BOWLING GREEN Ky.
Western Kentucky University president Gary Ransdell unveiled a wide-ranging plan on Friday designed to help one of the state’s largest schools shed its “regional” label.
The five-year plan, dubbed “Challenging the Spirit” is designed to make the school “a leading American university with international reach,” Ransdell said.
“Achievement throughout this plan is entirely up to us,” President Gary Ransdell said in a speech Friday morning to faculty and staff. “Any bold vision or organizational intent starts with talented people who have the heart, the intellect, the energy and the passion to achieve.”
Progress will come at a price. The plan calls for a 6 percent tuition increase each year starting in 2008-09.
The plan lays out several benchmarks the school hopes to achieve by 2012, including expanding the student body by over a thousand students, raising salaries for faculty and staff and increasing the number of National Merit scholars to 15.
“You want something to be a stretch, and you want it to be important, but you want it to be doable,” Ransdell said. “Some may seem pretty modest, but none of them can be approached in a vacuum. We’ll be pursuing all of them.”
