Ramanavami, held on March 30 this year, is the Hindu celebration of the birth of Lord Rama, held annually in temples across the world. This is the first Ramanavami celebrated in Bowling Green since the temple opened in 2022.

One by one, devotees kick off their shoes and file into the temple, stopping by a framed image of the god that sits within a cradle. 

Each drop rose petals on the seat, rock it by a string and bow with a prayer. Candy and cupcakes are laid at the altar as gifts.

Intricate statues of watchful gods stand all around them, some carrying trinkets or posed as if to bless their subjects. Lord Rama stands tall and straight, pinching a rose and holding an archer’s bow, with balloons strung above him.

Donations are collected in aluminum pie tins, each containing a small handmade wick of frozen oil. As devotees throw bills in, they wave the smoke in their faces as a blessing.

Attendees recite in bhajans — devotional songs — through the night, stopping mid-way for an all-vegan dinner. Then, they dance.

The women form a circular chain, gliding and moving in unison to the music, colorful saris billowing left and right. The men hop and raise their hands, the crowd growing thicker and faster as more guests finish their meals and join.

It is nearly 10 p.m. now, and the music dims over the speakers. Worshippers pick up instruments and pass around tambourines, much to the delight of the children weaving through the crowd. 

More bhajans, starting slow and swelling to a roar of voices and drum beats that one feels within their bones. They are building to the exact time of Lord Rama’s birth.

It comes, and cheers ring out from the crowd. A large standing basin is brought out alongside a pot of saffron and water. In the basin stands an infant Rama made of gold, rose petals laying at his feet.

Devotees form a long line and take turns decanting the liquid over the statue’s head, then return to singing and dancing in the crowd. A man with the calloused feet of a religious pilgrim rings a bell and offers a final offering from a conch shell.

The guests take their time exchanging goodbyes, many staying late into the night, but soon wandering back outside. Every celebration must come to an end, even the birthday of a god.

Across town, away from the music and festivities, Ram Pasupuleti sits at his desk, working late as he often does. While unable to attend the festival, Pasupuleti carries a constant reminder of Lord Rama with him — his name.

Pasupuleti acted as a prominent advisor when the temple was only a vision. His dedication to education and cultural exchange has made him an “unofficial spokesperson” in many temple matters.

Born in India, Pasupuleti moved to the United States after marrying his wife, Kavita, in 1996. As she was already a U.S. citizen, Pasupuleti received his green card and moved to the U.S. to further his pain management education.

In Hinduism, Pasupuleti said, a man’s life is divided into four periods: Brahmacarya, studious education and preparation for the future; Grihastha, marriage and career building; Vanaprastha, retirement and charity; and finally Sanyasa, renouncing all worldly possessions as one leaves our reality.

“That transition [to grihastha] is anxious for everyone, but everybody has to make it some time or the other,” Pasupuleti said. “I did make that transition and fortunately for us, it’s worked out, and my wife and I are still here.”

Pasupuleti soon found himself in New York, working as a researcher at Long Island Jewish Hospital’s psychiatric facility.

The U.S. began seeing a steady increase in Indian-born immigrants at the time, a trend that continues to this day. In 1990, around 450,000 people born in India resided in the U.S., according to the Migration Policy Institute.

By 2000, that number had grown to over a million, and by 2021, surpassed 2.7 million.

Pasupuleti says immigration requirements were much looser in the ‘90s prior to post-9/11 legislation. In addition, since Kavita was already a citizen, he was automatically entitled to conditional residence.

Still, Pasupuleti said, he hesitated in accepting citizenship. At the time, India did not recognize dual citizens, meaning Pasupuleti would have to choose between his homeland and his new home.

“I did not accept the citizenship of this country for a good 10 years, simply because it’s not easy to do that —- to relinquish the country where you’re born,” Pasupuleti said. “It’s a very, very, thoughtful process and you have to think about it.”

Things changed in 2005 when new legislation in India made dual citizenship possible. The decision became much easier for Pasupuleti, and he became a full citizen in 2006.

