Dear NKU campus community,
As you may recall, with the departure of the Vice President for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management in May, I moved the offices in that division into Academic Affairs, Finance & Administration, and the Office of the President. At that time, I instructed the Provost and the CFO to review those units and create a plan that emphasizes and improves student success and to reorganize them with the following goals in mind:
I am writing this morning to inform the campus of the changes we have implemented. These changes will improve engagement and put us in a position, as we have the opportunity, to add additional resources in the future focused on our commitment to student success. The changes from this reorganization reduces nine positions, including four filled positions and five vacant positions. We notified all impacted employees and anticipate no further reductions in those offices. The departure of employees, particularly those who have been a part of our community for years, is never easy, and we thank them for their service to NKU and our students.
Let me be clear: Although we are reducing administrative overhead and restructuring several units, the changes we have made will not impact the delivery of services to our students. In fact, as part of this plan, some of the dollars saved by the reorganization have been reallocated to add student-facing positions. Specifically, a position was added in the Center for Student Engagement, the unit that delivers community-building programming and activities for our students.
These kinds of reductions are always unsettling. However, we must secure our university’s financial future and we have made tremendous progress on that front. The Student Affairs Division received only modest impacts from the first phase of the Repositioning Plan. As we continue to address our fiscal situation, it was no longer possible to avoid minimizing impacts to this division.The budget savings from the nine eliminated positions is approximately $1.2 million in salary, benefits, and operating funds. We will report the overall progress of our budget efforts to the Board of Regents and the campus at the September Board meeting.
I am grateful for the resilience of the campus community as we make necessary changes to secure NKU’s financial health. Despite making difficult choices, we anticipate record retention and persistence this fall. And we have graduated a record 7,200 students in the last two years. We are doing the work. As we return for the fall semester in a few weeks, I am confident our students will continue to find a supportive home at NKU.
Thank you for everything you do for our university and our students.
Thank you for all that you do for NKU and for our students. We are Northern Kentucky’s regional university. Go Norse.
With Norse Pride,
Bonita J. Brown, JD
Interim President
