WKU College Heights Herald - Sept. 5-Oct. 4, 2023

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VOLUME 99

ISSUE 1

Print edition published three times each semester by WKU Student Publications at Western Kentucky University.

First copy: free | Additional copies: $5

EDITORIAL BOARD

Alexandria Anderson

Editor-in-Chief

Emilee Arnold

Photo Editor

Debra Murray

Engagement Editor

Ella Galvin

Design Editor

Camden Bush

Sports Editor

Caroline Chubb

Video Producer

Molly Dobberstein

Content Editor

Rachel Campoy

Newsletter Editor

Price Wilborn

Commentary Editor

Emmy Libke

Social Media Editor

OTHER LEADERS AND ADVISERS

Emma Bayens

Bailey Brush

Cherry Creative Directors

Carrie Pratt

Herald Adviser

JT Steele

Advertising Manager

Wes Orange Advertising Adviser and Sales Manager

Chuck Clark Student Publications Director

POLICIES

Opinions expressed in the College Heights Herald are those of student editors and journalists and do not necessarily represent the views of WKU. Student editors determine all news and editorial content, and reserve the right to edit or reject submissions.

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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Hi everyone!

First of all, welcome back to the Hill – whether you’re a first-year student or a senior, you might notice it looks a little different. With construction finished at the Hilltop, and construction started at the bottom, campus is continually being reimagined. This idea, of innovation, change and advancement at WKU and in Bowling Green, is what the newsmagazine you’re holding will cover.

This also represents some transformation at the Herald. As social media has become the go-to place for news, and has made journalism more accessible, the Herald has followed suit. With updated Instagram post formats, more video content and stronger audience engagement, we hope our content reaches even further in our community. For daily news updates, be sure to follow us @wkuherald on all platforms and subscribe to our daily email newsletter.

We’re also always looking for new staff members – in news reporting, photography, videography, sports and commentary – whatever you’re passionate about. No matter your major, there’s a place for you!

I’m very excited to continue with our daily newsletter, digital content and two other print news magazines this semester, and for you to see what they bring to WKU and the whole of Bowling Green.

Enjoy this issue!

Sincerely,

Alexandria Anderson Editor-in-Chief

PHOTO BY CARRIE PRATT

THE HILL GOING FORWARD: CAMPUS CHANGES AND IMPROVEMENTS

By Molly Dobberstein

Students can expect to see many changes on the Hill this semester, with various construction projects completed and new ones breaking ground.

HISTORY OF THE HILL

The Hill became home to WKU in 1910 with the construction of Van Meter Hall. The hill of campus can be seen as a distinguishing feature, standing out in comparison to other universities.

In the beginning, WKU focused itself on the top of the hill, with additions of new buildings which expanded its programs and facilities, according to the WKU Campus Master Plan.

Beginning in the 1960s, campus began to spread down the hill and into the valley, across State Street to the science campus. This growth continued through the 70s, 80s and 90s, eventually becoming the campus students see today.

The WKU Campus Master Plan for 2021-2031, which began in 2020, outlines campus construction plans, future plans going past 2031 and includes building and site analyses. It serves as the basis in planning for construction efforts around campus.

The most recent project of this plan was the Commons at Helm Library, completed in April 2022, which reimagined the former Helm Library into a student-centered study and dining location. The com-

pletion of the Commons also came with the removal of the former Garrett Conference Center, which had been on campus since 1951.

Bryan Russell, chief facilities officer at WKU, said the plan for the Commons was to reinvision the facility as the welcome center, or a lighthouse for WKU.

HILLTOP PLANNING STUDY

One of the projects on campus that has been a work in progress is the Hilltop Planning Study, which reached completion at the start of this semester. This area is located where Garrett Conference Center was formerly located before it was torn down.

With the demolition of Garrett Conference Center and the construction of the Hilltop, the total cost for the project was roughly $5 million, Russell said.

With the newly completed Commons, the Hilltop location goes hand in hand. The Hilltop Planning Study “celebrates the history of the Hill and the original campus plan,” the WKU Campus Master Plan said.

The construction of this area had a number of main objectives. The plan evaluated and assessed both pedestrian and vehicle circulation opportunities, as well as provided new landscaping and new pathways to Cherry Hall and the top of the hill.

“It’s giving us the green space, and it’s going to be heavily wifi connected for our students,” Russell said. “It’s going to be a gathering space ... that area that we can move in and out of for the university.”

There are two main features of the Hilltop: the rotunda and the fountain. Additionally, the Hilltop was created to be accessible and barrier free, taking out steps when unnecessary and adding ADA

PHOTO BY EMILEE ARNOLD

Dramatic change came to WKU’s Hill in recent months as Garrett Conference Center was replaced with green space, walkways and panoramic views. Students coming down the Hill from Cherry Hall can take stairs or more accessible routes.

accessible crossings, Russell said.

The Hilltop Planning Study strikes a resemblance to the original plans for the university, which included buildings in a circular formation and large green spaces between.

“The ultimate goal there was to return the top of the hill to what President Cherry and our founding architects envisioned,” WKU President Timothy Caboni said.

Caboni explained the space is essentially an oval that offers individuals spaces to utilize at the top of the hill, to pause, sit and reflect and enhance community.

“I think we just continued to advance what is an important differentiator for us, that our hill is spectacular but it has to be purposeful as well,” Caboni said.

