Western certainly hit the jackpot during the past week, securing just over $1.2 million in donations to various programs.

The gifts – $750,000 from an anonymous couple and $475,000 from Greenview Regional Hospital – will help fund the nursing program, the new athletic complex and a visiting professorship in the College of Education and Behavioral Sciences.

Though the donations will be funneled into narrowly-defined areas, the donors’ generosity could have an expansive effect on a growing campus struggling with financial issues.

Each of the beneficiaries of these contributions is a worthy cause.

Much of the larger donation addresses the funding needs of the planned Academic Athletic Performance Center, and the remaining $250,000 – which will be matched by Kentucky’s Regional University Excellence Fund – is a rare gift to the College of Education.

Greenview’s donation is less selfless, but by no means less important. In response to a nationwide shortage of nurses, the hospital’s scholarship-for-work program should stabilize its own nurse force while enhancing the educational and occupational opportunities for nursing students.

Thanks to such donations, Western is able to continue to make progress during tough economic times.

Western remains very much entangled in the web of state budget cuts. But substantial financial support from alumni and the Bowling Green community allows the university to further stretch and make better decisions with the money it already holds.

Though the donations are targeted at specific areas, their impact should reverberate across the Hill.

This editorial represents the majority opinion of the Herald’s 10-member board of student editors.