Fort Hays State University

Fort Hays State University

Fort Hays State University seal
Motto	"Affordable Success."
Type	Public
Established	1902
President	Dr. Edward H. Hammond
Academic staff	303
Undergraduates	+7,173
Postgraduates	+1,327
Location	Hays , Kansas , USA
Campus	4,160 acres
Athletics	NAIA, NCAA II
Colors	Black and Gold
Mascot	Tigers -
Website	www.fhsu.edu

Fort Hays State University (FHSU) is a public, co-educational university located in Hays, Kansas. It is the fourth largest of the six state universities governed by the Kansas Board of Regents, with an enrollment of approximately 9,500 students (8,250 undergraduate and 1,250 graduate).

History

FHSU was founded in 1902 as the Western Branch of Kansas State Normal School which is now known as Emporia State University. The institution was originally located on the grounds of historic Fort Hays, a frontier military outpost that was closed in 1889. The university served the early settlers' needs for educational facilities in the new region. The first building closer to Hays was completed in 1904, at which time the university moved to its present location. The modern campus is still located on a portion of the former military reservation from the fort.

The Campus

The main campus sits on 200 of the 4,160 acres owned by the state and deeded to the university. The campus property includes more than 40 limestone-faced buildings. Big Creek, a winding stream that traverses the campus, not only enhances the beauty of the campus, but also serves as a natural laboratory for students in the biological sciences.

Forsyth Library

In addition to supporting the general needs of faculty, staff and students, Forsyth Library has a large collection of fiction and nonfiction material about Kansas and the American West, supported in part by the Elmer and Eartha Pugh Trust Fund. Topics include railroads, the cattle industry, cowboys, Native Americans and frontier life.

The William D. Pashchal World War II History Collection, donated by retired dentist William Paschal, contains books, declassified government documents, maps, photographs, and other materials.

The library is also the repository for the books, papers and periodicals of the Fort Hays Genealogy Society.

Sternberg Museum

The University's Sternberg Museum of Natural History features interactive natural science exhibitions, many traveling and temporary exhibitions, an acclaimed Discovery Room, and a Museum Store. The museum houses over 100,000 square feet of dinosaurs, fossils, prehistoric animals, giant sea-swimming lizards and fish that inhabited Kansas over 70-80 million years ago. The Sternberg Museum also includes more than 3.7 million specimens in collections of paleontology, geology, history, archaeology, ethnology, botany, entomology, ichthyology, herpetology, ornithology and mammalogy.

The museum is the home of the internationally famous Cretaceous fossil Gillicus in Xiphactinus, better known as the "fish within a fish," which shows a small fossil fish inside the stomach of a larger fossil fish.

Academics

Degree options

FHSU is comprised of four colleges (Arts and Sciences, Business and Leadership, Education and Technology, and Health and Life Sciences) which together have 30 departments and offer more than 60 academic majors for undergraduates and 19 for graduate students. Students at FHSU can obtain Associate's degrees in office technology and radiologic technology; do their preprofessional study at FHSU then transfer to a medical or law school; obtain bachelor's and master's degrees; and in some areas of the curriculum, can earn specialist's degrees.

Docking Institute of Public Affairs

The Docking Institute is a public policy research institute whose mission is to enhance effective decision-making among governmental and non-profit leaders. The Institute has six focus areas:

1. Survey research, program evaluation research, public policy research, and community and economic development research
2. Strategic planning and consulting
3. Grants facilitation
4. Economic and community development consulting
5. Public administration training programs
6. Public affairs programming (conferences, speakers, forums, media events, scholarly publications, etc)

Athletics

Fort Hays State athletic teams participate in the NCAA Division II Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA) conference. The Fort Hays State basketball program holds several national basketball titles; the men's team claimed national championships in 1984 and 1985 (NAIA), back to back, and in 1996 (NCAA Division II) with a remarkable 34 and 0 record. The women's team also brought home the national title in 1991 (NAIA). FHSU is a competitive participant in the following sports:

• Football
• Volleyball
• Cross Country
• Basketball
• Wrestling
• Baseball
• Softball
• Track and Field
• Tennis
• Golf

Mascot

FHSU's mascot is the Tiger and has been the mascot of FHSU since 1914. No one knows for certain how it came to be FHSU's mascot, but the Tiger may have been the brainchild of W.A. Lewis, the president of the Western Branch Normal School (FHSU). Many tigers have represented FHSU over the years, but on April 3, 2000, the current mascot was unveiled. It is now the only acceptable image of the FHSU Tiger. At the annual TailGreat on Sept. 9, 2000, the mascot was officially named Victor E. Tiger. The costumed tiger character, Victor E. Tiger, appears at sporting and university events.

Student Media

• Tiger's Tale is a student-produced magazine printed twice a year - at the end of both the fall and spring semesters.
• KFHS is a student-run campus music station that broadcasts non-stop from kfhs.net and on the local Hays cable channel 67 on television.
• KFHS television channel 67 is FHSU's cable television station featuring student-produced and student-centered programming.
• The University Leader is the official student publication of FHSU and prints on Thursdays during the fall and spring semesters.
• The Edge is an independent student newspaper at FHSU published twice a month during the fall and spring semesters.

Technology

FHSU has long been recognized for its “high-tech/high-touch” vision. The underlying assumption of the vision is the integration of leading edge information technology with the humanizing aspects of personal attention to achieve the most productive learning environments available in higher education.

As of December 2006, nearly all of FHSU has wireless access. The network has three tiers of access: one for faculty, one for students, and one for guests. FHSU recently began to transform itself to a "mobile computing environment," allowing students and faculty to interface via a campus-wide wireless network. This network is set to be in place by the fall of 2007.

Additionally, the school has established a distance education program called the "Virtual College" which allows students to take various courses online.

The Blue Light Lady

There is an often reported paranormal sighting at FHSU. Known commonly as the "Blue Light Lady," the ghost is allegedly the spirit of Elizabeth Polly, a nurse at Fort Hays when it was an operational military fort. The sightings of a blue light center around Sentinel Hill, one of Polly's favorite spots and the place she wanted to be buried. Sentinel Hill has a limestone marker several hundred feet from the road, but reports are mixed as to whether or not she is buried there. Some contend that the grave found at the base of the hill was not Polly, but rather a Mexican cattleman, based on the marker's Spanish inscription. In fact the "Lonely Grave," as it is called, may not be an actual burial site at all as no remains were found in attempts to fulfill Miss Polly's wishes by moving her to the top of the hill. The hill was incorrectly referred to as "Centennial Hill" in an earlier version of the Wiki.

External links

• Fort Hays State University
• Sternberg Museum
• Docking Institute
• FHSU Athletics
• The University Leader (official student newspaper)
• The Edge (independent student newspaper)