There can be no more complaining, excuses or plans to overthrow the president for not listening to students and staff after today. 

Wichita State President John Bardo is inviting everyone who wants to express his or her opinions and concerns about the university to attend a Leadership Retreat from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. today on the main floor of Koch Arena.

The schedule of the retreat is as follows:

1-2 p.m.: The retreat starts after a summary of university issues, and a review of the day’s agenda.

2-3 p.m.: Participants will sit at a table with eight to 10 other people to discuss one of the five prepared questions. Each table will designate a note-taker, speaker and moderator.

3-4 p.m.: Table representatives will report a consensus about their assigned question(s). 

“I’ve tried to summarize what I thought I have heard from the community in terms of what they thought or what people are telling me what the university is about,” Bardo said. “That may or may not be complete, and I may have some things wrong, you never know. And so the whole purpose of this process is to formalize where we are, and to see if those elements that I thought I was hearing were the right elements.”

The retreat is meant to bring people together, converse and think broadly about issues.

“This is the beginning of a conversation, and the conversation will go all academic year,” Bardo said. 

Bardo is hoping students will be interested in expressing their thoughts as well.

“As a student taking part of something like this is really a learning experience,” he said. 

Heads of each classified, unclassified, faculty senate and representatives from Student Government Association and other student organizations on campus have been invited.