University is Accredited

Fort Lewis College is a public liberal arts college located in Durango, Colorado. FLC is a member of the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges and is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, with additional program-level accreditations in Accounting, Business Administration, Economics, and Marketing; Athletic Training; Chemistry; Engineering Physics; Music; and Teacher Education. The college offers 30 bachelor's degrees through its four academic units. Because of its unique origins as a military fort turned Indian boarding school turned state public school, Fort Lewis College also follows a 1911 mandate to provide a tuition-free education for qualified Native Americans. Fort Lewis College awards approximately 16 percent of the baccalaureate degrees earned by Native American students in the nation. In 2008, FLC was designated as one of six Native American-serving, non-tribal colleges by the U.S. Department of Education.
  The first Fort Lewis army post was constructed in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, in 1878, and was relocated in 1880 to Hesperus, Colorado, on the southern slopes of the La Plata Mountains. In 1891, Fort Lewis was decommissioned and converted into a federal, off-reservation Indian boarding school.
In 1911, the fort's property and buildings in Hesperus were transferred to the state of Colorado to establish an "agricultural and mechanic arts high school." That deed came with two conditions: that the land would be used for an educational institution, and "to be maintained as an institution of learning to which Indian students will be admitted free of tuition and on an equality with white students" in perpetuity (Act of 61st Congress, 1911). Both conditions have been the missions and guides for the Fort Lewis school's various incarnations over the past century.
In the 1930s, the Fort Lewis high school expanded into a two-year college, and in 1948 became Fort Lewis A&M College, under control of State Board of Agriculture. The "Aggies" studying at the Fort Lewis Branch of the Colorado State College of Agriculture and Mechanics could choose from courses including agriculture, forestry, engineering, veterinary science, and home economics.
Fort Lewis College underwent another period of growth and changes starting in 1956, when the college moved from its long-time home in Hesperus to its present location, 18 miles east, atop what was then known as Reservoir Hill, overlooking Durango. Here, FLC became a four-year institution, awarding its first baccalaureate degrees in 1964.
Also in 1964, the college dropped the "A&M" moniker. At that time, the new Fort Lewis College also changed its mascot from "Aggies" to the "Raiders," and changed the school's colors from the green and yellow of the Colorado State University system it had been affiliated with to the blue and gold it still sports today.
In recent history: In 1994, the college's mascot became the Skyhawks, retaining the blue and gold. In 1995, Fort Lewis College joined the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges, and in 2002, the College became independent of the Colorado State University system, and formed its own governing Board of Trustees.
  The 247-acre Fort Lewis College campus is in southwestern Colorado is situated at 6,872 feet atop a mesa overlooking the Animas River Valley and downtown Durango. A network of trails as well as city bus service (free to students with FLC IDs) connects the campus and town.
The campus' distinctive architectural theme utilizes locally quarried sandstone to acknowledge the region's Native puebloan building style and evoke the Four Corners landscape and colors. The style was crafted by prominent Boulder architect James M. Hunter, who was contracted to establish a campus building plan by the college in the late 1950s, following the college's move from Hesperus, Colorado, to its Durango location.
Today, on-campus housing is in six residence halls and two apartment buildings, with singles, doubles, and suites. Also on campus are 14 academic buildings, as well as a Student Life Center, Aquatic Center, and Student Union. On-campus athletic facilities include Ray Dennison Memorial Field, Dirks Field, the Softball Complex, Whalen Gymnasium, and the Factory Trails, an off-road bicycling race course.
  The new Student Union opened in Fall 2011, and now hosts the college's cultural centers, the Native American Center and El Centro de Muchos Colores, as well as student government, the Environmental Center, the post office, and the bookstore. The new Student Union also offers several dining options, and houses both a Leadership Center and a Media Center that includes the college's news magazine, literary journal, and KDUR radio station.
The Student Union building was awarded LEED Gold status in August by the U.S. Green Building Council for its sustainability features. It is the third LEED Gold building on campus, along with the Berndt Hall Biology Wing and the residential Animas Hall. Those environmental awards helped FLC be named one of "America's Coolest Schools" by Sierra magazine, the official publication of the Sierra Club, in 2011.
Through the Common Reading Experience, students, faculty, and Durango community members explore ideas together by reading and discussing the same book and the issues it highlights. Since its creation in 2006, the Common Reading Experience has examined books including Folding Paper Cranes: An Atomic Memoir; Mountains beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World; Enrique's Journey: The Story of a Boy's Dangerous Odyssey to Reunite with his Mother; Outcasts United: An American Town, a Refugee Team, and One Woman's Quest to Make a Difference; and The Heart & the Fist: The education of a humanitarian, the making of a Navy seal.
  The Center for Civic Engagement's Community Based Learning & Research program supports faculty and students in constructing their civic-engagement learning experiences. The program oversees all course, project, and independent work to see they meet the standards of best practice as approved by campus and community reviewers.
The program also compiles a Civic Engagement Transcript students can receive after graduation. The transcript is separate from but augments the college's standard transcript by supplying an officially recognized and quantified listing of experiences in participatory community work both in and out of classes. The transcript also includes a brief description of each activity to serve as a guide for employers or institutions that later refer to the record. The transcript records five areas of civic-engagement experience and accomplishment.

