1. President Short-Thompson, you are approaching the one-year mark for being president at NKU. What is something about this job that has surprised you?

A: There are always so many different things that are surprising when you’re new. I would say that the pace is always a surprise. You know, I think that you expect it to be fast and full, and I think that it does surprise a newcomer to find themselves six or seven nights a week throughout each day, 15 hours or more a day… to live it, I think you find it a bit surprising.

2. You have already shown so much interest in innovating NKU and maximizing the resources it can offer to students. What are your next steps or the next big goal you have on this campus to push it to the next level?

A: There’s so many different things, so it almost feels like I have to have categories of focus because there are so many opportunities at Northern Kentucky University for growth and improvement and for greater health of all sorts. We’re really excited this year about living into our balanced budget […] for us it’s a really big deal. It means really restoring our health.

We’re really excited about the direct admit program and what that will mean for our strategic enrollment management plan. I’m also really excited about how many students will find their way here who hadn’t thought about college, and [they] will come and thrive because of what we offer here. I think a lot of times we’re a sleepy secret, and people don’t know until they’re in our midst just how great it is to be here.

Other things I’m really excited about is that other end of the spectrum, preparing students to leave here as well prepared as possible when they graduate is exciting as well. 

The Norse Network Hub is really a new structure, a new way that we will organize the university to help outside organizations, whether they’re corporations or nonprofits, to access NKU talent. It will mean that outsiders who don’t know us can easily access the right directors or chairs or whoever it is they’re trying to reach out to.

I want us to not be a secret, I want us to not be an unknown. That “hidden gem” is not my favorite way to be described—I’d like to be a well-known gem. A lot of people know us, our alumni know us, this is an opportunity to really scale that up and make our interaction with the region even more prominent and cherished.

3. What are the biggest challenges NKU is facing and what are you doing to manage those?

A: I would just say that finances are top of mind for everyone. You know, coming out of a $24 million deficit and finding our way into the black this fiscal year is something that we’ve already planned for… it’s one thing to plan it, it’s another thing to live into it.

[…] 

The budget model at any higher education institution right now is under a lot of scrutiny, asking ourselves do we have all the different parts and pieces quite right, and I just think it’s going to be a continued conversation and process of improvement as we go forward…That’s the focus of—I would say—many of my conversations a day.

4. What is something you’ve learned about the campus community that is helping you to navigate the future of NKU?

A: There’s a lot of opportunity for us to grow into a more vibrant, connected community. My experience here over 14 years at the beginning of my career is obviously a point that I look back to, and so it’s a direct comparison for me. […] 

We’ve gotten a little sleepy at the university. There aren’t as many students on campus as engaged as they used to be doing as much in our presence. I think that everyone is doing all sorts of things… but I just see an enormous opportunity to start to change that pattern and start to bring more people in relationship with each other on campus.

In some ways it’s a COVID issue, right? It’s starting to re-engage in this community, recognize the benefits of being involved. […] I think that when NKU is at its best and operating at a really high level, I think the whole region feels it.

5. What advice would you give to your younger college self, knowing all that you do now?

A: I have only one regret in my own time as an undergraduate, and that is I didn’t study abroad. I thought that I didn’t have the time or the money to do it, and now that I’m at my age and stage I recognize I could have made it work. 

I just think you have to do whatever it is that you find really interesting and appealing—find a way. I actually was a pretty engaged, pretty active student myself, and I just think that for me seemed out of reach. So I would challenge you to think about what it is that you see as too hard or too expensive or pushing you too far, and I would reach for it.

6. What advice would you give incoming freshmen to ensure they have the best first year possible?

A: I can’t say enough about getting involved and getting engaged… When you find your people and whoever it is you call your people, you know you feel a part of this place and you know they’re going to be looking for you, counting on you.

I can’t help but think that as new students start to look around and say, ‘That sounds interesting, I should be involved in that,’ or, ‘I wonder what this is about,’ I think that’s when we start to really fall in love with the whole higher education experience. 

7. What are you most excited for this upcoming year—whether that’s sports, Greek life, arts?

A: So I love it all… I think that it’s exciting just to see students do what they’re talented in and expert at. I’m excited for all the different sporting seasons […] We also really love the School of the Arts and all that’s involved there. I am blown away by the talent of our students.

There are a lot of different things that I love to be a part of. On any given night, there could be Greek activities. I was in a sorority and I love that there can be a speaker that comes in and teaches us something we didn’t know about… I love to hear about undergraduate research.

I have not come across something that I’ve said, ‘That’s a loser.’ There hasn’t been a thing, thankfully.