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This is the start of a series covering Wichita State’s involvement in the neighborhood south of  campus, where students live, park and play, and an area rich in WSU history. It’s area code 67214.

A dog chases an errant ball across the Fairmount Park tennis courts, Wichita State Quidditch players run across fresh-mowed grass on brooms and neighbors eat dinner inside the park building.

“This is what Fairmount Park should look like,” captain of the Quidditch team D.J. Pabst said Thursday evening. “This shows people this is a place close to campus students can go to have a good time.”

Students, university leaders and members of the Fairmount neighborhood — an area that stretches from Oliver to Hillside streets and 17th to Oliver streets — met Thursday, touted as the Shocker Neighborhood Kickoff, to discuss a vision and strategy to ultimately improve the quality of life in the area.

The WSU Hugo Wall School of Public Affairs organized the meeting, which was made possible by a $250,000 grant from the Kansas Health Foundation over the summer, plus an additional $100,000 to match partner investments, as part of the Community Engagement Initiative to be used by the Shocker Neighborhood Coalition.

The grant was intended to improve safety and quality of life in neighborhoods surrounding Wichita State, beginning with the Fairmount neighborhood south of campus, according to a statement from the university.

“Fairmount has gotten a reputation as a ‘Murder Park,’” said Darryl Carrington, community liaison between Fairmount and the university. “But it didn’t always use to be this way.”

Fairmount — which was at one time considered the far northeast corner of Wichita — played a rich and integral role in the history of Wichita State, said Jay Price, history department chair and author of “Wichita, 1860-1930.”

“Fairmount was really kind of a funky place in the 1950s and ’60s,” Price said. He said going into the late ’60s and ’70s, the neighborhood had guests such as poet Allen Ginsberg and became home to a head shop, a bookstore, a night club and a pizza joint.

“One way to be safe is have people in the area,” Price said. “The best way to do that is through food … Compare Fairmount to Aggieville in Manhattan or Mass Street in Lawrence. What’s the difference?”

Lately, the park is infamous for being the location where a woman was brutally attacked and later died last fall.

“It’s excellent things like this that are happening, especially when it comes to safety,” said Jose Esquivel, WSU senior and member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon. “I think it’s good that the whole community comes together to try to better the situation.”

SAE is a WSU fraternity located in the Fairmount neighborhood near 16th and Fairmount streets.

After dinner in the park, the crowd gathered a block to the east at Fairmount United Church of Christ to talk about new businesses and other ideas to improve the neighborhood.

“I hope it’s the beginning of getting ideas and programs and certain things to benefit the community,” said Reverend Larry Young. “I’m very concerned about the neighborhood and the churches.”

The discussion touched on crosswalks and sidewalks, bike-sharing programs and farmer’s markets as ways to promote community policing.

Audience members were asked to write down their values on sticky notes — unity, family and compassion were a few of them.

“Safety” was the most popular.

“Part of that is going to be about opening lines of communication, and that goes back to meeting people tonight,” Wichita Police Capt. Brian White said. “… And part of that is a trust factor. If you don’t believe that anything’s going to happen, then why call? So we’ve got to show that we’re willing to act.”

In groups, participants noted the challenges and assets of the Fairmount neighborhood. For challenges, they listed things like perception, lack of traffic lights on 17th Street, no speed bumps and the absence of landlords.

Some of the areas identified as assets included historic properties, talented residents and proximity to campus.

With the results from Thursday’s meeting, the university will discuss ways in which it can provide its resources to make changes.

“This is a historic point in time,” said Ted Ayres, director of Community Engagement and Opportunity and leader of the Enough is Enough! task force. “…[Wichita State] is your neighbor. We are a neighbor and proud to be here.”