Emporia State University, often referred to as Emporia State or ESU, is a public university in Emporia, Kansas, United States, east of the Flint Hills. Established in March 1863 and originally known as the Kansas State Normal School, Emporia State is the third oldest public university in the state of Kansas. Emporia State is one of six public universities governed by the Kansas Board of Regents. The university offers degrees in more than 80 courses of study through 4 colleges: the School of Business, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, School of Library and Information Management, and The Teachers College. The Teachers College is one of only four post-secondary institutions in the nation to be identified as an Exemplary Model Teacher Education program by Arthur Levine in his 2006 national study of teacher education programs. Emporia State's intercollegiate athletic teams are known as the Hornets with the exception of the women's teams, which are known as the Lady Hornets. Emporia State competes in NCAA Division II and is a member of the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA). Since joining the NCAA Division II in 1991, the Lady Hornets basketball team is the only team to win a NCAA championship.
The university was founded in March 1863 when the Kansas Legislature passed the enabling act to establish the Kansas State Normal School. Although the university was established in 1863, the first class didn't begin until February 15, 1865. The first president of the Kansas Normal School and its only teacher, Lyman Beecher Kellogg, taught 18 students on the second floor of the district school house. At the first commencement on June 28, 1867, the graduating class consisted of two women Ellen Plumb and Mary Jane Watson; the first, Judge Watson's daughter and the second from Senator Preston B. Plumb's family. Kellogg saw to it that the Normal got off to an good start before becoming a successful lawyer, honored judge, and Attorney General of Kansas. The school's first graduating class consisted of two women Ellen Plumb and Mary Jane Watson in 1867, the year the first permanent building was completed. The name "Normal" originated in France during the 17th century and was given to schools that had "model" classrooms or schools designed to educate teachers-in-training the proper practices of teaching students. The United States had many Normal schools in the 19th century and most changed their names to "Teachers College". Many later became "State Universities."
KSN branched out with locations in Pittsburg and Hays, Kansas. The western branch in Hays opened June 3, 1902 and is today known as Fort Hays State University. The Pittsburg branch was opened as the Manual Training Auxiliary School in 1904 and became a four-year school named Kansas State Teachers College of Pittsburg in 1913. Today it is Pittsburg State University.
In February 1923, the name of the school was changed to the Kansas State Teachers College. In July 1974, the name was changed to Emporia Kansas State College. On April 21, 1977, the college became Emporia State University. Even before any of the name changes were made official by the Kansas Legislature and Board of Regents, though, the school was called Emporia State unofficially by some in the public and in many news reports.

Dr. Michael Shonrock became the 16th president of Emporia State University on Jan. 3, 2012. On April 9, 2015, it was announced that Michael Shonrock was stepping down to become president at Lindenwood University, effective June 1; his last day was May 29. Former Butler Community College president, Dr. Jacqueline Vietti is the interim president who started June 1. By enrollment, Emporia State is the seventh-largest university in Kansas. In the Fall 2014 semester, Emporia State set a record enrollment with 6,114 students. Emporia State University comprises four colleges: the School of Business, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, School of Library and Information Management, and the Teachers College.
In July 2013, Emporia State University was named a "Great College to Work For" by The Chronicle of Higher Education and Princeton Review included ESU among its "Best of the Midwest" institutions of higher education. Emporia State University was again named a "Great College to Work For" in 2014 by The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Emporia State University is accredited by the The Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. The university offers degrees in more than 80 courses of study. Emporia State has a satellite campus in Kansas City, which is mostly online classes, but some classes are held in the building.

