President John Bardo was appointed as chair of the Urban League of Kansas Board of Trustees, a nonprofit organization.

The organization was forced to shut down its programming last year after it lost funding from United Way.

“We want to establish a sustainable funding model that will keep us around and strong for a while,” McCray-Miller, former chair of the Urban League of Kansas, said last year.

Bardo has been a member of the board since early last year, according to a university news release.

Amy Barfield, psychologist at the Counseling and Testing Center and president of the Unclassified Professional Senate, said in a UP Senate meeting Tuesday that she spoke with Bardo about his recent appointment.

Barfield said Bardo and a small group of faculty would be traveling “to talk with a company about an urban development program.”

“There’s nothing like it in the Midwest,” Barfield said. “What’s needed for sustainability in urban development areas — [Bardo] is looking at maybe developing some new degrees out of that.”

Barfield said a potential urban development program at Wichita State would call for the addition of “one or two” new faculty positions.

She said the program would be good for recruitment.

“That will give us a new market for recruitment in an area that’s lacking in this part of the country,” Barfielf said.

Last Thursday, Bardo spoke at Startup Grind ICT, an event for local entrepreneurs, and mentioned his recent appointment to the board and how it relates to Innovation Campus.

“All of the national data show that you wanna be not right in downtown,” Bardo said.

“The area of relatively low-income, relatively working-class homes, that’s where you wanna be.”

Bardo said that’s right where WSU is located.

“We’re in the right location with the right mission.”