BY DAVID MAMARIL HOROWITZ

david.horowitz@bgdailynews.com

With an extensive renovation at First Christian Church set to begin, its widely used ministry Community Grocery Store is temporarily moving to State Street Baptist Church — which, in time, plans to also offer the program.

The volunteer-driven operation, previously available three days a week, lets Warren County residents choose items from its food bank free of charge once every 30 days.

Beginning May 20, State Street Baptist Church, which has its own small food pantry operation, will provide a space for the larger program Tuesdays, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., and Thursdays, 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. First Christian Church volunteers will guide those at State Street Baptist Church on how to execute the program, and they plan to pass on its shelving and food following the renovation — the Baptist church plans to then offer its own community grocery store program once the initial program moves back into the Christian church, according to State Street Baptist Church Senior Pastor the Rev. Kortney Warren.

“When I became the pastor in 2021, the vision I had was to be a community church — and that means serving the community,” Warren said. “So, in what ways are we able to serve the community as Christ was serving the community? What ways can we expand what we have to reach more people? …

“We may worship differently, but we serve the same God. And that God calls us to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, uplift the broken together.”

First Christian Church Senior Minister the Rev. Megan Huston anticipates the $1.7 million renovation will reach completion around November.

“A lot of the community thinks the churches are divided because that’s the most segregated day of the week — Sunday,” said Johnalma Barnett, one of the Community Grocery Store’s longtime volunteers. “I think it’s going to be a good thing for the two churches, even if it’s just for a few months, to get together on that because it shows the community that the churches are not so divided.”

A community model

The First Christian Church evolved from its decadeslong food bank to the community grocery store model in 2021, a transition that has effectively served thousands across Warren County. Food insecurity had especially risen through the COVID-19 pandemic, during which Huston saw need increase around fivefold at the food bank.

Last year, with around 35 volunteers, the program took in nearly 36,000 pounds of donated goods and served more than 3,800 households, Huston said. It also distributed more than 17,000 pounds of fresh produce, largely provided by the not-for-profit Glean Kentucky, which served southcentral Kentucky until the end of last year.

“First Christian Church loves its neighbors and walks alongside them with dignity, hope, compassion and respect while supplementing their food needs through the Community Grocery Store — that’s our mission,” Huston said. “I think we’re moving the needle for food insecurity in our community, but I also think that what’s important to us about this ministry is that it emphasizes mutual transformation. It isn’t about us fixing someone else’s problems — we know it’s a drop in the bucket — but we feel that when you meet someone with respect and compassion, that that makes the difference.”

She and volunteers described supporting community members in other ways.

“People have a story, and maybe we can help them in some other way, whether it’s helping them with other resources or just listening to them, giving them a hug, or saying a prayer with them. We try to be more than just a food source,” volunteer Julie Boca said.

“I think it’s given me a sense of purpose. And I just feel like it’s something that I really get a lot of satisfaction from. Our volunteers always say that we’re thankful that we can help people, but that we’re also blessed by helping them because we get a glimpse of what other people are going through and we get to know them on a first-name basis.”

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DAVID MAMARIL HOROWITZ

david.horowitz@bgdailynews.com

Gatton Academy at Western Kentucky University, the two-year STEM program serving gifted and talented high school juniors and seniors, expects to substantially increase opportunities through a $5 million gift announced Saturday.

The donation, from the Bill Gatton Foundation, will function as an endowment, where WKU will annually spend about 4%, or some $200,000, toward supporting students, WKU President Tim Caboni said. This will enable at least 22 students to acquire research opportunities over future summers beginning next year – double the current number, Gatton Academy Executive Director Julia Roberts said; it’ll also support students who need funds to study abroad as well as other opportunities, Caboni said.

“Our students and our alum tell us that their research and study abroad experiences are instrumental in their choosing to pursue STEM and their career decisions in the future,” Gatton Academy Director Lynette Breedlove said at the announcement, which was attended by academy graduates outside the building. “We know from our alumni reports that Gatton is working, and we are contributing to the STEM workforce pipeline through the experiences that we offer. And that endowment that Mr. Gatton made possible for our students to take advantage of, and research, is a big part of that success that we’ve had.”

An additional donation, of $250,000, will go toward a scholarship fund at LifeWorks for Autism, a nonprofit beside the campus that prepares autistic young adults for transitioning to employment and independent living.

