Western Kentucky University(WKU)

Charles H. McGruder III

Outline

• What is special about WKU?

• Astronomers and Astronomy and at WKU

• Why WKU would like to be part of the USA SKA Consortium.

• What WKU can contribute to the consortium.

What is special about WKU?• For 12 straight years has been the fastest

growing university in Kentucky: > 20,000 students

• 50 percent of our faculty has been at WKU for less than five years

• According to U.S. News & World Report in 2002, WKU ranked 47th in academic reputation among colleges and universities in the southeast. WKU is now 19th

• WKUs campus is being transformed through over $150M in campus construction with an additional $350 million on the docket by 2012.

• The William Randolph Hearst Foundation competition. has named WKU’s Photojournalism program #1 in the nation 17 times in the last 19 years.

• WKUs Journalism & Broadcasting program is once again finished in the top 10 in the Hearst Foundation competition.

• Since 2003, WKU's Speech and Debate (Forensics) team has swept all of the national championships and the world championships. The top five teams in the nation read like this: 1. WKU 2. Harvard 3. Yale 4. William & Mary 5. Columbia

• After only two years of operation, the Gatton Academy has been named by Newsweek magazine as one of the elite public high schools in America.

• Philanthropic support becomes more important each year with less than 25% of WKU’s budget coming from the state. WKU's endowment growth has been among the top 20 for multiple years and is in the midst of a $200 million campaign with over $146 million gifts received

• WKU's alumni giving percentage is in the top 10 in the nation for master's level institutions.

• WKU is young, dynamic with a unique spirit, which is called the “Western Spirit”

WKU Astronomers and their PhD Granting Institutions (> 5 years)

1. Bohuski, Tom: Univ. Texas-Austin

2. Carini, Michael: Georgia State Univ.

3. Gelderman, Richard: Univ. of Virginia

4. McGruder, Charles: Univ. of Heidelberg, Germany

5. Scott, Roger: Univ. of Florida

WKU Astronomers and their PhD Granting Institutions (< 5 years)

1. Campbell, Lachlan: Australian National University

2. Campbell, Rachel: Australian National University

3.  Gibson, Steven: University of Wisconsin-Madison

4. Lee, Ting-Hui: University of Calgary

5. Strolger, Louis: Univ. of Michigan: Ann Arbor

Tenure Track Position in Astronomy

• Search is underway for a tenure-track observational astronomer

• application instructions are listed at http://physics.wku.edu/facultysearch/

How are WKU Faculty Judged?

• Promotion, tenure and merit pay based on:

• 1/3 teaching

• 1/3 research

• 1/3 public service

• Searching for Provost: http://www.wku.edu/provost/

Western Kentucky University Observatory

Dedication CeremonyNovember 2000

Kitt Peak National Observatory

Crimean Observatory

Why WKU would like to be part of the Consortium

• Science

• Possible involvement of WKU students

• “leading American university with international reach”.

• WKU can make a unique contribution to the consortium

What can WKU contribute to the consortium?

• Responses to PPP/RMS Question 17: “In order to justify this amount of money, there also had better be some pretty major educational and public outreach initiatives. What are the plans for student and public involvement in the SKA”?

• WKU’s background shows it can organize and manage “student and public involvement in SKA”.