Northern Kentucky University President Cady Short-Thompson will receive a $124,931 performance incentive after receiving a good presidential review.
Short-Thompson has been with NKU for about 18 months. During the NKY Board of Regents meeting on Nov. 12, the board chair, Nathan Smith, read from Short-Thompson’s performance review, and the board unanimously approved 100% of the available performance incentive under her contract.
“Unlike NKU’s previous presidents, our contract with Cady includes a significant amount of compensation in the incentive portion,” Smith said. “The board did this to be more strongly incentivizing performance according to key metrics, and we think that that has been accomplished this year.”
Smith briefed some of Short-Thompson’s accomplishments over the last 18 months that helped warrant the performance incentive. That includes her focus on stabilizing and strengthening the enrollment management processes, revamping admissions, accelerating application processes and introducing innovative programs like the direct admit program.
Smith said Short-Thompson aimed to increase undergraduate enrollment by 500, which he said was “a challenging target in today’s higher education environment.”
NKU saw an increase in 414 students over the previous year. She also focused on transfer and military student populations, which led to transfer enrollment increasing by 16.6% and military student numbers nearly doubling.
“I think it is important for us when we have our president meet their goals, that we reward them for meeting their goals,” regent Cori Henderson said. “I think the board sets an expectation, and I would like to see our institution also do the same when individuals, our staff, and faculty meet their goals; we reward their performance as well.”