Alex Lahman, a senior architectural sciences major, explained the addition of green spaces like this on campus are incredibly important for students. Lahman explained one thing that interests her is biophilic design, which is incorporating natural materials, colors, patterns, textures and live plants into interior architecture specifically, and how it impacts an individual’s mental health.

“... One of my interests in archi-

tecture is mental health, and how we can use architecture to help people mentally,” Lahman said. “I think that green space is super important for anywhere and everyone’s mental health. Absolutely yes.”

REIMAGINING BUSINESS ON THE HILL

Students on campus may have noticed another new project at the bottom of the hill–the construction of the new Gordon Ford College of Business building.

The location of the new business college will be next to Jody Richards Hall, where the former Tate Page Hall stood. The Gordon Ford College of Business is currently housed within Grise Hall, which shares space with other programs.

“Per the 2020 classroom schedule, Grise Hall has the highest utilization of classroom minutes, yet has a “Poor” deferred maintenance rating, the lowest among teaching spaces on campus,” the WKU Campus Master Plan states.

Planning for the construction of a new business college has been in the works for a while.

“It has been almost 20 years since they’ve been talking about a new

college of business ... most of these projects have been in some form of planning and thought for over 10 years or more,” Russell said.

The new business college is expected to better prepare students, provide flexible classrooms, new technology and intentionally designed areas for team usage, WKU said.

Renderings are available online for the new space, and show a modern look, across from South Lawn.

“Creating a space where students have all they need to study, practice and engage with each other is critically important to us,” Evelyn Thrasher, interim dean of Gordon Ford College of Business, said.

The project is tentatively scheduled to be completed in Fall 2025, WKU said, with the intention to transform both undergraduate and graduate business education in the region.

The addition of the College of Business will add to the number of educational buildings further down the hill.

The funding of the new College of Business comes from funding approved by state legislatures in April 2022, providing $74.4 million from the 2022-2024 budget, WKU said.

“I think that it’s cool that there’s going to be something else at the

PHOTO PROVIDED BY WKU

A rendering of the new Gordon Ford College of Business set to complete in 2025.

bottom of the hill that’s similar to [the Commons],” Lahman said.

The renderings show the outside of the building to fit in with the rest of the buildings on campus, blending well, but the inside is very clean and modern, Lahman said.

The college itself is named after alumnus Gordon B. Ford, who gave the largest gift to the university in its history, thus the college will keep its title, WKU said.

CHERRY HALL RENOVATIONS

Cherry Hall is often the first academic building prospective or current students see when they come to campus, as it is a first stop on campus tours and holds history dating back to 1937.

Though the building is historic in its nature, it is in need of improvements in order to keep it usable for generations of Hilltoppers to come.

The Commonwealth of Kentucky authorized and provided funding for asset preservation which, when combined with other resources, adds up to $78 million, Russell said. $30 million of this funding was set aside to do renovation of Cherry Hall in the future.

As part of the master plan for campus, Cherry Hall was marked as one

of the major educational classroom buildings on campus and “is in need of a full renovation,” Russell said. “So far, we haven’t had our vision meeting. We haven’t met with the colleges yet.”

Architects have provided the university with an assessment of improvements that will need to be done to Cherry Hall, including heating and air, wifi, lighting and modernizing things like the restrooms, Russell said.

Caboni explained that he cares deeply about preserving architecture that has been on campus for a while, due to the fact that it is not affordable to construct buildings with marble like they were in the past.

“So what is non-negotiable are the marble stairs that have had the steps worn away by 117 years of Hilltoppers walking up them,” Caboni said.

Since Cherry Hall is such a notable building on campus, it is the university administration’s priority to keep the integrity and history of the building intact while doing renovations.

“This really is a reimagining of the interior space that makes it useful for another generation of Hilltoppers, but I’m also committed to ensuring that as much of the interior historic qualities of the building are retained,” he said.

GENERAL CAMPUS IMPROVEMENTS

There are many smaller projects that are also on the agenda of the 10 year master plan.

Students may have seen a section of State Street repaved, from the planetarium to the red wall in front of Raymond-Cravens Library, when they came back for this semester, Russell said. Additionally, there was a section of road behind Cherry Hall that was repaved as well.

Some buildings around campus, like Jody Richards Hall, received maintenance in the summer months, with a re-roofing of the building for about $1 million, Russell said.

Another aspect of campus that has seen some improvements have been the addition of a new locker room for the women’s soccer and softball teams.

The locker room is not yet completed and athletes have yet not seen it, Lillie-Anne Mulligan, associate director of athletic media relations and communications said. There will be a full ribbon cutting ceremony for the building once it is fully finished, Mulligan said.

Russell explained that before the construction of this locker room, female athletes had to get ready for

PHOTO BY EMILEE ARNOLD

WKU’s Hilltop Planning Study reimagined the top of the Hill, including areas near the Old Fort and the Kissing Bridge, where students frequently walk between classes. Here, a group passes near Fort Albert Sydney Johnston, an old Civil War fort atop the Hill.

games and practices off site, then go to the facility.

“This is going to be a big improvement for those two programs, which they deserve,” Russell said.

In addition to locker rooms, the athletic department has seen more improvements, like recoating the tennis courts, which is a $60,000 project, Russell said. There is also the potential to have a Hilltopper Field House, which will house the marching band, forensics team and e-sports.

Russell said they have been working on concepts and ideas for this space, but there is no official plan released yet.

The Campus Master Plan states that the main goals for the construction and renovations on campus are to overall “reinforce and celebrate the strengths of campus today,” “acceler-

ate campus community through open spaces” and to “manage program growth through optimized space.”

