WKU's Prez wants open talk abput move to 1-A

Killtoppers90 — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 14:06:18 GMT

Ransdell addresses critics
WKU to hold forums on move to I-A football
By BRIAN WHITE, The Daily News, bwhite@bgdailynews.com/783-3243
Thursday, August 17, 2006 1:30 PM CDT

The president of Western Kentucky University addressed criticism of his focus on fundraising and construction and described plans for the future this morning at his annual speech to faculty and staff.

The university has $541 million in current and ongoing construction projects, both at the school's main campus in Bowling Green and at satellite campuses in Owensboro, Elizabethtown and Franklin, President Gary Ransdell said.

And since he began as president in 1997, the school's endowment has grown dramatically, up to $86 million as of June 30 this year.

Ransdell said his emphasis on those areas had drawn criticism from some faculty and staff who have said that “the job of president involves more than just raising money and building buildings.”

“I have thought a lot about that statement,” Ransdell said to a mostly packed Van Meter Auditorium. “It is true to a degree, but, to get to the heart of the job description, I would add three things. Defining and sustaining a vision for the university, leading a strategic plan and dealing with internal and external politics.”

But in the end, “it will indeed come down to raising public and private money and building and renovating buildings,” he said.

“If I am not doing those two things, then I am not playing to my strengths, and WKU is not getting its money's worth,” Ransdell said.

Raising money allows Western to pursue its goals, fund the work of the faculty and improve what the campus offers in terms of facilities and resources, he said. It is the president who can raise the funds and support for a university to be better, Ransdell said.

“I cannot, however, help you teach and conduct research in your respective disciplines,” he said. “I cannot personally strengthen our academic quality. It is my job to ensure that we have a campus capable and an environment suitable enough for you to build a strong academic community. It is you who will achieve our vision.”

Ransdell asked the employees to “trust me to do what I do well. I am going to trust you to do what you do well.”

In addition to continuing construction, Western will have discussions about the football program and put an emphasis both on academic programs for highly talented students and on programs that serve the community, Ransdell said.

[highlight=#ffff11]For several years, there has been some talk about Western's football program upgrading from Division I-AA to I-A, the most challenging level of college football.

“This is an important matter which warrants an open, objective campus dialogue,” Ransdell said. “I will conduct several forums this fall devoted to this discussion.”[/highlight]

The university's honors program is preparing for a major expansion in size and mission, he said. Honors Director Craig Cobane is examining ways to do this, so that the program will be “capable of attracting many of our state's and our nation's best students,” Ransdell said.

Cobane is studying other programs and what lies in the future for honors students, Ransdell said.

“Like Wayne Gretzky skated to where the puck will be, I want Craig to anticipate where the best honors programs will be in 10 years and move us in that direction,” Ransdell said.

It is important that research done at Western be used to serve the community, Ransdell said. This is done both through commercialization of some areas and in meeting needs that are not traditionally well-served in rural communities, he said.

Some of Western's science researchers are using their disciplines to sell services like power-plant emissions monitoring to companies in the region, rather than simply doing research in a lab. This is important as a revenue source, as a teaching tool for students and as a way for Western to contribute to regional development, Ransdell said.

“We are learning more and more how to take existing knowledge in our classrooms and laboratories and apply it to the identification and solving of the problems of those people and in those communities,” he said.

Western also provides free services, mainly in health care, to the region through the newly opened Clinical Education Complex - a center for treatment of mental and physical disabilities in children - and through the school's rural mobile health units, which provide health and dental screenings around the area.

Both programs will be receiving additional funding to extend their reach, Ransdell said.

Western must think big to achieve its goals, Ransdell said, and become what is described in the university's slogan: “A leading American university with international reach.”

“Martin Luther King did not proclaim that ‘I have a plan,” Ransdell said. “He said, ‘I have a dream.' Our dreams our modest compared to his. They may not change the course of humankind, but they will change the course of a university.”

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WKU's Prez wants open talk abput move to 1-A