United We Stand: UK and the Commonwealth
Live streaming of today's Presidential Investiture ceremony will begin at 3:30 p.m. with pre-ceremony interviews, and the ceremony begins at 4 p.m.
If you are unable to view the live stream today, you may watch it in its entirety on the university's YouTube channel, www.youtube.com/universityofky, beginning Thursday, Oct. 20.
Also, follow @universityofky and the hash tag #UKInvestiture on Twitter for live tweets during the Presidential Investiture ceremony.
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For a transcript of the video above, click here.
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 18, 2011) − Since the creation of the Agricultural and Mechanical (A&M) College in 1865 by founder John Bowman under the Morrill Land-Grant College Act, the University of Kentucky has believed part of its core mission is to serve the Commonwealth. Though the presidents have changed through the years, this desire to help better the state has only grown with time at the university.
"As Kentuckians, it is interesting to see that they (UK's presidents) all understand this is a land-grant institution," says Terry Birdwhistell, dean of UK Libraries, who served the university first as an oral historian and an archivist. "What is come to be understood by most people is that it means we have a commitment to this place. And I think that each president has embraced that to some extent or another in terms of what it means to make this place better means it makes the state better."
After its inception, James K. Patterson became the presiding officer of the Kentucky University's A&M College in 1869. The state legislature formally separated the A&M College from KU in 1878 and Patterson assumed the position of president of the independent school that would later become the University of Kentucky. While Patterson proved a capable leader of the new institution, many questioned the president when he moved to make the college a university believing he was wrongly removing the college from its moorings in agricultural and engineering instruction, as mandated by the Morrill Land-Grant Act, and setting it on a course of becoming an essentially liberal arts institution. Little did they know what legacy of service lie ahead.
It would be UK's second president, Henry S. Barker, who received credit for putting an emphasis back on the land-grant mission. Barker felt agriculture and the school's promotion and nurture of the field throughout the state were vital. During his administration, the College of Agriculture increased in size and significance and the Agricultural Experiment Station was expanded. The agricultural work led to a sentiment of good will statewide and resulted in doubling of enrollment. The end of Barker's administration also saw the establishment of the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) in 1917 to provide instruction for military personnel participating in World War I. Barker resigned the presidency in 1917 and returned to Louisville, where he established a law practice.
Like Barker before him, President Frank L. McVey sought to better the relationship between UK and the citizens of the Commonwealth. UK's third president developed the University Extension program (known now as the Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service) which offered correspondence courses and transmitted instruction via radio to people in remote areas. In addition, McVey set up a University School, an experimental laboratory elementary and high school (that operated until 1962) under the direction of the new College of Education, and a university press (now University Press of Kentucky) that would serve the scholars of all the state's institutions. McVey retired in 1940.
As UK's fourth president, Herman L. Donovan, took over the reins of the presidency as the U.S. was about to go to war again. World War II would lead to the departure of male students from campus and a general decrease in male enrollment. To aid in the cause and ease demographic pressures created by this exodus, UK offered early graduation programs to ROTC enlistees as well as students drafted into the armed forces. The university also offered its facilities to the Army Specialized Training Program, which provided for the training of officers serving in the Army Corps of Engineers.
Donovan also had to prepare the campus for life after the war and the large influx of veterans who came to campus under the higher education benefit of the General Issue (G.I.) Bill. To accommodate the growing numbers on campus, the president was able to procure funding from the federal government for prefabricated student living quarters. This funding led to the construction of Cooperstown to house veterans and their families. Finally, Donovan's administration planned the creation of an extension center in Covington to serve citizens in Northern Kentucky. President Donovan stepped down in 1956.
The construction of the Medical Center to serve the citizens of Kentucky is considered by many the lasting legacy of President Frank G. Dickey. In 1954, in response to a feasibility study begun at the end of Donovan's term, UK announced plans for a center that would include colleges of medicine, dentistry and nursing; a hospital; student health service; and a medical library. In 1956, with Governor A.B. Chandler's public support and after a personal appeal by President Dickey to the Kentucky General Assembly, an initial appropriation of $5 million was approved for UK's proposal. The first medical students were admitted in the fall of 1960.
President Dickey is also credited with opening several off-campus extension centers that would eventually become UK's Community College System taking higher education to even more areas of the state. Dickey left UK in 1963 to serve as director of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
Under the leadership of President John W. Oswald, UK's Community College System expanded greatly. A former leader of the University of California college system, Oswald was a major supporter of the community college system and saw its potential serving the state.
"The University must open the door to quantity and recognizedthat within the next 10 years student enrollment may double. In this regard, we must realize the potential value of the University of Kentucky community colleges. They must be developed so as to be responsive to the needs both of the state and of their communities," said Oswald at his inaugural address.
Oswald would go on to open colleges in Elizabethtown, Hopkinsville, Louisville, Prestonsburg and Somerset, and chart plans for three more colleges in Hazard, Maysville and Paducah. His administration also saw the development of a two-year technical school on the Lexington campus.