By then, Pasupuleti had a daughter named Rachana, who was around five years old. Since 1998, they had been living in Lubbock, Texas, so he could train at Texas Tech University.

“[Working in New York] gave me access to many different clinical training routes in this country,” Pasupuleti said. “I found out the best pain management program in the world was in Texas at that time, and so that’s why we went there.”

Pasupuleti spent five years training in Texas and received several job offers before being scouted by a small private practice in Louisville, The Pain Institute, eager to pick up someone from such a prestigious school. 

He had the option of staying in Texas or moving to Kentucky, a decision he weighed as heavily as any other. Being the researcher he is, Pasupuleti pulled out a map and got to work. 

Pasupuleti wanted to be near family, as he had been with his in-laws in Texas. He drew a circle around Louisville, a radius of around 150 miles, and found that 6 or 7 family members lived nearby, some in Louisville and most in Ohio.

Next, Pasupuleti observed what he calls the “Snow Line” — the area roughly north of Cincinnati that experiences much higher snowfall than the rest of the country on average. Louisville fell just below the line, to Pasupuleti’s pleasure.

Finally, Pasupuleti hoped that a smaller practice may offer him better opportunities, and with that departed for Louisville. He worked for six years, but grew weary of the structure around him.

“I was way too independent for group practice,” Pasupuleti said. “With group practice, you have to practice what they want you to, but I’ve always been someone who is independent and thought for myself.

The idea of his own pain management practice had always appealed to him, so he began researching the potential of starting from the ground up. But Louisville had several practices, and finding his market would be a challenge.

North of his “Snow Line” was off the table, so he began looking south.

Several connections in Bowling Green told him there was great potential for practice in the area. At the time, only one major pain management center called the city home.

In addition, he and his wife wanted someplace quieter, slower — specifically, with better traffic, he said.

“Anywhere in the city, I could get there in 10 minutes,” Pasupuleti said. “It’s not like that anymore, but it was like that when I came here.”

He knew of maybe two Indian families in Bowling Green, one of which was preparing to move to Louisville themselves. While they spoke highly of living here, they said they had to travel to Nashville to find the closest temple.

By now, Pasupuleti’s shortest move had been from Lubbock to New York, around 1,795 miles between. The 120 miles from Louisville to Bowling Green pales in comparison, but he found little trace of his own culture when he first arrived.

He found the opportunity was worth the lack of familiarity, and soon Pasupuleti opened the Center for Pain Management, partnered within Cumberland Brain and Spine, in 2009.

Over time, his work brought him closer to Nashville, and he found himself once again fighting long commutes in metro traffic. When his partners asked him if he’d move to Nashville with them, he declined.

In 2013, Pasupuleti moved his practice into an office just off 31W Bypass, where it remains to this day.

“I’ve established myself as one of the leading pain practitioners in around 50 miles,” Pasupuleti said. “Everybody knows, even in Louisville, that this is a good practice.”

“When I came in here, I wanted to know what the needs of the Indian community were,” Pasupuleti said. “Within about one month, I organized a meeting for all the Indian families I came to know, which were just a handful of families, maybe 15 families or so.”

He’d hoped to connect a burgeoning community and, in the process, learn what the community needed to thrive.

“The loud and clear [message] that I heard was that they needed their children to have some connection to their heritage,” Pasupuleti said.

The years spent in Bowling Green without a nearby temple didn’t bother him too much — most Hindu households have their own “temple” in the way of shrines. What did bother him was the lack of cultural variety his daughter, then 8, experienced.

In India, Pasupuleti was surrounded by a plethora of faiths and often attended other places of worship outside Hinduism. When he was young, he’d even attend Christmas services with friends — though, he admits the good food had a major role.

He wanted the same experiences for his daughter, but found them difficult to find. He wanted to change that.

His daughter had learned Indian dance and ballet in Louisville, so Pasupuleti took her to lessons in Nashville once they moved.