Fort Hays State University (FHSU) is a public, co-educational university located in Hays, Kansas, United States. It is the fourth-largest of the six state universities governed by the Kansas Board of Regents, with an enrollment of approximately 11,200 students (4,000 undergraduate, 1,200 graduate, and 6,000 online students). FHSU was founded in 1902 as the Western Branch of Kansas State Normal School which is now known as Emporia State University. The institution was originally located on the grounds of Fort Hays, a frontier military outpost that was closed in 1889. The university served the early settlers' needs for educational facilities in the new region. The first building closer to Hays was completed in 1904, at which time the university moved to its present location. The modern campus is still located on a portion of the former military reservation from the fort. FHSU was first to be founded as an agricultural based school but was then determined to be a normal school. The normal school was supposed to be supported in part by the agricultural experiment station. For years the University Dairy Unit supplied to school cafeteria with fresh milk.
In March 2014, it was announced that Dodge City Community College might become part of Fort Hays State University under a proposal that would create the first public four-year degree-granting college in southwest Kansas. The college would then be known as Fort Hays State University at Dodge City if the plan is approved by the Kansas Board of Regents. Fort Hays faculty might teach other four-year programs in Dodge City, while courses typically taken by college freshmen and sophomores would remain the same. The proposal would also require $10 million to build a technical institute and $5 million per year in state funding. If the Board of Regents approve it, then it must also be approved by the state Legislature and the governor.

On November 11, 2014, the community college's Board of Trustees voted 3-3 on a proposal that recommended that Fort Hays become an upper division college and technical institute in Dodge City, with the Dodge City college remaining independent. With this vote, the merger has collapsed and will not happen.
The main campus sits on 200 acres (0.81 km2) of the 4,160 acres (16.8 km2) owned by the state and deeded to the university. The campus property includes more than 40 limestone-faced buildings. Big Creek, a winding stream that traverses the campus, not only enhances the beauty of the campus, but also serves as a natural laboratory for students in the biological sciences. The campus is located just to the west of the Hays business district, two miles (3 km) south of Interstate 70. Several businesses in downtown Hays cater specifically to FHSU students.
In addition to supporting the general needs of faculty, staff and students, Forsyth Library has a large collection of fiction and nonfiction material about Kansas and the American West, supported in part by the Elmer and Eartha Pugh Trust Fund. Topics include railroads, the cattle industry, cowboys, Native Americans and frontier life.
The William D. Pashchal World War II History Collection, donated by retired dentist William Paschal, contains books, declassified government documents, maps, photographs, and other materials.

The university's Sternberg Museum of Natural History features interactive natural science exhibitions, many traveling and temporary exhibitions, an acclaimed Discovery Room, and a Museum Store. The museum houses over 100,000 square feet (10,000 m2) of dinosaurs, fossils, prehistoric animals, giant sea-swimming lizards and fish that inhabited Kansas over 70-80 million years ago. The Sternberg Museum also includes more than 3.7 million specimens in collections of paleontology, geology, history, archaeology, ethnology, botany, entomology, ichthyology, herpetology, ornithology and mammalogy. One will find that all these major exhibits contain at least one creature/plant named after Sternberg.
The university's museum was renamed the Sternberg Memorial Museum after the death in 1969 of George Sternberg, who had developed it. The current museum was formed in 1991 when the university's museum was merged with the Museum of the High Plains.
The museum is the home of the famous Cretaceous fossil Gillicus in Xiphactinus, better known as the "fish within a fish," which shows a small fossil fish inside the stomach of a larger fossil fish.
In 2010, researchers at the museum showed that plankton-eating fish flourished in the ocean at the same time as the dinosaurs, filling in a 106-million-year gap in the fossil record. One of the authors of the paper was Mike Everhart, a curator of paleontology at the museum.
FHSU comprises four colleges (Arts and Sciences, Business and Entrepreneurship, Education and Technology, and Health and Life Sciences) which together have 30 departments and offer more than 60 academic majors for undergraduates and 19 for graduate students. Students at FHSU can obtain Associate's degrees in office technology and radiologic technology; do their preprofessional study at FHSU then transfer to a medical or law school; obtain bachelor's and master's degrees; and in some areas of the curriculum, can earn specialist's degrees.