The Oswald's tenure also included an expansion of the Cooperative Extension Service and the opening of the Lincoln School in 1966, an experimental program for culturally and economically deprived Kentucky youth. The school would only survive two years after Oswald resigned the presidency in 1968.
Otis A. Singletary took over the presidency from Albert D. Kirwan in 1969. His presidency of saw the expansion and development of several programs on campus aimed at serving the citizenry of Kentucky. The medical center and the community college system at UK saw significant growth during this time and the institution established such new programs as the Lucille Parker Markey Cancer Center, the Maxwell Gluck Equine Research Center and the Sanders-Brown Research Center on Aging.
Like Oswald and Singletary, Charles T. Wethington Jr. was also an advocate for the community college system. Before becoming the 10th president of UK, Wethington's terms as vice president and chancellor of the system saw the creation of a data communications system linking all the colleges together and with the Lexington campus, the implementation of an interactive library catalog program among the colleges and the central campus, the diversification of curricula in areas relating to business and industrial training, and significant increases in student enrollment.
When David P. Roselle resigned in 1989, Wethington was named interim president of UK. From the onset, one of Wethington's primary goals was to increase campus research making the university a stronger resource for the state. Under his administration, UK garnered $110 million from the Research Challenge Trust Fund, established by the Kentucky General Assembly, for UK research initiatives. This funding led to the creation of a new School of Public Health (now a college), the Advanced Science and Technology Commercialization Center (ASTeCC) and a UK-UofL Urban Design Studio, as well as the expansion of the Sanders-Brown Research Center on Aging and the development of the research campus at Coldstream Farm. During Wethington's term, UK faculty and staff attracted record funding for research contracts, grants and gifts and in 1999-2000 the school ranked 14th among land-grant institutions with regard to licensing and patent income. The university would also see the transfer of 13 of the 14 UK community colleges to the newly established Kentucky Community and Technical College System. Wethington retired in 2001.
President Lee T. Todd Jr.'s presidency saw a major emphasis on service to the state as part of the university's land-grant mission. The new president was passionate about bettering Kentucky's economy and making it more globally competitive. To this end, Todd established a new position in his administration, Vice President for Commercialization and Economic Development, to increase the use of university intellectual property to establish start-up companies. Todd was also instrumental in creating the Lexington Venture Club and the Bluegrass Angels Network and he served as an adviser to the E-Club, an organization for student entrepreneurs. These efforts led to increases in the amount of venture capital available in the region, the number of start-up companies formed by university faculty and staff, and the number of patents issued and royalties received by UK. In 2007, UK ranked seventh in start-up companies among all public and private universities, according to the Association of University Technology Managers.
Todd's belief that community outreach should be a university priority led to the creation of the Commonwealth Collaboratives initiative in 2005, but was among the goals outlined by the new president on his inauguration day in 2001 when he set forth some "Higher Purpose" goals for UK.
"I have spoken about the persistent problems in Kentucky, those problems that have held Kentucky back for generations," Todd said. "We are unfortunately a leader in the incidence of lung cancer, diabetes, and obesity. We are not the leaders in literacy or the economy. We must set priorities to target some of these problems, ones that will affect our health, our social well-being, our economic vitality, and our educational competitiveness. I want our best minds working on our toughest problems."
Echoing just that sentiment, the Commonwealth Collaboratives program combined the university's research and outreach missions and eventually featured 36 research projects aimed at solving the "Kentucky Uglies," a term President Todd used to describe the negative conditions hindering the state's future. UK's Commonwealth Collaborative projects continue to target issues related to health care, education, economic development, environmental conditions, and quality of life.
In an effort to improve health care around the state, President Todd unveiled plans in 2006 for the Commonwealth's Medical Campus of the Future, a multi-phased project aimed at providing Kentuckians with cutting-edge, 21st century health care. As part of this renovation of the university's medical campus, construction began on a new, one million square foot UK Albert B. Chandler Hospital. Pavilion A of the hospital opened in 2011 and the new Emergency Department opened in 2010.
Several other programs during Todd's tenure were aimed at serving the state. The university garnered a $25 million grant from the National Science Foundation to improve math and science education in Eastern Kentucky. The Health Education through Extension Leadership (HEEL) program, a partnership between the College of Public Health and the College of Agriculture and its Cooperative Extension Service, was established to deliver health and wellness information throughout Kentucky. And, UK continued to be a national leader in Cooperative Extension innovation with the creation of the first three fine arts extension agent positions in the U.S. Through the fine arts extension programs, the university is helping grow and promote thriving arts communities to help enhance their local economies. President Todd retired in the summer of 2011.
What outreach goals are ahead for UK? That is a question for the 12th president of the university, Dr. Eli Capilouto, to answer. To find out what is in store, come to Dr. Capilouto's investiture ceremony scheduled for 4 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 18, at the Singletary Center for the Arts Concert Hall. For more information on the ceremony, visit online at www.uky.edu/President/investiture.
MEDIA CONTACT: Whitney Hale, (859) 257-8716 or whitney.hale@uky.edu