“We went to Nashville every Sunday for 15 years, and that was for about six hours because my daughter would learn [Indian] dance and music,” Pasupuleti said.

Each time, the pair would make a stop at the Sri Ganesha Temple in Nashville.

“I wanted to at least give the opportunity for her to know what roots she has and where she comes from and what knowledge systems she comes from,” Pasupuleti said. “Even the dance that she practices is over 3000 years old, and so you have such a rich heritage.”

Still, it was difficult to manage the travel, and many families around him lacked the same opportunity. This led him and his wife to establish their non-profit organization, the India Culture and Heritage Group, in 2009.

They began teaching classes on Indian culture and language at WKU’s ALIVE Center every Saturday for classes of around 30 students. In addition, Pasupuleti began conducting classes for WKU students from India to help them integrate into the U.S.

“I realized that it’s a culture shock for anybody who comes here, so my whole idea was to lessen the impact of that culture shock,” Pasupuleti said. “They loved it, because they were completely, totally lost. They were by themselves, very young guys and young girls, and I could see it in their faces.”

Driving lessons, Bible study, career advice — there were few topics Pasupuleti wasn’t willing to help his students with. Many were on similar career paths as Pasupuleti, so he’d let them observe at his practice and write recommendation letters when they applied for residencies.

Despite the work the Pasupuletis put in across the community, they still lacked a local haven for their faith. As early as 2010, Pasupuleti spoke with others about potentially building a temple but quickly found the funding wasn’t there.

“We talked about it and talked about it for about a year, two years, three years, four years — the discussions went on, but they didn’t go anywhere, so the idea was dropped,” Pasupuleti said.

Pasupuleti had more than enough to focus on — his daughter’s high school graduation, his new practice, and his non-profit. Meanwhile, in the following years, more and more Indians came to the city.

“In this time period between 2010 and 2015, there was a huge influx of business from India, from the ‘Gujarati’ community,” Pasupuleti said. “By definition, they are the business community, with roots dating back to India.”

To call them entrepreneurs, Pasupuleti said, would be underselling their skills. Pasupuleti said hundreds of families flocked to the city, carrying with them new businesses and a renewed desire for a local temple.

Things began to change when Nick Patel, a local businessman, approached Pasupuleti with plans to finance a temple. Things were finally moving, but it wouldn’t get any simpler.

“The problem with constructing a temple is that there are so many denominations,” Pasupuleti said. “There’s so many different belief systems in India that you can’t have all of them together, because each one is demanding their own representation.”

The new arrivals came from every corner of India, many speaking completely different languages. Hinduism is no monolith — each family came with their own way of worship and life, some vastly different from others.

The temple’s funding came in part from the International Swaminarayan Satsang Organization, which aids local temples with charitable contributions. Pasupuleti noted to his colleagues, however, that there were many outside the Swaminarayan tradition that would want to visit the temple.

Venkateshvara, for example, is one god not traditionally found in Swaminarayan temples. Typically worshiped within southern Indian denominations, Pasupuleti was able to convince Patel to add him to the temple.

“Your denomination is great, wonderful, love it — but a lot of other people want to get into the temple,” Pasupuleti recalled telling Patel.

For Pasupuleti, this is the point of Hinduism — to bring everyone under one umbrella.

“[Hinduism] has always existed, since the day that the first human being was cast into this world, because whatever experience you have, that is Hinduism,” Pasupuleti said. “Whatever experience you have, that is what the Vedas say. Whenever you see something, you feel something, that is Hinduism, that is a part of human life.”

Pasupuleti notes that the word “Hinduism” is not used in India, but more commonly “Sanātana Dharma” — or “Eternal Dharma.” It broadly consists of hundreds of denominations from across the subcontinent, with loose, oral traditions that bind them together.

The term “Hinduism” itself stems from the Persian word for any people beyond the Sindhu River, and . When European colonists began exploiting the subcontinent, they adopted the word.

Pasupuleti says inclusivity is the very point of his faith, and must be when it is as diverse as his. Even if you’re a Christian, a Muslim or an atheist, Pasupuleti says, you can still be a Hindu, and you’re still welcome at the temple without the pressure of conversion.

