Welcome to the first edition of the DELO monthly newsletter! The information included here will help inform readers of the various activities going on within DELO and the individual units. Please forward this newsletter to anyone you think may be interested in the activities of the Division of Extended Learning and Outreach.
I recently had the opportunity to present an overview of DELO and our programs to the Western Kentucky University Board of Regents. It was exciting to be able to tell President Ransdell and the Regents about the many successes you have achieved over the past year. As thriving as this past year has been, however, the future for DELO is even more exciting to me. By combining the support DELO receives from the WKU leadership with your inspiration and hard work, I know that great things are going to happen which will enable us to even better serve are various constituencies.
A WKU Winter Term Implementation Committee was formed in the fall of 2004 with twenty-two members representing every aspect of the university that the Winter Term may impact. The committee had representation from across campus and was charged with preparing Western Kentucky University for its first Winter Term. The committee, appointed by Provost Barbara Burch, was charged with creating an implementation plan for the first WKU Winter Term to be held in 2006. Beth Laves, Assistant to the Dean, is responsible for Winter Term with Jenni Perry assisting in overseeing the program.
This term has several missions: to increase enrollments, to give students additional opportunities to take classes that are typically difficult to get into or get into crowded prerequisites to prepare for spring, and to generate revenue at a time when state funding is continuing to decline.
The goal for the first Winter Term was to have 1,000 students enrolled. Currently, over 1,760 students have enrolled in Winter Term courses with over 64 courses having met the minimum enrollment level!
Classes begin January 2, 2006 and are offered on the main campus in Bowling Green as well as online and on WKU campuses in Elizabethtown/Ft. Knox, Glasgow and Owensboro. Registration for Winter Term courses is going on now and students are encouraged to register before December 12.
DELO marketing created a strategic plan to promote the Winter Term to WKU students, faculty and staff. An online survey was utilized to determine student’s perception and expectations for the term. Since this is the first time Western has ever offered a Winter Term, a larger amount of time and resources were spent promoting the term than for an existing program.
Go to http://www.wku.edu/winter/ for more information on the WKU Winter Term.