WKU Regents Approve
Academic Quality Initiative
October 31, 2003
Bowling Green, Ky. - The Western Kentucky University Board of Regents today approved an initiative to enhance student success and academic quality.
The initiative, funded by a $200 increase in tuition beginning with the spring 2004 semester, will create additional faculty positions, expand programs to enhance student success, strengthen academic operating budgets and make improvements at the WKU South Campus. The tuition increase is expected to generate $5.8 million annually.
Western’s academic quality is being compromised as a difficult economy has left the state unable to fund the University’s 24 percent increase in enrollment since 1998, WKU President Gary Ransdell said.
The initiative includes the following:
*$2 million for faculty staffing, recruitment and retention, which will fund 30 new full-time faculty positions and enhance academic operating budgets.
*$1.9 million for student success and academic support, which includes a Student Success Center, enhanced Honors Program, a stipend increase for graduate students and additional scholarship support.
*$1.8 million for academic learning environments, which includes classroom improvements, upgrades of instructional equipment and expansion and improvements of South Campus facilities.
The full text of the initiative is available on the WKU Website at http://www.wku.edu/itsacademics/.
Dr. Ransdell said Western is positioned well if the Kentucky General Assembly is able to fund higher education in its budget next spring. However, a revenue shortfall makes funding increases uncertain, he said.
"We will define how we respond and go forward in the future after we see what unfolds this spring," Dr. Ransdell said.
In other business, the board:
· Authorized the sale of about $11 million in bonds for the renovation of the Downing University Center and the Materials Characterization Center.
· Approved a lease-purchase agreement of $200,000 for 6.4 acres on Storey Avenue. The land will be used for addition parking at the Bowling Green Community College and the WKU South Campus.
· Approved the purchase of property at 1658 Normal Drive for $134,000.
· Approved submitting $415,500 to the Council on Postsecondary Education to be matched by the state’s Regional University Excellence Trust Fund. Western becomes the first university in Kentucky to fully match all rounds of the “Bucks for Brains” program.
· Approved an honorary doctorate for Helen Thomas, a Kentucky native and respected journalist with United Press International who covered the White House from John F. Kennedy to Bill Clinton.
More WKU news is available on the World Wide Web at www.wku.edu. If you’d like to receive WKU news via e-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.