In 2017, as debates about best practice came to a close, and with funding secured, Patel located a spot he thought was suitable: a lot containing three vacant buildings, formerly utilized by a furniture business.

When a Swaminarayan temple in Louisville was vandalized with Christian messages in 2019, Pasupuleti wanted the lesson to be clear: they had to bridge the gap between their community and others.

Pasupuleti said in order to avoid similar persecution, the temple community needed to branch out. Pasupuleti focused on forming connections with local religious leaders of varying faiths, inviting many to join them when the church was completed.

Over the coming years, Patel and the community would convert the buildings into the sprawling temple seen today.

Construction finished in 2021, but the pendulous nature of COVID-19 at the time made Pasupuleti nervous. Patel had been preparing for nearly a year, and canceling the event would be costly and frustrating.

“As a physician, as someone who’s in charge of other people’s health in this community, I would not let Bowling Green go through that,” Pasupuleti said. “This is my community! I have to protect it, so I would not allow that to happen.”

Despite the loss of time and money, Patel was understanding and postponed the event for a later date.

Finally, in May 2022, the temple opened its doors to the public. Community leaders such as Mayor Todd Alcott and then-State Representative Patti Minter joined in the celebration, and a procession of gods marched from Greenwood High School to the temple.

A year later, the temple hosts numerous Hindu celebrations, often several a month, and every Saturday bakes a sprawling Indian dinner for attendees. Event space is available for rent for any private function, Hindu or not.

There are no requirements for entry, nor expectations of belief — everyone is welcome in the temple.

Pasupuleti said people come primarily for two reasons: to connect with their culture and to connect with their god.

“It’s a very personal relationship, and everybody who comes to the temple comes with a personal agenda,” Pasupuleti said. “Nobody knows that agenda except for that person and god.”

Locals attend daily, but occasionally, out-of-towners find their way to the temple in search of something — their own agenda, perhaps. 

Pasupuleti recalled a man who recently who was traveling the country, seeking “answers about life.” They met at the temple and discussed the financial and familial troubles that had brought him there — lost jobs, lawsuits, a crisis of spirit.

With respectful honesty, Pasupuleti told him that the answers would not come from traveling, nor from spiritual awakenings.

“People from the West have all gone all the way to India to find some peace, asking ‘how do I find solace? Where’s god?’” Pasupuleti said. “I told him ‘Look inside yourself, not outside. If you’re looking for god outside, you will never get god.’”

Pasupuleti talks often of the power of perspective, of our need to look beyond our own and into others’. The temple, he says, simply offers perspective — what others make of it is up to them.

Bailey said many of these thefts allegedly trace back to two individuals arrested on Oct. 28.

So far in November, WKUPD has reported only one theft — a student’s bike tires.

The situation highlights the ever-changing nature of crime that students face and the importance of taking precautions before crime strikes.

But in order to take precautions, students have to know what to look out for.

Thefts and Break-ins

Bailey said that car break-ins and bike thefts are among the most common crimes students encounter.

Many break-ins occur within parking structures around campus, and Bailey said they’re often the most difficult to solve.

“You have hundreds of cars you can check through in a parking structure,” Bailey said. “Most of the time they’re not smashing windows, they’re just ‘fishing’ — checking door handles.”

While most exits and entrances are monitored with cameras, many parking structure floors lack surveillance to capture would-be criminals.

Bailey said even if cameras were installed, it could still be difficult to identify thieves due to cars obstructing the view and poor lighting. While WKUPD monitors the cameras, their placement and installation are decided by WKU’s IT department.

Bailey said that locking doors and removing backpacks and valuables from cars eliminates the risk from the start, and it’s likewise important that bikes are locked correctly.

“They might just be putting [the lock] through the tire and then the rack, so someone can just take the front tire off and then take the whole bike,” Bailey said.

Students should use a thick, metal lock, such as a U-lock, to attach the frame of the bike to the rack, Bailey said.

