Wichita State University has a new acting president.
The university's provost, Rick Muma, will serve as president while current president John Bardo continues to recover from two surgeries. Bardo was hospitalized in November due to a chronic lung condition.
Bardo was originally expected to take several weeks to recover from his November surgery, but a second surgery in December changed that, said Lou Heldman, vice president of strategic communications for the university.
"The thought was that sometime early in the spring semester that he'd back, so the second surgery just changed the timeline," Heldman said. "There isn't a specific timeline that he should be back."
The university would not provide details for the surgery, citing Bardo's privacy.
Before being hospitalized, Bardo was using a mobility scooter after fracturing three vertebrae.
Muma began teaching at the university in 1994. He was a senior vice president at the university before being named university's provost last May.
Stephan Bisaha, based at KMUW in Wichita, is an education reporter for the Kansas News Service, a collaboration of KMUW, Kansas Public Radio, KCUR and High Plains Public Radio covering health, education and politics. Follow him on Twitter @SteveBisaha.