The donation is the second-largest gift in the Gatton Academy’s history, following that which funded the building’s renovation and expansion of Florence Schneider Hall. The foundation has provided WKU more than $24.6 million in gifts, according to Caboni.

For Gatton Academy graduate Ava Blackledge, the academy’s research internship grant funded eight weeks of research on viral protein interactions with distinguished WKU professor Rodney King and the biology department. It covered summer housing and her meal plan, and a $500 grant funded DNA sequencing for her samples.

“It was a very formative experience, one that gave me a true glimpse into the life of a full-time scientific researcher,” Blackledge said. “I wouldn’t have had an opportunity like this without (the grant). I came in passionate about molecular biology but unsure of career options, and I left certain I wanted to dedicate my life to biological research.”

Speakers expressed gratitude toward the foundation, which was established by the late philanthropist and businessman Carol Martin “Bill” Gatton, who died in 2022.

“(The academy) really transforms (students’) educational careers – but also their lives,” Caboni said. “They discover for the first time what it means to be a researcher, many of them, and it puts them on a path to do really amazing things in their career.”

Roberts called the gift unbelievable.

“It is a wonderful way to carry forward the work of the Gatton Academy students forever,” she said.

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david.horowitz@bgdailynews.com

The Tennessee Valley Authority on Wednesday announced $10,000 grants for Bowling Green High, Dishman-McGinnis Elementary, North Warren Elementary, Edmonson County 5/6 Center and Edmonson County Middle School.

These grants, through TVA’s EnergyRights School Uplift program, total $2.3 million across its coverage region and go toward reducing energy costs and improving learning environments, according to the TVA.

The program partners with local power companies to provide yearlong energy management training at schools to accomplish those two aims, according to the Bowling Green Independent School District.

The Environmental Club and Science Club at BGHS promoted energy conservation this year through efforts that include an Earth Day Celebration and “Power Down Days,” offering incentives for power reduction efforts, according to BGISD.

BGHS students voted to use the grant funding for an indoor garden and aquaponics system along with activities for the school courtyard, including a cornhole set and enlarged chess and checkerboard, according to BGISD.

Dishman-McGinnis STEAM Teacher Kayla Rogers has shared energy-saving tips through her curriculum, and those tips are part of morning weekly meetings at the school, according to BGISD. The school also studies monthly energy efforts through BGISD’s facilities department, BGISD stated.

Dishman-McGinnis will use its funding for school-wide enrichment activities, one being a summer trip to Mammoth Cave, according to BGISD.

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DAVID MAMARIL HOROWITZ

david.horowitz@bgdailynews.com

Nine of 10 regional counties ranked mental health care first or second among their most pressing health needs – one of numerous main findings published in the region’s recently released regional health assessment and plan.

The nonprofit Barren River Initiative to Get Healthy Together coalition, which comprises 47 organizations and spans 10 southcentral Kentucky counties, at its Wednesday meeting released the Community Health Assessment results and Community Health Improvement Plan for 2025-2028.

The assessment, which extracted numerous findings from 1,783 survey responses and some interviews, aimed to learn community members’ perspectives and experiences about BRIGHT’s priorities: physical health, mental health, nutrition, diabetes, substance use disorders, tobacco use and vaping prevention, and other community health needs.

Volunteer-driven BRIGHT committees, each assigned to an area of health, distilled data ahead of the public release and identified six sets of priority findings – which BRIGHT Communications Specialist Olivia McGee said “were key in creating” the goals and objectives of the plan – and these committees developed the goals for their respective areas that they’ll work to accomplish.

Mental health care getting ranked so highly as a need was one of the priority survey findings. Another, within the “nutrition” area, was that 16% reported going without food one to five times within the past 30 days “due to a lack of money or resources.”

As an example of the process concerning the latter, BRIGHT’s nutrition committee identified a goal of enhancing food access and nutrition education by “bridging resource gaps, fostering partnerships and empowering communities to make healthy food choices.”

One objective for accomplishing that is expanding awareness of meal resources such as food banks to improve access to food by 10%. And a strategy for that objective is collaborating with the Warren County Public Library to enhance its “Start Here Warren County” resource by completing and distributing a comprehensive list of these resources in Warren County by November.

Mental health had a greater focus than usual in this assessment, BRIGHT Facilitator Amanda Reckard said; Kim Link, who worked with qualitative data from the assessment, added that there was a “very prevalent theme” of people experiencing mental health struggles. Lauren McClain, who helped develop the assessment as a highly experienced expert in research methods and the co-founder of the consulting agency Grantibly, added, “one thing that I think is obvious, but it’s worth repeating, is the need for mental health services in the region.”

