09/28/23 - Thank You and September 2023 Update

Dear campus community,

I want to thank you all one more time for the tremendous support you have given me throughout the past nearly nine months as your interim president. It has truly been an honor to serve this university and I am proud of the work we accomplished together while meeting the many challenges we faced.

I hope you are all as excited as I am to welcome Dr. Cady Short-Thompson back to NKU as our seventh president on Monday morning. I know NKU will be as committed to student success and regional stewardship as ever under her leadership.

If you can, please join us Monday between 8:30 and 10 a.m. in the H. Gordon and Thelma Martin Ballroom A inside the Votruba Student Union for a welcome reception. It will be a groundbreaking day for our university and an opportunity for our community to welcome President Short-Thompson home!

But before Monday, NKU will spend the weekend celebrating the 50^th anniversary of our very first graduating class. NKU’s first 50^th reunion will include several events Saturday and Sunday as we welcome our first graduates home. These were the pioneers for our university and the first of what is now more than 77,000 alumni who have helped to make this region the great place that it is.

I am sure you have heard by now that NKU has been recognized by the Wall Street Journal as one of the top universities in the country for “exceptional value and putting graduates on the path to lucrative careers.” We were ranked No. 40 of out 400 universities around the country when it comes to best value, and we were the only public university in the region and the Commonwealth that made top 100 in these rankings.

Our student-centered approach makes us a great engine for upward economic and social mobility, and I am not surprised by this ranking.

As usual, there is so much going on here that I could never cover it all. But here are just a couple additional recent highlights:

• Earlier this week, The Kentucky National Guard and NKU signed on to a partnership that allows the university to work with Kentucky National Guard members to fit their unique needs on the path to graduation and gives them streamlined access to educational support through our Veterans Resource Station (VRS).
  
  This is just another example of our dedication to student success, especially for our students in the service.

• Our College of Education is partnering with local school districts to address the teacher shortage by giving high-school students a head start on a college degree in education through our School-Based Scholars program.

As always, you can read about all the fantastic news about our university, students, faculty and staff, and our alumni in the NKU Magazine, and the NKU Media Center.

Again, thank you all for your support and for all you do for our university, our learners and the community. I am looking forward to continuing to work with you as we move forward in our student-ready and regionally engaged work.

Bonita J. Brown, J.D.
Interim President