BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — Next Monday, Aug. 19., thousands of students will begin a new semester at Western Kentucky University. Before the semester begins, WKU’s president is celebrating the accomplishments of the past semesters and looking ahead to the new year.

In a speech to WKU employees, president Timothy Caboni said, “Students are first. Everything that we do, everything that we work for, is for students and their graduation.”

While outlining his vision, Caboni also touted the school’s recent accomplishments, like surpassing over $100 million for their opportunity fund, and WKU’s enrollment growth for the second year in a row. This was despite a nationwide FASFA fallout and delays from earlier this year.

Caboni said, “When you think about trends in the state and in the commonwealth, and also national trends participating in college, we’re going counter trend.”

The president also recognized some of the outstanding teachers. One was Dr. Marco Dumančić, a history professor, who was recognized for Distinguished and Outstanding Service to WKU, an award that has been given every year since 2002.

Dumančić said, “If you think about the folks who have won this award in the past, have been at the university for such a long time, that I thought I had many years of service ahead of me to be deserving of something like this.”

President Caboni said he wants to keep 80% of the freshman class. A number that he thought was originally nearly impossible.

Caboni said, “We’re at 79% of retention for our freshman students. When I got here, in 2017, we were 8% points lower than that. We set a bold goal of having a retention rate of 80%. We’re working as hard as we can to achieve that.”

Classes at WKU begin on Aug. 19. Their academic schedule can be found on WKU’s website.