“We live in a society where there’s so much going on – so, mental health isn’t just about mental health disorders,” McClain said. “It’s not just about substance abuse. It’s about stress, it’s about loneliness, it’s about dealing with everyday work-life balance stuff. There’s just a lot of mental health needs, and we just do not have enough providers in the area, and it’s also not affordable – sometimes, people have insurance, but they still can’t afford it because their co-pay for a visit is $100 …

“I think that health is a holistic issue. And I think sometimes, we talk about health like one thing, but you can’t separate the economy from health. You can’t separate the workforce from health. You can’t separate transportation and food from health.”

A couple of responses that came up the most concerning the biggest barriers to health care were a belief from respondents that they wouldn’t be understood or heard, or that their provider wouldn’t be interested in helping someone like them, she said.

“I thought that those were two things that really showed a lot the need for better communication between providers and patients,” she said. “I don’t want anyone to take that and just automatically blame the providers: Is it the providers that are not supporting people and treating them the way that they should or being sensitive, or is it a perception of the medical community on the part of citizens that just feel like they’re not going to be supported?

“So, we kind of need both – we need training for providers to provide more culturally competent care, but then also maybe some education in the communities of low-income people, rural people, immigrants that – yes – our providers do want to help you.”

Another barrier that was huge and ranked highly in nearly every county was an inability for people to go to the doctor, she added.

“I wish more employers would give more time off for health visits, even if it’s just a few hours or a half a day,” she said. “When medical facilities are only open during business hours, and people can’t get off work to go to the doctor, then what are they supposed to do?”

— The Community Health Assessment reports are available at https://www.brightcoalition.org/community-health-assessment-reports

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DAVID MAMARIL HOROWITZ

david.horowitz@bgdailynews.com

As the U.S. seeks new means of extracting rare earth elements, Western Kentucky University’s Advanced Materials Institute has partnered with a distinguished private research university in Pennsylvania to further develop a process of doing so.

The project, spearheaded by a multidisciplinary research team at Lehigh University through a $2.5 million Department of Energy grant, will analyze waste byproducts from three coal-powered power plants over around three years, according to project leaders. Byproducts could potentially include rare earth elements and lithium, highly valued and utilized by industries such as those for semiconductors and batteries.

Lehigh University researchers will further develop a process to extract elements from the coal combustion residues — fly ash likely being the most significant, and the others being bottom ash, leachate and wastewater streams, said the project’s principal investigator Zheng Yao, a researcher at Lehigh University. AMI, a lab that’s part of WKU’s Applied Research and Technology Program and has experience measuring the elements, will analyze samples to characterize and quantify them.

“I’m very excited for it because even with how the current political situation is, batteries and clean energy, they’re the future — it’s important,” said AMI Lab Manager Stephanie Hagan, a primary investigator of the project. “If we can use waste material that we have sitting here in our country just hanging out, if we could use that to produce our own batteries or whatever electronic devices need to be used, that would be great.”

The U.S. Department of Energy previously deemed certain materials and elements as critical based on import data and the domestic supply chain, known as Critical Minerals and Materials— and rare earth elements (REEs) and lithium are a smaller group among those, Yao said.

“ … In order to provide a domestic supply chain of the CMMs, we need to explore a little bit further beyond the traditional resources for CMMs — ‘traditional’ meaning a mine that the CMM resources were being extracted (from), refined and then supplied,” Yao said.

Some 70 million to 100 million tons of coal ash are generated annually nationwide, according to the National Energy Technology Laboratory. Notably, the concept being tested, electrodialytic filtration, has a technology readiness level of three — which means it’s been proven by a very limited number of lab tests — and the project aims to raise that level to four, Yao said.

(Fly ash) hasn’t really been characterized regarding rare earth elements or with lithium, and we know they exist — because lithium is found in coal — but no one’s ever really tested to see how much of these rare earth elements are in these coal combustion residues,” Hagan said.

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BY DAVID MAMARIL HOROWITZ

david.horowitz@bgdailynews.com

Following Thursday’s release of renderings for Cherry Hall’s renovation, opposition has mounted against the plans, as some community members express concerns that the design will strip away the building’s historic, well-loved architecture.

