Eitle, Eichhorn and Estes: Three candidates vie for liberal arts and sciences dean position

Allison Campbell, Editor-in-Chief • April 3, 2025

Since the departure of Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean Andrew Hippisley in June, the search for a new dean of Wichita State’s largest academic college has been narrowed down to three candidates. After reviewing each of the candidates, Academic Affairs will announce which of the candidates, if any, will be selected for the role.

David Eichhorn

Eichhorn’s priorities:

After nearly 30 years at WSU, Eichhorn said one of the most important initiatives for the next dean to undertake is enhancing interdisciplinary efforts to make LAS graduates better prepared and more valuable to employers.

“Our ability to facilitate interdisciplinary activities, both (from an) educational and research standpoint, again, this is really just reflective of what our world looks like, what type of skills our students are going to need when they move out into the workplace,” Eichhorn said. “Because so many of the problems that need to be solved these days in our society can’t be solved by one person with a strict disciplinary perspective, and they require interactions of … collaborations between people, but also individuals who have an interdisciplinary perspective.”

One way to achieve this, Eichhorn said, is by meeting the needs of the greater Wichita community, teaching the skills and competencies they find valuable in a workplace.

“I think one thing that we need to be thinking really strongly about is that we as a college and university need to understand the needs of our community,” Eichhorn said. “We need to listen to our community and make sure that we are preparing our students for postgraduate success.”

In terms of ensuring success, Eichhorn also said that it extends to protecting the academic freedom of faculty at Wichita State. Following President Donald Trump’s crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at U.S. colleges, some university professors — particularly LAS faculty — fear their research may come under attack for including or addressing subjects related to DEI.

“(We also need) to stay true to our identity and preserve the academic freedom of our faculty,” Eichhorn said.

But ultimately, Eichhorn hopes to uplift LAS, and what its students and faculty hope to achieve, as a whole. And as dean, he would want to play an active part in initiating those conversations.

“The reality is that students and faculty in College of Liberal Arts and Sciences absolutely have have skills and expertise that can be applied,” Eichhorn said. “… And we need to be part of those conversations.”

The interim dean of the Fairmount College, David Eichhorn has been at Wichita State for almost 30 years. And, regardless of whether he gets the dean position or not, he doesn’t plan on going anywhere anytime soon.

“I found that it’s (Wichita State) a great place to do what I was doing,” Eichhorn said. “I was an assistant professor in the chemistry department, and what I liked about Wichita State the most was its combination of emphasis on teaching and research.”

Since then, Eichhorn has served as the associate dean of the graduate school, chair of the chemistry department and the associate dean for Faculty Development and Research. He’s also maintained membership within several university and Fairmount College committees, especially those with an emphasis on teaching and research.

“(Wichita State) has the infrastructure to allow me to do the kind of research that I wanted to be able to also, unlike some other research level school,” Eichhorn said.

Eichhorn assumed the role of interim dean after Hippisley’s departure, carrying out the dean’s duties and responsibilities. Eichhorn said his previous experience in the dean’s office has “helped my transition tremendously.”

“I know all the staff and have a good working relationship with all the staff, and moving into the dean’s role just gave me an ability to really interact with all the other teams and the colleges and university leadership in really trying to start a path forward for the university,” Eichhorn said.

Since accepting the interim role, Eichhorn has continued the implementation of several new initiatives, including a new peer-to-peer mentoring program — which pairs upper-class students with incoming first-year students — and changing college graduation competencies and general education requirements.

“We have designed them in a way that does not result, or it should not result in, students having to take any additional courses, but we’ve (also) just designed them to allow students to better appreciate the types of skills that they are learning in their liberal arts and sciences degree,” Eichhorn said. “And these also are competencies which we know employers are really interested in seeing.”

Regardless of who is offered the position, Eichhorn said he’s excited for what his future at WSU may be. It’s passion for education that’s kept him here for three decades, and it’s passion that will keep him here for the foreseeable future.

