Dear NKU Colleagues,
Earlier today our Board of Regents approved the operating budget for the 2025-2026 fiscal year during their regularly scheduled June meeting.
This balanced budget, achieved only two years after facing a $24 million deficit, is a remarkable milestone for NKU that reflects the resilience, discipline and shared commitment of our entire campus and the leadership of our Cabinet and Board of Regents. I am proud of our collective work on this stronger and more sustainable path forward for our university.
The budget includes a 3% raise for faculty and staff across the board effective July 1 that recognizes the effort and, again, the resilience of our entire workforce. After three years without raises, this approach ensures every employee sees a meaningful adjustment.
Also, as part of our ongoing commitment to support NKU employees, the Board, Cabinet and I are pleased to share that eligible faculty and staff will receive a one-time support paymentlater this month. The details of this payment, including eligibility criteria and payment amounts, are outlined below.
Eligibility criteria
Payment amounts
Timing of payment
This payment is subject to all applicable taxes.
We understand that financial challenges affect employees across all salary levels, and we know many have worked tirelessly through difficult times. The structure and salary thresholds for this one-time payment were thoughtfully developed in the context of limited resources, with the goal of directing support where it can have the most meaningful and immediate impact.
While this payment cannot address all compensation concerns, it reflects one part of our broader and ongoing effort to improve equity and invest in our employees. We remain committed to advancing compensation initiatives that promote fairness and market competitiveness for all employees across the NKU community. Thank you for your continued dedication to our students, your colleagues, and the mission of NKU.
In addition to the final budget presentation and approval, the Board of Regents heard my update on our 2025-2028 strategic plan on behalf of Director of Institutional Planning & Performance Peter Rinto, Executive Director of Planning & Institutional Research Holly Chason, and the Strategic Planning committee.
Our new strategic plan, Forward Together, reflects a unified vision to advance student success, empower our employees and strengthen our region through collaboration and innovation. The newly approved version of our core values speaks to that vision: We will foster a community of belonging where individuals are valued, supported, and empowered to thrive.
In my president’s report, I mentioned that we are partnering with Hanson, Inc. on our website redesign. With thousands of pages to migrate, it’s essential that every college, department and program take time this summer to review and clean up existing content. Our colleagues in MarComm are asking us to remove outdated or redundant information, fix broken links, and archive old or unused documents. The web development team is currently meeting with colleges and departments to share more details about the transition. In the meantime, please identify a small team within your area to take ownership of this effort and lead your unit’s preparation. If you need assistance updating content, please contact the web development team at webteam@nku.edu.
In parallel with the redesign, our team is also implementing necessary website updates this month to ensure compliance with House Bill 4. As we address DEI-related changes, our top priorities remain the wellbeing of our students, faculty, and staff, and our continued commitment to NKU’s core institutional values. If you have questions about DEI-related language changes or the redesign project overall, please reach out to Peggy Casey, Chief Marketing Officer, at caseyp1@nku.edu. Thank you for your continued support and hard work!
Later, the Board approved all recommended items, including the organizational chart, Academic Affairs and non-academic personnel actions, major gifts acceptance and faculty emeritus status for Dr. Maureen Doyle, Dr. Vanessa Hunn, Dr. Melissa Jones, Dr. Andrew Long, Dr. Gisèle Loriot-Raymer, Dr. Lynne Zajac and Dr. Roger Zarnowski—all of whom we thank and we dearly miss. We are better because they were here.
And, as part of my regular presidential comments (provided in full below), I shared our latest “” video focused on the life-changing impact we have on our graduates and the community around us. Please take a moment to watch.
Finally, the Board’s next regularly scheduled meeting will be September 17, 2025. And please mark your calendars for the following 2025-2026 special events (all in the Votruba Student Union Ballroom):
All my Best,
Cady Short-Thompson, Ph.D.
President, Â鶹´«Ă˝
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Presidential Comments
Board of Regents
June 11, 2025
Good morning. I am pleased to share updates about progress toward NKU’s collective priorities in our finances, enrollments, modernization, regional engagement, and campus culture.
