NKU President Geoffrey Mearns has traveled across the great Commonwealth determined to help the residents discover one of the great hidden gems in Northern Kentucky. His goal is for the university to not be a “hidden” gem anymore.
President Mearns shared many items of “good news” about NKU. NKU has over 15,000 students with 85% being of the undergraduate level. Every county of Kentucky is represented in the student population, 40 states and 50 countries. He is most proud of the average class size of 24 students per faculty member which gives the students a more personal college experience.
The university has a resident campus population of over 2,000 students and suggests visitors take in Norse Commons to see the investment in state of the art facilities. The student recreation center is now under renovation and expansion. The facility will double in size with a new swimming pool, six full court basketball courts, cardio, weight and yoga rooms, to name just a few of the amenities being added. Improvements to the recreation center were the number one request of students.
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is investing $97 million dollars into the new Health Innovation Center. One of the reasons for successful securing of funding was due to a two pronged economic development initiative. First, the jobs of the future in wage growth and number of jobs is in the health sector. Second, employers know health care costs are increasing and if these programs are successful in improving the health of the overall population it will be a benefit to businesses by constraining costs and increasing productivity.
The University has a wide range of study abroad and away programs. These programs have changed over time. Traditionally, these opportunities were yearlong, but now many of the programs are offered for shorter time spans and are contained within courses throughout the year, including summer. This gives many more students the opportunity to participate. President Mearns stated it is the sign of a great university when there are learning opportunities not only on campus, but everywhere in the world.
One of the more notable programs at NKU is the College of Informatics, which is housed in the spectacular Griffin Hall. When the Infomatics College was created seven years ago, it had 1,000 students; it has now doubled to more than 2,000. The Cyber Security Defense Team won the Midwest Region tournament and finished 6th Nationwide. NKU College of Informatics is proud to be on Apple’s Top 10 Referral List. Students from the Center for Applied Informatics developed a mobile app called PulsePoint which has been accredited with helping to save lives nationwide including a one month old baby in Spokane, WA. This technology has been adopted by more than 600 municipalities across the country.