Some students, like Katarina Johnson, a senior theater major, have conflicting opinions on the construction that is occurring on campus.

“... I’ve been in so many classes where there’s been construction being done right outside the walls of the

building we’re in,” Johnson said. “... I’ve seen professors get clearly very upset with the fact that they have to talk over the sound of a jackhammer while they’re teaching.”

Johnson explained that the lack of parking on campus is another issue that frustrated her. “... I know a lot of commuter students who can’t get parking on campus ... there’s limited parking, where there could be parking is where we put all these green spaces.”

Russell said that the majority of smaller projects on campus are completed when students are not on campus, so there should be no major disruptions to student life on the Hill. While the College of Business will be under construction until roughly summer 2025, South Lawn will still be accessible, Russell said.

ContenteditorMollyDobberstein canbereachedatmolly.dobberstein519@topper.wku.edu.

PHOTO BY EMILEE ARNOLD

A new home for Gordon Ford College of Business is starting to come out of the ground near WKU’s South Lawn, on an area where Tate Page Hall once stood. Students pass the site every day traveling from the First Year Village dorms to classes up the Hill.

PHOTO BY EMILEE ARNOLD

New landscaping, sidewalks and stairways combine with open space to provide a more open walk approaching Henry Hardin Cherry Hall.

‘HERE, EVERYBODY’S IMPORTANT’

WKU INNOVATION CAMPUS RETHINKS BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

Story by Alexandria Anderson

In the old Bowling Green mall, which once connected to a call center and a Big Lots, nearly 50 businesses engage with each other and the community.

The renovated mall is the home of the WKU Innovation Campus, an economic and workforce development operation that provides an environment for meaningful business engagement.

Sam Ford, innovation and culture fellow at the Innovation Campus, described the campus as a part of the university that creates this meaningful engagement.

“Over time, the Innovation Campus and the concept will have multiple sides,” Ford said. “But the goal is: How does WKU leverage its resources for more meaningful engagement with the private sector in this region?”

DEVELOPMENT

Previously, the mall was renovated in 2001 to hold the WKU Center for Research and Development, which hosted various applied research labs and a multitude of company headquarters. This investment was supported by payments from the few remaining retail lease tenants and the call center.

Buddy Steen, former director of CRD and current CEO of the Innovation Campus, said the project to renovate the mall built a place where business tenants wanted to be.

“It was a pretty big project to take on,” Steen said. “It took us a couple of years to get it to where tenants wanted to be here. Companies wanted to be here. Once we were placed where corporations wanted to be, then it

Photos by Ian Pitchford

became pretty simple actually.”

As the program progressed and Steen left his role to pursue his own startup in Nashville, the overall concept for the research and development center shifted.

“Dr. (Timothy) Caboni founded this concept here, and the idea is to really turn what was the Center for Research and Development facility into a meaningful campus, that causes the university, that helps WKU become more meaningful to business,” Steen said.

This idea, now known as the Innovation Campus, was announced at Caboni’s 2018 investiture, in which he aimed to reinvent the CRD programs and existing facilities–and in turn, elevate the regional economy and bring innovative companies to Bowling

The WKU Innovation Campus is a hub that offers resources and services to established local and global businesses, as well as startups to have the space to run and build their businesses. Formerly known as the WKU Center for Research and Development, it is located in the renovated old Bowling Green mall.

Green.

“In the spring semester before I arrived, I visited with folks all across campus to learn about things that we were doing, and understood the research enterprise that was out on Nashville Road,” Caboni said. “And one of the first things I thought about was, what does it say about your research space when you share it with a Big Lots? It doesn’t send the right message. Then we also had a huge call center on the other side. So I came to understand the rental revenue play there, and that’s a different kind of operation than what we’re building today.”

BUILDING COMMUNITY

At the core of the Innovation Campus is its sense of collaboration, both in its development and function. Investment in the campus came from partnerships between WKU and the city of Bowling Green, the Bowling Green Chamber of Commerce and one of the six innovation hubs for the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development, the Central Region Ecosystem for Arts, Technology and Entrepreneurship, also known as CREATE.

“It really took us about five years, between when I announced it, and the momentum that we have today, to build that momentum, to deepen the

relationships and the trust across all the different players,” Caboni said.

In 2020, Steen was invited back to work as the executive-in-residence and then as CEO for the Innovation Campus. Building a collaborative business community has been the goal of the facility since its creation. Now, rather than focus on incubating new businesses, the goal is to recruit–and retain–national and international company headquarters and offices.

“It’s because if you create a community or have a community where people want to live and work, then you can recruit just about any company that you want,” Steen said.

Caboni described the goal of the campus is now to both build companies to keep them in Bowling Green and serve as a lighthouse to attract companies here. With this shift, more good jobs will be created and students will be more likely to continue here after graduation.

With the Innovation Campus as a distinct part of the university, opportunities for students will only increase. Students and faculty members will have chances to pursue research, as well as build ideas into company enterprises.

“We don’t have any classrooms, but almost every single place that you go,

you find students that are in high end learning environments, and work for companies on real world problems ... that’s really what this is about,” Steen said. “It’s about innovating your way into having the kind of community that you want to live, work and play and learn in.”

When the research and development center was developed 20 years ago, Ford said the key question was how to keep people from leaving, but now, that perspective is different.

“Now, you’ve got people bringing their businesses here just because they like what’s happened,” Ford said. “That’s a real shift. Now, it’s talent. Now, it’s attracting people to the region through these assets.”