“The alarm for saving Cherry Hall and the Faculty House is not just about bricks and mortar — it is about ensuring that we protect our sense of shared memory and cultural heritage,” said WKU alumnus Sean Jacobson, who wrote an honors thesis on its history prior to his graduation in 2016.

“Cherry Hall is the crown of the Hill and the emblem of our university seal — it is also a living monument to our founder, Dr. Cherry, and the generations of Hilltoppers who have gone before us. Once you sacrifice that building’s integrity on the altar of modernity, you can never recover it.”

A petition launched May 1 collected at least 549 signatures as of Monday, including a statement of support from Jacobson.

“Rather than erasing history, WKU should address infrastructure issues, restore the building, and create more inclusive spaces without the lifeless modernization,” the first petition states, noting the project is slated to commence in summer and reach completion in 2027. “We must take immediate action to call (WKU President Tim Caboni) and the WKU Board of Regents to maintain and protect the history of Cherry Hall.”

WKU has stated that the project, funded through $75 million from the General Assembly in asset-preservation funds and a 15% match by Western, would preserve “the most iconic features” — including the historic marble steps and most of the exterior — while modernizing classrooms and technology. It’ll also replace the 1937-built restrooms, modify the rear entrance, add collaborative spaces, feature a large second-floor classroom that can serve more than 100 as an auditorium, install glass classroom windows, include sensory relief spaces for neurodivergent community members, and more.

“We deeply value the historical significance of Cherry Hall and the strong connection our campus community feels toward it,” said Terrance Brown, dean of the Potter College of Arts and Letters, in a statement. “As the project unfolds, I think the WKU family will be excited to see the care taken to preserve the building’s unique historic features.

“At a time when the arts and humanities are regularly devalued and deemphasized, I am extremely grateful to the WKU administration and the Kentucky General Assembly for their commitment to preserving our campus’s most iconic building.”

Brown added that it’s important to remember the renderings are visual illustrations to offer “a glimpse into design concepts, not final plans.”

Jacobson said he feels much of the community agrees the building ought to have some restoration or renovation — but it needs to be done while ensuring its historic feel in a way that honors its history and meaning in the community.

“It is important for students to have tangible reminders that when they begin their college education, they are taking part in a noble — even sacred — task of molding their minds and souls to become engaged citizens seeking, as Dr. Cherry once said, ‘Life, More Life,’ ” Jacobson said. “The current modernistic redesign violates that spirit and dishonors those who came before us.”

Jacobson added that he thinks there’s been grief within the student, faculty and alumni communities over transparency, given that the plans, approved in August, were only just revealed — shortly before summer construction commences.

There has been at least some engagement.

The university’s building design process has compiled two standing committees that met regularly representative of some faculty, staff and leadership in the building as well as leadership from the college dean’s office, said WKU Political Science Professor Jeff Budziak, the representative of the college dean’s office on the committee involved in the building design process.

“Those committees have been working regularly with Gensler to talk about (…) the academic spaces, faculty offices, layout, as well as classroom design and those things,” Budziak said.

History department faculty member Jennifer Walton-Hanley said the design is pretty and works well in The Commons at Helms Library — which was designed by the same firm, Gensler — because the latter has a different purpose than Cherry Hall. Still, like others in opposition, she holds that the renderings would seem to remove much of the historic character and charm.

The biggest concern Walton-Hanley has heard, she said, are the glass walls of the classrooms and the back of the building. On one hand, there are general safety concerns with the transparent windows, she said. And from an accessibility standpoint, students and faculty who are neurodiverse and/or live with anxiety will in all probability find the glass walls distracting and uncomfortable, she added.

“I love Cherry — it’s been my work home for 17 years,” she said. “It needs some TLC for sure — nobody denies that — but I think it would be better to strategically renovate the building so we keep its current footprint but prepare it for the next 50 years up the hill.”

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DAVID MAMARIL HOROWITZ

david.horowitz@bgdailynews.com

New legislation will require Kentucky school districts to establish clear policies for advanced coursework or accelerated learning across language arts, math, social studies and science for students fourth through 12th grade.

School districts must establish these by Dec. 1. Legislators unanimously supported the legislation, House Bill 190, which was sponsored by Robert Duvall, R-Bowling Green, and had a signing ceremony April 29.

These plans may automatically enroll students who score “distinguished” on the state assessment into those advanced courses or accelerated learning. Schools are encouraged to incorporate these automatic opt-ins, Duvall said, and the goal is to return and make them a requirement, with him planning to do so in one to two years.

