Help secure the future of Student Pubs
Over the past 50-plus years, as students, alumni and staff, we have all worked to create something special on the Hill.
WKU Student Publications has changed and evolved, especially over the past decade, but one thing remains constant: Our students are devoted to producing excellent coverage of the WKU community, important journalism that dives deep into both the challenges and successes of our university along with stunning visual storytelling that puts life on display.
And more than ever before, we’re relying on the money we bring in to support what our students do.
Student Pubs has made adjustments and innovations to meet a challenging media landscape — changes in the reading habits of the WKU community, the shift in advertising support away from traditional media, the vast expansion of digital work by our students and the introduction of events and specialty publications and platforms to support our central mission.
We’ve also worked to meet the realities of WKU’s budget, which is about $20 million smaller today than it was in 2018. Nearly every year over the past decade, we have faced cuts in our university budget but have worked to absorb the hits in ways that minimized the impact on our students.
We have arrived at a point where cuts imposed for 2024-25 have gone deeper than muscle and bone, and where we face a “tax,” as one member of the Board of Regents called it, on the revenue we generate — and where money left in our revenue account is being taken by the university.
The situation leaves us without the ability to meet the needs of our student-run media lab.
We are looking to you to help us chart a path forward. We hope to raise money to offset the immediate cuts and then to build an endowment to protect our core operations for the long term. We also are exploring how we can build a fence around the advertising revenues we generate to protect them from being swept by the university. And we’re looking for opportunities to show the WKU community how the successes of the College Heights Herald and the Talisman, and of our alumni, enhance WKU’s reputation.
Preserving our students’ experience — especially with our flagship publications — is crucial.
Consider your own experience on the Talisman, the Herald, Advertising or Cherry Creative. Think about how it helped shape you. We hope you’ll pay it forward and help preserve that experience for this and the next generations of students.
Anything you can do will help. Small contributions add up quickly. Every dime that comes in will go toward giving students the kinds of opportunities that have helped so many of us launch successful careers and build meaningful lives.