FHSU also offers online degrees through its "Virtual College". The "Virtual College" evolved from the Department of Continuing Education and Learning Technology in 1999. It is responsible for offering a variety of online courses and degrees to students that are not able to be on campus. The "Virtual College" currently offers 19 bachelor's degrees and 10 master's degrees online. It also offers endorsements and certificates online. It is fully accredited by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. FHSU's online programs in counseling, human resources, IT and computer science, and nursing are ranked in the top 5 in each category for most affordable programs of their kind in the United States. The "Virtual College" has strategic partnerships with the military, community colleges across the country, and universities world wide. Recently, over 5,800 students from over 27 countries, and ranging in age from 18 to over 70 were enrolled in the "Virtual College."

Kansas State University, commonly shortened to Kansas State or K-State, is a public research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. Kansas State was opened as the state's land-grant college in 1863 the first public institution of higher learning in the state of Kansas. It had a record high enrollment of 24,766 students for the Fall 2014 semester. Branch campuses are located in Salina and Olathe. Salina houses the College of Technology and Aviation. The Olathe Innovation Campus is the academic research presence within the Kansas Bioscience Park, where graduate students participate in research bioenergy, animal health, plant science and food safety and security. The university is classified as a research university with high research (RU/H) by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. Kansas State's academic offerings are administered through nine colleges, including the College of Veterinary Medicine and the College of Technology and Aviation in Salina. Graduate degrees offered include 65 master's degree programs and 45 doctoral degrees.
Kansas State University, originally named Kansas State Agricultural College, was founded in Manhattan on February 16, 1863, during the American Civil War, as a land-grant institution under the Morrill Act. The school was the first land-grant college created under the Morrill Act. K-State is the third-oldest school in the Big 12 Conference and the oldest public institution of higher learning in the state of Kansas.

The effort to establish the school began in 1861, the year that Kansas was admitted to the United States. One of the new state legislature's top priorities involved establishing a state university. That year, the delegation from Manhattan introduced a bill to convert Blue Mont Central College a private college incorporated in Manhattan in 1850 into the state university. But the bill establishing the university in Manhattan was controversially vetoed by Governor Charles L. Robinson of Lawrence, and an attempt to override the veto in the Legislature failed by two votes. In 1862, another bill to make Manhattan the site of the state university failed by one vote. Finally, upon the third attempt on February 16, 1863, the state accepted Manhattan's offer to donate the Blue Mont College building and grounds and established the state's land-grant college at the site the institution that would become Kansas State University.
The early years of the institution witnessed debate over whether the college should provide a focused agricultural education or a full liberal arts education. During this era, the tenor of the school shifted with the tenure of college presidents. For example, President John A. Anderson (1873-1879) favored a limited education and President George T. Fairchild (1879-1897) favored a classic liberal education. Fairchild was credited with saying, "Our college exists not so much to make men farmers as to make farmers men.