“… We were trying to plant a seed here that said, ‘Hey, school districts, if you want to be on the cutting edge of education in Kentucky, this might be something you may want to go ahead and implement now before the General Assembly actually requires it,’ ” Duvall said.

It remains to be seen whether legislation will go through that eventually requires the automatic opt-ins, Duvall said. But at a bare minimum, Duvall added, whether or not such legislation passes, he hopes school districts will be ready for implementation in fall 2026.

“If we want students in Kentucky to be able to achieve at high levels, we must offer them opportunities to learn at high levels,” said Western Kentucky University Mahurin Professor of Gifted Studies Julia Roberts, chair of the Kentucky Advisory Council for Gifted and Talented Education, who spearheaded the legislation. “It will give leaders in all districts the opportunity to think about, ‘What are we offering that will require students to think at high levels?’ ”

The mandated plans are required to describe “the strategies and approach to advanced coursework or accelerated learning options” by grade level for the four areas of study, according to the bill.

For students identified as gifted and talented, it also requires at least one among 10 “service delivery options,” which include “collaborative teaching and consultation services,” “special counseling services” and “differentiated study experiences for individuals and cluster groups in the regular classroom.”

Districts’ plans may allow a parent or guardian to provide written consent to opt out a student eligible for advanced coursework, according to the legislation. The plans can also permit a principal to withdraw a student without parental or guardian consent if participation in advanced coursework “would have an adverse educational impact on a student, including interference with his or her career pathway, access to career and technical education coursework, or another educational opportunity.”

Districts must post these plans publicly on their websites, according to the bill. It is currently unknown what percentage of school district classes already meet the bill’s criteria for these plans, Duvall said.

Duvall stated that the planning requirement concerns the implementation of advanced coursework or accelerated learning. While the bill language uses the nominalization “promotion,” planning for implementation is the expectation, and if districts’ plans don’t include some form of implementation, then that will “certainly” be clarified after they’re reviewed in December.

“We’ll see what they come up with in December, and then we will adjust accordingly,” Duvall said. Looking at districts’ plans will make clearer what their capacities are to offer the advanced coursework or accelerated learning options – and can help guide the legislative budget for the upcoming session, said Duvall, who added that he’ll “fight for every available resource” to ensure the legislation is a success.

“If we need to fight for funding to help make this a reality, I’m going to be in there fighting for funding,” he said. “I don’t think that there’s any wiser way that we can spend our money, but to educate our kids.”

Roberts, from WKU and the advisory council, pointed to the bill’s providing continuity for offering advanced coursework from fourth through 12th grade.

“I think it’s very important that students are given those opportunities no matter where they live, and a bigger school district likely offers more of them, but that big school district might not offer them to all children within that district, so that would give them the opportunity to look at what’s being offered in all of the schools fourth through 12th grade,” she said.

While the legislative language mentions the service delivery option of “differentiated study experiences for individuals and cluster groups in the regular classroom” for gifted and talented students, Roberts said that she expects the legislation to encourage schools to generally utilize more grouping and clustering by readiness.

“It is very difficult for a heterogeneously grouped class, which research tells us could have as many as seven different achievement levels,” she said. “It’s very difficult for a teacher to have everyone learning. Thus, if we have opportunities for advanced coursework for those who are ready to learn at those levels, it helps teachers, and it certainly helps all students continue to learn.”

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DAVID MAMARIL HOROWITZ

david.horowitz@bgdailynews.com

Communities of color have had to carry knowledge and stories in their bodies because resources haven’t been devoted to maintaining spaces for those stories.

Bowling Green resident Akisha Townsend Eaton recalled that statement, from renowned thought leader Elizabeth Alexander, in the new documentary “Jonesville: When Sunflowers Fall,” which had its public screening Thursday.

Townsend Eaton’s mother, the recently deceased Angela Townsend, was one among some 400 to 500 people who saw their predominantly Black neighborhood, Jonesville, razed in the ’50s and ’60s so Western Kentucky University could expand.

“For as long as I can remember, my mother ensured that I carried the memory of Jonesville with me every day until I too carried it around in my body,” she said.

As Jonesville residents pass away in the decades since the neighborhood’s dismantling, those who can recount stories firsthand are becoming fewer. Still, descendants in the film made it evident they’ll preserve those stories – and the documentary became a space for them.

