2/11/25

By University Communications

HAYS, Kan – Fort Hays State University’s service includes four metropolitan areas that rank among the 25 largest cities in Kansas-Dodge City, Garden City, Hays, and Liberal. More than 4,900 FHSU alumni live in Southwest Kansas, and last fall, one in five of the university’s incoming first-year students hailed from Southwest Kansas.

“We are the only four-year public university in Kansas located west of Salina, and we acknowledge and embrace our responsibility to anticipate and meet the educational and business needs of our fellow Kansans in the region,” said FHSU President Tisa Mason. “Our commitment to constantly explore and create new and innovative ways to become better partners is strong and will never waiver.”

Teacher education, nursing, social work, and communications sciences and disorders are critical workforce needs in Southwest Kansas. FHSU has made significant investments in programs and partnerships that are making a difference in the region. What follows is a summary of several initiatives.

Nursing

The Kansas Department of Labor's 2022 Occupational Outlook report showed that by 2026, the state will face a shortfall of more than 18,000 registered nurses. The impact in rural Kansas is especially dire, and hospitals now face nursing shortages that could lead to closures.

In response to this urgent workforce need, FHSU signed a memorandum of understanding in January 2024 with Kansas’s network of community colleges that guaranteed admission to FHSU’s nursing program for graduates of state community college registered nursing programs. Enrollment in FHSU’s Registered Nurse to Bachelor of Science in Nursing (RN to BSN) program from students who started their education at Dodge City, Garden City, and Seward County Community Colleges has more than doubled over the past year.

K12 Education

In 2022, FHSU secured a $1.2 million federal grant to create a post-baccalaureate STEM teacher licensure program. The Science Teachers for Rural America initiative is an innovative approach to creating an accelerated pathway to a teaching license for individuals who hold a bachelor’s degree and want to answer the call to serve as an educator.

The FHSU Transition to Teaching program (T2T) is a master’s degree program created to help fill teaching vacancies in school districts through an alternative route to earning a teaching license. Currently, there are 40 teachers from Southwest Kansas in the T2T pipeline.

The Classroom to Classroom grant program created by the Kansas Board of Regents provides scholarships to support students pursuing elementary education. The program is a partnership between Dodge City Community College and Seward County Community College. Program scholarships support future teachers while they complete their first 60 credit hours at their local community college. There are currently 21 future teachers on scholarship at Dodge City Community College. 

“The Classroom to Classroom grant program has been a great opportunity for us at FHSU to collaborate with partners at USD 443 and Dodge Community College,” said Matthew Clay, assistant professor of education. “In a growing teacher shortage, especially in southwest Kansas, this has been a great way for us to better identify and remove barriers for individuals in Dodge City who wish to become teachers.”

FHSU’s College of Education also works closely with school districts in Southwest Kansas to train special education teachers, attend regional special education advisory council meetings, deliver consulting and mentoring assistance, and deliver English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) services.

Social Work

To address the critical workforce need for social work professionals in rural Kansas, the FHSU Department of Social Work established partnerships in 2006 with Dodge City Community College, Garden City Community College, and Seward County Community College that created site-based cohort programs for the university’s Bachelors of Social Work program.

Under this partnership agreement, students don’t have to relocate to Hays to complete their program of study. FHSU courses, taught by FHSU faculty, are offered on the campuses of the three community colleges. This approach was designed to keep rising professional social work professionals where they are most needed in Southwest Kansas.

Since 2006, seven cohorts have completed the program; this year, 81 new social work professionals have graduated from cohorts in Southwest Kansas. This cohort program has also fueled a 154% rise in enrollment over the past nine years.

Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology

FHSU’s Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders trains skilled speech-language pathology and audiology professionals for service in schools, healthcare facilities, and community organizations. The department has taken a leadership role in creating several specialized partnerships designed to serve the needs of Southwest Kansas.

One example is the department’s decade-long partnership with Southwest Kansas Area Cooperative District 613 in Dodge City to provide speech-language services and supervise FHSU graduate students who provide teletherapy services to district students.

Fort Hays State University’s commitment to Southwest Kansas is strong and enduring. Over the past several decades, we forged strategic partnerships with K12 schools, community colleges, healthcare, and social services organizations that have significantly and positively impacted the quality of life for the people, communities, and businesses of Southwest Kansas. There is always more to do, and we fully embrace our responsibility to deliver innovations that best serve our fellow Kansans’ evolving education and training needs.

For additional news and information about Fort Hays State University, go to https://www.fhsu.edu/university-communications/