NOTE: This report has been updated with additional photos since it was originally posted.
By Melinda J. Overstreet / Glasgow News 1
A new early college program is slated to begin in fall 2023 at Western Kentucky University Glasgow, allowing college-ready high school students to take courses at the campus here alongside current WKU students.
President Timothy Caboni announced the plan Thursday during the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the current WKU-G campus along Hilltopper Way. The early college students can earn 15 credit hours in their high-school junior year and another 15 during their senior year.
The selected students will take general education and profession-specific courses in the morning and return for their high school work each afternoon at Allen County-Scottsville, Barren County, Caverna, Glasgow, Hart County, Metcalfe County and Monroe County.
“What this means is that the students in this program will graduate from high school not only celebrating their high school achievements, but also celebrating the completion of one full year of WKU coursework at graduation,” he said. “As they immerse themselves into one of five designated professional career tracks – and [Judge-Executive] Micheal Hale and I discussed this five years ago; I’m really proud of this first one – agriculture, business management, crime and legal studies, education or nursing, they will participate in a couple of field trips each semester as well.”
One of those will be with professionals on-site in their areas of study and one at the main campus to engage with their professors and student colleagues.
“We are not only providing students in this area with a head start, we’re providing them with the right start,” Caboni said. “We carefully crafted this program to maximize Kentucky dual credit and work-ready scholarships.”
He said initiatives like this don’t happen without the partnerships of many, and he expressed appreciation for all those who worked to take it from a vision to a reality.
“The future is truly bright at WKU-Glasgow, and I look forward to celebrating many more successes and milestones in the years to come,” Caboni said.
Rob Hale, associate provost, then provided a few additional details about the early college program, including some of the course names, which he believes will be a boon to the area.
Parent nights have already been scheduled at each of the seven participating high schools in the next two months for sophomores and interested first-year students and their families can learn more and begin the application process. See below for the event details at each school.
With that, Derick Strode, director of WKU regional campuses, who had been first on the program, returned to the podium saying he was glad to have the news released and “recruitment begins today.”
He said he learned right away after starting in this role that the WKU-G staff have a huge amount of Hilltopper pride and specifically pride in this campus, its students, its history and its role in the area.
“And I learned that this staff has moxie,” Strode said. “They are ambitious and aspirational, and they have challenged me for what our campus can achieve.”
Derick Strode, director of Western Kentucky University regional campuses, and Crystal Nuckols, coordinator of student services and outreach at WKU-Glasgow, listen to a speaker during the 20th anniversary celebration of the current WKU-G campus Thursday. The pair had been schoolmates at Caverna Elementary School. Melinda J. Overstreet / Glasgow News 1
He introduced Crystal Nuckols, coordinator of student services and outreach for WKU-G. Strode and Nuckols were schoolmates at Caverna Elementary in the mid-1980s, he said, and he has enjoyed reconnecting with her as a colleague. Nuckols is a WKU-G graduate who has worked professionally at its current campus for most of its existence.
She recalled her own student journey at WKU-G at the Liberty Street campus, where she was encouraged as a senior at Caverna High School to go to college, which had not been in her plans, and she was walked through the admissions process. They were able to get her schedule arranged in such a way that she could attend full time and still hold a job.
“This was the first time I experienced how personalized the WKU-Glasgow college experience was, something I would later start seeing as the hallmark of Glasgow,” Nuckols said.
She remembers that one of the challenges at the Liberty Street campus was that the instructors had to speak especially loudly to be heard over all the old window-unit air conditioners, and how hot it still was even though they were blowing full force.
When the new campus opened, she appreciated simply that the instructors could speak at a normal volume.
That fall, she had her first child – now a WKU junior – and was trying to balance taking care of a baby full-time school and full-time work in Horse Cave. She thought she might have to put school on hold, but the staff at the campus intervened again, and she landed a student employment position. After her graduation, she had one other job before landing an advisor position at WKU-G in April 2006 and she’s been there ever since.
“We are are family here at WKU in Glasgow,” Nuckols said. “I love what I do because I want to be like the influential people who helped me along my journey.”
Next up was Kristen Bale, who was WKU Board of Regents chair when the Hilltopper Way campus was constructed and then opened Jan. 25, 2002.
Kristen Bale, who chaired the Western Kentucky University Board of Regents during its construction, speaks at the 20th anniversary celebration of the current WKU-Glasgow campus Thursday. Melinda J. Overstreet / Glasgow News 1
She spoke of the history of the teaching school that started in Glasgow, moved to Bowling Green and became Western Kentucky University; the opening of the Liberty Street campus and the work of the Glasgow-Barren County Business & Professional Women’s Club to raise funds to create a library there in 1990; and the need for the move to a newer facility.
