The WKU Board of Regents is guiding the institution through a well-planned attitudinal, physical and financial transformation. This transformation is encouraged by a challenge from the Commonwealth of Kentucky to: be more responsive to improving the lives of Kentuckians; enroll, retain, and graduate more students; raise more private support; and achieve national prominence in at least one academic program. Since Higher Education Reform legislation passed in 1997, Western Kentucky University has doubled its applicant pool to over 11,000; grown its enrollment by 3,700 students; raised $102 million in private gifts; achieved a number one national ranking with a Council on Postsecondary Education approved Program of Distinction (Journalism and Broadcasting); nearly tripled its faculty output in sponsored research and public service to $29 million; built two academic buildings with state support; renovated many of its residence halls, dining halls, and athletic facilities with new non-state funded financial models; and addressed regional economic development needs with its enhanced applied research programs, new engineering programs, and an innovative Center for Research and Development. These are all significant elements in the transformation of WKU from a university of regional importance to a university of national prominence. Attitudes have changed at Western, and a physical transformation of the campus is under way.

A downturn in the nation's economy and four years of state budget shortfalls have, however, created serious financial pressure and academic compromise for Western. Nearly all of WKU's enrollment growth has been unfunded with state appropriations. WKU has experienced three budget cuts since 2000. The CPE supported higher education benchmark funding model indicates that WKU is currently under funded by nearly $43 million. The budget picture for Kentucky is bleak at best with a projected state shortfall of $247 million (and growing) for the current fiscal year.

Nearly all relevant parties have helped address WKU's needs: the state has provided all it can in recent years; alumni, friends, and fans have given; faculty have taken on larger classes and work loads; and, the university's business enterprises have been maximized. Academic programs, however, have suffered. Class sizes have grown from 16 to 1 to 19 to 1. New faculty positions have not kept pace with enrollment growth. Too many part-time and adjunct faculty have been hired. Academic operating budgets have been cut or held flat. Teaching and research equipment has deteriorated or become outdated. The South Campus has become overcrowded. Academic quality is suffering.

It is academics' turn.

Tuition is the only source of revenue left under WKU's power to control. WKU's tuition is below national averages, benchmark averages, and averages in surrounding states. A reasonable increase will still allow it to be below these averages.

Quality, value for fair cost and meaningful faculty-student engagement must define the Western Experience. The best thing we can do to add value to the academic experience at Western is to ensure academic quality. The best thing we can do for our students is to offer the necessary class sections, with sufficient full-time faculty, to graduate more students more quickly.

The following plan has three objectives: 1) address unfunded enrollment growth pressures; 2) enhance academic quality; and 3) bring tuition more in line with peer institutions. This plan will not fix all of the compromises created by unfunded growth, but it will help. Improved state appropriations must be forthcoming in order to close the $42 million gap in CPE documented need.

A reasonable plan to enhance academic quality and student success will require a $200 per semester tuition increase for all students (excluding part-time graduate students) beginning with the Spring 2004 semester. This will produce $5,847,000 in new recurring revenue, which will be restricted by action of the Board of Regents to the attached purposes. This plan does not address faculty salaries, health care costs, inflationary costs, utilities, or other expenses normally addressed with an annual tuition increase and state appropriations. This increase does address academic quality and student success initiatives which WKU has been unable to fund in recent years and will certainly be unable to fund for the next few years.

This plan enhances the Western Experience for all students and faculty. It reduces the existing compromises to academic quality resulting from unfunded growth. It ensures a higher value for reasonable cost. It meets the academic crossroads which confront WKU.

Enhancing Academic Quality and Student Success

I Faculty Staffing / Recruitment / Retention - $2,085,000
II Academic Support / Student Success - $1,957,000
III Academic Learning Environments - $1,805,000

TOTAL $5,847,000


Assumptions:

1. There exists at WKU a critical need for support to assure academic quality and responsiveness to needs created by unfunded growth.
2. Projected recurring revenue of $5,847,000
3. Directs new resources to achieve highest possible academic quality and student success
4. Provides significant response to the need to restore balance in faculty composition and the need for additional faculty positions.
5. Does not address all of the infrastructure needs essential to Information Technology.
6. Does not address faculty salary benchmark issues or other faculty/staff compensation issues. These will be addressed in the annual budgeting sequence.
   
   

Givens:

1. Requires a $200 per student restricted tuition account to be included in the January 2004 tuition rate. Excluded from this rate increase will be all part-time graduate students.
2. Create desperately needed new faculty positions.
3. Strengthens faculty development and academic operating budgets.
4. Provides resources to ensure academic / instructional spaces are renovated to best support teaching and learning (aesthetically, technologically, pedagogically, and functionally).
5. Includes dollars to achieve space expansion on South Campus to include additional parking; property acquisitions; and new and renovated building space. Requires a proposed $7.056 million agency bond.
6. Includes debt coverage to create success center in DUC ($7 million agency bond approved by General Assembly in Spring 2003). Phase II will feature a major new student success component utilizing the 4th floor of DUC.
   
