Bowling Green, Ky. - President Gary Ransdell challenged faculty and staff to achieve a bold new vision that will transform Western Kentucky University into “a leading American university with international reach.”

“Those seven words now drive me and those who genuinely believe that this university is both poised and capable of achieving national prominence and incorporating an international context into the fabric of our curriculum and our influence,” Dr. Ransdell said Thursday morning at WKU’s Opening Convocation at Van Meter Hall. “Those words do not suggest that we will become ‘the’ leading American university, nor do they suggest that we will become internationally prominent. They do suggest we will achieve enough national distinction in enough areas to be recognized among our nation’s leading universities, and we will become engaged across the globe enough to document a legitimate international context in our teaching, research and service.”

Dr. Ransdell listed several examples of WKU academic programs attaining or maintaining national and international prominence. In the past year, WKU’s forensics team swept major national and international competitions for the third time in four years; the School of Journalism and Broadcasting placed third in the Hearst awards program, its eighth consecutive top four national finish; the Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) organization finished second in a national entrepreneurship competition in just its second year; civil engineering program finished eighth in the national concrete canoe competition, its sixth top 10 finish in seven years.

WKU’s transformation from a university of regional importance to one of national prominence starts with an optimistic attitude and is fueled by an entrepreneurial spirit, he said. “Only those who risk going too far will ever know how far they can really go,” Dr. Ransdell said. “We have grown comfortable with risk because we have seen the rewards. We have grown comfortable with the boldness we share because we have tasted just enough national success to like its flavor.”

Dr. Ransdell said strategic priorities in completing the transformation include strengthening WKU’s academic quality and nurturing a stable and thriving enrollment profile. Other goals include hiring talented faculty members, attracting high-caliber students, increasing sponsored research, pursuing private gifts and federal funding, expanding the Honors Program and Study Abroad opportunities, opening the Kentucky Academy of Mathematics and Science, boosting the technological capacity across campus, rebuilding campus facilities, enhancing programs at regional campuses, and applying relevant research to solve problems.

“WKU’s first 100 years was shaped by marvelous characters and talented men and women who built our traditions, nurtured our values, and gave us something grand on which to build—teachers and scientists, thinkers and entrepreneurs, and dreamers who were also doers. 

“So now we find ourselves on the eve of our second century.  We find ourselves responding to a governing board that is not satisfied to be what we once were.  We find ourselves in a competitive environment in which complacency means decline and slow to react means lost opportunity.  By being an entrepreneurial university, however, we depend upon seized opportunities and responding quickly and efficiently to change and to challenge.  We depend upon each other to define and redefine ourselves and our strategic agenda.  We owe it to each other to be a leading American university with international reach.  Kentuckians and Americans and people of other cultures in other lands depend upon us to improve the quality of their lives.”


Diversity awards
Recipients of the sixth annual President’s Award for Diversity were C.J. Woods, employee; Michelle Bell, student or organization; and Linda McCray, community. Each recipient represents a clear demonstration of exemplary leadership and achievement in promoting diversity at WKU and the communities it serves.
Woods, director of Diversity Programs and coordinator of Judicial Affairs, has been involved in minority student recruitment, retention and programming as well as encouraging minority students’ academic preparedness and personal growth. He is the WKU representative to the Committee on Equal Opportunities (CEO) for the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education; serves as the chairperson of the Diversity Enhancement Committee and a member of the Kentucky Plan Task Force; co-coordinates the CADET program (Creating a Diverse Education Team) with Warren County Schools to promote diversity in teaching; served as the 2005 Chairman for the WKU United Way Campaign; and serves the community on numerous boards.

Bell, a junior from Fort Campbell, is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in corporate and organizational communication with a marketing minor and has consistently proven that she is dedicated to her community and diversity. She serves as president of the NAACP-WKU College Chapter, is a member of the Dynamic Leadership Institute, Black Student Alliance, Student Volunteer Bureau and other groups, and participated in disaster relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina.

McCray, executive director for the Bowling Green Human Rights Commission, has a long standing commitment to civil rights and equal opportunity. She has volunteered with the Networking Women, the Citizens Advisory Board for the Bowling Green Police Department, WKU, and the Southern Kentucky AIDS Awareness program; serves on the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Planning Committee, the NAACP’s executive committee and other groups.

Spirit of Western award
Dr. David Lee, dean of the Potter College of Arts and Letters and chair of WKU’s Centennial committee, received the fifth Spirit of Western Award, which recognizes an individual who represents enthusiasm for WKU, loyalty to the institution and principles of the Western experience and its motto “The Spirit Makes the Master.”

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For information, contact University Relations at (270) 745-5428.

-WKU-
"A leading American university with international reach"

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