Many students from Bowling Green High School choose to attend Western Kentucky University because it is close to home and well-known for many majors. For years, WKU has been struggling with budget problems, and over the past couple of years, university administrators have started implementing new solutions.
The university plans to cut approximately 29 million dollars out of a budget of 388,419,000 dollars. The first part of the plan cut 120 positions and saved about 15 million dollars, and the second round of cuts eliminated 30 positions, which cut 14 million dollars out of the budget.
While he has ordered and approved many cuts, President Timothy Caboni says he is not willing to eliminate anything that will negatively affect education at WKU.
“The core tenets we followed were to protect campus units most closely associated with student recruitment, enrollment and success,” says President Caboni in an article for the university newspaper, the WKU Herald.
President Caboni has raised the requirements needed to attend WKU, so any prospective student needs a 2.0 unweighted GPA. He has also raised the tuition to 9,482 dollars in-state and 24,132 dollars out-of-state. Because of the new requirements, less students will be accepted into WKU; since WKU will have fewer students, their budget could decrease because there is less revenue coming in.
A group of university administrators, including Dr. Daniel Super and Dr. Pamela Petty, created a program to keep student retention high, specifically among freshmen. Their program, Freshman Guided Pathways, aims to support students as they navigate through their first year of college. The program will begin Fall 2018 with around 50 students participating, but the organizers hope the numbers of participants will increase each year.
“Students often come here, and they are not ready for the academic expectations both by volume and by expectations of rigor compared to high school,” says Dr. Super.
Volunteer faculty and staff will make up teams that Dr. Super says will ensure that the participating freshman have someone to rely on, an opportunity to earn academic performance scholarships. Additionally, WKU employees get to form relationships with students.
“We have the presence of a bunch of people who are doing this by a way of volunteerism. It’s WKU faculty, administrators, and staff who say, ‘I want to be more involved in the lives of students, but maybe my job position doesn’t allow me to do that at all.’” says Dr. Super.
He believes that Freshman Guided Pathways will hold the students accountable and prevent them from falling behind through a variety of supports like mandatory study hours. Requiring students to focus on academics alongside building relationships ensures that these students will find success throughout college.
By Addison Kolzow
The university plans to cut approximately 29 million dollars out of a budget of 388,419,000 dollars. The first part of the plan cut 120 positions and saved about 15 million dollars, and the second round of cuts eliminated 30 positions, which cut 14 million dollars out of the budget.
While he has ordered and approved many cuts, President Timothy Caboni says he is not willing to eliminate anything that will negatively affect education at WKU.
“The core tenets we followed were to protect campus units most closely associated with student recruitment, enrollment and success,” says President Caboni in an article for the university newspaper, the WKU Herald.
President Caboni has raised the requirements needed to attend WKU, so any prospective student needs a 2.0 unweighted GPA. He has also raised the tuition to 9,482 dollars in-state and 24,132 dollars out-of-state. Because of the new requirements, less students will be accepted into WKU; since WKU will have fewer students, their budget could decrease because there is less revenue coming in.
A group of university administrators, including Dr. Daniel Super and Dr. Pamela Petty, created a program to keep student retention high, specifically among freshmen. Their program, Freshman Guided Pathways, aims to support students as they navigate through their first year of college. The program will begin Fall 2018 with around 50 students participating, but the organizers hope the numbers of participants will increase each year.
“Students often come here, and they are not ready for the academic expectations both by volume and by expectations of rigor compared to high school,” says Dr. Super.
Volunteer faculty and staff will make up teams that Dr. Super says will ensure that the participating freshman have someone to rely on, an opportunity to earn academic performance scholarships. Additionally, WKU employees get to form relationships with students.
“We have the presence of a bunch of people who are doing this by a way of volunteerism. It’s WKU faculty, administrators, and staff who say, ‘I want to be more involved in the lives of students, but maybe my job position doesn’t allow me to do that at all.’” says Dr. Super.
He believes that Freshman Guided Pathways will hold the students accountable and prevent them from falling behind through a variety of supports like mandatory study hours. Requiring students to focus on academics alongside building relationships ensures that these students will find success throughout college.
By Addison Kolzow