   

I. Faculty Staffing / Recruitment / Retention ($2,085,000)

Faculty composition (F '03): = 829 FTEF (full-time equalivant faculty)
Distribution of faculty positions in FTE (full-time equivalency):

Full time (includes instructors) 647 = 78% (should be (85-88%)
N 647 (18 are temporary)
498 are tenured / tenure track = 60% (should be nearer to 72-75%)
149 are other FTF = 18%
(instructors, visiting-faculty, faculty in residence
182 FTEF are part time = 22% (should be 12-15%)
SFR: now 19.1; was 16.5:1)

1. Begin to retore essential balance to faculty composition (e.g., full-time regular / instructors / full-time temporary/part-time).

• Create 20 NEW faculty positions in academic disciplines hardest hit by unfunded growth. - 1,136,000
  
  

2. Reduce excessive use of part-time faculty by converting part-time faculty to 10 FT regular faculty positions. (Results
in FTF teaching approximate 90 classes annually now taught by PTF.) - 424,000

3. Enhance ability to recruit and retain all faculty.

• Increase current level of professional development / travel / support dollars for faculty in all academic departments and programs by 50%. - 152,000
  
  

4. Fund budget for faculty recruitment / support (currently budgeted @ 61,732; requires 178,068) 117,000

5. Reinforce operating budgets of academic departments to offset diluting effect of unfunded growth – Increase in (non-personnel) operating budgets for 43 academic departments and nine interdisciplinary programs (+17%) 256,000

Future Commitment: The importance of increasing faculty salaries to compare more favorably with our national benchmark institutions and the competitive marketplace is absolutely essential and a highest priority. However, increases in faculty and / or staff compensation have not been included in this proposal that focuses on "Student Success and Academic Quality." It is obvious that faculty quality is critical to academic quality; however, it is assumed that enhancements in compensation will continue to be addressed as possible within the annual budgeting cycle.

Currently, in 2002-03, the amount required to achieve benchmark median for faculty salaries would have been $2,073,900. A five-year plan, assuming inflationary increases during that time, would require approximately $500,000 annually in benchmark adjustment dollars just to reach the benchmark median. This would also assume that annual salary increases keep pace with the benchmark averages.

These specific strategic planning Goals and Performance Indicators will be addressed in

Proposal Section I - FACULTY STAFFING/RECRUITMENT/RETENTION

Goal 1: Increase student learning.
Promote learning that fully develops individual potential and produces graduates who can successfully live, work, and contribute to society in a global context.

1h Restore student/faculty ratio to at least 17:1 to reduce disproportionate faculty loading due to recent accelerated growth.

Goal 2: Develop the student population.
Attract, retain, and graduate an increasingly diverse, academically talented, and achievement-oriented student population.

2b Implement an enrollment management plan that accommodates growth and maintains commitment to high quality education through ensuring that resources needed to hire additional full-time faculty members are identified and secured.

Goal 3: Assure high quality faculty and staff.
Attract, retain, and support high-quality faculty and staff.

3b Increase faculty development resources, including annual increases that result in doubling of faculty travel budget lines by 2006.

3h Identify strategies and incentives needed to recruit and retain high-quality faculty and provide adequate funding to support incentives.

Goal 5: Improve institutional effectiveness.
Commit to continuous improvement of institutional effectiveness and efficiency in all programs and services.

5f Achieve tier 1 ranking in the category Southern Universities - Master's in the annual U.S. News and World Report survey by 2008.

II. Academic Support / Student Success $1,957,000

1. Create and expand programs / initiatives that enhance the academic challenge, support student engagement, and add value to the WKU degree. (1,300,000)

• Create Student Success Center in DUC dedicated 600,000 to student success and engagement (Supports previously authorized but yet unfunded $7 million agency bond). Student Success Center to include:
  • An expanded Career Planning Services Center
  • A Student Engagement Center
  • The Learning Center - academic tutors, mentoring, and advising
  • The Help Center - offering peer mentoring and advising
  • Office of Diversity Programs
  • Support site for non-traditional students
  • A Computer Help Lab
  • Student Media Assistance Center
  • Work areas for student projects
  • Other student advisement support services
• Provide academic (space and staff) support in college / programs 300,000 to expand opportunities for student success / enhanced retention and graduation - e.g., tutoring, mentoring, advising, equipment, staff, programming, assessment.
  
  
• Enhance budget for Honors Program 100,000
  • Create a stand-alone Director's position
  • Enhance funding for:
    • Study Abroad for Honors' students
    • Research Enhancement
    • Outstanding Thesis Award
    • Honors Program Lecture Series
    • Promotion
    • Programming for Honors Residence Hall
      
      
• Expand staffing and programmatic support for 300,000 initiatives that provide opportunities for student engagement and enhanced student learning at both on- and off-campus sites. Includes initiatives / programs such as:
  • Civic engagement - American Democracy Project (ADP)
  • Leadership Development
  • "Quality Enhancement Plan" (QEP)
  • Serving learning / volunteernism
  • American Humanics
  • Global Scholars / internationalization / study abroad
  • Applied Research
  • Learning Communities
  • Diversity Enhancement
  • Non-traditional Student Programs
  • Career Services
  • Internships
    