“I’m excited about improving higher education, but I’m particularly excited about improving higher education here at Wichita State University, and that’s what I’m passionate about right now,” Eichhorn said. “I’ve been here for almost 30 years, and I don’t anticipate going anywhere.”

Tamela Eitle

Eitle’s priorities:

If selected for the dean position, Eitle said she hopes to make the college a model of interdisciplinary education and research to expand Wichita State’s growth as an inclusive, urban public research university.

Additionally, she wants to expand access and enrollment at WSU through Inclusive Excellence programming. Wichita State is currently reviewing several programs, events and services — including Inclusive Excellence — to comply with state and federal requirements opposing diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

Meanwhile, Eitle acknowledges that even though, “We’re all walking on a tight rope” regarding anti-DEI sentiment in education, she advocates for faculty and staff to “keep doing what we’re doing until they tell us we absolutely can’t.”

“The ‘Dear Colleagues’ letter hit me in the heart … I couldn’t read that letter,” Eitle said. “But yet, two weeks later … they weren’t able to do all the things that they said they wanted done in two weeks. So I think we all have to be measured in our response.”

Eitle’s first priority regarding the uncertainty of DEI in education, she said, is ensuring students receive federal financial aid.

“If they do not have federal financial aid, they cannot come to college. We don’t have jobs,” Eitle said. “So making sure that we have students and making sure my faculty and staff are employed and future jobs, those are the two things that drive me every day.”

Eitle also praised “the great work” that WSU has done in regard to applied learning, and aims to expand on those opportunities through collaborations with Innovation Campus partners, Biomedical Campus connections and local organizations.

“I think Fairmount College can lead in providing every student a hands-on experience that links classroom knowledge to real world practice,” Eitle said. “… The industry is here on campus, and I would look for ways to take advantage of that.”

Finally, Eitle wants to emphasize “excellence in doctoral education” to help WSU obtain R1 status, and said the Biomedical Campus could be critical in achieving that.

Born and raised in Gardner, Kansas, Eitle said she didn’t initially jump at the LAS dean opportunity, but after repeated requests from the search firm and looking at “the amazing things that are happening here,” she said she knew she’d regret it if she didn’t apply.

“Kansas is always close to my heart,” Eitle said. “ … And I thought, ‘What a great place to have the opportunity to continue to educate students, to provide them opportunities so that they can be successful.’”

The current dean of the School of Liberal Arts at Indiana University, Eitle said IU is much like WSU in that they are both urban public research universities. This means both schools have prioritized obtaining Research 1 status, a designation IU recently received.

If hired, the small town girl hopes to implement “the big easy” — “the big, impactful thing that we can do that’s the easiest for us to do because none of us need a lot more work” — to help WSU achieve R1 ranking, as well as further student retention and recruitment, applied learning and inclusive excellence goals.

One potential implementation of this philosophy, Eitle said, could be expanding and creating interdisciplinary degrees, which could simultaneously grow enrollment and bolster master’s and Ph.D. programs.

“I found that the interdisciplinary programs really are helpful in terms of getting some students into classes where there’s not that many students,” Eitle said. “ … If you get interdisciplinary students and the curriculum is open … It can really help support your other master’s programs, too … (then) those students might seamlessly transfer into Ph.D. programs if we build that correctly.”

There are also other ways she wants to offer applied learning, such as through community partnerships.

“We can find partnerships, certainly cultural institutions and civic organizations in Wichita can give valuable experience to our students and supply talent that hopefully will help support WSU’s mission to be an economic driver for Kansas,” Eitle said.

Eitle said that while her visions for WSU may seem grand, she believes WSU “has a lot of promise.” And, as her Kansan parents taught her, “The biggest room in the world is the room for improvement.”

“I know there will be challenges. There’s no place in higher ed where there’s not going to be challenges,” Eitle said. “But you have to have the vision. You have to know what you’re trying to work towards, and why not have big, audacious goals? That’s how you really make things happen.”