During this era, in 1873, Kansas State helped pioneer the academic teaching of home economics for women, becoming one of the first two colleges to offer the program of study. In 1874, the college also became the first in the United States to offer printing courses, which led to journalism courses being launched in 1910; thus, today's A.Q. Miller School of Journalism & Mass Communications, though no longer teaching printing, has the nation's longest continuously offered curriculum in mass communication. In November 1928, the school was accredited by the Association of American Universities (AAU) as a school whose graduates were deemed capable of advanced graduate work. The name of the school was changed in 1931 to Kansas State College of Agriculture and Applied Science. In 1959, the Kansas legislature changed the name again to Kansas State University of Agriculture and Applied Science to reflect a growing number of graduate programs, although as a practical and legal matter it has since been referred to as Kansas State University. Milton S. Eisenhower served as president of the university from 1943 to 1950, and Dr. James McCain succeeded him, serving from 1950 to 1975. Several buildings, including residence halls and a student union, were added to the campus in the 1950s. The 1960s witnessed demonstrations against the Vietnam War, though fewer than at other college campuses. Enrollment was relatively high through most of the 1970s, but the university endured a downward spiral from approximately 1976 to 1986, when enrollment decreased to 17,570 and a number of faculty resigned. In 1986, Jon Wefald assumed the presidency of Kansas State University. During his tenure, enrollment and donations increased.
On June 15, 2009, Kirk Schulz became the 13th president of Kansas State University. In March 2010 he announced his K-State 2025 plan. The initiative is designed to elevate K-State to a top 50 nationally recognized research university by 2025. When the state legislature established the state's land-grant college in Manhattan on February 16, 1863, it distinguished it from the "state university" required by the Kansas Constitution. The state university was subsequently established in Lawrence later in the month, provided that town could meet certain requirements. Because both institutions are now universities, this has created some semantic controversy in recent years over which institution Kansas State University or the University of Kansas - is the state's "oldest public university." Which is the "oldest" perhaps depends on how the term is defined. Kansas State was founded first and began teaching college-level classes in 1863, six years before the University of Kansas. But Kansas State was originally intended to be primarily an agricultural and scientific college (consistent with the land-grant college mandate) and was not officially labeled a university until 1959, while KU has been labeled a "university" since its enabling legislation was enacted in November 1863. Therefore, Kansas State University is indisputably the state's first public institution of higher learning, but it may also be proper to say that the University of Kansas was the state's first public university. The oldest university overall in the state is Baker University, established as a private university in 1858.

Wichita State University (WSU) is a public research university in Wichita, Kansas, United States. It is the third-largest university governed by the Kansas Board of Regents. Wichita State University offers more than 60 undergraduate degree programs in more than 200 areas of study in six colleges. The Graduate School offers 44 master's degrees in more than 100 areas and a specialist in education degree. It offers doctoral degrees in applied mathematics; audiology; chemistry; communicative disorders and sciences; nursing practice; physical therapy; psychology programs in human factors, community and APA-accredited clinical psychology; educational administration; aerospace, industrial and mechanical engineering; and electrical engineering and computer science. Wichita State University also hosts classes at four satellite locations. West Campus is located in Maize. This 9-acre (3.6 ha) campus hosts 100-150 university classes each academic semester. The university's South Campus began offering Wichita State University coursework at a new facility in Derby in January 2008. The WSU Downtown Center houses the university's Center for Community Support & Research and the Department of Physical Therapy. A quarter-mile northeast of campus, the Advanced Education in General Dentistry building, built in 2011, houses classrooms and a dental clinic. It is adjacent to the university's 75,000-square-foot 7,000 m2 Eugene M. Hughes Metropolitan Complex, where many of WSU noncredit courses are taught. Wichita State University began in 1886 as Fairmount College, a private Congregational preparatory school, founded by Rev. Joseph Homer Parker. Initially it was referred to as "Young Ladies College", "Wichita Ladies College", and "Congregational Female College". It was to admit women twelve years and older who were "able to read, write, spell and recite the parts of speech." Support came mainly from the Plymouth Congregational Church to build it, but the school never opened its doors. In 1892, a corporation bought the property and named the preparatory school Fairmount Institute. It opened in September to men and women, with an emphasis on training in preaching or teaching. It closed because of financial difficulties. In 1895, on the same site, Fairmount College opened collegiate classes for men and women with funding by the Congregational Education Society. Amid growing financial troubles, the college's supporters tried to get the city of Wichita to buy it in 1925, but failed. A second referendum passed in 1926, and that fall it became the Municipal University of Wichita (popularly known as "Wichita University" or "WU"). It was the first municipal university west of the Mississippi, and catered to students of limited means. On July 1, 1964, the school officially entered the state system of higher education as Wichita State University (WSU).

