Wednesday, January 10, 2024
Video message to NKU campus community
Hello and Happy New Year! I hope that you enjoyed the winter break and the holiday season with your family and friends. The Thompson family certainly did—we have moved to Kentucky and enjoyed time with our large family—taking long hikes to make up for our increased consumption of holiday cookies.
I wanted to welcome you back to campus and thank you for the important work that you do here at NKU. I also wanted to share a few updates with you.
You will recall that some of my priorities are to strengthen enrollment management, increase enrollments (particularly in-person and residential students), and enhance revenue.
Let me first share how NKU is working to strengthen enrollment management--
Thanks to our talented Enrollment Management team, application and confirmation numbers for fall 2024 are significantly increased. We are also seeing results from the hard work of our colleagues in Admissions and in our Adult and Transfer Center. New undergraduate transfers are up 87 students for this spring over last spring—thank you for helping us to spread the word about our transfer campaign! Applications for new transfer students for this coming fall are also up over 12%!
Our fall-to-spring persistence rates also continue to trend upwards. This is clear evidence of NKU’s commitment to helping guide more students successfully to graduation. And speaking of graduation, 1,351 degrees were awarded at fall commencement, that’s 42 more graduates than the prior fall!
That is all fantastic news, but we have more to do—and it will take all of us. Later this month, I will put out a call for a multi-constituent task force to engage in building our next strategic enrollment management plan. Faculty and staff who are interested in joining us, please look for the call for nominations and self-nominations at the end of January. I look forward to working with you.
We have also launched a working group of NKU leaders to build a 3-year housing plan with the goal of growing our enrollment of in-person, residential students. We are working in concert with the new Student Success Academic Affairs subcommittee of the board. And to help inform our efforts, Psychology Professor Dr. Phil Moberg and his Applied Research Capstone graduate students will conduct research with our students about our housing offerings and their experiences to better inform our planning efforts. We will share planning drafts for feedback with students and you this spring.
Outside of enrollment, we have convened a working group of Regents and cabinet members to begin the exploration of a commercial development for our property on the corner of US 27 and Nunn Drive, which will generate revenue and create a vibrant and attractive entrance to campus, complete with new NKU signage.
Additionally, I wanted to share more information about my decision to appoint Dr. Diana McGill to serve as our next provost in a permanent capacity. I believe that it is essential to have a permanent leader in the provost’s office now, as we continue to navigate the challenges that face our institution. In particular, my top priority as president is to realize a balanced budget for FY25. And to do that, we need a provost who can make thoughtful, collaborative decisions within Academic Affairs, with the full authority of a permanent leader now.
The university has endured a particularly challenging few years, with long periods of interim appointments and unexpected departures. We would not be well served by another search, interim leader, or transition. In addition to our interim CFO and Vice President of Administration and Finance – a position currently subject to a national search – half of our deans are interim leaders, and we need a permanent provost now who can work with the colleges to advance the search processes that will usher in permanent leaders to those positions. To have an interim provost in place for the foreseeable future would delay progress in the colleges and at this institution.
Moreover, the individual I have appointed to this position, Dr. McGill, is the right leader for this critical moment. With thirty years of experience at NKU, she knows our institution and our culture. She has earned the trust of colleagues across campus, and she is ready to lead now.
In making this decision, I also want you to know that shared governance and consultation with the Faculty Senate and faculty will remain critical in my administration. Remember, I have been there—as a faculty member at NKU—I myself served on the UCC, Faculty Senate, Council of Chairs, Graduate Council and so on. Now, I carry that perspective with me as president, when I am accountable to the Board and to you for making decisions to move us forward. I embrace the responsibility and accountability, and I am confident that the outcomes will be positive.
I welcome and understand questions and concerns. We’re all deeply committed to this institution, and I accept that questions come from that passion and commitment. I do not ask or expect everyone to agree with every decision I make and I welcome the dialogue. But I do ask that, in so doing, our campus understands that my commitment to shared governance – dating back to my time as NKU faculty – is as strong as ever. To meet our shared mission, to answer the challenges we face, it will take all of us. The leadership team, that I am still building, and I will serve and call on each of you – for collaboration, guidance, wisdom, and support. In the months and years ahead, I encourage you to hold us to that plan and I look forward to the positive results from our collective work. We are making progress and we will succeed together.
I wish each one of you a positive and productive semester. Here we go!
