Northern Kentucky University
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| Northern Kentucky University | |
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| Motto: | Quality-Made, Community-Driven |
| Established: | 1968 |
| Type: | Public (state university) |
| Endowment: | $52.4 million [1] |
| President: | Dr. James C. Votruba |
| Faculty: | 1,089 |
| Undergraduates: | 12,647 |
| Postgraduates: | 1,970 |
| Location: | Highland Heights, KY, U.S. |
| Campus: | Suburban, 397 acres [2] |
| Colors: | Gold, black, and white [3] |
| Mascot: | Norse |
| Affiliations: | Great Lakes Valley Conference |
| Website: | www.nku.edu |
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Northern Kentucky University (NKU) is a public, co-educational university located in Highland Heights, Kentucky, seven miles (11 km) southeast of Cincinnati, Ohio. NKU is primarily an undergraduate, liberal arts institution, but it also features graduate programs. Total enrollment at the university currently exceeds 14,000 students, with over 12,000 undergraduate students and nearly 2,000 graduate students. NKU is the second largest university in Greater Cincinnati and the youngest of Kentucky's eight state universities.
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[edit] History
[edit] Early history
NKU's history began in 1948, when an extension campus for the University of Kentucky was opened in Covington, Kentucky, known as the UK Northern Extension Center.[4] After 20 years in operation as an extension center for UK, it became its own college in 1968, when NKU was founded originally as Northern Kentucky State College (NKSC). Three years later, in 1971, the Salmon P. Chase College of Law, formerly an independent law school in Cincinnati, merged with Northern Kentucky State College. The main campus moved from Covington to Highland Heights, Kentucky in 1972. NKSC awarded its first bachelor's degrees in May 1973. Northern Kentucky State College was expanded and renamed to Northern Kentucky University in 1976, the name it has kept ever since.[5]
[edit] Recent history
Since its founding in 1968 and name change in 1976, NKU has expanded with numerous construction projects, new colleges, and a much larger, more diverse student body. The current president of NKU, Dr. James C. Votruba, is largely credited with transforming the image of the university since his arrival in 1997, helping to build NKU's reputation as a respected academic institution.[6] As part of Votruba's administration, the university has increased its admissions standards and improved the academic performance of its students. NKU also launched a new university logo and branding effort in 2002.[7] In recent years, the university has also concentrated on the construction of new and improved facilities across campus.
[edit] Campus
[edit] Highland Heights
Northern Kentucky University's main campus in Highland Heights, Kentucky is situated on about 400 acres of rolling countryside along U.S. Route 27, just off of Interstate 275 and Interstate 471, seven miles (11 km) southeast of Cincinnati, Ohio. The campus was built beginning in the early 1970s, and the first building, Nunn Hall, opened in 1972.[5]
Although most of NKU's students commute daily to the campus, approximately 1,500 students live on campus, which creates an atmosphere of a smaller, private university but with the resources of a larger, public university.
NKU is currently in the process of expanding its campus and facilities. There are currently multiple construction projects across the campus. The $60 million Bank of Kentucky Center is a recently completed 9,400 seating-capacity arena. It will serve as the primary venue for athletics on campus, and also as a venue for entertainment, such as live bands and concerts. The arena is named after the Bank of Kentucky, which made an endowment of $5 million toward construction.
Additionally, a new $37 million, 144,000-square-foot (13,400 m²) Student Union building, to open in fall 2008, is designed to accommodate student needs on campus. The location will include stores, cafeterias and other amenities for students. Other recent projects include the construction of a new parking garage to accommodate the arena and a European-style roundabout for traffic control and flow-management.
NKU is also planning to construct a $30 million four-story complex featuring a 100-room hotel, a 40,000-square-foot (4,000 m²) upscale restaurant and retail area, and 30,000 square feet (3,000 m²) of office space. The most recent NKU master plan envisions a massive expansion of the campus by the year 2020, including multiple new buildings, housing developments, campus quad areas, athletic fields, parking lots, and connector roads.[8]
The Landrum Academic Center on the Highland Heights campus houses an Anthropology Museum. The NKU campus is also the first educational institute in the world to have a laser-projection planetarium, as part of the Dorothy Westerman Hermann Natural Science Center.
