Northern Kentucky University

Northern Kentucky University is a public university in Highland Heights, Kentucky. It is primarily an undergraduate institution, having for example a liberal arts program, but also features graduate programs. Total enrollment exceeds 14,000 students, with over 12,000 undergraduate students and nearly 2,000 graduate students.[4] Northern Kentucky University is the third largest university, behind the University of Cincinnati and Miami University, of Greater Cincinnati's four large universities and the youngest of Kentucky's eight, although it joined the state system before the University of Louisville. Notable among the university's programs are the Salmon P. Chase College of Law and the College of Informatics, founded in 2006.[7]

"NKU" redirects here. For other uses, see NKU (disambiguation).
Northern Kentucky University
TypePublic
Established1968[1]
Endowment$105.5 million (2019)[2]
PresidentAshish Vaidya
ProvostSue Ott Rowlands
Academic staff
1,006[3]
Administrative staff
1,021[3]
Students14,566[4]
Undergraduates12,643[4]
Postgraduates1,923[4]
Location
Highland Heights
,
Kentucky
,
United States

39°01′55″N 84°27′55″W
CampusSuburban, 425 acres (1.72 km2)[5]
ColorsBlack and Gold
         
AthleticsNCAA Division I
Horizon League[6]
NicknameNorse
AffiliationsGCCCU
MascotVictor E. Viking
Websitewww.nku.edu

History
Northern Kentucky University's "Loch Norse" and University Center

Early history

Northern Kentucky University began in 1948, when an extension campus for the University of Kentucky was opened in Covington, Kentucky, known as the UK Northern Extension Center.[8] After 20 years in operation as an extension center for UK, it became an autonomous four-year college under the name Northern Kentucky State College (NKSC).[1] In 1970, Dr. W. Frank Steely was hired as the first president.[9] The following year, 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. Rapid expansion resulted in the school being upgraded to university status in 1976.[10]

Recent history

Since its founding in 1968 and elevation to university status in 1976, Northern Kentucky University has expanded with numerous construction projects, new colleges and a much larger, more diverse student body. One recent former president of the university, James C. Votruba, is largely credited with transforming the image of the university since his arrival in 1997, helping to build the university's reputation as a respected academic institution.[11] As part of Votruba's administration, the university has increased its admissions standards and improved the academic performance of its students. Northern Kentucky University also launched a new university logo and branding effort in 2002.[12] In recent years, the university has also concentrated on the construction of new and improved facilities across campus.

Presidents
  • W. Frank Steely, 1970–1975
  • Ralph Tesseneer, 1975-1976 (interim)
  • A.D. Albright, 1976–1983
  • Leon Boothe, 1983–1996
  • Jack M. Moreland, 1996–1997 (interim)
  • James Votruba, 1997–2012
  • Geoffrey S. Mearns, 2012–2017
  • Gerard St. Amand, 2017–2018 (interim)
  • Ashish Vaidya, 2018–present

Campus
The Northern Kentucky campus plaza in 2010

Academic facilities

Northern Kentucky University's main campus in Highland Heights, Kentucky is situated on 400 acres (1.6 km2) 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.[10] Although most of the university's students commute daily to the campus, approximately 2,000 students live on campus. In recent years, the university has been in the process of expanding its campus and facilities. The $60 million BB&T Arena is a recently completed 9,400-seat arena. It serves as the primary venue for athletics on campus, and also as a venue for entertainment, such as live bands and concerts. The arena was originally known as The Bank of Kentucky Center, named after The Bank of Kentucky, which made an endowment of $5 million toward construction. The name was changed in 2015 when that bank was purchased by BB&T. Additionally, a new $37 million, 144,000-square-foot (13,400 m2) Student Union building, which opened to students in August 2008, largely replaces an old university center and is designed to accommodate student needs on campus. The building includes cafeterias, stores, a game room, offices for student life programs, and other amenities for students. Other recent projects included the construction of a new parking garage to accommodate the arena and a European-style roundabout for traffic control and flow management. The most recent university master plan envisions a massive expansion of the campus by the year 2020, including multiple new academic buildings, housing developments, campus quad areas, athletic fields, parking lots and connector roads.[13] The Landrum Academic Center houses an Anthropology Museum. The university 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. The Covington campus, located in Covington, Kentucky, closed at the end of 2008. It mainly served nontraditional and adult students and also hosted the Program for Adult-Centered Education and Emergency Medical Technology programs.[14] Northern Kentucky University's Grant County Center, located in Williamstown, Kentucky, is a partnership between the Grant County Foundation for Higher Education and Northern Kentucky University. It houses Northern Kentucky educational programs and the Williamstown Innovation Center.

