A tradition for NKU and many other American universities—the presidential inauguration is a formal academia event that celebrates the past and looks toward the future of what lies ahead for a university’s new president. 

NKU President Dr. Cady Short-Thompson will be the seventh president to undergo the formal investiture taking place on Friday, April 26 at 2 p.m. in Truist Arena. All members of the NKU community are invited—faculty, staff, students, alumni and community partners.

Short-Thompson, who became NKU’s seventh president in September of 2023, is no stranger to the university and NKU community. Prior to her presidency, Short-Thompson served as a professor and chair of the communication studies department from 1996-2010. During the 13 years she was at NKU before becoming president, Short-Thompson created and designed the public relations undergraduate program, along with a graduate communication program. 

During the inauguration, attendees will be able to witness traditions of the use of formal wear based on rich history, like the presidential medallion attached to a 12-gold disc chain. The medallion, which is passed down to each new president, dates back to ancient Rome and is used to preserve an important person or event in portrait form. The medallion has designs of the NKU flame and the year the university was founded. 

Another item that attendees will be able to see includes the university mace, which is based off of medieval weaponry and on its base signifies growth, evolution and higher achievement. The gold leaf flame signifies eternal light and learning and gold and white cords that represent NKU’s colors. The mace was gifted by the NKU Foundation, Inc. 

Past presidents like Dr. James Votruba, who served as NKU’s longest president to date from 1997-2012, explained how inauguration is based off of history dating back hundreds of years.

“The regalia that the platform party will be wearing, the presidential medallion, the music and the kind of pageantry—that dates back 400 years. We don’t dress like that every day, and we haven’t for many, many years, but it connects us to our past, but equally important is to consider our future. I think this kind of investiture can accomplish all of that.” 

Votruba experienced the inauguration just as Short-Thompson will experience at the end of April, and he explained the impact that the event had on him becoming president. 

“It was a wonderful experience,” Votruba said. “But it was also a time for me to think about what Dr. Short-Thompson is thinking about as well—what messages were important for me to send at that point, and I spent quite a bit of time thinking about that.” 

For Board of Regents Chair Rich Boehne, this will be his third time attending a presidential inauguration at NKU, and he recalled past inaugurations and how interesting and different each one was for past NKU presidents. 

“If you’re from outside academia as I am, it’s kind of a curious thing. It’s grown up inside academia, you don’t see it in a lot of other organizational settings,” Boehne said. “If I think back to the prior ones I’ve attended, it heavily emphasized how each president is. It’s important to remember, they have the same job, duties and goals, but they are all highly uncommon when you get to know them and work with them.”

 Boehne added what attendees can expect to see when they attend, explaining how they’ll get to learn more about Short-Thompson during the inauguration. 

“What you’ll see at this event is the first big glimpse of how [Short-Thompson] will be different from her predecessors and what she intends to focus on. You learn a lot about their history, because typically there are people who come from out of the new president’s work history, and sometimes they speak or head to the program. It puts more flesh on the understanding of the president that you had prior to the event,”  Boehne said. 

Collin Jarrell, a second-year business major and the next vice-president elect of SGA (Student Government Association), is excited to see what Short-Thompson has in store for the next few years as NKU’s president and hopes to learn more about it during the inauguration. 

“I hope she’ll highlight some of the things that the state legislature has provided funding for NKU will expand in a few years. So really just trying to get that action plan and some of the things she plans to do, I believe it will be beneficial to NKU whatever her plan may be,” Jarrell said.

He hopes for other students to attend and emphasized that even if they can’t go, they’ll still see Short-Thompson around in many other facets within the university.

“I would encourage [students] to go. And even if they can’t go, you will see Dr. Short-Thompson around in many places on campus. She’s usually at many sporting events and many of the social events that may be going on around campus,” Jarrell said. 

Beohne encouraged others, including those who aren’t students, to closely watch the inauguration taking place later this month. 

“I would watch closely the program, either in person or later on, and listen to what’s said and what tone is set and what goals are outlined because they will be the absolute critical indicators of what the next coming stretch will be like with the new president,” Boehne said.

For more information about the presidential inauguration, visit NKU’s website here.