First, and importantly, I am pleased to report that we have made enormous progress toward balancing our budget and strengthening NKU’s finances. You will hear many details from our CFO shortly but I can tell you that we’ve significantly outperformed our FY25 budget. Approving a balanced budget just two years after facing a $24 million deficit is a remarkable milestone for NKU. This budget reflects the resilience, discipline, and shared commitment of our entire campus and the leadership of our Board of Regents. Together we are charting a stronger, more sustainable path forward for the future of NKU.
And you’ll hear more about the various headwinds we’ve faced as we’ve finalized the FY26 budget–we’ve had a few unpleasant surprises. And while it’s been challenging and more work remains to strengthen our financial health, I’m optimistic and I truly value everyone’s frugality and hard work. You’ll hear more about the details from Chris Calvert in a moment. A special thanks to Chris for his strong financial leadership, as well as his transparent communication about the details.
Second, our strategic enrollment management planning and implementation team has been working hard to recruit our incoming class and it’s fiercely competitive right now. I am so pleased with how relational and competitive our admissions team members are–everywhere I go in the region, folks rave about our admissions counselors. Thank you all! At this moment, our first-time first year student enrollments are up with positive results from our Direct Admit and 3 states/1 rate innovations. Additionally, our Chase College of Law enrollments are significantly increased. Our transfer enrollments are currently lower than last year but there’s still time to usher in new transfer students for the fall. And as you know, many students will want to transfer home in the spring and we’ll need everyone’s help via word of mouth and social media campaign efforts to make that happen. The biggest surprise in enrollments in the last month has been a decline in our graduate enrollments which is consistent with other universities across the region and the nation right now, arguably an indicator of macroeconomic factors and lowered consumer confidence.
Yet, we are performing well in our retention efforts–retention is up three percentage points to this time last year. We are currently tracking ahead our institutional retention record from two years ago. This is good news for NKU.
In addition to recruitment and retention efforts, our new Chief Strategic Enrollment Management Officer Ryan Padgett and his team have been hard at work building out Slate’s capabilities, streamlining our undergraduate application processes from 5 processes to one, and reviewing and strengthening our admissions policies, procedures, and practices. As we move forward, we need to work smarter, not harder, using technology as best we can to expedite, simplify, and streamline.
At the same time, we are also working closely with our region’s high schools, building relationships and partnerships in mutually beneficial ways. We continue to nurture our primary community college relationships, making the most of our transfer pipelines. We will work extraordinarily hard in the coming year and decade ahead to strategically grow our adult learner populations and our military and veteran populations. As I’ve stated before, recruitment and retention are all of our jobs here and NKU benefits from all of us sharing the positive news about all that’s happening on campus. If you’re not already following NKU and me on LinkedIn and other social platforms, it’s the quickest and easiest way to stay informed and to share messages about NKU. We need all of your help to succeed.
In order for us to succeed, NKU needs to modernize. Over the past eight months, NKU has been partnering with Hanson, Inc. on the redesign of the nku.edu website. I'm pleased to share that we're on schedule, and will begin building content in the new content management system this fall. This is where we need your help. Please read my follow up email for next steps regarding the work ahead of us this summer. In parallel with the redesign, our team is also implementing necessary website updates this month to ensure compliance with House Bill 4.
In addition to our new website efforts, I would like to recognize and thank the team implementing our Workday ERP modernization. We are beginning a long journey and significant investment, but we are progressing nicely. Our large NKU team and implementation partner, Avaap, have already spent considerable time and effort on the project. We are planning and setting up an early version of Workday using NKU data for Finance and Human Resources. That will enable the University to identify data conversion issues and guide Workday's configuration beginning in July. We have over 130 colleagues contributing at this early stage, and I want to call out several key people to thank and recognize, they are: Becky Brown, Karen Mefford, Lauren Franzen, Dionna Sholler, and Vimalan Kasilingam. We are all grateful for your expertise and hard work.
And now, let’s turn to legislative affairs–at our last board meeting, I reported about House Bill 4 and what it would mean and not mean for NKU. NKU will be fully compliant with Kentucky House Bill 4 by June 30, 2025. You will recall that our employees selected a new version of our core values, which now reads that “We will foster a community of belonging where individuals are valued, supported, and empowered to thrive.” And for months, the cabinet, deans, and I have engaged in conversations with faculty, staff, and students about the new law and the decisions we have made to be in compliance with it. We have thoughtfully analyzed the law and interpreted it earnestly, then conveying outcomes, decisions, and next steps to many constituents. As you’ll recall, the law has major carve-outs for academic freedom, course content, research, activities of student organizations, and First Amendment rights. Our teaching and research activities have been protected. As we discussed in the Faculty Senate meeting in May, we will adopt some interim policies today that will allow us to be in compliance by June 30, yet allow us to also travel through the shared governance processes in August and September.
