Western Kentucky University (WKU) is a public university in Bowling Green, Kentucky, USA. It was formally founded by the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1906, though its roots reach back a quarter-century earlier. WKU has a student body of nearly 21,000 students. Its main campus, College Heights, is in the midst of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of construction and renovation. Since 1997, dormitories have been renovated, new academic and athletic buildings have been finished, with more construction under way. The university also has placed a premium on creating a parklike atmosphere, with parking lots on the interior of the 200-acre (0.81 km) campus replaced with greenspace, trees and other landscaping known as Centennial Mall. WKU sits atop the highest point in south-central Kentucky, a hill called College Heights with a commanding view of the Barren River valley. The campus flows from the top of College Heights, also known as The Hill, down its north, south and west faces. The university's mottos are "The Spirit Makes the Master" and "Life, More Life!"—both phrases coined by WKU's founder, Dr. Henry Hardin Cherry.