At Homecoming Weekend, Alumni Impressed with LWC’s Pace, Degree of Change

COLUMBIA, Ky. -- If the Lindsey Wilson College alumni who visited the A.P. White Campus this weekend shared one common opinion, it was how much the college has changed.

That's what college officials heard from alumni who attended events at the college's 80th homecoming weekend.

"The one comment I heard over and over again was how much this place had changed, how much it had grown with the expansion and new buildings," LWC President William T. Luckey Jr. said at the homecoming awards brunch on Saturday morning in Roberta D. Cranmer Dining & Conference Center. "And these were comments from students who had graduated two years ago … not 40 years ago."

At the brunch, the Lindsey Wilson National Alumni Association honored two of its graduates and made a longtime LWC staff member an honorary member of its association.

The Distinguished Alumnus Award was presented to longtime educator Bill Mauney of Somerset, Ky., a 1961 LWC alumnus; Dr. Ricky Farmer of Somerset, a 2000 alumnus, received the Outstanding Young Alumnus Award; and Nancy Sinclair of Summersville, Ky., who has been an LWC staff member since 1987, was named an Honorary Alumna of the association.

Also on Saturday afternoon, a new king and queen were crowned at the LWC-Kentucky Christian University football game. Lydia Tiller of Columbia was crowned 2011 homecoming queen, and Daniel Pulliam of Crestwood, Ky., was crowned king.

Tiller, who represented the Bonner Scholars, is the daughter of Mike and Linda Tiller of Columbia. She is an LWC junior, majoring in biology, Christian ministries and secondary education.

Pulliam, who represented the Student Activities Board is the son of  Wayne and Karen Pulliam of Crestwood. He is a psychology junior.

Since Luckey became the college's eighth president on July 1, 1998, more than a couple dozen buildings have been added to the A.P. White Campus and enrollment has almost doubled. This Friday, the college will dedicate its two latest buildings - Jerry and Kendrick McCandless Hall will be dedicated at 11 a.m. CT, and Dr. Robert and Carol Goodin Center for Nursing and Counseling will be dedicated at 11:30 a.m. CT.

But Luckey said the essence of LWC has remained the same.

"While the physical appearance of the college continues to change as we dedicate two new buildings next Friday, it is our mission, our commitment to students, that remains constant," he said.

Luckey said probably the biggest change at LWC over the last 13 years has been one of the least-noticed -- the number of full-time faculty has increased by 170 percent. LWC had 42 full-time faculty when Luckey became president; this school year it added 18 new faculty positions to increase that number to 113.

"And while you can see and experience the physical changes in the new facilities, I would argue that it's the growth and the strengthening of the faculty where the most dramatic changes are taking place," he said. "That to me is so much more important than a new building."

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Click here to see scenes from Homecoming 2011 on The Hill.