Organizations such as the Kentucky Thermal Institute, the Metals Innovation Initiative, Logan Aluminum, media production company Forerunner and internet company Stupp Fiber all have found their home at the campus, alongside many others. Within the past year, other companies have announced their relocations to the campus.

Oria Health, a telehealth services company based out of Dallas, Texas, announced in July that its headquarters will be relocated to the Innovation Campus. BeingAI, an artificial intelli-

The design of the campus was built off of the renovated old Bowling Green mall, and allows businesses the opportunities to grow into other vacant areas of the facility.

ligence corporation out of Hong Kong, will also place its U.S. headquarters here with a $3 million investment. MyXR, an engagement software and content management company, announced a regional office at the campus in April, and their lease has already begun.

“We basically create software that allows organizations to have a better connection with their users, whether it’s a student, patient, fan, employee, it goes on and on,” Hans Koch, CEO of MyXR said. “And it’s just one software, but it has 1000 plus uses.”

Koch described the company’s process of finding a suitable city for a regional office, looking at cities such as Boston and Charlotte, but said “they didn’t understand” what MyXR is trying to do.

“The Innovation Campus feels entirely different, because it allows us to be us, but way better, because now we’re part of a group that is building together,” Koch said. “That was a stark difference with these other communities that welcome companies all the time ... maybe they introduce you to the Chamber of Commerce and the Chamber of Commerce doesn’t care because they have 10,000 other things to do. You’re not special, you’re not important. But here, everybody’s important.”

When recruiting and attracting companies to locate at the Innovation Campus, Caboni said “it’s a different kind of company” than what Bowling Green and Kentucky might expect to see.

“It’s high tech businesses, AI (artificial intelligence), VR (virtual reality), for example,” Caboni said. “So you look at the six announcements that we’ve had the past year, and all these folks that are making an investment in the university, in the Innovation Campus. What they have in common is they’re creating their own little

ecosystem right together.”

Caboni described the necessity for this as a part of Bowling Green’s changing economic standing, as the city continues to grow.

“One of the really important things is a pivot in our economy,” Caboni said. “We will continue to have manufacturing and industrial, but for Bowling Green to be successful in its next iteration as it grows and transforms itself, we have to diversify the economy.”

“That collaborative smart space is a place where creative artistic professionals should want to go and collaborate and share their talent and their network,” Steen said.

A large draw of the collaborative smart space is its open-area design and ability to bring professionals within different organizations to the same workplace.

“Not just software has gone open source, but so has just the way people operate in their lives,” Steen said. “So have businesses, and it’s an interesting phenomena and we embrace it here. That’s why we have the collaborative smartspace where there’s no walls.”

Choosing the Innovation Campus for a company workplace also comes with other infrastructure benefits, which most recently has been the addition of a 100 gigabit internet connection from Stupp Fiber.

“They also decided to install a 100 gigabit internet switch making this building, this city, the best connected, has the highest bandwidth of any city in the country,” Steen said.

He explained the purpose of this infrastructure is to give professionals advanced tools to work, grow and thrive at the Innovation Campus. This furthers the goal of recruiting more national and international companies to stay at the campus.

“When we’re trying to influence the development or invest in things from a community standpoint, instead of a ‘build it they will come,’ it’s build it they’re here,” Steen said.

The campus is 285,000 square feet and 20 acres, and it holds space for business startups, company headquarters, regional offices and a “collaborative smart space” within the old call center.

The 30,000 square foot collaborative smart space that opened in Fall 2022 provides a purchasable membership for professionals to utilize the call center work space, conference rooms, fiber internet access and all other campus amenities.

Another key part of the campus infrastructure is fully utilizing the idea of vacancy. The model of the facility allows for companies to grow into vacant spaces if they’re successful, but they also don’t have to sign a lease for a large office if they are not.

“They built this model so that you can start in a small sized office, you start growing, and there’s always vacancy,” Ford said. “You could move into that suite down the hall that’s twice the size as fast as you grow.”

The Innovation Campus hosts businesses such as the Kentucky Thermal Institute, Forerunner, a video production company, and Stupp Fiber, which provides high speed internet services. Other companies, such as BeingAI, a Hong Kong artificial intelligence company, have planned moves to the campus.

MOVING FORWARD

As the Innovation Campus has grown, so has the city of Bowling Green.

Bowling Green is projected to steadily grow its population within the next few years, with industrial and business growth also booming.

Steen attributes this in part to the city’s proximity to Nashville and the close impact of its economy, and said Bowling Green should hold strong in the areas in which it could benefit.

“One of our missions here is to make certain that as the Nashville economy comes upon us, and it gets closer every day, it’s a $200 billion GDP,” Steen said. “As soon as it comes to us, we work to make that happen for us, not to us. Which means we have to be strong and hold real value in certain areas.”

This economic growth and influence will be used to benefit and further grow the Innovation Campus. However, despite the closeness, and potential to become economically “North Nashville,” Steen said Bowling

thy place. And there’s several things that we’re doing that makes it.”

As Bowling Green hosts various high-tech corporations at the Innovation Campus, and continues to bring in national and international business

and attention, viewpoints on the city may change.

“It will change, we think, the way people see South Central Kentucky,” Caboni said. “Sometimes the challenge we have as a community is folks away from the state who’ve never been here have a perception of Kentucky and Bowling Green that when you arrive here, frequently is a misperception, and so we have to get people here to see what we’ve built as

The Innovation Campus is a space that Caboni hopes to show those outside the community, in order to illustrate potential for technological and business development.