Ronnie Ward, Bowling Green Police Department’s information officer, said outdoor thefts slightly decrease during winter months. However, students are still susceptible to theft while partying or hosting.

Ward said thefts, assaults and sexual assault are always a risk in a party setting where people may be intoxicated.

“If you go to or [are] having a party, have somebody with you that’s going to stay sober,” Ward said. “Someone that’s going to help you get home and keep an eye on everybody at the party so that things don’t get out of control.”

Drugs and Overdoses

Bailey said that in recent weeks, WKUPD has seen a slight uptick in alcohol-related medical assistance calls.

Though not an alarming increase, Bailey said a variety of sources could lead to excessive drinking this time of year, including stress from exams or visiting family for the holidays.

WKUPD responds to cannabis reports in residence halls on occasion, though rarely for medical assistance.

“It goes all over the building,” Bailey said. “It’s one big ventilation system, everyone knows you’re doing it.”

Ward said students should also be aware of the risk of fentanyl lacing in illicit drugs.

In the last two weeks, BGPD has encountered six overdoses of fentanyl, one of whom was a 17-year-old.

“You can put a lethal dose of fentanyl on the end of a pencil,” Ward said. “You can have that in anything. And so a lot of people will smoke weed with it laced with it, they’ll take a pill that’s laced with it, they may use methamphetamine that’s laced with it.”

Ward said fentanyl is commonly added to other drugs because it’s cheap and produces a more intense high. It can be pressed into counterfeit pills to lower costs or added to cannabis to make it more addictive.

Beginning January 1, medical cannabis will be legal in Kentucky for individuals with severe conditions, but Ward says there’s a large difference between what you buy from a dealer versus a pharmacy.

“To say, ‘well, marijuana is safe, we can use it now,’ that’s not necessarily so,” Ward said. “It changes hands one time and you don’t know what’s in it, and you don’t know what your friends put in it.”

Non-students on campus

In October 2021, a 30-year-old non-student entered several residence halls on campus, leading to concerns over building security. 

That same month, two non-students were removed from campus for pressuring a female student to get in their car.

Bailey said WKU is an open campus and can’t unnecessarily prevent people from entering, but individuals who have been seen trying to enter residence halls without permission are usually banned from campus.

Emergency phones are available around campus should students need an escort or assistance.

Following the residence hall intrusions, Bailey said front desk workers received more instruction on what to do when an unidentified individual attempts to enter a building. WKUPD has only received a handful of calls in recent months.

“From what I’ve seen, the students at the front desks are doing a pretty darn good job of calling the police now, saying ‘we didn’t let this person in, they’re trying to get in, I don’t recognize them’,” Bailey said.

City reporter Michael J. Collins can be reached at michael.collins527@topper.wku.edu.

But on Saturday, Sept. 17, eight young volunteers were precisely where they wanted to be: Fountain Square Park for Rise and Shine BG’s “Walk for the Homeless.”

Daisy Carter, the mutual aid group’s 24-year-old founder, sat beside two large boxes of around 25 hand-prepared supply kits in Ziploc bags.

She began by asking if everyone knew what mutual aid is. Some shook their heads yes, some no.

“Solidarity, not charity,” she said. “This is a chance for us to stand in solidarity with our homeless community. We’re trying to fill in a gap: our homeless community is being alienated and it’s becoming harder for them to receive and seek services.”

Groups of volunteers divided supplies and set off in different directions. Some went toward Nashville Road, where panhandlers often hold signs for hours at a time.

Carter joined Jada Barnett, a first-time volunteer, to visit Lampkin Park. Barnett, a 23-year-old Bowling Green resident, works at Nashville non-profit Turnip Green, which recycles donations into art pieces that are sold at name-your-own prices.

Barnett said there are notable differences between working with established organizations like Turnip Green and volunteering with grassroots mutual aid groups like Rise and Shine BG. At times, Barnett said organizations can feel burdened by bureaucracy or lacking in community outreach.

