WSU Tech leader hopes to remain on presidential board after term expires this month

WSU Tech president Sheree Utash’s future on President Trump’s American Workforce Policy Advisory Board is uncertain, but she said it’s because her term is expiring — not because of the debacle over the school’s commencement address.

Wichita State University and WSU Tech canceled a virtual commencement address by Ivanka Trump, an adviser to her father and the co-chair of the advisory board, after asking her to be the keynote speaker. Instead, her comments were included among 30 congratulatory messages students could listen to if they chose.

Utash said she had a 15-month appointment to the board that started in March 2019 and is set to end July 20.

“They have decided to go ahead and extend the work of that group for another year,” she said.

Whether she’ll be part of the group remains to be seen because Utash said the membership is being recalibrated.

“There’s just been some e-mail discussion about it,” she said of her possible return.

Utash said the White House will make a determination at the end of the month.

“We have continued to work together. I have continued to work on the two action teams that I was on.”

Utash said where the group wants to go next will determine who is on it.

“I’d love to continue to do the work because I’m extremely committed to workforce development and education and to collaboration with business and industry and to create a talent pipeline . . . not only for Wichita and Kansas but the nation.”

Regardless, she said that the “good work of the American Workforce Policy Advisory Board is going to continue.”

Utash said she and Ivanka Trump have talked since the commencement incident, but she won’t say what they discussed or share the tone of the conversation.

“It was a private conversation.”

Utash said the country’s situation “is very different today than it was a year ago when that board was just stating their work.”

She said it’s all about being able to pivot these days.

“Every decision that you’re making is between awful and god awful.”

Utash said the no-win situation reminds her of when she used to be with newspapers, including at The Wichita Eagle decades ago, when anything she did seemed to disappoint someone.

“It’s that idea of anything you wrote . . . there were sides on a story,” she said. “Most of my career has not been that way.”

Utash moved into corporate business and then higher education, but now she said she finds herself back in a no-win situation.

“It’s a tough time because all decisions that all of us are making . . . there’s not one good answer,” she said. “You’re having to make really tough decisions, and your decisions are certainly under a larger microscope, and they’re under a greater deal of potential criticism than ever before.”

There’s a term Utash has been using a lot lately to describe what’s happening in the Wichita area. She calls it “the pancaking of events.”

It started with the grounding of Boeing’s 737 Max, then came COVID-19, mounting racial issues, a resurgence of the coronavirus and more hits to the aviation community with people flying less and plane orders diminishing.

“I mean Wichita has just been double, triple tsunami-whammed through this.”

She said it’s devastating to the economy, the community, the state and people in it.

Utash said her goal has not changed, which is to make sure Wichita has a highly qualified, globally competitive workforce.

“That’s the driving momentum of what we do, and that’s the driving momentum behind the decisions that we’re making.”

Whether it’s a political or business position, Utash said that “truly leading through this . . . it’s a tough job for everybody who’s in a leadership position.”

“You have people who want to be in HAZMAT suits and people who don’t want to wear a mask.”

It may be tempting to wish for not being in a leadership position right now, but Utash said she’s all right with it.

“Well, I’m just about bullheaded enough . . . that I see this as probably one of the biggest challenges in my career, and I am very optimistic about coming out on the other end stronger and better than we ever were before,” she said. “But it’s tough, and there are days that it’s super tough.”

This story was originally published July 15, 2020 at 10:52 AM.