[edit] Other locations
NKU's Covington campus, located in Covington, Kentucky, mainly serves nontraditional and adult students and also hosts the Program for Adult-Centered Education and Emergency Medical Technology programs.
The NKU Grant County Center, located in Williamstown, Kentucky is a partnership between the Grant County Foundation for Higher Education and NKU. It houses NKU educational programs and the Williamstown Innovation Center.
[edit] Academics
[edit] Colleges
Northern Kentucky University has grown to include six colleges. The newest college at NKU is the College of Informatics, founded in 2006, replacing the College of Professional Studies.
- College of Arts and Sciences
- College of Business
- College of Education and Human Services
- College of Informatics
- School of Nursing and Health Professions
- Salmon P. Chase College of Law
[edit] Honors programs
Northern Kentucky University features a university-wide Honors program as well as individual chapters in numerous honor societies. NKU's Alpha Beta Phi chapter of Phi Alpha Theta, the International History Honor Society, has won 15 consecutive best chapter awards.
[edit] Libraries
NKU's main library is the W. Frank Steely Library, named after the first president of NKU and completed in 1975. A $9.1 million renovation and expansion project was completed in 1995. The library's five floors contain 300,258 volumes, 18,797 bound periodicals and 1.4 million microforms. The library also houses the Greater Cincinnati Library Consortium Media Collection. In a Southern Association of Schools and Colleges reaccreditation study, library space was one of the main concerns.
The other library on campus is the two-floor Chase Law Library, which contains more than 313,792 volumes and approximately 57,859 monographic and serial titles.
[edit] Athletics
[edit] Norse
Northern Kentucky University is an NCAA Division II school that is part of the Great Lakes Valley Conference. The university's sports mascot is the "Norse." The Norse field teams in men's baseball, women's softball, men's and women's basketball, soccer, cross country, tennis, golf, and women's volleyball.
[edit] Women's basketball team
In 2000, the NKU women's basketball team became NKU's first national championship team by winning the NCAA Women's Division II Basketball Championship, ending their season with a 32-2 record. The 2002-03 team was the NCAA Women's Division II national runner-up.
The Lady Norse won their second national championship in 2008, becoming one of only five schools to win more than one NCAA Women's Division II Basketball Championship, as well as the only two-time champions in the state of Kentucky. Nancy Winstel has been head coach of the team since 1983.
[edit] Other accomplishments
- NKU has claimed the GLVC All-Sports Trophy in five of the last seven years (1999-2000, 2000-01, 01-02, 04-05 and 05-06).
- The men's basketball team was the NCAA Division II national runner-up during the 1995-96 and 1996-97 seasons.
- The women's soccer team was the NCAA Division II runner-up in 2000 and advanced to the NCAA Division II Final Four in 1999 and 2001.
- The fastpitch softball team holds the NCAA record (including Division I) for most consecutive wins in a season with 55.
- In 2006, the Norse cheerleading squad won the Universal Cheerleading Association's national title in the small unit coed category of NCAA Division II competition, and also won the national title again in 2007.
[edit] Club sports
Students have also organized club teams in ice hockey, taekwondo, fencing, boxing, lacrosse, rugby, skeet & trap, and Brazilian jiujitsu. These clubs are primarily organized through the Sport Club program.
[edit] Media
[edit] Student-run media
The Northerner is NKU's award-winning[9], independent, student-run newspaper. It has an online presence via the College Publisher Network at TheNortherner.com. WRFN (Norse Code Radio) is NKU's student-run radio station, online at WRFNRadio.com.
[edit] Public media
NKU is host to the award-winning[10] public radio station WNKU-FM, founded in 1986. The public can listen live at WNKU.