“We try to get them into the Innovation Campus space to say look, this is where we are today. This is where we’re heading,” Caboni said.

Editor-in-chiefAlexandriaAnderson can be reached at alexandria. anderson337@topper.wku.edu.

The Innovation Campus was formerly named the Center for Research and Development, and underwent changes after the new concept was introduced at WKU President Timothy Caboni’s 2018 investiture.

NEW COURSES ON THE HILL OFFER DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES

Story by Bailey Reed

Photos by Kayden Mulrooney

Course debates, presentations, guest speakers, stories across time and an active learning environment will be found in new classes on the Hill this semester.

These classes are often developed by professors in their respective fields, who have a desire to enhance the academic experience and welfare of their students.

The courses must go through a vetting process in order to be approved, and some go through a “pilot semester.” This semester, there are new classes across the board, including CHHS 100: Introduction to Child Welfare, HIST 302: Disability in the United States and PS 99: Fundamentals of Mock Trial.

INTRODUCTION TO CHILD WELFARE

CHHS 100: Introduction to Child Welfare, is a Colonnade class that satisfies the social and behavioral explorations category. The class’s purpose is “preparing students to actively collaborate across the disciplines including criminal justice, psychology, sociology, social work, education, & health sciences,” according to the program’s flyer on social media.

Julie Jones, the professor for this course, has been working in childcare for 19 years.

“In 1999, that’s when I applied to the state of Kentucky to work in Child Protective Services,” Jones said. “It’s very hard, but very rewarding.”

Part of what makes this class so different from other CHHS classes is its interdisciplinary nature.

“Social work is so broad,” Jones said. “So many times I feel like society thinks social work is only Child Protective Services and that’s not accurate. Social workers are in so many areas. We’re in hospitals, we’re in schools, we’re at dialysis centers, we’re in sports, we are everywhere.”

The textbook for this class, “Child Welfare and Child Protection: An Introduction,” was co-written by David Royse and WKU’s own Austin Griffiths, assistant professor in the Master of Social Work program. He is also the director of the LifeSkills Center for Child Welfare Education and Research, as well as a WKU alum, having studied sociology and social work on the Hill. Griffiths, much like his colleague Jones, felt there was a need for this class on campus, having experi-

Professor Julie Jones references her textbook while teaching a lecture on the history of child welfare in the United States for their Introduction to Child Welfare class at Western Kentucky University.

A student writes notes about the living condition of children in the early days of the United States for her Introduction to Child Welfare class at Western Kentucky University.

Students in Professor Julie Jones’s Introduction to Child Welfare class at Western Kentucky University receive a handout about Kentucky’s policies on “mandated reporting.”

Audra Jennings, WKU history professor and history department chair, speaks to students during her course HIST 302: Disability in the United States. The course, which is new this semester, covers the history of disabilities and how citizens living with disabilities have helped shape rights and experiences of citizens of the US.

PHOTO BY IAN PITCHFORD

enced child welfare firsthand.

“As a frontline child welfare worker, it’s all about being prepared, feeling comfortable, and understanding how things work,” Griffiths said. “There was a gap and there was a need. It was really a practical endeavor.”

However, this class existing was not the only goal. Professors within the social work program wanted the class to engage students in an advantageous atmosphere. Griffiths said they felt like the class needed to be beneficial as well as exciting to attract students and to grow them as people.

When it comes to the intentions for this class, Jones and Griffiths agreed that they want students to understand the expansiveness of child welfare, that they know how to help others and that they enact change.

“My main goal in the class is just to educate students on what child wel-

professor and department chair, became interested in the topic when her own grandfather, a coal miner in western Kentucky, suffered an accident, rendering him disabled. He was drafted for World War II but could not serve due to his injuries, and thus worked in an armament factory instead.

“When I was a kid, he told all these stories about disabled people working in this factory, and everything that I was learning about World War II, that stood out as something,” Jennings said. “It wasn’t in any of the history that I was reading, and so I was fascinated. It seemed like disabled people played this very critical role in the war, but that seems invisible in the history that we share about the war.”

On top of the Hill in Cherry Hall, Jennings has the opportunity to share this passion.

the variety of students that choose to take it.

“I think I’m just really excited about teaching this class and seeing who is interested,” Jennings said. “I was looking at the roster, and it looks like it was a really wide range of majors and that’s really exciting to me to see what draws people to study disability in the United States.”

FUNDAMENTALS OF MOCK TRIAL

A floor up in the same building, Kelsey Truxal will be instructing PS 99: Fundamentals of Mock Trial. This course is not to be confused with the Mock Trial Team, however. Despite one being an accredited course through the university and the other being an extracurricular, the team was what inspired the development of the class.

“Historically, we have had a mock

fare is,” Jones said. “It’s not just Child Protective Services, it encompasses so many other services and communities, and it is in every community.”

Griffiths agreed with Jones, and went on to explain his hopes for their development of awareness.

“I hope that it (the class) develops an awareness on behalf of this community where people can understand not only what’s happening around them, but they can certainly respond in a proactive way to be a part of this alliance that we’re building,” Griffiths said.

DISABILITY IN THE UNITED STATES

The history of disability in the United States is a subject oftentimes overlooked and not normally prevalent in coursework or history books.

Audra Jennings, a WKU history

She is teaching HIST 302: Disability in the United States, another course that fulfills a Colonnade requirement.

Jennings authored the book for her class and is planning to engage with her students by reading historical material and hosting discussions.

