The Northern Kentucky University Board of Regents unanimously voted to appoint Bonita Brown, vice president and chief strategy officer at NKU, as the university’s interim president during their meeting Wednesday.
The decision comes after the abrupt departure of former NKU President Ashish Vaidya, which was announced in November. Up until now, the board had yet to appoint an interim president in his absence.
Bonita Brown was named Northern Kentucky University’s vice president and chief strategy officer on May 28, 2019, and officially started on Aug. 1, 2019.
As the vice president and chief strategy officer for the university Brown was responsible for navigating their strategic plan.
“That allowed me to work across the university already, and so I think just this step made it a little easier because people already knew me, and they knew my work,” Brown said.
Brown said this position is unique because she can’t apply to serve as the permanent president.
“I think when people are in the interim, and they know they can apply, they behave differently,” Brown said. “They don’t feel like they can make some of the hard decisions. They’re probably nicer than they have to be. I’m going to be nice, but at the same time, I’m going to go back to my role. I really think my job is to hold this in the road to answer the questions in the meanwhile and prepare and set up things for the next presidents to come in to be able to come and maybe make some of the more difficult decisions.”
Regarding pulling the university out of its current budget situation, Brown said she plans to look at it under more scrutiny and be more intentional about university expenses.
“We’re just going to be more frugal,” Brown said. “We’re going to look at our hiring practices; we are going to implement our repositioning plan. So we have strategies and things that we want to do, and we’re just continue moving them forward. Also, with a watchful eye.”
Brown said she intends to work closely with the board of regents to navigate the situation and ensure that the university is stable and can provide students with the experience they want.
Former president Ashish Vaidya said at the time that he was pleased to welcome Brown as the university’s inaugural vice president and chief strategy officer.
“It became clear during the search process that she had the experience and skills to manage complex change initiatives in a collaborative way, engage others in challenging convention and encouraging innovation, with a strong commitment to and success with achieving diversity, equity, and inclusion goals,” Vaidya said at the time. “Our strategic framework must evolve as regional needs change. In this new paradigm, we need a CSO to ensure NKU is constantly innovating, adapting, and executing in an iterative process as we stay responsive to the needs of the region and beyond.”
At the last NKU Board of Regents meeting held on Jan. 9, the board voted that the university’s interim president will not be able to serve as permanent president. So if Brown is appointed interim president, she will be ineligible to be considered for the permanent position.
