By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
This week Fort Hays State University will once again promote the scholarly, research and creative activities of Fort Hays State University students, faculty and staff during the John Heinrichs Scholarly and Creative Activities Day.
This year’s event will take place in a hybrid format, with online content available throughout the week and in-person presentation scheduled for April 20.
“SACAD actually started in 2005 With an event just to honor and recognize research and scholarly activity that was happening among faculty and students at Fort Hays,” said Department of Psychology associate professor Whitney Whitaker. “Since then, it has grown into this university wide celebration of scholarly and creative activities.”
Initially the day was limited to physical science students and staff presenting their work, in an effort to collaborate, she said, but over the years the event has grown substantially.
“It's morphed into more of a university celebration where all departments are recognized and participate now, from English to Music and Theatre,” Whitaker said. “So, it's really taken off and really grown since 2005.”
“It has grown into a university-wide event where all departments all units are recognized,” she said. “We have opportunities for poster presentations, oral presentations, and one thing that we're really proud of is the creative works exhibit where we have people who will showcase their art, their sculptures, printmaking. It's a really, really cool event and way to recognize what's going on on campus.”
As the program has grown, Whitaker said the work needed has also expanded.
“It takes a team to make it happen,” she said. “So, we have our SACAD Planning Committee, which is part of the scholarship Environment Committee at Fort Hays. That committee is charged to cultivate and enhance collaborations between faculty and students and just everybody on campus for scholarly and creative works.”
A large team of volunteers also help during the in-person event from across the campus.
“Our Dean's are really, really critical to in terms of helping us to spread the word. And one thing that we are really grateful for this year – and in the last couple of years – is that our FHSU Foundation is involved also in helping us to plan. They have been very gracious in helping to fund the event but also inviting alumni and donors to the event as well to really make this spread outside of the university community to our local community and beyond.”
Creating community awareness and participation has been a growing focus for the program, and so in that vein, this year an award ceremony is slated for Wednesday.
The public is invited to attend.
“One of our major goals is to try to expand this outside of the campus community, to our local community, and then even beyond,” Whitaker said. “And one of the ways that we think that we might be able to achieve that is through the hybrid format this year.”
The online content will be available throughout the week, presenting those wishing to participate that are outside the area, like FHSU alumni, the opportunity to do so.
“We hope that will then help to bring in maybe alumni or other people who are familiar with Fort Hays, or maybe even not familiar, but would want to be interested in looking at and reviewing some of the work,” Whitaker said. “We hope that that the mission of cultivating and celebrating the work of our faculty and staff and students can spread then across the nation, maybe even across the world with some of our partnerships that we have.”
And while the program organizers look to the future, the day is also a reflection of the past.
“We changed the name of it in 2014 to honor the late Dr. John Heinrichs,” Whitaker said. “John was a faculty member and the chair of the Geosciences Department and when he passed away, we wanted to try to find a way to honor his legacy.”
As an avid supporter of the connection between faculty and students working together on research, renaming the event to honor Heinrichs was in line with his legacy at the university.
“We're always looking for new donors, new sponsors, new volunteers as well to help us to put on this event,” Whitaker said. “And we are truly hoping that we'll be able to continue the hybrid format next year. So, there's definitely ways for people to get involved as well. And if that's the case, I would encourage them to reach out to me or reach out to the university because there's definitely ways to get plugged in if people want to attend as well.”