President Gary A. Ransdell

About WKU President Gary A. Ransdell

Dr. Gary A. Ransdell was named the ninth president of Western Kentucky University on September 12, 1997.

Dr. Ransdell, 60, 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 re-joined WKU as President 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 fourteen straight years, with enrollment swelling from 14,500 to 21,000. 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 was launched in September 2007, and $190 million of that goal has been raised. The “New Century of Spirit” campaign will be completed in 2012.

Another priority is a complete rebuilding of the WKU campus. Some $500 million in campus construction has been completed since 1998, and $200 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 annually to $30 million; the growth of new degree programs in electrical, mechanical, and civil engineering; a new emphasis on the commercialization of intellectual property and the transfer of WKU technology to the Kentucky workplace; growth of the three WKU regional campuses in Glasgow, Owensboro, and Elizabethtown/Ft. Knox; the creation of the Gatton Academy of Math and Science, which is now ranked by Newsweek as the fifth best high school in America; Kentucky’s only independent Honors College; expanded study abroad programs; and the state’s first Confucius Institute and only Chinese flagship program. True to its plan, WKU has the largest number of distance-learning courses and the largest distance-learning enrollment among Kentucky’s eight universities.

During Dr. Ransdell’s tenure, WKU’s athletic programs have won four Sun Belt Conference all-sports titles and has become the NCAA’s newest B.C.S. football program. He served as President of the Sun Belt Conference in 2000.

Dr. Ransdell has served on the Board of Directors of the Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce, the Board for the Inter-model Transportation Authority of South Central Kentucky, and has chaired 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 chairs 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, 33, who graduated from WKU in 2002, and earned MBA/Sports Administration degrees from Ohio University in 2005, and is the Senior Associate Athletic Director at UNC–Wilmington; and Matthew, 29, who graduated from WKU in 2006 and is a 2009 graduate of Stetson University School of Law, and is an attorney at Holland and Knight in Tampa, Florida. Both Patrick and Matthew were lettermen with the WKU baseball team.

Patrick and Brooke (WKU ’04) were married in August 2004, and are the parents of Walker Ransdell, WKU class of 2029! Julie and Gary are proud owners of a Labrador Retriever named Spirit!