“We’re going to read a lot of texts from different time periods, and we’ll be having lots of different discussions, looking at historical objects, and we’re also going to read more recent stuff about disability today,” Jennings said. “Right now, around twenty percent of Americans have disabilities, and disability is really central to how our government thinks about citizenship and the categories that we have that shape the relationship between citizens and the government.”

Jennings is most excited about actually teaching the course and seeing

trial program before. We’ve done it, from my understanding, as a student [organization] where it was student led,” Truxal said. “Sometimes they’ve had a coach, sometimes they haven’t, and then it went defunct.”

Truxal explained how students used to be able to get credit from being a part of the Mock Trial Team, but students weren’t satisfied with the program in place.

“Previously, you could get credit for being on mock trial, but none of us really liked that format because people were starting at different levels,” Truxal said. “We decided this year that we would have two programs at once where there is a student [organization] and anybody who wants to join the student [organization] can. Then the class is for anybody who may be interested in mock trial, anybody who may be interested in litigation …”

“I think I’m just really excited about teaching this class and seeing who is interested.”

Audra Jennings

Both the student organization and the class have no limit on the majors that can participate, a common feature amongst all the new Colonnade courses this fall.

Students participating in the course this fall explained how useful and fun the class can be.

“I think it’s going to be really ben eficial,” Addy Holley, a junior strategic marketing major and member of both the Mock Trial Team and class, said. “I think in the past couple of years, we have really started to boost the pro gram, but I think the class is the next step to expanding.”

Other students find the storytell ing aspect of the class to be their favorite.

“Working together and knowing how you are going to convey that story and creating that story with your team is the most fun ex perience that I’ve had on campus,” Ethan Huffaker, a double major in

Truxal is most looking forward to watching her students grow over the

“I love seeing (the students) perform that first competition and just knowing when they hit the right objection, or when they have a great response to opposing counsel, that’s my favorite

NewsReporter

BaileyReedcanbe reachedatbailey.reed740@

Story by Debra Murray

Photos by Von Smith

Katherine Lennard is a U.S. historian who studies the culture in the wake of the Civil War. But she certainly didn’t plan to be.

Lennard studied costume design at The Theatre School of DePaul University in Chicago. She found herself wanting to understand the characters and their clothing on a deeper level.

“The stuff that I wanted to do really was know more about the characters that I was dressing, I was ... doing all this research and really trying to get into what are the social conditions,” she said. “... why are they wearing these clothes and how does this communicate about the world that they live in?”

Her love of learning about historic clothing was what led her to studying costume design, and ultimately, this love led her to become a researcher.

“I’ve actually always loved this, and this has always been thinking about historic dress as part of why I wanted to be a costume designer,” Lennard said. “There was that pivot of like okay, thinking academically about reading images, thinking academically about what does it mean to look at something? How are we looking at something right now differently than people did?”

From then, she received a master’s of arts in Visual and Critical Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a doctorate in American Culture from the University of Michigan.

Her research is primarily focused on the Civil War and its impacts on our culture.

“I’m really thinking about the Civil War as a period of time that people are living through,” Lennard said. “And Reconstruction is a period of time that people are living through and trying to make worlds under major constraints.”

‘I FEEL REALLY LUCKY’ FROCKT FELLOW STARTS TEACHING AT WKU

Her first book grew from her master’s dissertation, which explored the impact of the Ku Klux Klan on American life through their uniforms.

When asked how she landed on the Ku Klux Klan “on accident,” she chuckled.

“The product was my dissertation project on the Ku Klux Klan robes, and really it was because I found a manufacturer’s tag and a 1920s Ku Klux Klan robe,” Lennard explained.

She now works closely with designers for television and film to help find costumes and organize historical context to provide outfits.

“You’re kind of doing a forensic analysis of what’s actually happening,” Lennard said. “So that’s really fun, because that’s really specific. We also do stuff sometimes where designers say like, I need you know, I’m

doing a project on set in a particular place in time and we need inspiration for this thing.”

Lennard is currently working on her second book examining the conspirators about former President Abraham Lincoln. Ex-Confederate soldier Lewis Powell was one of the conspirators in John Wilkes Booth’s

plot to assassinate Lincoln in efforts to overthrow the government.

“After spending a lot of time thinking about the history of [the] Civil War or the history reconstruction, legacies of both of those conflicts into the US, both of those historical moments really into the 20th century,” Lennard said. “It’s been really interesting to revisit that material and think about Confederate memory, family history.”

She was named the Frockt Family Chair of History in April.

The position is named after Richard Frockt, who served on the WKU Board of Advisors from 2002–17 and was on the WKU Foundation Board of Trustees from 2004–12.

Frockt is a lifetime member of the WKU Alumni Association, and he is recognized as a member of the Henry

Katherine Lennard, a new WKU history professor, is well known for her work as a historian who has written books about the Ku Klux Klan, and other published materials regarding race since the Civil War. Lennard, who comes to Bowling Green after teaching at Boston University, is the first professor to receive the Frockt Family Chair at WKU, a position endowed by Richard Frockt, a major donor to WKU.

“It’s really about how having scholars that are doing interesting research helps students get excited.”

Katherine Lennard

Hardin Cherry Society and the Society of 1906 for his gifts to the university.

As the Frockt Chair, Lennard’s position focuses on her own research and teaching students.

“It’s really about how having scholars that are doing interesting research helps students get excited,” she said.

She is currently teaching two classes on the Civil War and reconstruction and history of the U.S. to 1865.