The 55-minute WKU PBS film – an initiative of the Jonesville Reconciliation Workgroup, established under WKU President Tim Caboni in 2022 to assess how to address remaining issues from Jonesville’s dismantling – carefully interweaves historical documentation as it maps the neighborhood’s history and pertinent context: the Civil War, what Jonesville was like, WKU’s history, a key lawsuit, a neighborhood church’s opposition to the dismantling, the razing itself, the national context of urban renewal, the impacts of the dismantling on generational wealth, why it matters to know what happened, and more.

An audience of nearly 100 – students, faculty, administrators, around 10 Jonesville descendants and other community members – responded with a standing ovation lasting longer than most.

“I loved it,” said lifelong community organizer Johnalma Barnett, a Jonesville descendant. “Made me even happier when they kept zooming in on my mother when she was 13 years old.

“I grew up listening to the stories. I heard everything, kind of like Akisha. When I was like 6 years old, I started hearing the stories. I wasn’t living in Jonesville – it was gone – but my family talked about it constantly, the things that happened. So it’s like I lived there too through my family.”

PBS WKU gave community members more agency over the story than is normal. It acquired funding through the nonprofit The Peace Studio to train Jonesville descendants Townsend Eaton and David Greer as well as Alice Gatewood Waddell, whose family grew up in the neighborhood, in film production so they could oversee the film as producers.

“We tried to push the boundaries beyond (…) presentation, to agency,” film director Josh Niedwick said.

A standout comment in the evening Q&A with producers came from Greer. He noted how much the university has grown and benefited the region, citing last September’s report that found WKU brought $528.4 million in income in fiscal year 2022-23 – and advocated, to much applause, for Jonesville descendants to be a part of WKU’s strategic plan.

“All of these companies, the university itself, has received a very large return on this investment – what return on investment have the peoples, the descendants of Jonesville, received when we talk about reconciliation?” said Greer, making clear that his comment meant nothing harmful toward leadership, and was directed at institutions as a whole, such as WKU. “It is fair for everyone else: individuals, small businesses, large businesses, the university. Why is it not fair for the people who had set foot on this soil in 1880?”

“Any university knows: You have a vision; visions result in priorities; priorities result in goals; goals result in action plans and time tables; action plans and time tables result in work and follow-up; and work-and follow-up returns results. So why can’t the people, the descendants of Jonesville, be a part of the strategic plan of Western Kentucky University?”

Asked about the possibility, WKU President Tim Caboni, in attendance, told the Daily News that he “think(s) there are opportunities as we think about revising” that 10-year plan, which was established in 2018.

“What’s the role of us talking about the history of the institution, how that influenced who we are? And Jonesville is an important part. You heard (Gatewood Waddell) reference, how do we symbolically recognize and physically recognize that community that existed in a place that other facilities are now?” Caboni said.

“And we’re going to have news to tell about that in the future, not today. But we want to continue evolving that story. And as far as I’m concerned, Jonesville’s history is WKU’s history, and we can’t separate those two things … For any university, being honest about our past is so crucially important in defining our future, and I’m proud of the work of the Jonesville Reconciliation (Workgroup) to help the university talk about our history in a way that’s honest and true. And tonight’s just another part of that.”

Other university leadership attended too.

“This is far too good a production to end here tonight,” WKU Regent Phillip Bale said during the Q&A. “I think everyone would agree with that … .

“In a time when truth is always not on everyone’s lips, it’s a story that needs to be told widely.”

A heartwarming moment concluded the Q&A, as a young Black girl took the mic – “I really liked your show, and I want to do what you do when I grow up,” she said – to an endearing, collective response from the crowd.

“That’s part of the reason why I’m doing the work on the reconciliation work group – to be able to allow for future generations to know about our community history,” Townsend Eaton said.

— The film is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOAF2ly3Mh4.

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DAVID MAMARIL HOROWITZ

david.horowitz@bgdailynews.com

From an intentional preservation of its historic marble steps, to the modernization of classrooms and technology, details were recently revealed on the renovation of Western Kentucky University’s Cherry Hall.

More than 100 gathered Thursday outside the 1937-built building, which houses departments and programs in English, history, anthropology and political science. The project, funded through $75 million from the General Assembly in asset-preservation funds and a 15% match by Western, is slated to begin this summer and finish before a fall 2027 ribbon-cutting.

The plan, which focuses on preserving the hall’s most recognizable interior features, will build collaborative spaces and replace the restrooms, which have been in place since 1937, according to WKU. A large second-floor classroom will serve more than 100 people and function as an auditorium. The building will also feature updated audio-visual technology, add faculty and staff offices, and include sensory relief spaces for neurodiverse community members.

