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 Eastern Kentucky University (EKU) can boast about being a five-star institution, and it has the facts to back that statement up. The Chronicle of Higher Education selected EKU as a great college to work for; The Carnegie Foundation placed EKU on its list of community engaged institutions; Forbes ranked it in the top 10% of American universities; it is a US News & World Report Tier I institution; and it has been designated a veteran-friendly campus. The only other institutions with those five feathers in their caps are Ohio State and Tulane.
 Its student body is made up predominantly of Kentuckians, but it has students from around the country and beyond. The university is trying to increase enrollment of international students and increase travel abroad opportunities for students and faculty exchanges.
Always moving forward
In many ways, EKU is in a continuous state of reevaluation. The economic realities of the time caused university leadership to deconstruct everything to find ways to operate EKU better and more efficiently.
“We are looking at how we do things online, and how to use technology more effectively in everything we do, including standard classroom situations,” said Dr. Doug Whitlock, president.
One area the university spent time on is its Web site. Even for students within its primary service area, the Web is the front door to the EKU experience. The majority of its students apply for admission online, so making a good first impression online is critical to EKU’s enrollment goals.
According to Whitlock, EKU has been on the cutting edge of educational technology for a while, but that doesn’t mean it is standing pat. In April 2008, it entered into an alliance with Siemens that should result in a 40% reduction in energy costs—or $8,000 a day—and reduce its environmental footprint.
The $27 million project is about two-thirds complete and should save the university $2.9 million a year in energy costs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, dropping carbon dioxide by 75.4 million pounds, nitrous oxide by 119,200 pounds, and sulfur dioxide by 374,400 pounds per year. That is the equivalent of taking 6,229 cars off the road, creating 227 acres of forest, and not burning 179 rail cars of coal.
“That is something we are excited about from two standpoints. Green is the color of money and sustainability, so this project is green all the way around,” Whitlock said, noting that this is the largest such project Siemens has done on a
college campus.
Environmental concerns are something EKU takes seriously. For example, EKU professor Tammy Horn was recently featured in The Chronicle of Higher Education for her work with coalmine reclamation and reforesting areas with bee-friendly plants and trees. The idea is to turn this part of the Appalachian region into a bee Mecca, reforesting in excess of 33,000 acres that have been surface-mined and creating a bee industry to transform the environment and the local economy.
In addition, EKU announced a partnership with General Atomics to boost biofuel production in Kentucky. Announced in February, the partnership established EKU’s Center for Renewable and Alternative Fuel Technologies, where researchers will look into creating a cellulose-derived biodiesel industry in the Bluegrass State.
“This is a different project because there is a lot of work being done with phototropic algae that requires sunlight to create oil through photosynthesis where carbon dioxide is converted to sugar, and then to oil, in the algae in water under sunlight,” said Whitlock. “Our project is different because it will focus on the production of biodiesel, and ultimately bio-jet fuel, that uses heterotrophic algae, which do their work in the dark.”
It is thought there is the necessary quantity of biomass within a 50-mile radius for a plant to produce 50 million gallons of biofuel per year. This would be important to Kentucky because its farmers are looking for a cash crop to replace tobacco, and it would put the state in a leading position with emerging technologies. In addition to General Atomics, partnerships in the program have expanded to include LexTran (Lexington's public transportation system), the Kentucky National Guard, and Green Earth Bio-Fuel of Irvine, Ky.
Building for tomorrow
Internally, EKU is in the middle of several projects that will enhance the quality of its educational capabilities. One is the construction of a $65 million science center. Whitlock said it will revolutionize instruction of hard sciences on campus and ramp up EKU’s ability to conduct research, giving students the ability to work on more advanced research projects.
“It will allow us to implement the studio approach throughout the sciences, away from the separate lab and lecture to simultaneous instruction in the same space so faculty and students can move seamlessly between presentation and application of information,” he said.
Another project is a 2,000-seat performing art center. When completed, it will be the only Broadway- caliber theater in the state. At a cost of nearly $30 million, the performing arts center is phase two of a $45 million construction project that began with the construction of the university’s business and technology center, which opened in 2006. University Business ranked the Center for the Performing Arts project 23rd among its top 35 smart building ideas for campuses nationwide.
Beyond that, the university is investing $2.5 million in the conversion of space in its library into a studio for academic creativity. Whitlock said EKU is mainly focused on student success, regional stewardship, and continued implementation of its quality enhancement plan, which is concentrated on developing students’ critical and creative thinking. The studio is meant to do just that.
To facilitate the evolution of instructional methods, EKU is working with faculty to ensure its development efforts are helping professors become more effective in the classroom and making them more comfortable with online instruction. Clearly, online instruction is much different than traditional methods. Providing the right incentive mix to motivate faculty to participate in what for many is new and different is critical to maintaining academic standards.
Although EKU is certainly a powerhouse in higher education, Whitlock knows it must continue finding ways to succeed despite dwindling resources caused by the stalled economy. “We must become more efficient without losing anything on the effectiveness side,” he said. “You can be efficient and not effective, and you can achieve results without being efficient, so we must make sure we continue to improve on both sides of that equation, because that will be a key part of our future.”
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