Jessica Cleveland, a junior from Cross Plains, Tenn., noticed something unusual about her linguistics textbook at the beginning of the semester. Her professor’s name appeared on the cover.

In 2002, 112 black Kentucky residents began college at Western.

By 2008, 39 had graduated, Provost Barbara Burch said.

The six-year graduation rate contributed to Western failing to achieve two of Kentucky’s equal opportunity goals this year, she said.

“It’s a cause for concern,” Burch said.

Dalton Hubble spent his summer wearing safety goggles instead of sunglasses while researching techniques to create molds of human tissue, and he didn’t think twice about it.

“That is a normal summer,” the Academy of Math and Science senior from Rineyville said.

The Navigator entered the water smoothly as if it were made of silk instead of concrete. Resting easily atop the lake at Basil Griffin Park, the black canoe proved the statement on the side of the Western’s Engineering Department’s trailer- “Yes, it floats.”