Northern Cable Television is the educational access station run by Northern Kentucky University. It is shown on channel 18 on Insight Cable of Northern Kentucky. NCTV produces many original programs, such as "Northern Lights" hosted by Dr. James C. Claypool. "Northern Lights" won the 2006 Blue Chip Cable Access Award for best News/Talk Show in the professional division.[11] NCTV also produces live telecasts of NKU volleyball and softball. The NCTV website is online at http://www.nku.edu/~nctv/.
[edit] Partnerships
[edit] Civic engagement
NKU is a national model of civic engagement and economic development initiatives. Corporate and university partnerships include The Scripps Howard Center for Civic Engagement, the Fifth/Third Entrepreneurial Center, the Metropolitan Education and Training Services Center, the Infrastructure Management Institute, and Fidelity Investments.
Other centers on campus include the Institute for Freedom Studies, the Center for Applied Ecology, the Small Business Development Center, the Institute for New Economy Technologies, the Center for Environmental Education, the Center for Integrative National Science and Mathematics and the Chase Local Government Law Center.
[edit] Lecture series
The university also hosts yearly debates between well-known conservative and liberal guests. NKU's Alumni Association Lecture Series has featured such guests as politicians Mario Cuomo, Alan Keyes, Steve Forbes, Newt Gingrich, George McGovern, Bob Dole and John Edwards; political strategists James Carville, Mary Matalin and Paul Begala; journalist Bob Woodward; and commentators George Stephanopoulos, George Will, Tucker Carlson, and Al Franken. The 2007 Alumni Association Lecture Series featured former Republican political candidate Pat Buchanan and former Senate Majority Leader, Democrat Tom Daschle.
[edit] Lists of NKU people
[edit] Notable alumni
- Steve Chabot, U.S. Representative from Ohio's 1st Congressional District, earned his Juris Doctor from the Salmon P. Chase College of Law in 1978.
- Actor George Clooney briefly attended NKU but did not graduate.
- Wrestler "Wildcat" Chris Harris attended NKU for two years but did not graduate.
- Ken Lucas, former U.S. Representative from Kentucky's fourth congressional district from 1999 to 2005, received an honorary doctorate from NKU. Lucas was a founding regent at NKU, where he served for 23 years on the Board of Regents, 13 of those as chairman. After his term in Congress, Lucas donated his congressional papers to the Schlachter Family Archives in NKU's Steely Library. In 1994, Lucas had a building on campus named after him, the Lucas Administrative Center.
- David Mack, acclaimed creator of the comic book Kabuki and former writer/artist of Daredevil, graduated from NKU in 1995 with a BFA in graphic design.
- Actress Jenny Robertson, who has appeared on such television programs as Law and Order and Reno 911!
- Raymond J. Brune – Four-time Emmy Award winning media producer and co-head of Yani-Brune Entertainment. Brune has produced more than 15,000 hours of live network, cable and local television.
- Shawn Nordheim, Mrs. Kentucky 2006, has an associate's degree in nursing from NKU.
- Gary Webb, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, attended NKU and was on staff of the student newspaper, The Northerner, before dropping out and joining The Kentucky Post. He later worked at the San Jose Mercury News, where his series, "Dark Alliance," alleged that the U.S.-supported Contra rebels in Nicaragua sold drugs in America and were largely responsible for introducing crack-cocaine into the U.S.[12] There was debate about the accuracy of the series, although the series was soon found to be accurate. Webb committed suicide in December 2004.
- Warren Bettis, an Ohio jurist who serves as a judge on the Ohio Court of Claims, earned his law degree from the Chase College of Law in 1952.
- Joe Zerhusen, the public-address announcer for Cincinnati Reds home games at Great American Ball Park.
- Brigham A. McCown, the Deputy Administrator and Acting Administrator of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) at the U.S. Department of Transportation, earned a law degree from the Chase College of Law in 1997.
- Ryan Abeo (RA Scion), MC of Common Market, a hip hop duo based in Seattle, Washington, attended NKU, but did not graduate.
- Suzanne Fitzpatrick, television writer for shows including The Nanny, 7th Heaven, The Dooley and Pals Show.
- Tom Luken, former mayor of Cincinnati, U.S. Representative from Ohio, and father of former Cincinnati mayor Charlie Luken, earned his Juris Doctor from the Salmon P. Chase College of Law in 1950.
