November 26, 2007
Bowling
Green, Ky. - Western Kentucky University is looking for former students who left school before completing degrees.
WKU Finish will work in concert with Project Graduate, a statewide outreach effort to engage and graduate returning adult students. The first phase of the project, which is being coordinated by the Council on Postsecondary Education, will target former students who have earned 90 or more credit hours of undergraduate work without completing a bachelor’s degree.
“Education is key to economic well-being, both for the individual and for the Commonwealth,” WKU President Gary Ransdell said. “It is absolutely imperative that WKU, working in concert with CPE, give these adult students the opportunity and support to enable them to complete their baccalaureate degrees, and WKU Finish will do just that.”
Dean Kahler, assistant vice president for Enrollment Management, said WKU is providing several helpful resources to assist those who want to finish their degree programs, including a Web site, toll-free telephone number, and a special email address. Sam Starks will coordinate the program, which will include specialists who can work directly with students who want to finish their degrees.
“We realize that many former students may have exited college and now would like to finish their degree,” Dr. Kahler said. “We are very hopeful that barriers that prevented them from completing their degrees can be eliminated, or at the very least reduced, so that they can earn their bachelor’s degrees.”
Dr. Kahler said some students had already earned enough credits for a degree to apply for graduation. “Others may be very close to completing a degree in our bachelor’s of interdisciplinary studies program or some other degree,” he said.
On a statewide level, Project Graduate will focus on a target market of 310,000 adult students with some college in two phases. Phase I will focus on more than 11,000 adults who have earned 90 or more credit hours. CPE will coordinate a direct mail effort and media events while Kentucky’s postsecondary institutions will have response teams ready to assist adults with finding ways to complete degrees. About 2,100 of those adults have taken classes at WKU.
Starks said that good jobs are hard to find for those who do not have a college degree. “WKU Finish is set up to help former students who need that extra edge in the job market,” he said. “If students who are really interested in finishing their degree give us the opportunity to discuss ways in which we can assist them, then they will be on the right road to finish that degree and possibly go further.
“We have set in place real solutions to help these students overcome what they once considered a barrier to completing their bachelor’s degree.”
For more information on Project Graduate, contact Sue Patrick at the Council on Postsecondary Education, (502) 573-1555. To get more information on WKU Finish, call 1-877-WKU-GRAD, email wku.finish@wku.edu or visit http://www.wku.edu/wkufinish.
More WKU news is available at www.wku.edu. If you’d like to receive WKU news via e-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.
For more information, contact Dean Kahler or Sam Starks at (270) 745-6169.
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