“Everybody’s so generous and really interested in student education and really interested in community and I don’t think that’s true everywhere,” she said.

Now she is settling in at WKU. In August, she moved into her office in Cherry Hall. Her bookshelves are home to titles such as “Fashion Victims,” “The New Jim Crow,” and “Photography of the Civil War.”

She is originally from Cincinnati, Ohio. She –along with her husband and 3-year-old son – are learning their way through Bowling Green. “I think there’s so many really good things about college towns, especially with a little kid,” Lennard said. “It’s just been, you know, my kid thinks that the business school construction site is his construction site. He spent all of his time just digging in the dirt and he’s obsessed with the caves.”

Lennard said she is lucky to be at WKU.

“I feel really lucky to get to do this stuff,” Lennard said. “I’m excited to get to do it here.”

EngagementEditorDebraMurraycanbecontactedatdebra.murray940@topper.wku.edu

Books about such topics as the Ku Klux Klan, the psychology of clothes, and the Reconstruction period line the shelves in Dr. Lennard’s office in Cherry Hall. Lennard, the first to receive the Frockt Family Chair at WKU, is in her first semester teaching in the history department.

WKU’s renowned photojournalism program in the School of Media & Communication will undergo a change as it adds a new track, renaming itself to Visual Journalism and Photography, while dropping the photojournalism minor.

Currently, there are 25 photojournalism majors in the already existing program, with 20 seeking admission into the new Photojournalism and Photography program, Angie Jerome, assistant director of the School of Media & Communication, said.

The fact book for the Potter College of Arts and Letters estimated that the School of Media had seen a decline in enrollments, dropping from 568 in 2017 to 404 in 2021. Photojournalism in particular saw a decline from 40 enrollments in 2017 to 29 in 2021.

This year, the school merged with the former Department of Communication to become the School of Media & Communication.

The photojournalism program has received numerous awards. Students have won the William Randolph Hearst Award’s national photojournalism championship 19 out of 21 years, as

‘OUR CHANGES ARE NOT THAT EARTH-SHATTERING’ PHOTOJOURNALISM PROGRAM TO CHANGE CURRICULUM

By Damon Stone

well as the Hearst Intercollegiate Photojournalism Championship for 29 of the 34 years it has run, and several more, said James Kenney, the coordinator of the photojournalism program.

“Awards are a very visible sign of the success of the program, and I’m not complaining about that,” Kenney said. “... But in the end, a small percentage of our students win awards every year, but a large percent of them are being successful in their own way.”

Kenney said the purpose of the change is intended for those interested in photography as a major, without the journalism aspect.

“They could pursue that track, and then we have our existing track,” Kenney said. “We changed the name only to reflect more accurately what we’ve been doing in that track, which is photojournalism and documentary.”

By having the two tracks, and by renaming the existing track, Kenney said he hopes this allows for more opportunities and flexibility for students, providing two majors for those interested in photography.

“It’s hard for us to let go of photojournalism as our overall name,

because it’s been such a standard throughout our whole history,” Kenney said. “We felt like Visual Journalism was more reflective of the fact that photojournalism is viewed as being in a narrower form in terms of newspaper photography ... Visual journalism covers both still photography and our short documentary video, and we added photography to the overall name too to identify the fact that we are offering this other track now.”

Kenney said it was “time for an update,” with the school and university looking at ways to attract students into the program to increase enrollment.

“We are satisfied with what we’ve been doing, but we saw the potential of reaching out and reaching students who are interested in visuals beyond journalism visuals,” Kenney said.

Tim Broekema, a professor in the photojournalism program, said they are not changing a great deal, but updating the program.

“I think it’s a great move,” Broekema said. “We’re serving our potential students with more options and flexibility, and keeping the program active and what it’s been doing for the past 30

PHOTO BY VON SMITH

One of the Hearst Awards that have been won over the years by students in the School of Media & Communications.

Broekema said the changing of the name does not change their goal to help keep journalism alive, despite students being told that “journalism is dead.”

“But then, where are they getting their news from?” Broekema said. “... It still comes from a source, it just doesn’t get dreamed up out of the air, at least, that’s what we hope it doesn’t do.”

Before the change, alumni was sent a survey to allow them to state their thoughts and opinions to work with the dean of Potter College to improve the declining enrollment, Broekema said.

“We had a decent response rate,” Broekema said. “It was around half of all alums from the past 10 years that responded ... We had (about) 99% of the people that responded agreed the name photojournalism is not helping in our enrollment.”

Broekema said the decline in enrollment is not exclusive to the photojournalism program, as there are declining enrollment rates across campus and in other universities nationwide. Undergraduate enrollment at the university declined from 20,267 in 2017 to 16,750 in 2021, according to the WKU fact book.

“This isn’t unique to Western’s photo program,” Broekema said.

Alyssa Pointer, a freelance photojournalist based out of Atlanta, graduated from the program in 2016, and was the only one in her graduating class who wanted to go into newspaper

photojournalism.

“It was a great program,” Pointer said. “I think that I was lucky enough that my first two professors were traveling professors ... I got a lot of hands-on, real world experience, which was really great. I learned a lot about visual storytelling and I feel strongly that I am able to translate that from editorial work to anything in life.”

Pointer said she had been drawn to photojournalism through a National Geographic video, being “enamored” by those in the video.

“I don’t have a problem with them opening up photography to non-photojournalism students,” Pointer said. “I think it’s a great opportunity for anyone to learn from the professors that are there.”