- Rockin' Ron Schumacher, 1983 graduate of Northern Kentucky University with a Bachelor's degree in Radio/Television/Film. He's worked at WCLU in Covington, 55KRC in Cincinnati and since 1990 has been hosting the midday show on 103.5 WGRR Cincinnati's Greatest Hits.
- Tricia Macke, a TV news anchor at WXIX-TV in Cincinnati.
- Sheree Paolello, a TV news anchor at WLWT-TV in Cincinnati.
[edit] Notable faculty
- Mark Hardy, Broadway actor, appeared on Broadway in Titanic: The Musical, Les Miserables, and Sunset Boulevard.
- Ken Jones, playwright and screenwriter, Best known for the plays Darkside, The Middle of Yesterday, A Red Eagle Falling, Victims of the Ice Age, and The Great Easter Egg Hunt. Wrote the book for the musical Burgertown. Previously head writer for Lightpoint Entertainment at Disney/MGM Studios.
- Gary McGurk, an actor from Home Improvement and Babylon 5, is a current acting professor at NKU.
- James Ramage, a faculty member in the history department, is a well-known Civil War expert who has a Civil War museum in Fort Wright, Kentucky named in his honor.
- Robert Trundle, a philosophy professor who Fate Magazine named as one of the 100 most influential people in Ufology in 2005 based on his book Is E.T. Here? and an article published in Science and Method in the Netherlands
- Ukrainian pianist Sergei Polusmiak, an internationally-renowned concert artist and master teacher, is artist in residence and professor in the music department.
- NKU double bass instructor Owen Lee is a published artist who has gained international acclaim as a musician, including a spot on the cover of Bassist Magazine. He is currently principal bassist in the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
- Joan Ferrante is a sociology professor who is best known as the author of several popular sociology textbooks, among them Sociology: A Global Perspective.
- Stephen Leigh, a novelist, is an assistant professor at NKU.
- Richard Cowan, an internationally recognized opera singer and founder of Lyrique en Mer/Festival de Belle Ile, an opera festival in Western France, is currently on the faculty in the music department.
- Roxanne Qualls, former mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio.
[edit] Presidents of NKU
- Dr. W. Frank Steely, 1968-1972
- Dr. Tesseneer, 1972-1973 (interim)
- Dr. A.D. Albright, 1973-1983
- Dr. Leon Boothe, 1983-1996
- Jack M. Moreland, 1996-1997 (interim)
- Dr. James Votruba, 1997-present
[edit] See also
- The Bank of Kentucky Center
- Highland Heights, Kentucky
- Greater Cincinnati
- Cincinnati, Ohio
- University of Cincinnati
- Xavier University
[edit] References
- ^ NACUBO Endowment Survey - Public NEWS Tables (2006). NACUBO. Retrieved on 2007-09-24.
- ^ http://access.nku.edu/campusplan/info_right.htm
- ^ Welcome to NKU. Retrieved on 2007-02-26. “the logo will use the school colors of gold, white and black”
- ^ http://alumniconnect.nku.edu/surveys/?id=40th_Challenge
- ^ a b Google cached page from NKU 2007 catalog
- ^ NKU counts on Votruba - Person, place fit perfectly for 10 years
- ^ http://media.www.thenortherner.com/media/storage/paper527/news/2002/11/06/News/New-Logo.For.A.Changing.University-315539.shtml
- ^ http://access.nku.edu/campusplan/2007%20Masterplan.htm
- ^ "NKU newspaper honored", The Kentucky Post, E. W. Scripps Company, 2008-02-28. Archived from the original on 2005-11-12.
- ^ WNKU Professional Awards
- ^ http://www.waycross.org/bluechips/
- ^ CRACK AND THE CONTRAS
[edit] External links
- Northern Kentucky University
- The Northerner
- Great Lakes Valley Conference Website
- GLVC Communication
- Collegiate Entrepreneurs' Organization (CEO) at NKU
- NKU Club Hockey
- NKU Fencing Club
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