The Japanese Language School of Greater Cincinnati (シンシナティ日本語補習校 Shinshinati Nihongo Hoshūkō) is a weekend supplementary Japanese school held at the Mathematics, Education and Psychology Center (MP), formerly known as the Business Education Psychology (BEP) Building.[15][16] The school was founded in 1975.[16]

Northern Kentucky's welcome sign, skywalk and new arena, BB&T Arena

Libraries

Northern Kentucky's main library is the W. Frank Steely Library,[17] completed in 1975 and named after the first president of the university. A $9.1 million renovation and expansion project was completed in 1995. The library's five floors contain over 850,000 volumes, more than 18,000 bound periodicals, and approximately 1.4 million microforms. The two-floor Chase Law Library[18] Northern Kentucky's other library on campus, contains more than 313,000 volumes and 57,000 monographic and serial titles.

Civic engagement

Corporate and university partnerships include The Scripps Howard Center for Civic Engagement[19] the Fifth/Third Entrepreneurial Center[20] the Metropolitan Education and Training Services Center,[21] the Center for Applied Informatics,[22] and Fidelity Investments. Other centers on campus include the Center for Applied Anthropology,[23] the Institute for Freedom Studies,[24] the Center for Environmental Restoration[25] the Small Business Development Center[26] the Institute for New Economy Technologies[27] the Center for Environmental Education[28] the Center for Integrative Natural Science and Mathematics[29] and the Chase Local Government Law Center.[30]

Academics
Northern Kentucky University's Griffin Hall

Northern Kentucky University academic programs are organized into seven colleges. The College of Informatics, founded in 2006, replaced the College of Professional Studies. In July 2015, the School of the Arts was created, uniting the Music, Theatre & Dance, and Visual Arts programs within the College of Arts & Sciences. In 2018, the former Honors Program became the Honors College.

Northern Kentucky University students are also a part of individual chapters in numerous honor societies. Northern Kentucky's Alpha Beta Phi chapter of Phi Alpha Theta, the International History Honor Society, has won 18 consecutive best chapter awards.

University rankings
National
Forbes[38] 606 (2012)

Athletics
Main article: Northern Kentucky Norse
See also: Northern Kentucky Norse men's basketball

The university's teams for both men and women are nicknamed "Norse". Their mascot is named Victor E. Viking.[39] Northern Kentucky University joined the Horizon League on July 1, 2015 after leaving the Atlantic Sun Conference.[6] The 2016–17 school year is the first in which NKU is eligible for NCAA Division I championships, following the completion of its four-year reclassification period to D-I.[40] The university fields teams in baseball, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's cross country, men's and women's golf, men's and women's soccer, softball, women's track and field, men's and women's tennis and women's volleyball.

In one of the school's first major events as a full Division I team, the Norse men's basketball team won the Horizon League, earning them a trip to the 2017 NCAA tournament.

