“I see her as a consummate communicator, that she is both assertive and empathic. She’s both bold and compassionate. She’s both confident and caring. She can do the tough stuff and call people on the carpet, and she can also be a warm listening ear and a shoulder to cry on. She brings the whole package with her.”
Professor Emeritus of Communication Russ Proctor first worked with Northern Kentucky University’s new President, Cady Short-Thompson, when she was an adjunct professor at NKU in the late 1990s. Chairing the search committee, he was involved with hiring Short-Thompson in a tenure track role. Proctor said Thompson’s students love her, and people want to follow her leadership, so he encouraged her to apply for president when it became available.
Short-Thompson is the university’s seventh president and the first woman to serve in the permanent role.
“They can trust that this is somebody who really looks out for their best interests,” Proctor said.
Short-Thompson said that when she found out about the opening, she started talking about possibly returning to where she started. Out of Short-Thompson’s 25 years in higher education, 14 were spent at NKU as a faculty member and a leader. She said the through line has always been about education and preparing students to realize their educational and career goals.
“I love the mission of NKU,” Short-Thompson said. “I love the people of NKU. I’ve known them for so long. They’ve been a part of my life, whether I’ve worked here or not. And it just seemed like the perfect culmination of everything I’ve known and done and a chance to return home, which is not a typical treat that people get to experience, and it just seemed right, and it worked out.”
As Short-Thompson returns to NKU, she comes with experience from her roles as a professor at Hope College and Dean of the University of Cincinnati Blue Ash College. She said her role as dean was essentially the same thing as president.
Short-Thompson said those seven years at Blue Ash were formative for her growth as a leader of higher education institutions. Her responsibilities included academics, finances, fundraising, facilities, and community engagement.
“So, a lot of the same skill sets, a lot of the same experiences, but then I think you wrap around it a real affinity for the place and the people and the mission and put my heart in it, not just my head in it,” Short-Thompson said.
After Proctor had served as Short-Thompson’s supervisor, she became his. Proctor laughed as he recalled she was younger than he was, and he was a full professor, and she was an associate professor.
“So, when I came in for my annual review, I walked in the door, and we just burst out laughing like this was very funny that she was now going to be the person reviewing my work,” Proctor said.
After they got past the laughs, Proctor recalled Short-Thompson telling him he wasn’t being professionally challenged enough and wanted him to try his hand at a graduate and online course. He said that the following year, he did just that. He taught a graduate course in a hybrid format.
“I’ve used that as an illustration when people call me to be a reference for her of the fact that even though we were close friends, and even though I had once been her boss, she had no difficulty saying, ‘Russ, you need to grow, you need to stretch, you need to challenge yourself, you can do more and do better’ and that that speaks to who she is as a leader. She’s always trying to get the very best out of the people she leads,” said Proctor.
Short-Thompson is stepping into a role that must find the path forward for the university amidst a budget deficit. In June, NKU approved its operating budget for the upcoming school year, reducing its deficit from over $24 million to $9.6 million.
There are a lot of different steps that will need to be taken, Short-Thompson said, but the primary one is to drill down into enrollment management.
At both of her previous institutions, she said she worked to create a strategic enrollment management plan that spelled out the university’s future of enrollment, admissions, and retention. Short-Thompson said this affects the budget more than anything as it relates to tuition, fees, and success metrics of students.
“I’d like to really bring some of what I’ve learned elsewhere to NKU to think through with people— faculty, staff, cabinet, about how to best define the most strategic way to grow and to strengthen the institution,” Short-Thompson said.
She also said there is a lot of untapped potential to help strengthen NKU’s financial future as it relates to connecting the university to the region’s corporations and organizations for support. Short-Thompson said there is room to grow how the university connects with those who employ their students and donate to the school.
“NKU is young. We’re 55, we’re growing up, and I think that strengthening our base of financial support will be critical to growth,” she said. “You can’t underestimate the amount of work that all of us are engaged in as we grow the different pipelines of people, gifts, donations, and grants to strengthen our financial future.”
Short-Thompson said her experience working with different groups, she recognizes the importance that different roles play.
Relationships between the NKU Faculty Senate and the NKU Board of Regents have been fractious amidst the budget deficit and a closed presidential search process. Short-Thompson said there’s too much work to be done to be waylaid by negativity and wringing hands over the past.
“I’ve learned just from listening and in interviews and other meetings that each of these constituents cares deeply about the institution,” Short-Thompson said. “I think there’s just been a challenging time that everyone, in their own way, has been working through, and challenging times bring emotions. I think we have to commit ourselves to working well with each other and recognizing that it takes all of us for the institution to thrive.”
Proctor told LINK nky that NKU was lucky that Short-Thompson was on the market because she brings a knowledge of the university that no one else could have brought to the table.
“She knows the place inside out,” Proctor said. “She understands the culture. She understands the region. She understands the unique mission of NKU. I kept telling her during the process no one is more qualified for this than you are.”
