Conversation with the Chancellor

Chancellor Wang started with “2021 is a significant year for WKU, which marks the 15th anniversary of the signing of the Cooperation Agreement to establish WKU and WKU’s 10th year in operation.” A series of celebration activities will be held to hail this significant moment.

He went on with an elaborate introduction about the campus planning, which will lay the groundwork for the further expansion strategic plan towards 2025, in which, WKU will establish itself as a big campus with 7000 student capacity.

To reach the goal, he encouraged all attendees to share their experience and thoughts on how to enhance students’ performance, help students better adapt to an English-only environment, and therefore bolster the overall student’s cultivation, which is fundamental to a world-class education institution. “All these rely on the efforts of our teachers”, he replenished.

Larry Brown, Dean of College of Science and Technology, extended his thanks to WKU for the support and efforts made over the past year. However, he also came up with a dilemma “We have more high-level faculty members arrived but we also need more lecturers to share teaching assignments. Besides, we are still scarce in facilities, teaching space to advance top researches…”

Toby Michelena, assistant professor of Biology, pointed out English is essential for freshmen to well prepare for the semester and thus he looks forward to creating more opportunities to encourage students to practice English outside class.

Agnes Tang, assistant professor, applauded for English proficiency and diligence spirits demonstrated by her students. She expects to grow along with her motivational students on the way to reach the long-term goal. Dr. Wang agreed on the importance of English, which speeds up regional internationalization pace.

Mohammad Noman, the supervisor of Educational leadership program, added “For Edd students, it is crucial to read a lot and has a sense of critical-thinking spirits.” He inspired the WKU graduate recruitment team to usher in more critical students in the coming year.

Chancellor Wang and Eric Yang also answered concerning issues ranging from curriculum setting, teaching space, budget issues, cooperative research, student recruitment, medical service, etc.

Constructive ideas and suggestions were raised from other faculty and staff members of Architecture & Design, Business & Public Management, Liberal Arts, and Science & Technology College.