Club sports

Students have also organized club teams in bowling, ice hockey,[41] men soccer club,[42] taekwondo[43] fencing,[44] boxing, lacrosse,[45] rugby, kickball, skeet & trap, and Men's Wrestling. These clubs are primarily organized through the Sport Club program.[46]

Student life
Northern Kentucky University's new Student Union building, under construction as of June 2008

Greek life
National Panhellenic Conference
North American Interfraternity Conference
National Pan-Hellenic Council
National Association of Latino Fraternal Organizations

Government
  • Student Government Association[59]
Northern Kentucky University's "Loch Norse" and Fine Arts Center

Media

The Northerner is Northern Kentucky's student-run newspaper.[60] It is published both in print and online. The university is also home to an independent, student-run Internet radio station Norse Code Radio[61] Northern Kentucky University formerly hosted the award-winning public radio station, WNKU, founded in 1986, until the station's sale in August 2017.[62]

NorseMediaTV is the PEG access Public-access television cable TV station run by Northern Kentucky University.[63] It airs on channel 818 on Cincinnati Bell Fioptics cable and 18 digital/96 analog on Insight Cable of Northern Kentucky. NorseMediaTV students and faculty produce many original programs, such as "Norse Access" - a weekly talk show, various sporting events and entertainment programming. Many NorseMedia programs have won awards at the local (Blue Chips),[64] regional (Philos) and national (Telly) levels, usually in the professional categories. Students in the program at NKU are invited to create and assist in producing the Electronic Media & Broadcasting programs for the station.[65]

Noted people

Northern Kentucky University has over 60,000 living alumni, approximately 41,000 of them in Ohio and Kentucky. Many have gone on to achieve success in a variety of fields, including athletics, journalism, business, and government.