David and Betty Ross Bailey donated most of the land at what became the current campus, Bale said.
Fall 2002, the enrollment was around 1,500 students; in 2010, at its peak, it served 2,747 students.
The past decade have brought challenges to postsecondary education have led to a reduced number of students. Still, programs in criminology, elementary and middle-grades education, professional legal studies, public health and sociology can be completed in full at the Glasgow campus, she said.
She introduced the current chairman of the WKU Board of Regents Phillip Bale, a Glasgow physician, “also known as my husband.”
Phillip Bale, chairman of the Western Kentucky University Board of Regents, speaks at the 20th anniversary celebration of the current WKU-Glasgow campus Thursday. Melinda J. Overstreet / Glasgow News 1
He said they want to build back some of those numbers she mentioned, and a plan is in place to reinvigorate and revitalize the campus. He focused on the state of postsecondary education, some of the profound changes that have affected it and some of the challenges.
“In spite of that, there’s plenty of good news,” Phillip Bale said, adding later, “Let me assure everybody, Western is in great shape.”
It was Phillip Bale who introduced Caboni, who said it was an important day in the institution’s history.
“Dr. Caboni is a tireless worker. He’s a bold visionary, and he is very strategic in everything he does, and especially his statements. He’s got a sense of humor, which has taken him through these tough five years. He’s gritty, and he dares to imagine,” Bale said.
Caboni said he is always impressed with what he sees at the campus here, as he thanked those who work there every day.
“For nearly a century and a half, WKU and the greater Glasgow region have been synonymous,” he said. “In fact, our institution — as you heard and as we know it today — traces its origins right here to Glasgow and the greater Barren County region with the establishment of the Glasgow Normal School in 1875. While the school relocated to Bowling Green, our commitment to this region has never wavered. In 1988, we officially established WKU’s Glasgow campus through leased property on Liberty Street. After nearly a decade, we broke ground here at our present location. In 2002, WKU dedicated this remarkable facility.”
WKU-G’s unique offerings are tailored to serve people in Barren County and other rural counties to the east, making it the university’s “front door to thousands of students and beyond,” Caboni said. “It plays a critical role in helping our institution fulfill its mission of serving the 14 counties in our eastern service region, and for many placebound individuals, it’s provided access to a WKU degree that otherwise would not have existed.”
He said the campus also helps strengthen the university’s relationship with Southcentral Kentucky Community & Technical College, because it serves as the home to some of SKYCTC-Glasgow’s technical programs.
“While our ultimate goal is for all students in our service region to earn a four-year degree, we realize that for some, beginning at SKY and transferring to WKU may be the most achievable path to a WKU degree. We’re thankful for SKYCTC’s continued collaboration,” Caboni said.
Others at the podium had spoken more about where WKU-G had been as its tremendous accomplishments are celebrated, he said, but he turned his attention to where it’s going next because that is even more exciting.
“We remain focused on an aggressive strategy to grow enrollment by targeting local students who would not otherwise attend college as well as those students who believe the cost of college is beyond their reach,” Caboni said.
The plan involves doubling the WKU presence at local high schools, working to ensure that students and their families understand all the options for attending the university at this facility, at the main campus in Bowling Green or online.
“The challenge for us remains clear. The data reflect that nearly half of the students from the seven high schools closest to our WKU-Glasgow campus are choosing not to attend college anywhere, with many of those students citing financial concerns as the primary reason,” Caboni said. “WKU is an institution of access and of opportunity, which is why we created our Hilltopper Guarantee Scholarship. Any student who qualifies for any amount of Pell grant assistance and who has a 3.0 GPA can attend WKU tuition free.”
With 53 percent of the graduates from those seven high schools closest to WKU-G qualifying for Pell grant assistance, that guarantee provides an extraordinary opportunity for young people to continue their educations, he said, but “we must continue opening even more doors. We must rethink. We must reimagine, so that even more students can learn with us.”
With that, he announced the early college program.
Early College Recruitment Events include:
Barren County and Glasgow high schools students – 5:30 p.m. Nov. 21, Room 131 at WKU-G
(Barren County contact is Angie White; Glasgow’s is Lorie Bunch)
Caverna High School students – 5 p.m. Nov. 29, CHS Library
(Point of contact is Lestaye Perry)
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