Over the last few months, we have been working to reimagine the Center for Student Inclusion unit in Student Affairs with our CSI directors. And fortunately, our new VP of Student Affairs, Dr. Brandon Thompson arrived just in time to lead his team through this reimagining. At first, we planned to rename CSI as the Center for Community Connection; alas, they have created an even cooler name–the Norse Center for Belonging and they will begin new programming focused on first generation students and commuter students, two large populations at NKU, this year. Additionally, our Registered Student Organizations will continue this year and their faculty and staff advisor roles will be important. If you haven’t served as an RSO advisor before, please consider serving whenever the opportunity presents itself. We will communicate more formal information to faculty, staff, and students over the summer and early fall to ensure folks have received all of the House Bill 4-related changes and information.
While the short session of the General Assembly ended on March 28, our team has continued to engage our legislative caucus and are already preparing for the next long session in January. Additionally, we have also been highly active in tracking national news, executive orders, and other requirements issued by the White House, the US Department of Education, and other federal agencies, including some cuts that have impacted NKU. Reductions and pauses in NIH, NSF, and AmeriCorps funding have impacted us. We ask folks to continue to communicate your questions and concerns as these federal actions continue. The cabinet has been vigilant in watching and reading. Our Provost, general counsel and I have been highly engaged in this process; however, no one has been more engaged in these details than General Counsel Grant Garber and, despite him perhaps not wanting a spotlight in this report, I offer it to him this morning and extend all of our sincerest thanks for his leadership and hard work. Grant, we are grateful.
Many of you have followed the House settlement news and know that the NCAA Division 1 Athletics is also undergoing major change. With the end of amateurism, we will also change in order to compete in various ways. Our athletics scholarship offerings and various budgets will morph and change as we travel this road, supporting our student-athletes and striving to compete.
While we’ve juggled legal and political outcomes over the last few months, we’ve also had an opportunity to take an occasional break to cheer for our Norse. This spring brought a number of standout achievements across Norse Athletics. Ashlee Fisk was named Horizon League Player of the Year for women’s tennis, while Lydia Self earned the 2025 Bobby Fong Award, recognizing her leadership and impact both on and off the pitch. In track and field, Jill Wilhelm claimed gold in the javelin, and Cameron Bitterman captured titles in the 200m and 400m, earning Women’s Outstanding Performer of the Championship. Logan Devenport had a remarkable season at the plate, finishing with a .423 batting average, the first Horizon League player to top .400 since 2019. And our student-athletes once again set the standard in the classroom, posting a 3.383 GPA for the spring semester. That marks 28 consecutive semesters above a 3.0 and 16 straight above a 3.3. I am proud of our student-athletes and optimistic about our ability to continue to recruit excellent students to play division 1 sports at NKU.
For years, we’ve talked about faculty and staff morale at NKU. The cabinet and I have listened in forum events and conversations to folks’ explanations for our morale issues and the most frequent responses have focused upon remuneration. Given that we haven’t had raises for the last three years and we added a fee for Campus Rec Center or CRC usage two years ago, I understand your frustration.
As a reminder, in March, we reversed the employee fee for the CRC for fall 2025 onward. I want our faculty and staff to spend time at the CRC with one another, focused on wellness and a greater sense of community.
Since March, the cabinet has worked to improve another benefit, related to our employee tuition waiver policy. Beginning in the fall, employees will be eligible for our 3 states/1 rate policy, meaning that their benefit will be based upon in-state tuition rates, which will mean a lower tax expense on that tuition benefit for our employees. Put simply, learning will cost you less.
In addition, I have promised since last August to prioritize 3% raises for all of our full-time faculty and staff. Throughout the year, some of you have expressed interest in various ways to allocate the raises, even conducting surveys to provide me with more feedback. The results were mixed but showed some support for various departures from the norm of an across-the-board percentage, cost of living raise. Some expressed concerns about our lowest paid faculty and staff and asked for my decision to reflect it. Here is the decision I’ve made and why.