“I feel like this on-the-ground stuff, where we’re interacting with people and we see the community, that’s when you know that you’re making a difference,” Barnett said.

As the two searched for individuals in need, they discussed the various reasons they might choose mutual aid over a non-profit: religious differences, inefficient spending, a lack of motivation or passion.

Both said they found what they were looking for in mutual aid. Carter admitted that running the group has been a sizable responsibility, and one she has never paid herself for. 

Even after receiving over $9,000 in donations after the December tornadoes, Carter has put every dollar toward connecting people to legal aid, delivering supplies and providing what she sees as the most direct ways to help individuals.

Carter said that for non-profits that pay staff, buy property or account for budgets, this kind of all-out direct aid would be impossible in the long run. 

After walking the length of Lampkin, Carter and Barnett made their way to Mitch McConnell Park. They stopped to talk to a man named Charlie, who sat on a styrofoam cooler smoking a pipe, and handed him a kit. 

He had no identification – and no address to receive a new ID – but he smiled as Carter and Barnett asked about his day.

When the volunteers reconvened near the walking bridge, a mere hour and a half after starting their work, only one bag of supplies remained. Carter clutched it as the group circled up.

“Well — that’s it,” she said with a smile.

She thanked everyone for coming and closed out the event with what she hopes to remind people each day.

“Whenever you have that free time, no matter if it’s just two hours, you can make a small change,” Carter said. “And I’m glad we could do this together.”

City reporter Michael J. Collins can be reached at michael.collins527@topper.wku.edu.

Parking and Transportation has partnered with California-based rental company Wheels to bring scooters to the city of Bowling Green, offering rides for 29 cents a minute, according to the Wheels app. 

Students must first download the app and input their credit card information in order to rent the bikes, Nathan Huber, Head of University at Wheels, said.

Each scooter is equipped with a scannable QR code that allows the rider to rent the bikes. Once the rider has finished, they park them in a designated “preferred parking zone” set up by the company. Huber said these are subject to change to fit the demand. 

According to Huber, the app will then allow the users to take a picture of the parked scooter showing that it has been parked in the correct spot. 

A “geofence” has been set up using GPS around areas of the city and campus to prevent scooters from being used in places where they are prohibited, like Avenue of Champions or Fountain Square Park.

The scooters also have rechargeable, swappable batteries that will be recharged in the local Wheels warehouse by members of the company.

“We charge [the batteries] in our own warehouse, so there’s not going to be any charging in a dorm room or campus apartments,” Huber said. “We see one starting to get low, then we get a ping on the back end and we can pop a new battery in there.”

Huber said the university will get 2.5% of the gross profits from the scooter rentals.

“It doesn’t cost anything to run this program, this program is completely free for the university,” Huber said. “As long as we prove our worth, the campus stands to make some money off this and we’re glad to give back.”

A battery charge lasts roughly 25-30 miles, Huber said, but it could vary depending on external factors like topography and weather.

Jennifer Tougas, assistant vice president for business services for WKU’s Division of Strategy, Operations and Finance, said as many as 300 scooters are expected to serve the city.

“About 25% of our students don’t bring a car to campus, and [the scooters] provide some affordable transportation for those students,” Tougas said. “Because of the partnership with the city, it also really creates an opportunity for students to go downtown and really make that downtown connection.”

Scooters can be driven between WKU’s campus and downtown, allowing students to use them for a quick coffee trip or a night on the town. 

Huber said the conversations to get the scooters in the city and on campus started pre-pandemic and talks were put on hold by COVID-19 and the tornadoes that hit Bowling Green in December.

“This has been going on for a while,” Huber said.

Telia Butler, Bowling Green’s downtown development coordinator, said the city was approached after the initial agreement between Wheels and WKU to allow several parking hubs to be placed downtown.

“It provides another element of mobility that Bowling Green just didn’t have before,” Butler said. “Hopefully not only campus, but the entire community, embraces it and it becomes a staple in the way that mobility functions around downtown.”

