plays this year in the newly renovated $25 million Charles Koch Arena and Henry Levitt Sports Complex. WSU's men's and women's bowling teams have won numerous national championships, including the men's 2003 title. The university's mascot name, the Shockers, reflects the university's heritage: Early students earned money by shocking, or harvesting, wheat in nearby fields. Hence the earlier mascot name of Wheatshockers, which has been shortened to Shockers.

Eck Stadium	Koch Arena

Wichita State employs approximately 2,500 faculty and staff, including 515 full-time faculty. Competitive benefits include a university-matched retirement program and a flexible health care costs spending program.

Aside from modern, accessible and technology-enabled classroom/teaching space (which has doubled in the past 20 years), faculty and staff have access to many other amenities on campus. More than 60 pieces of sculpture by internationally known artists adorn the campus, a complement to the university's Edwin A. Ulrich Museum of Art, which features 19th and 20th century European and American art. Hundreds of performances are offered on campus each year, ranging from ballet to opera to musical theatre, with special pricing for faculty and staff.

Ulrich Museum	Jabara Hall

For those who enjoy fitness, the Heskett Center offers 165,000 square feet of fitness, recreation and sports activity space, including racquetball courts, swimming and diving pools, aerobic exercise equipment such as treadmills, a weight room, and an array of classes such as aerobics, Pilates, yoga, and tae kwon do. Golfers can simply walk across the street to hit the links at Braeburn Golf Club, a recently renovated public 18-hole course located on the east edge of campus.

WSU's diverse community means a variety of living options are available, from less expensive townhouses or apartments to single-family homes in gated communities. The median price for an existing single-family home was $96,000 in 2003 (compared to $161,000 nationally); the average two-bedroom apartment rent was $549. A recent survey showed Wichita was the city in its class with the fastest commute - an average of 17 minutes.

Rankings show Kansas as one of the top 10 states for quality education. With a strong public school system and a number of excellent private school options, those moving to Wichita with children in the K-12 ages have lots of choices.

And in a city this size, there's always something to do. Visit Wichita's Convention & Visitors Bureau events calendar to find out what's happening in Wichita right now. It might be a special exhibit at Exploration Place, the city's $62-million science center/children's museum, a blue-jeans concert at the Wichita Symphony, the all-city party called the Wichita River Festival (10 days of events on the river) or time for the National Baseball Congress at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium.

Exploration Place	Lawrence-Dumont Stadium

Wichita State University's faculty and staff of nearly 2,200 is a small community of learning within a metropolitan setting, offering the personal connections of a mid-sized university along with the resources and setting of a thriving city.

We are thinkers, doers, movers and Shockers. Are you?