Throughout her nearly nine months on the job, Northern Kentucky University President Cady Short-Thompson has helped the college reduce a multimillion-dollar budget deficit she inherited while juggling the challenges arising from the ever-changing landscape of higher education.
In October 2023, Short-Thompson took over for former president Dr. Ashish Vaidya, who left the position in December 2022 amidst the university’s mounting budgetary woes.
Despite the less-than-deal financial situation, Short-Thompson has remained positive, publicly touting NKU whenever she can. Last week, She spoke at the Covington Business Council’s monthly luncheon, where she assured the community of her commitment to the university.
Short-Thompson is NKU’s seventh president and the first female president in the university’s history.
“She is the perfect fit for this critical leadership position in this crucial moment of the university’s history,” said Dinsmore & Shohl attorney Sarah Cameron, who introduced Short-Thompson at the luncheon.
Upon taking the stage, Short-Thompson immediately presented the audience with hard numbers relating to graduation. Over the past academic year, NKU produced more than 3,700 graduates. Furthermore, 82% of the school’s nearly 84,000 alumni stay within the Greater Cincinnati area, according to her presentation. Short-Thompson championed NKU as a positive engine of social mobility within the region.
“I point that out to all of you who already are hiring and working with our students to just remind you that Northern Kentucky University students and graduates are a great investment,” she said. “They will stay with you. They love it here. This is their home.”
Short-Thompson advertised the new academic programs offered by the university. In the intense competition for students, NKU now offers programs to meet this economic moment, such as a minor in artificial intelligence, a bachelor’s in sales analytics, and a master’s in supply chain analytics, cybersecurity and cardiovascular perfusion.
“We are constantly surveying the landscape and asking you and asking ourselves, how can we meet the needs of our employers?” said Short-Thompson. “We ask and we listen, then our academic leadership looks closely at how to create new programs in person and online that meet your needs. We have a number of new minors and majors and graduate programs that are really created just to meet your needs.”
She implored the business leaders in the audience to contact NKU if they notice any talent gaps in the local labor market. This way, the school can be proactive in helping improve programs and curricula to meet the needs of employers.
“As you’re seeing gaps, as you’re frustrated with not being able to find the talent that you need, please tell us,” she said.
Short-Thompson then outlined her immediate presidential priorities, including:
- Grow enrollment.
- Strengthen finances
- Modernize the university’s systems, infrastructure and processes
- Strengthen regional engagement through partnerships with local high schools, corporations and community partnerships
- Grow the university’s talent pipeline through increasing intentionality and professional preparation, incorporate degree mapping for students, and partnerships for experiential learning such as internships and co-ops.
“Our big priority right now is playing to our strengths in this region,” she said. “I am really committed to working closely with the superintendents and the principals in Northern Kentucky and Greater Cincinnati. I will tell you that we have worked really hard to be present in the high schools and our community colleges in ways that are far more advanced and aggressive than we have in the last decade.”
Lastly, Short-Thompson closed with an outlook of the university’s hairy financial situation.
“This has been a year that has been focused on finances, to be sure,” she said. “My eyes have been on spreadsheets that every single minute of the day.”
While NKU was in a nearly $24 million budget deficit, Short-Thompson said the university has a “structurally balanced budget” for the upcoming fiscal year.
Short-Thompson also touted NKU’s wins in the last Kentucky General Assembly session, which saw the university win tens of millions in funding.
Some of the projects budgetary appropriations she mentioned were:
- $20 million to fund infrastructural updates and expand online programs
- $21 million appropriation to renovate an existing campus building into a medical examiner’s office and crime lab
- $150 million appropriation to establish a Commonwealth Center for Biomedical Excellence, which would, among other things, would move the Salmon P. Chase College of Law to the Covington Central Riverfront site along the Ohio River.