While the number of students served will depend on curriculum, the number of instructional spaces will probably stay around the same and accommodate more students through means such as larger classrooms, said Terrance Brown, WKU Dean of Potter College of Arts & Letters. The Faculty House, which has long exceeded its lifespan, will be removed, with its history honored in the new building, WKU President Tim Caboni said.

“Cherry Hall is not just a classroom building — it is a symbol, and it represents WKU in many ways,” Caboni said. “Our alumni have memories of walking up the marble stairs and carving their footsteps into the institution’s history, so we had to both preserve that and think about what the possibilities were for the building’s future.”

Students will move from Grise Hall to the new College of Business building in the fall, and WKU plans to move classes and faculty from Cherry Hall to the emptied-out Grise Hall during the construction, according to WKU.

The project will be conducted by the architecture, design and planning firm Gensler, which designed The Commons at Helm Library and the upcoming Gordon Ford College of Business facility. While the firm worked on the WKU Campus Master Plan, research identified Cherry Hall as one of the campus’s most highly utilized buildings, Gensler Senior Associate Janette Scott said; students across nearly every major attend at least one class at the hall, Brown said.

A unique aspect of the project is that due to the building’s historical importance, the outside will not fundamentally change, said political science Professor Jeff Budziak, the representative of the college dean’s office on the committee involved in the building design process. This, he said, means they’re redesigning the interior in a fixed space, which limits changes compared to projects where buildings can be expanded.

“The people from Gensler have been really, really responsive, and the faculty and staff that I worked with have been very helpful,” Budziak said. “They’ve been constructive, and we’ve had a really good opportunity to think about what the future of this building should look like.”

The updated building in its next phase will entail an additional degree of consideration for inclusivity through choices surrounding factors such as lighting and color choices, he said.

“Some of it is as obvious and direct as a sensory room space, but a lot of it is going to be in those kinds of choices that we make about, how do we lay out a classroom for a student who maybe struggles with ADHD or concentration?” Budziak said.

“I think for students, it’s about building a space that meets their needs for the future, gets them prepared, but also space they can come to be in and be comfortable in, and for our faculty, they want to see our students succeed, and, of course, they want to have spaces that allow them to do their research and scholarship effectively.”

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A dynamic period of women’s fashion across the U.S. and Britain will be detailed May 15, 7 p.m., at Simpson County’s historic Sandford Inn — held by area historian Susan Lyons Hughes.

The Simpson County Tourism Commission will hold the presentation, “Dressing Mrs. Duncan: Women’s Fashion 1820-1865” as one of multiple monthly events being scheduled through September for its upcoming documentary on the Duncan Inn, premiering in June.

The programming intends to bring people to the inn and encourage people to learn about local history, commission Executive Director Amy Ellis said.

The historic inn, which operated from 1822 to 1862, is one of Simpson County’s most important attractions: The stage coach stop on the Cumberland Trace — 40 miles from Nashville — made it a place where news of fashion trends and current events were present and brought numerous people to town, including Abraham Lincoln, Sam Houston and Andrew Jackson.

Hughes will don historically accurate attire for the documentary as she reenacts Nancy Hammond Duncan, the wife of the inn’s owner and operator, Sandford Duncan. Research on clothing that Nancy Hammond Duncan may have worn was conducted for the documentary to allow for an accurate reproduction of a dress from 1852.

Hughes will model the dress for the preceding presentation, which will cover fashion through the inn’s operation — a period where fashion was much influenced by the Industrial Revolution, Hughes said.

“It was an incredibly dynamic period in part because of the Industrial Revolution — the changing roles of women — and that is manifested in women’s clothes,” Hughes said. “In short, there were big changes in the silhouette in women’s bodies, and a big factor in that are the foundation garments that were worn.”

This looked like a straight line for women’s bodies in the 1820s — but by 1862, hoop skirts were in fashion, and other manifestations came in between, said Hughes, who’s studied the field over the past 45 years.

One importance of fashion comes from how it’s tied to women’s outlooks and attitudes about themselves and where they fit into society, Hughes said.

“It happens every day today: How women feel about themselves is manifested in their clothing, in what they wear …,” she said.

The presentation, which is free, has limited seating. Reservations can be made by calling the commission at (270) 586-3040 or emailing tourism@franklinky.info

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