First, the 3% raise will be applied as a 3% raise for all eligible full-time faculty and staff. Here’s why–I have spoken to countless HR experts and reviewed the last two decades of our remuneration patterns. It’s apparent to me that we need an across the board raise and then next year onward, we will have a merit component to our raises to recognize our highest performers.
In the coming years, I also hope to address compression and equity issues in our mid-career faculty and staff salaries that have lagged. As many of you know, the most recent hires have benefited from higher salaries and those who are in the middle ranks have not advanced as quickly or well as I’d like. Because we use salary bands and pay grades at NKU, a uniform dollar raise would further compress the differences between levels, potentially making it harder to distinguish roles or reward seniority. Mid and senior level folks might not feel valued or appropriately remunerated if not given a proportionate raise—I value their experience, longevity, and performance. Additionally, industry norms made it clear to me that raises are typically expressed in percentage increases.
At the same time, I also recognize that the lowest of our wage-earners have been especially impacted by inflationary costs. As such, I have authorized a one-time bonus for our faculty and staff earning 70k or less. I have arranged three different bonus levels–
All full-time faculty and staff earning less than 50k will receive $1k.
All full-time faculty and staff earning in between 50-60k will receive $750.
All full-time faculty and staff earning in between 60-70k will receive $500.
In total, 613 employees will receive a one-time bonus this month. Please see the follow-up email from me this week for more information.
And as we are working to stabilize our finances as well as improve our remuneration, we have also proposed an increase in tuition and fees today. We understand that raising tuition and fees is never easy and we do not take that lightly. At the same time, this budget includes a 3% raise for our faculty and staff, who have not received an increase in three years. These are the people who support and serve our students every day. Investing in them is essential to delivering the quality education and experience our students expect and deserve. This budget reflects our continued commitment to student success and value while continuing to offer the best return on investment in the Commonwealth.
In addition to remuneration, it’s important that our faculty, staff, and students are involved in our governance and communication. In addition to our typical shared governance meetings, I’ve scheduled our 2025-2026 town hall forum events. We will meet in between our board meetings, so that we regularly share information and hear your concerns as we lead NKU. The dates will be in our board meeting follow-up email.
And in a few moments, I will present our next strategic plan, Forward Together which reflects a unified vision to advance student success, empower our employees, and strengthen our region through collaboration and innovation. This plan will position us for greater institutional health and impact.
Additionally, we’ve been busy building out NKU’s leadership team, getting the best people in the right seats. I am pleased to welcome two new faces to our university leadership.
First, I am happy to announce we have hired a new Chief Human Resources Officer, Amy Gellen! Amy is attending the board meeting today–please help me to welcome her, she begins later this month. Amy is currently the vice president of human resources at Vora Ventures, a Cincinnati-based private equity firm specializing in building B2B information technology companies. She brings over 20 years of experience in human resources and talent acquisition at Fortune 500 companies and expertise in employee engagement, professional development, and coaching. Her leadership has focused on fostering a culture emphasizing employee strengths and potential. Amy is a graduate of NKU's MBA program and Ohio State. I thank Grant Garber for chairing this successful search, as well as the members of the search committee.
Second, I am pleased to share that Liz Juszczyk (pronounced Use-Check) has agreed to serve as the inaugural Executive Director of the Norse Network Hub. She will arrive on June 16. Liz comes to NKU with a successful real estate career, engaged community volunteer, former educator and administrator, and former child advocate and investigator. For the last 11 years, she has been a leader in real estate in the region with eXp, Sibcy Cline, and Star One. In these positions, she has served as Vice President, Director, and Agent, leading sales teams, managing critical business relationships, and serving as the company's top administrator and in charge of continuing education, training, and certification. Prior to real estate, Liz served as campus director, chief academic officer, and director of student services at Daymar College, a private career college in northeast Ohio. Liz stood out among an extremely deep and talented field of candidates because of her diverse and successful experience, her leadership, and her ability to engage and build relationships with individuals from all backgrounds and professions. Liz is a graduate of Ohio University and Wright State University. Thanks to Jenny Sand for successfully chairing the search and the entire search committee for their great work.
Finally, I will conclude my report with a mission moment video that reminds us why we work so hard. We all work so that students like this year’s seniors can earn their degrees and realize their dreams and ambitions. Thank you all very much for all you do for our students.
