Starting at 7:15 a.m. on the first two days of classes, a fleet of golf carts deploys onto Wichita State’s campus, aimed at helping students navigate the beginning of the semester.

Wuber is a staple of Wichita State’s first week programming — students who are lost, running late, or just need to get off their feet can catch a ride to their new classes on the golf carts.

The idea started in 2019, when the vice president and assistant vice president of student affairs, Teri Hall and Alicia Newell, were preparing for move-in and the start of the semester. 

“We use golf carts to transport people, mostly parents, back and forth from parking lots,” Hall said. “And Alicia Newell and I … we’re sitting around that table, and we were like, ‘Why don’t we do that the first couple of days of school?’ And then she turned to me and she said, ‘We could call it Wuber.’”

Since then, Wuber has evolved into a yearly staple, guided and organized by Newell, self-dubbed “Shocker mom,” alongside a team of administrators.

“One thing you should know about me is I treat all of our students like they’re mine,” Newell said.

On the rides, students are offered a pocket guide — a small 8-fold pamphlet that lists phone numbers, buildings and resources.

For students, it’s a way to get quicker transportation, but members of administration say it’s more than that. 

“It started with just being a student affairs thing and really trying to get our senior-level administrators out of their office as well,” Newell said. “So we have their president, we have the first gentleman, the provost, our VP, our directors, and so it’s getting them out of the office so that they can welcome students back.”

When students get into a Wuber, the focus is on them.

“It was awesome,” freshman Ava Bradshaw said. “I was with the President and the Director of Student Affairs… I had a really great conversation with them, and they were super welcoming and interested in what I plan on doing.”

Newell greets students with a “want a ride, babe?” and spends the ride asking about them: year in school, major and what class they are going to. She says that she wants to help freshmen, but will give anyone a ride. 

“It’s not standing at a table handing out maps, you know, the traditional welcome back type stuff,” Newell said. “It’s different. And I think that’s why it stuck around so long.”

Rick Case, first gentleman of the university, says he takes a parental role in these discussions.

“What would I want someone to do with my kid?” Case said. “…Rick (Muma) and I kind of approached this that we raised two boys of our own, and now we have 17,000 more kids.”

Case compared getting students to accept a ride to fishing.

“Throwing your line out there, and every once in a while, you hook a kid,” Case said. “And you want to make a difference in whether they’re successful or not.”

Though Wubers only run the first two days of classes, Hall said that she’s always mused that someone could start their own Wuber business. 

“If they got certified and trained and wanted to offer Uber rides throughout the year, they could do that, but no one’s taken me up on that idea yet.”

Hall hopes that when she’s driving a Wuber, she can connect students to the people riding alongside her, such as the new Liberal Arts and Sciences dean

“Dr. Sarah Beth Estes is going to ride with me, so I’m excited … to help her get to understand campus better,” Hall said. “But inevitably, when we pick up a new student, they’re going to have LAS classes. So for me to get to introduce a brand new student to their dean, …. I love that part.”

In her last semester before retirement, Hall said the beginning of the year is bittersweet.

“My hope is to have, you know, some closure in some spaces,” Hall said. “But also part of that closure is I want to spend as much time with students as I can in this last semester.”

Picking up multiple students a day, Newell said she doesn’t always remember the individual’s name, but understands the impact a short Wuber ride has. 

“I’ll be honest, I will give a lot of student rides, and I will not remember their name because there’s so many of them,” Newell said. “But when I’m walking across campus and they say, ‘Hey, Miss Alicia, hey, that’s the lady that gave me a ride, like, it’s like, okay, like that moment mattered to that student, right? And then it’s an opportunity for us to have a continued conversation.”