Students wait between classes at the Glasgow campus. Campuses in Glasgow, Elizabethtown and Owensboro account for nearly a fourth of the total enrollment at Western, according to the Fall 2009 Total Regional Campus Enrollment Report. ARIANA MCLAUGHLIN/HERALD

Whitney Sanders, a senior from Cheraw, S.C., will graduate from Western in May without ever taking a class in Bowling Green.

Sanders lives on post at Fort Knox with her husband who’s in the Army, and she’s a full-time student at Western’s Elizabethtown campus.

Nearly a fourth of Western’s record-high 20,712 student enrollment this fall can be attributed to Sanders and the other students enrolled at Western’s regional campuses.

Combined, Western’s campuses in Glasgow, Elizabethtown/Radcliff/Fort Knox and Owensboro account for 4,765 students this fall, according to the Fall 2009 Regional Campus Enrollment Report.

The number of classes students are enrolled in at Western’s regional campuses has increased by 2,698 enrollments since 2005, an increase of 31 percent in five years, said Gina Huff, database analyst for Western’s office of Institutional Research.

That 31-percent jump counts how many classes students are enrolled in, not how many students there are, she said. So students could be counted more than once.

Gene Tice, director of the Owensboro campus, said the flexibility regional campuses offer contributes to their rising popularity.

“I think we are seeing the regional campuses growing because they are attracting people who are married or single parents or place-bound by their jobs,” he said.

Besides being a full-time student, Sanders also works as a manager at Subway 40 hours a week.

“I don’t have time to sleep,” she said. “The classes and programs are flexible to my schedule.”

Tice said each campus is very different, but all are essential and work closely with each other.

He said regional campuses are also getting more students seeking bachelor’s degrees after already earning their associate degrees.

“A bachelor’s degree from any of the regional campuses is exactly the same as one you would get attending class on main campus,” Tice said.

Many faculty members from the regional campuses teach classes on main campus too, Tice said.

“I am always asked if the education is to par with main campus,” he said. “I am very confident that the education provided is the same quality.”

As for the college experience, the regional branches are sometimes lacking school spirit because their students don’t live near campus, Tice said.

Sanders attended four different schools and lived on campus at some of them before she took classes at Western’s Elizabethtown campus.

“There is a lot less of a college experience, but the students here have lives outside of school,” she said.

Regional campuses now offer more extracurricular activities, civil engagement and leadership opportunities than in the past, Tice said.

He said he expects enrollment in the regional campuses to keep growing.

“We’re reaching out to students who otherwise couldn’t attend college,” Tice said. “In doing so, we are reaching out and serving the whole state of Kentucky.”