    

2. Increase capacity to recruit and retain outstanding graduate students - (350,000)

• Increase GA stipends by $1,400 (to $7,800 each) - 280,000
• Support for graduate student recruitment and retention - 70,000
• Freeze part-time graduate tuition -0-
  
  

3. Provide additional targeted student scholarships and need-based student financial support. ($307,000)

· Targeted scholarships (music/performing arts/forensics) 65,000
· Student worker funds 57,000
· Leadership scholarships (one-time)(25 x $1,000-ACT 22-26) 25,000
· Need-based, highly qualified student scholarships target counties (ACT 24-27) 100,000
· Funding for scholarships in POD disciplines 60,000

These specific strategic planning Goals and Performance Indicators will be addressed in Proposal Section II - ACADEMIC SUPPORT/STUDENT SUCCESS:

Goal 1: Increase student learning.
Promote learning that fully develops individual potential and produces graduates who can successfully live, work, and contribute to society in a global context.

1d Inventory international and culturally diverse learning experiences and use data to set specific targets for curricular and extracurricular involvement that increase students' global understanding.

1e Inventory student engagement in experiences that enhance education (e.g., internships, leadership experiences, community service, undergraduate research, cultural events) and set targets for increased student participation based on survey data.

1i Implement fully articulated "Placement for Success" program and assess its effectiveness in enhancing successful student learning.

Goal 2: Develop the student population.
Attract, retain, and graduate an increasingly diverse, academically talented, and achievement-oriented student population.

2b Implement an enrollment management plan that accommodates growth and maintains commitment to high quality education through ensuring that resources needed to hire additional full-time faculty members are identified and secured.

2d Increase retention rate (three-year rolling average) of first-time, full-time freshmen (FTFTF) to 71.5.

2e Increase graduation rates as reflected in

• increasing six-year graduation rate from 40.5 percent to 44.4 percent, consistent with state CPE goals.
• increasing five-year graduation rate (three-year rolling average) of transfers to 62.6 percent
  

2g Provide competitive support (assistantship stipends, tuition waivers, or grants) at least equal to those of benchmark institutions in order to increase the number of high-quality graduate students.

2i Increase student capacity to utilize technology through establishing on-line tutorials and training opportunities.

III. Academic Learning Environments - ($1,805,000)

Renovate / update / create classrooms, instructional labs and teaching / learning work stations to support positive environment
for teaching and learning, including utilization of the potential of instructional technology.

1. Instructional Equipment - new and replacement - Maintenance contracts 200,000

2. Renovation / upgrading / expansion to meet selected programmatic needs. Including Information Technology.

• Renovate main campus classrooms / instructional labs and Clinical areas / student / faculty work areas / spaces
  for collaborative projects / instructional work stations / extended campus areas / research support areas / "smart" classrooms 500,000
• Instructional technology support and enhancement, including support for departmental computer labs / technology infrastructure 500,000
  
  

3. Alleviate crowded conditions and satisfy space needs in most critical growth area - expansion / support of South Campus space, parking, and improved access (7,056,000 agency bond) 605,000

• Property acquisition - ( 600,000)
• Parking expansion - (1,844,539)
• Connecting roads - ( 129,663)
• South Campus renovation:
  • Enclose Courtyard (1,190,567)
  • build one-story addition to existing campus building
  • 12.600 SF (2,291,231)
  • Include food service area (1,000,000)
  • Total (4,481,798)
    
    

These specific strategic planning Goals and Performance Indicators will be addressed in Proposal Section III - ACADEMIC LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS:

Goal 1: Increase student learning.
Promote learning that fully develops individual potential and produces graduates who can successfully live, work, and contribute to society in a global context.

Goal 2: Develop the student population.
Attract, retain, and graduate an increasingly diverse, academically talented, and achievement-oriented student population.

2d Increase retention rate (three-year rolling average) of first-time, full-time freshmen (FTFTF) to 71.5

2e Increase graduation rates as reflected in

- increasing six-year graduation rate from 40.5 percent to 44.4 percent, consistent with state CPE goals.

- increasing five-year graduation rate (three-year rolling average) of transfers to 62.6 percent.

2i Increase student capacity to utilize technology through establishing on-line tutorials and training opportunities.

Goal 4: Enhance responsiveness to constituents.
Respond to educational, social, cultural, and economic development needs through increased outreach, applied scholarship, service, and innovative opportunities for lifelong learning.

4i Implement a coordinated academic structure that increases faculty engagement with economic development initiatives and expands responsiveness to serving needs of community constituencies in such areas as continuing education, training, distance learning, applied research and technology, and other outreach areas.

4j Develop plans that provide maximum opportunities and support for the Bowling Green Community College to meet the needs of the community and region.

Goal 5: Improve institutional effectiveness.
Commit to continuous improvement of institutional effectiveness and efficiency in all programs and services.

5f Achieve tier 1 ranking in the category Southern Universities - Master's in the annual U.S. News and World Report survey by 2008.