The Kansas Board of Regents has approved Dr. Richard Muma as the 15th president of Wichita State University. The announcement was made Thursday at a Regents meeting in the Rhatigan Student Center on the WSU campus.
Dr. Muma has served as provost since 2018 and he has served in a variety of roles at the university over the past 25 years, including professor, department chair, and Senior Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs. He has been interim president since last September.
In his acceptance speech, Dr. Muma said he is very excited about the future of Wichita State, and he sees opportunities to move the university forward. He said in the next few months he will be talking with students, faculty and staff about the future direction of the university. He said he wants them to help keep Wichita State on a path to become a world-class urban public research university, “and it’s not built around one person. It’s our university.”
Dr. Muma said WSU not only provides educational access but it also helps the community and partners solve some of their most pressing issues, using research and scholarship and creative activities. He said that’s an identity that must be embraced, and that will not only lift up the university but it will lift up the community and increase the economic prosperity of this region.