WSU is one of three research institutions in the state of Kansas, along with Kansas State University (KSU) and the University of Kansas (KU). The Main Campus is located at 1845 North Fairmount in northeast Wichita, is mostly bounded between the streets of 17th & 21st and Hillside & Oliver. Research facilities include the National Institute for Aviation Research, biology research labs (Hubbard Hall), the WSU Field Station, chemistry research labs (McKinley Hall), and physics research labs (Jabara Hall). The campus includes the Edwin A. Ulrich Museum of Art.
WSU has four satellite campuses: The South Campus is located at 200 West Greenway in Derby, Kansas, began offering Wichita State University coursework in January 2008. The West Campus is located at 3801 North Walker in northwest Wichita near Maize, Kansas. This 9 acre (3.6 ha) campus hosts 100-150 university classes each academic semester. Wichita State University was ranked the 35th top college in the United States by the Social Mobility Index college rankings. Wichita State is placed among National Universities in the United States in rankings done by US News & World Report. For all engineering research and development expenditures, WSU ranked No. 63 in the USA for year 2013, with $47 million The National Science Foundation ranked Wichita State University No. 4 among all U.S. universities in money spent on aerospace research and development in fiscal year 2013, with $39 million in expenditures and No. 1 in industry-funded aerospace R&D. Wichita State's W. Frank Barton School of Business was listed in The Princeton Review 2011 "301 Best Business Schools," ranked as the 11th best program in the country for students seeking an undergraduate degree in entrepreneurship for 2007.

The Aerospace Engineering department was founded in 1928 and has longstanding collaborative relationships with Airbus North America, Boeing, Bombardier-Learjet, Cessna, Hawker Beechcraft, Spirit AeroSystems, and other Wichita aviation concerns. The department teaches in the areas of composites, structures, Engineering mechanics, computational Fluid dynamics, applied Aerodynamics, and Flight simulation. Students can readily do internships at the nearby airports and many airplane company like Cessna, Learjet, etc.

The Wichita State University Libraries have holdings of more than 2 million volumes, over 200 electronic databases and more than 70,000 journal subscriptions. The University Libraries consist of the main Ablah Library, the McKinley Chemistry Library, the Thurlow Lieurance Music Library and University Libraries Special Collections. The libraries are open to community users and serve as a regional United States Federal Government Documents Depository, a State of Kansas Government Documents Depository, and is the State of Kansas' only Patents and Trademarks Library. WSU Special Collections and University Archives contains numerous rare books, incunabula, historical manuscripts collections, maps and photographic archives documenting Kansas history, as well as hosting the Wichita Photo Archives. In 2014, WSU President Dr. John Bardo announced plans to launch a major academic and student life initiative, dubbed the "Innovation University." The plan kicked off with the completion of renovations to the university's student union, the Rhatigan Student Center, and the opening of Shocker Hall, a new 318,000-square-foot, 784-bed housing facility on the main campus. It includes public/private partnerships with domestic and international companies that would build offices on the WSU main campus and collaborate with the students and faculty on research projects and product development through a technology transfer system. The university has secured partnerships with three companies: Wichita-based ABI Group of Companies; Sunnyvale, Calif.-based NetApp; and the Indian IT firm Tech Mahindra. The plan calls for the addition of more than 20 new buildings, including a prospective new building for the Frank W. Barton School of Business a new residence hall, commercial offices, "creative collision" facilities, two mixed-use developments and a hotel. Ground will break on the first building, the Technology Transfer/Experiential Learning Building, in Q1 2015. The development will occur on the site of the WSU-owned Braeburn Golf Course adjacent to campus, which closed in November.

Western Kentucky University is a public university in Bowling Green, Kentucky, United States. It was founded by the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1906, though its roots reach back a quarter-century earlier. In the fall 2011 semester, enrollment was approximately 21,000. The subject of heavy construction since the late 1990s, the main campus sits atop a hill with a commanding view of the Barren River valley. The campus flows from the top of College Heights, also known as The Hill, down its north, south and west faces. WKU also operates a satellite campus in Bowling Green (WKU South Campus Academic Wing) and regional campuses in Glasgow, Elizabethtown-Fort Knox and Owensboro. The roots of Western Kentucky University go back to 1875 with the founding of the privately owned Glasgow Normal School in Glasgow, Kentucky. This institution moved to Bowling Green in 1885 and became the Southern Normal School and Business College. The student body and building were transferred to the Western Kentucky State Normal School, when it was created by an act of the Kentucky General Assembly in 1906. The owner of the Southern Normal School, Henry Hardin Cherry, became the first president of the new school. Classes began on January 22, 1906. The school moved to its present location in 1911 on property that had been purchased in 1909 when the Pleasant J. Potter College closed.

