WKU News

Dear Colleagues,

Last weekend we welcomed hundreds of our students’ family members and friends to campus for Parent and Family Weekend. Many of our guests stopped me to express appreciation for WKU’s efforts to support the well-being and success of their students. As I reiterated at Faculty and Staff Convocation last month, it doesn’t matter our role at the university. We each have one job – to ensure every student we enroll succeeds and ultimately graduates. I would like to thank all those who led and participated in the weekend’s activities, using this important opportunity to demonstrate our commitment to our Hilltoppers’ families and thank them for the trust they place in us to care for their students.

Engaging families remains critical to our recruitment efforts, and all of us play a part in this endeavor. Your experiences prove invaluable to prospective students and their families as they consider WKU as their destination for college. Your willingness to share insights can make a profound difference in their decision-making process, helping them understand the unparalleled opportunities awaiting them at WKU. Thank you for building and maintaining relationships with our students and their families throughout the entirety of their WKU Experience, beginning with recruitment.

That WKU Experience is defined by engagement both inside and outside the classroom. We strive to create myriad opportunities for students, faculty and staff to engage in ways that are interesting and important to them. To that end, I am delighted to announce the WKU Presidential Speaker Series, a platform to bring leaders, visionaries and innovators to campus to share their experiences and perspectives. Through this series, we will cover a wide range of topics spanning multiple disciplines - generating thought-provoking dialogue, fostering curiosity, supporting intellectual growth and inspiring our Hilltopper community.

Our inaugural Presidential Speaker Series event will take place October 10 at 7 pm CT in Van Meter Auditorium as we welcome Dr. Robert Ballard to campus. One of the world’s most accomplished deep-sea explorers, Dr. Ballard is undoubtedly best known for discovering the wreck of the Titanic in 1985, whose whereabouts previously remained unknown for 73 years. He also led the discoveries of the German battleship, Bismarck, the aircraft carrier, USS Yorktown and John F. Kennedy’s PT-109. His work has garnered distinctions from the National Geographic Society and the Explorers Club, and in 2003, President George W. Bush presented him with the National Endowment for the Humanities Medal. More information about the series can be found here.

Please plan to join me October 10 as we launch the new Presidential Speaker Series.

Go Tops!

Best,

Timothy C. Caboni