Scooters are operational from 4 a.m. to 11:59 p.m., which Butler said aims to prevent drunk or reckless driving.

Tougas said as electric scooters become more prevalent, both through e-share services and student ownership, administration has discussed early plans for a new “micro-mobility personal transportation” policy to protect students riding or walking.

Tougas said the policy “is still in the formative stages,” but Tougas advised riders to wear helmets and follow traffic laws.

“When it comes to what students do, ultimately, how they ride those bikes is going to dictate their safety, and their safety is really in their hands to a great extent,” Tougas said.

City reporter Michael J. Collins can be reached at michael.collins527@topper.wku.edu. Administration reporter Michael Crimmins contributed to this report.

Groups such as Rise and Shine BG and Kentucky Student Environmental Coalition will add supplies to the caravan as it passes on Saturday from Detroit and Philadelphia.

Residents of Jackson have lacked reliable access to clean water for over a month, though the impact of the city’s aging infrastructure has been felt for decades. While the city is set to receive federal relief funding, it will take time for reliable water to return to most residents.

Bowling Green resident Daisy Carter, founder of Rise and Shine BG, said the goal of the caravan is to support residents with necessities like clean water and hygiene products in the most direct way possible—without large organizations or government entities constrained by rules and bureaucracy.

“[Mutual aid is] filling in the gaps where the system is failing you,” Carter said. “You can do that by working from an ‘abundance mindset’ rather than a ‘scarcity mindset.’ That means everyone coming together and pooling together resources to help support the community by themselves.”

Jackson-based mutual aid organization Cooperation Jackson will oversee the distribution of supplies once delivered. 

Joshua Dedmond, operations director for Cooperation Jackson, said multiple caravans have been scheduled for this week. Dedmond said as many as 200 people lined up on Thursday to receive newly delivered supplies.

Black residents make up over 82% of Jackson’s population, according to the census data. Dedmond said while relief is important now, the long-term needs of residents require a much more concerted effort to take on white supremacy and ensure resources are equitably allocated.

“We’re going to continue to do what we can to meet the needs [of residents],” Dedmond said. “To make a protracted and long-term political fight for adequate resourcing for our people, and within that struggle, we’re going to set real social and political alternatives to meet people’s needs.”

City reporter Michael J. Collins can be reached at michael.collins527@topper.wku.edu. Follow him on Twitter @MJCollinsNews

“For the first time, prospective students now visit the Commons as they tour campus with their families, and many of them have commented it’s unlike any other building they’ve seen,” President Timothy Caboni said.

In addition, Caboni said the university is preparing the early stages of a similar makeover to Cherry Hall. 

“For me, it is our most important building,” Caboni said. “What we want to do is take the same lens we had here at the Commons and think about how we can retain the building and celebrate the parts of it that are unique and special.”

He specified that the marble stairs in Cherry Hall — worn down by generations of students — will remain untouched in the redesign. 

Caboni first envisioned the Commons, announced at his investiture in 2018, as an “intellectual hub” where students and faculty can both learn and socialize. 

While the Commons first opened late last spring, the ceremony was scheduled in the fall to coincide with the beginning of a new school year. COVID-19 constraints delayed construction progress by an additional year until doors opened last semester.

The Commons are located at Helm Library, which originally served as the Health and Physical Education Building from 1931 to 1963.

The renovations to Helm Library cost $35 million in total, funded through a partnership with food provider Aramark.

WKU Student Government Association President Cole Bornefeld said the building has been “full of so much excitement and community” since the doors first opened.

“Students really feel like this building adds to the already special community that Western Kentucky has,” Bornefeld said.

Susann de Vries, dean of university libraries, said the role of libraries has changed drastically over the last few decades as work and school are increasingly done electronically. 

However, she said libraries offer unique opportunities to learn and create as a community, and the Commons is well suited to that role.

“When people come in and connect with the building, they find their ‘spot’ and just look up in awe and wonderment—it’s just a joy to see,” de Vries said.

City reporter Michael J. Collins can be reached at michael.collins527@topper.wku.edu.