Sarah Beth Estes

Estes’ priorities:

A third-generation college graduate — “which is really saying a lot for a state like Arkansas” — Sarah Beth Estes said she’s never been not aware of the privilege the opportunity to education provided her.

“I am constantly aware of the transformative power of education in my own life, and like the rest of you, I also know what it means in our own classrooms and educational experiences that we cultivate for our students,” Estes said.

To achieve the full effect of that transformative power, Estes said that as the new dean for the Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, she hopes to further university President Richard Muma’s pillars of priorities: inclusive excellence, enrollment, growing faculty research, Ph.D. production, applied learning and alignment with the biomedical campus. But, ultimately, Estes says her vision for WSU is centered on student success, which is supported through initiatives like becoming a Hispanic Serving Institution and meeting the needs of faculty and staff.

“But you can’t have student success without centering that, I believe, on faculty and staff success,” Estes said.

Part of ensuring faculty success, Estes said, is helping to navigate change — whether it be through attempting to reach R1 status, better aligning Innovation Campus with the needs of faculty or with the new biomedical campus.

Estes encouraged faculty and staff to “dream together” to apply their expertise to the biomedical campus and how that investment can help achieve other goals, like increasing Ph.D. production and potential new programs.

“I mentioned dreaming really, because I think it’s so essential,” Estes said. “… I call it a fizzy feeling, but that feeling of belonging and joy that we get when we are engaged in a common pursuit … And to me, dreaming together about a shared pursuit offers that kind of experience. And I think that kind of experience, to me, is something we all deserve to have at work.”

Once upon a time, “like, 1,000 years ago,” Estes interviewed for a job at Wichita State. She said she quickly came to love the school — especially Joan Miró’s “Personnages Oiseaux” mural at the Ulrich Museum of Art.

“I saw my first Miró in person here, and I thought, ‘People could see that every day here, like they just get to walk by that’ — it was amazing to me,” Estes said.

Estes instead took her first job as an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Cincinnati.

Several years later, she accepted an assistant professor role at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. That year, she worked alongside Little Rock’s new provost, former WSU dean of the College of Engineering Zulma Toro-Ramos, to restructure the college’s academic affairs and overhaul the core curriculum to meet new state mandates.

After countless hours of conducting interviews, surveys and focus groups with stakeholders while serving as the liaison for faculty, staff, associate deans and the dean’s councils, she accepted a series of associate dean and leadership roles that “If I listed them chronologically in my CV, you all would be like, ‘We are collectively witness to a crime scene.’”

But Estes said the mismatched positions and titles taught her that she has dispositions toward innovation and entrepreneurship, which have been instrumental in her last seven years of deanship for Little Rock’s College of Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences and Education.

In that position, Estes was yet again acquainted with a former WSU dean — former Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education Lawrence Whitman. As the dean of the Donaghey College of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, Whitman shared stories from his time at WSU with Estes.

“So for all of those years, I had heard a lot of lessons from Wichita State, a lot of adages from Wichita State, and also that your YaYa’s is way better than ours,” Estes said.

Aside from Toro-Ramos’ and Whitman’s praises, Estes said she was attracted to Wichita State through experiences she had consulting with Wichitans and Shockers while in her career services role. What she saw then, and what Estes said she believes now, is that Wichita State looks ahead toward the future — a mentality she wants to become a part of.

“(Wichita State is) where I believe higher ed has got to be for the future,” Estes said. “ … So the ‘Why Wichita?’ is because Wichita State; that’s just the answer to that. And there is no parallel, I think. It’s not like I want to join an institution like yours. It’s that yours is the only one like this.”

After reviewing each of the candidates, Academic Affairs will announce which of the candidates, if any, will be selected for the role. Additional information regarding the dean search can be found on the Academic Affairs website.

About the Contributor

Allison Campbell, Editor-in-Chief

Allison Campbell is the editor-in-chief of The Sunflower. Campbell is a senior pursuing a journalism and media production degree with a minor in English. She served as one of the news editors during the 2023-2024 year. Campbell hopes to pursue a career in writing or editing after graduation. Campbell uses she/her pronouns.