TOP RECRUIT ROBINSON SPENDS WEEKEND IN BG
SPORTS, PAGE B4
CHECK OUT FOOTAGE OF FIGHT NIGHT
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TTUESDAY, UESDAY, FERUARY FERUARY 114, 4, 22017 017 > W WESTERN ESTERN KKENTUCKY ENTUCKY UUNIVERSITY NIVERSITY > VVOLUME OLUME 992, 2, IISSUE SSUE 3333
Sumner Franklin (on left), from the Universtiy of Kentucky, takes a punch to the face from Miguel Brarzey, from WKU, at the Sigma Chi Fraternity Fight Night in the Sloan Conventions Center on Friday. Franklin won the match. SILAS WALKER/HERALD
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Kentuckians record views on America New strategy targets int’l enrollment BY EMMA AUSTIN
HERALD.NEWS@WKU.EDU
BY CALLIE MILLER HERALD.NEWS@WKU.EDU University enrollment of international students has fluctuated since last year, creating new challenges in recruiting for the International Student Office in the wake of an executive order on immigration. Currently, 1,042 international students attend WKU. In the official enrollment report of fall 2016, there were 1,168. A 15.2 percent drop occurred between fall 2015 and fall 2016, a decrease of 209 students. There are several variables measured when looking at retention rates. Some students transfer before they graduate, some are dismissed and others leave for different reasons. This percentage of students who are dismissed or transfer has stayed consistent at about two percent. Stephanie Sieggreen, director of international enrollment management, said retention is consistent for the moment and international students are graduating at a larger rate. Because specific areas were targeted in international outreach, students from those countries are starting to graduate in bigger numbers. “We had certain countries that we’re reliant on for international populations,” Sieggreen said. To keep the numbers from dropping, ISO is beginning to recruit from regions that were not as targeted in the past including Southeast Asia and parts of Africa. In the near future, Sieggreen said ISO plans to reach out to Latin America and Europe in the future. By implementing a strategic recruitment plan including virtual and physical outreach in new regions, Sieggreen expects international enrollment to increase again. After President Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration, the International Student Office began working to provide accurate information to students and help them in making decisions moving forward. The order only applies to students who have non-immigrant status, but students with non-immigrant status should not fear deportation. They will face difficulty, however, if they leave the U.S. and then try to reen-
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America’s timeline is filled with politically-charged history, from colonists who dumped tea into the Boston Harbor in protest of taxes, to the abolitionist movement during the Civil War, to the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s. More recently, Americans have rallied in political marches and protests to have an active voice in the national government in response to the election and other political developments. Sandy Staebell, Kentucky Museum registrar and collections curator, and Sue Lynn McDaniel, special collections librarian, believe in the importance in preserving these events and the community’s active role in history, which is why they have begun collecting items for the Kentucky Museum’s America United/ America Divided project. “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen people feel so strongly about issues and being willing to get out there,” Staebell said. “I thought we needed to document that — all sides.” Staebell and McDaniel said they
Lynne Ferguson is one of the donators to give to the Kentucky Museum located on WKU’s campus. She has given two signs to the political exhibit that were personally used in the Women’s March in Nashville. “We need to preserve our history. What is going on right now in Washington D.C. is affecting everyone.” REMI MAYS/HERALD
cially important in the way it captures this history as it’s being lived given the current way content may often be short-lived because of social media and digital platforms. The Kentucky Museum has long collect-
We don’t collect things for an exhibit that goes up for three months, and then it’s gone.” Special collections librarian Sue Lynn McDaniel hope to collect as much material as they can with Kentucky ties, whether it’s a button used or worn by a Kentuckian, a sign from a protest or anything else related to Kentucky’s role in the national political climate. Staebell said the project is espe-
ed primary sources including letters, diaries and other written accounts; now, such material has grown scarce. “If we’re going to capture this for Western students 50 years from now or a hundred years from now, we have to start collecting these texts or
Twitter feeds, digital photos, Facebook posts, things like that,” Staebell said. Though the collection will likely soon be on display at the museum, McDaniel said the collection is not just for a temporary exhibit. “We don’t collect things for an exhibit that goes up for three months, and then it’s gone,” McDaniel said. “We keep things for hundreds of thousands of years, hopefully, so future generations can look back.” In addition to the mass-produced products like buttons and stickers, Staebell said she keeps an eye out for “novelty items” as well. When John Kerry was campaigning for president and the Republican party referred to him as being a “flip flopper,” one person donated a pair of handmade John Kerry flip-flops to the Kentucky Museum’s political exhibit. “We like those little novelty items
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Pulitzer Prize winner to visit campus BY KATHRYN ZIESIG HERALD.NEWS@WKU.EDU A Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist will be speaking at WKU about worldwide poverty and her photo project “Living on a Dollar a Day” on Thursday. Renée C. Byer, a documentary photojournalist, will display her work from the project in the Mass
Media and Technology Hall gallery from Feb. 16 until April 28. According to The Forgotten International website, over one billion people live on less than a dollar a day. The Forgotten International, a San Francisco-based nonprofit, sent Byer to 10 countries on four continents to document people living in such poverty. “Now as a professional eye witness to the world, I try to show a side
of life that people may not have seen before,” Byer said during her TEDxTokyo talk in 2009. Photojournalism professor Tim Broekema said WKU is the first university to be displaying Byer’s gallery, and he and Byer both hope the gallery will become a teaching tool for faculty, students and the community. “She’s a true believer in educa-
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