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.
2.
3.
4.
Bohuski, Tom: Univ. Texas-Austin
Carini, Michael: Georgia State Univ.
Gelderman, Richard: Univ. of Virginia
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 WisconsinMadison
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 Ceremony
November 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”.