Pointer said she believes that the power of photojournalism has been lessened by the impact of phone cameras, and everyone “being their own journalist,” but that the ethics of the program are still important, and need to be learned.

“A lot of people now are photographers that can do photojournalism because they can take a picture, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they understand what it actually means to be in this role,” Pointer said. “I don’t want them to get rid of the program, because it’s important to understand ethics, and it’s important to understand the decisions you make.”

By learning these ethics in a

renowned photojournalism school, Pointer said she was then able to have an advantage when it came to getting freelance positions.

“You don’t have to be a staff newspaper photojournalist to use what you learned in those programs to translate over into (something like) corporate visual storytelling,” Pointer said. “... I think that was very useful for me.”

With the ever-growing prominence of artificial intelligence programs like ChatGPT, the photojournalism program will also work to address such concerns, such as programs that could produce any type of photo, Broekema said.

“It’s a technology that is available and can be used,” Broekema said. “Like when Photoshop first came out in the mid to late 90s, it was considered a threat to journalism. It was considered a threat to visual storytelling, and Western’s photojournalism program dealt with it then with electronic picture editing classes, and we’ll deal with AI no differently than we have with any other technology that comes along.”

Broekema said there are currently no plans to create a class that specifically addresses artificial intelligence, but that it would be discussed in ethics discussions.

In addition to changes at the top of the program, the photojournalism minor will be suspended, with students currently in the minor track able to finish classes as they are phased out

PHOTO BY JACOB LATIMER

Students in VPJ 332 Picture Editing listen to Jeanie Adams-Smith, as she covers a topic. The photojournalism program in the School of Media & Communication is in the process of relaunching itself as the Visual Journalism and Photography major.

years.”

in order to “keep things streamlined,” Kenney said.

“The new (photography) track is taking the (minor’s) place, per se, because the track is a major, it’s 36 hours, and our minor is 21 hours,” Kenney said. “This track offers, in a sense, what we have in the minor and more. And so, we felt like it was important to keep things streamlined.”

Kenney said a part of the change is to offer as much as possible, to students both in the already existing photojournalism community and the broader university community who have interest in visuals outside of a journalistic aspect.

“We’re not going to (increase enrollment) at the expense of quality, and we’re not going to stop doing what we’ve been doing,” Kenney said. “This is definitely a factor of addition, not subtraction, when it comes to our goals.”

Outside of journalism, photography majors could apply their skills to a broad range of fields, including the commercial photography market, in public relations and advertising firms, Kenney said.

“We’ve never been about preparing students to work for a particular organization,” Kenney said. “... Our goal, in the end, is to teach and inspire our students to be great storytellers, and that can happen in a lot of different areas in visuals.”

Broekema said that the minor and the new major were too similar, and

would have seen several overlapping classes.

“One would be stealing from the other, and vice versa,” Broekema said. “We had to make a choice, and we made the choice that a lesser-hour major is better for the individual who wants to really consider doing something with this minor/major.”

Broekema said that for the major to be successful with this new track, the minor would “have to go.”

Kenney said several graduates have been able to take skills learned in the program, specifically concerning working with people, making connections, and telling stories, managing to go beyond photojournalism.

One alumnus of the photojournalism program is William DeShazer, a freelance commercial and editorial photographer operating out of Nashville, who graduated in 2007.

“(The photojournalism program) personally changed my life,” DeShazer said. “I had no idea what I wanted to be when I went to college ... Long story short, I was kind of like a punk skater kid in a band, and never really tried hard in high school, barely got into college. And I went to the University of Louisville and actually tried, and got all A’s and B’s.”

During his time in high school, DeShazer discovered his love of photography, and after attending the University of Louisville, he discovered the program at WKU.

“I got to compete in Hearst in 2005,

and I won the Hearst competition for Western for photojournalism,” DeShazer said.

DeShazer had the opportunity to have four internships during his time at the university, and went on to be a staffer at the Chicago Tribune before becoming a freelancer for The New York Times, and has been in that position for 10 years.

DeShazer said he was drawn to photojournalism through its ability to create something and tell stories, while being able to “make a difference in the world.”

In regards to the changes the program is planning to implement, DeShazer said that it is a “smart decision,” having seen such a change in his workplace when he was laid off from his newspaper job in 2014.

“I think (broadening photography appeal) is a good decision because more and more people are doing that, for a company or doing that for self-employment,” DeShazer said. “I see that as a needed change, and it’s sad because that program meant the world to me, but I think it’s a sign of the times, and I think it’s the right thing to do.”

DeShazer said that the loss of the minor is a shame, with more people being able to become content creators. But, he said he is happy students in the minor are still able to fulfill their desired minor.

“It’s a great program and I wouldn’t have the little success that I have today if it wasn’t for it,” Pointer said.

Despite challenges and hesitancy to change the name, Kenney is certain that it will “make our program stronger,” and that they will not change their mission.

“Our changes are not that earth-shattering, as people seem to think,” Broekema said. “It’s just a repositioning of a name, and a little bit of a repositioning of making sure people understand what we offer isn’t just photojournalism, to train a person to go work at a newspaper. We offer a lot more than that within our discipline, and we’re just trying to make that aware in the name.”

ReporterDamonStonecanbe reachedoutatdamon.stone314@topper.wku.edu.

PHOTO BY JACOB LATIMER

Professor Jeanie Adams-Smith speaks to students in the VJP 332 Picture Editing course. The class covers the process of choosing images for publication both online and in print, as well as ethical decision-making, software, and presentation.