Dr. Gary A. Ransdell was named the ninth president of Western Kentucky University on September 12, 1997.
Dr. Ransdell, 55, received his bachelor’s degree from WKU in 1973 in mass communications, a master of public service degree in public administration in 1974, and a doctor of education degree from Indiana University in 1978.
Dr. Ransdell joined WKU after serving four years as Vice President for Administration and Advancement and seven years as Vice President for Institutional Advancement at Clemson University in Clemson, South Carolina.
His previous professional experiences at WKU also include service as a field representative in the Office of University School Relations from 1974 to 1976 and as Associate Director of Alumni Affairs from 1978 to 1981.
Dr. Ransdell became Director of Alumni Relations at Southern Methodist University in 1981, a position he held until 1987 when he was named the Vice President at Clemson.
Dr. Ransdell and the WKU Board of Regents are leading the campus through a dramatic transformation from a university of regional importance to a leading American university with international reach. WKU has been the fastest growing university in Kentucky for nine straight years, with enrollment swelling from 14,500 to 18,700. The applicant pool has doubled to over 14,000 and student retention has grown from 67 percent to 76 percent.
A key element in the transformation of WKU is growth in private support. WKU completed its first capital campaign on June 30, 2003, with $102 million in gifts and pledges. A second campaign with a goal of $200 million will be launched in September 2007.
Another priority is a complete rebuilding of the WKU campus. Some $183 million in campus construction has been completed since 1998, $180 million is currently under way and $230 million more is scheduled to be completed by 2012.
Other measures of progress include a dramatic push in sponsored research, which has grown from $11 million to $31 million since 1998; growth in federal appropriations from $1 million to $15 million per year; significant progress in faculty/staff compensation; the growth of new degree programs in electrical, mechanical, and civil engineering; a new Division of Extended Learning and Outreach; and a new emphasis on the commercialization of intellectual property and the transfer of WKU technology to the Kentucky workplace; growth in the three WKU regional campuses in Glasgow, Owensboro, and Elizabethtown; the creation of the Kentucky Academy of Math and Science; Kentucky’s first federal research lab; Kentucky’s only Honors College, and expanded study abroad programs. True to its plan, Western has the largest number of distance-learning courses and the largest distance-learning enrollment among Kentucky’s eight universities.
WKU’s athletic programs have won three Sun Belt Conference all sports titles and has become the NCAA’s newest Division I-A football member under Dr. Ransdell’s leadership. He served as President of the Sun Belt Conference in 2000 and is currently serving the Conference Executive Committee.
Dr. Ransdell received the Outstanding Professional Award for Public Relations from the WKU Department of Journalism in 1997.
Dr. Ransdell has served on the Board of Directors of the Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce, and as the 1999 Chair of the Warren County United Way Campaign. In 2004, Dr. Ransdell completed a four-year appointment on the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB). Dr. Ransdell currently serves on the Local Advisory Board of BB&T and on the Board of the Louisville Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
Dr. Ransdell and his wife, Julie, met, dated, and were married while at WKU pursuing their undergraduate 
degrees. They have two sons—Patrick, 28, who graduated from WKU in 2002 and is the Assistant Director of Athletics at Coastal Carolina University, and Matthew, 24, who graduated from WKU in 2006, and is a second year law student at Stetson University. Both Patrick and Matthew were lettermen with the WKU baseball team. Patrick and Brooke (WKU ’04) were married in August 2004. The Ransdells are proud owners of two Labrador Retrievers named Topper and Spirit!
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Video of President Ransdell skydiving with the U.S. Army's Golden Knights Parachute Team at Ft. Knox, Ky., May 1, 2007 (Flash Player required) - Press Release - Photo Gallery