FEATURES • PAGE B1
OPINION • PAGE A4
Former WKU coach celebrates birthday with annual swim
Editorial: WKU’s fight for liberal arts isn’t over
TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 2019
WESTERN KENTUCKY UNIVERSITY
VOLUME 94, ISSUE 25
STEPPING UP
Former dean assumes acting provost position BY EMILY DELETTER HERALD.NEWS@WKU.EDU
Cheryl Stevens had about five minutes to accept or decline the position to become acting provost at WKU. Stevens was in New Orleans for the weekend for her son’s baby shower when former Provost Terry Ballman resigned on April 5. Following a vote of no confidence passed by the University Senate. Friday morning, President Timothy Caboni called Stevens and asked if she would be able to take over the position. “Everything happened so fast,” Stevens said. “I was honored when he asked, grateful for the opportunity and excited, but, man, it’s a fire hose a lot of times when you move into a provost position.” In a statement to the Herald, Caboni said Stevens was an obvious choice to serve as acting provost. “As our longest serving academic dean, and as [a] member of the strategic planning steering committee, she will bring stability and continuity to the ongoing work in Academic Affairs, DELO and our five colleges,” Caboni said. Stevens will hold the acting provost position for at least the next two years. Unlike an interim position, she is not absolutely slated to be replaced permanently by someone after a national search, although it could be a possibility. “Traditionally, in a lot of people’s minds, acting means you’re in a position that belongs to someone else, but they can’t do it right now,” Stevens said. “That’s not what Caboni understood the title to be.” As acting provost, she will be the chief academic officer, responsible for the quality of WKU’s academic programs. She said one major difference between being dean of Ogden College and acting provost is transitioning her supporting role from only Ogden College, a position she held since January 2012, to supporting all five colleges. She said she has amazing support from
TYGER WILLIAMS • HERALD
Cheryl Stevens, former dean of Ogden College, was appointed to the position of acting provost following former Provost Terry Ballman’s resignation on April 5.
the faculty and staff on campus, including dozens of emails from people expressing interest in serving as her advisers on the provost’s council. Describing herself as a team player and team builder, Stevens said she works
best having people to talk to who can help move things forward. “I’ve found that if you choose people who come to you wanting to help, they seem to almost always do a better job,” Stevens said.
She took over at the end of the Comprehensive Academic Program Evaluation process, which began under Ballman. CAPE recommendations were approved by the Board of Regents Academic Affairs Committee during its Friday meeting. Through CAPE, the committee identified 209 programs to maintain as they currently are, 55 programs to transform, 15 programs to grow and 101 programs to suspend. The suspended programs include 11 undergraduate degrees, four graduate degrees and 86 other credentials such as minors and certificates. During the meeting, Stevens said she hopes the programs recommended to be grown and enhanced and transformed will be attractive to students. Faculty in programs that will be suspended will continue to teach out the classes over the next few years to ensure students currently enrolled in the suspended programs can complete their requirements. Stevens began her career in academia at Xavier University of Louisiana, where she began as a faculty member in the chemistry department. She eventually moved up to become a program director, then department chair of chemistry and eventually an associate dean for research. But Stevens said she wanted more and was immediately drawn to the then-open position for the dean of Ogden College of Science and Engineering at WKU. Upon visiting campus for her interview, she fell in love with the area and the much smaller community of Bowling Green as well as the differences between her small liberal arts college and WKU’s larger, regional public university. “I liked the mission of WKU, it really resonated for me,” Stevens said. “Here, it’s about access and an opportunity for students who may not be able to go somewhere else. You’re able to make a connection between the campus and university and the region around it.” SEE STEVENS • PAGE A3
Faculty responds to final CAPE recommendations BY REBEKAH ALVEY HERALD.NEWS@WKU.EDU
The Board of Regents Academic Affairs Committee approved recommendations to suspend 101 programs, transform 55, grow 15 and maintain 209 during a committee meeting on Friday, April 12. Through the Comprehensive Academic Program Evaluation, 380 academic programs were analyzed and went through a process of recommendations, starting on a departmental level and ending with the Board of Regents approval. Initially, CAPE recommendations were intended to go from the CAPE Committee to the provost. However,
the sudden resignation of former Provost Terry Ballman altered the plan. Of the suspended programs, Merrall Price, special assistant to the provost, said there are 615 students, approximately 3% of the student body, enrolled. During the committee meeting, she said any suspended program will be taught out, meaning students Kirk currently enrolled will Atkinson be able to complete their degrees, but no University Senate Chair new students will be accepted starting Aug. 26, 2019. Price said the goal is to take curricular action with programs recommend-
ed to be transformed in Spring 2020 and will hopefully be able to offer the newly altered programs by Fall 2020. During the CAPE process, tenured faculty positions will remain Mary a priority, according Bennett to the website. Teaching obligations may Director of change, but WKU does the WKU not foresee a reduction School of Nursing in workforce. “Many faculty members are qualified to teach in related areas and, if needed, may be asked to broaden their teaching contribution,” acting Provost Cheryl Stevens said in an email.
The largest program recommended for suspension is the Nursing RN to BSN program. Mary Bennett, director of the school of nursing, explained the program is online and is for people who already have an associate’s degree but are seeking a BSN. In the recommendations report, enrollment numbers for 2017 were listed as 105. However, Bennett said the most recent enrollment numbers are significantly lower. Bennett attributed this drop to a changing market. She explained that for-profit schools are offering online courses at a lower cost, which could be more appealing for students. When going through the CAPE department recommendations process, Bennet SEE CAPE • PAGE A3