In 1922, the school was authorized by the state to grant four-year degrees and was renamed "Western Kentucky State Normal School and Teachers College". The first four-year degrees were awarded in 1924. In 1927, the school merged with Ogden College, which occupied an adjacent campus. The name changed again in 1930 to "Western Kentucky State Teachers College". The school was authorized to offer the Master of Arts degree in 1931. Another name change took place in 1948, when the school became simply "Western Kentucky State College".
WKSC merged with the Bowling Green College of Commerce, formerly the Bowling Green Business University, in 1963. Bowling Green Business University had originally been a part of the Southern Normal School and had been sold off by Henry Hardin Cherry when Southern Normal School was transferred to the state. The structure of the institution changed at this time, dividing into separate colleges. Bowling Green College of Commerce maintained its identity in this way. The Graduate School also became a constituent college. In 1965, three additional colleges were created. In 1966, Western Kentucky State College became Western Kentucky University.
For many years, the school was popularly known as "Western," as indicated in its fight song, "Stand Up and Cheer." However, in recent years has indicated it prefers to be called by its initials.
As of 2007, twenty-seven alumni of WKU's photo and print journalism programs have been awarded thirteen Pulitzer Prizes, including eleven alumni recognized for their coverage of the Carrollton bus crash. The school publishes a twice-weekly newspaper, the College Heights Herald.

Western Kentucky University's forensics (speech and debate) team is consistently ranked as one of the best teams in the country. The team has won the American Forensic Association (AFA) and National Forensic Association (NFA) national championships multiple times since 2003. It has also won the International Forensic Association's (IFA) international championship every year it has attended. The team remains the only team in the nation ever to win the AFA, NFA, IFA, and NFA debate championship in the same year, a feat it has accomplished multiple times. The team hosts several tournaments for junior high and senior high students each fall, as well as a large speech and debate summer camp each July. WKU is also home to the largest American master's degree program in folklore; it is contained within the Department of Folk Studies and Anthropology. It is unique among American folklore programs for its public folklore program and is one of the few schools in Kentucky to offer a focus in historic preservation.
In the fall of 2009, WKU began its bachelor's degree program in popular culture studies, being only the second university in America to offer such a program (the other being Bowling Green State University). Also in the fall of 2009, an independent Doctor of Education (EdD) program in educational leadership began at WKU.

The men's athletic teams are known as the Hilltoppers and the women's teams as the Lady Toppers. Their mascot is known as Big Red. The mascot itself has become one of the most popular characters in collegiate sports, even appearing in a series of ESPN promotions. WKU was a member of the Sun Belt Conference from 1982 to 2014. From 1948 to 1982, it was a member of the Ohio Valley Conference. On July 1, 2014 all WKU athletics moved to Conference USA (C-USA).
The WKU swim team, before its suspension after the 2014-15 season, consistently placed in the top 5 in the Mid-Major National Rankings. In 2006 their men were undefeated in dual meets and were Sun Belt Conference Champions. The women won five consecutive championships from 2001-2005.In 2005, after 37 years as head coach, Coach Bill Powell became an assistant coach, and holds record for being the second winningest coach in men's swimming in NCAA dual meet history.
In January 2015, former swimmer Colin Craig told police that he had been assaulted and forced to drink alcohol, even though at the time he was too young to buy or drink alcohol. He also reported numerous incidents of hazing at a house near campus. An investigation by both police and school officials subsequently revealed numerous incidents of drug use and sexually charged hazing dating back to at least 2012. Powell's successor, Bruce Marchionda, was aware of this behavior and did nothing to prevent it, even though it violated numerous university policies on hazing, sexual harassment and sexual misconduct. One swimmer was charged with possession of marijuana. On April 14, WKU officials announced the swimming and diving program would be suspended for five years due to what school president Gary Ransdell called a "pervasive" and "intolerable" environment in the program.
The baseball team has enjoyed some success recently as well, winning the Sun Belt Conference tournament championship in 2009. In April 2010, the WKU baseball team defeated the University of Kentucky 24-8 in a game at Bowling Green Ballpark. The crowd of 6,183 set the record for largest crowd to ever attend a college baseball game in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.