President Gary Ransdell’s fall 2013 end of semester letter to faculty, staff

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Herald Staff
December 12, 2013

President Gary Ransdell on Thursday morning sent out his fall 2013 end of semester email to WKU’s faculty and staff. Below is the letter as it was sent out via email.
 
Fellow Faculty and Staff:
 
As we bring the fall semester to a close, Julie and I want to wish all of our Faculty and Staff a warm, safe, and enjoyable holiday break.  I hope you enjoy some well-deserved time with your family and friends.  Safe travels if your schedule takes you away from Bowling Green.
 
We look forward to seeing many of you at one or both of our Commencement ceremonies this Saturday, as we graduate a record number of students for a fall graduating class.
 
We also want to thank everyone who is involved in helping to recruit and retain students at WKU.  This is a particularly critical time of year as we seek to encourage as many students as possible to return in the spring and to persist through completion of a degree.  We are also working hard to gain as much market share of the Kentucky high school pool of prospective students as possible.  We will be rolling out over the next few months an updated marketing effort aimed primarily at high school students.  The quality and value of a WKU degree sells very well, as does the quality of our campus experience, but unless prospective students know about it, we are not optimizing those qualities.  With only about 10 percent of our students enrolled in a Winter Term course, we are learning that it is critical that we maintain communication with all of our other students over the break in order to ensure that they return for the spring semester.  Your help in this regard is both important and appreciated.
 
Thanks again for all you do to ensure strength, quality, and relevancy to our educational experience at WKU.  Have a good break.  I look forward to sharing a productive spring semester with you.  Thanks.
 
Gary A. Ransdell