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References
  1. "University History". President's Message. Northern Kentucky University. Archived from the original on 2009-09-10. Retrieved April 1, 2010.
  2. As of June 30, 2019. "U.S. and Canadian 2019 NTSE Participating Institutions Listed by Fiscal Year 2019 Endowment Market Value, and Percentage Change in Market Value from FY18 to FY19 (Revised)". National Association of College and University Business Officers and TIAA. Retrieved April 18, 2020.
  3. "Faculty by Academic Rank, Tenure Status, and Full- Part-Time Status" (PDF). Institutional Research. Northern Kentucky University. Retrieved March 5, 2017.
  4. As of fall 2016. "Student headcount by level: All public institutions (2006-16)" (PDF). Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education. Commonwealth of Kentucky. Retrieved 4 March 2018.
  5. "Campus Information". Archived from the original on 2009-01-06. Retrieved 2008-05-31.
  6. "Northern Kentucky University to Join Horizon League in July" (Press release). Horizon League. May 11, 2015. Archived from the original on 2015-05-14. Retrieved May 11, 2015.
  7. Archived September 10, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  8. "Alumni: Northern Kentucky University, Greater Cincinnati Region". nku.edu.
  9. "Northern Kentucky University" by Will Frank Steely, The Kentucky Encyclopedia (University Press of Kentucky, 1992): 684-685.
  10. Google cached page from NKU 2007 catalog
  11. "NKU counts on Votruba - Person, place fit perfectly for 10 years". Archived from the original on 2007-10-11. Retrieved 2008-06-03.
  12. "The Northerner : New logo for a changing university". The Northerner.
  13. "Master Plan". Archived from the original on 2008-07-24. Retrieved 2008-06-03.
  14. The Northerner: NKU Covington campus closes
  15. Wood, Karli. "Name changes alter campus face" (Archive). The Northerner. September 14, 2011. Retrieved on May 8, 2014. "With the construction of Griffin Hall, NKU moved 550 operations between the Business Education Psychology (BEP) and Applied Science and Technology (ST) buildings,[...]and BEP will be called the Mathematics, Education and Psychology Center."
  16. "English Information" (Archive). Japanese Language School of Greater Cincinnati. Retrieved on May 8, 2014. "BEP102 Northern Kentucky University, Nunn Drive, Highland Heights, KY 41099"
  17. "Steely Library". nku.edu.
  18. "Library: Northern Kentucky University, Greater Cincinnati Region". nku.edu. Archived from the original on 2008-07-04. Retrieved 2019-01-30.
  19. "Scripps Howard Center for Civic Engagement: Northern Kentucky University, Greater Cincinnati Region". nku.edu.
  20. "NKU Home: Northern Kentucky University, Greater Cincinnati Region". 53ei.org. Archived from the original on 2017-05-17. Retrieved 2019-01-30.
  21. "The METS Center". themetscenter.com.
  22. "CAI". nku.edu.
  23. "Center for Applied Anthropology: Northern Kentucky University, Greater Cincinnati Region". nku.edu.
  24. "the Institute for Freedom Studies". Archived from the original on 2006-07-13. Retrieved 2019-01-30.
  25. "Center for Environmental Restoration: Northern Kentucky University, Greater Cincinnati Region". nku.edu. Archived from the original on 2018-01-23. Retrieved 2019-01-30.
  26. "the Small Business Development Center". Archived from the original on 2006-06-13. Retrieved 2019-01-30.
  27. "Institute for New Economy Technologies (iNET)". nku.edu.
  28. "the Center for Environmental Education". Archived from the original on 2006-05-24. Retrieved 2019-01-30.
  29. "CINSAM". nku.edu.
  30. "the Chase Local Government Law Center". Archived from the original on 2006-06-16. Retrieved 2019-01-30.
  31. "College of Arts & Sciences: Northern Kentucky University, Greater Cincinnati Region". nku.edu. Archived from the original on 2017-02-11. Retrieved 2019-01-30.
  32. "School of the Arts: Northern Kentucky University, Greater Cincinnati Region". nku.edu.
  33. "Haile/US Bank College of Business: Northern Kentucky University, Greater Cincinnati Region". nku.edu.
  34. "College of Education and Human Services: Northern Kentucky University, Greater Cincinnati Region". nku.edu. Archived from the original on 2011-07-20. Retrieved 2008-09-23.
  35. "College of Informatics: Northern Kentucky University, Greater Cincinnati Region". nku.edu.
  36. "College of Health Professions: Northern Kentucky University, Greater Cincinnati Region". nku.edu. Archived from the original on 2009-06-21. Retrieved 2019-01-30.
  37. "Honors College". www.nku.edu. Retrieved 2019-03-16.
  38. "America's Top Colleges 2019". Forbes. Retrieved August 15, 2019.
  39. "Getting to know Northern Kentucky". ESPN.com.
  40. "NKU accepts invitation to join Atlantic Sun Conference, will reclassify to NCAA Division I". nkunorse.com. Northern Kentucky University. December 8, 2011. Retrieved December 8, 2011.
  41. "ice hockey". Archived from the original on 2013-08-12. Retrieved 2019-01-30.
  42. men soccer club
  43. "Please see our Facebook Page". nku.edu.
  44. fencing
  45. Name * First Last. "NKU Men's Lacrosse Club - Home". Nkulax.weebly.com. Retrieved 2015-07-11.
  46. Sport Club
  47. Nu Omega
  48. "Northern Kentucky University - Generic Student Page". nku.edu.
  49. Kappa Beta
  50. "Eta Eta". Archived from the original on 2010-02-21. Retrieved 2019-01-30.
  51. "Blank". nku.edu.
  52. "Theta Phi Alpha - Alpha Mu". thetaphinku.org.
  53. "Theta Omega". Archived from the original on 2011-07-27. Retrieved 2019-01-30.
  54. Scott Wells, Northern Kentucky Web Design. "Pi Kappa Alpha - Northern Kentucky University". nkupikes.com.
  55. "Home". nkusigep.org. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2019-01-30.
  56. "Tau Kappa Epsilon at N Kentucky". tkepio.com.
  57. "Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.®". kappaalphapsi1911.com.
  58. "Alpha Psi Lambda Fraternity, Inc". alphapsilambda.net.
  59. "Student Government". nku.edu.
  60. "NKU newspaper honored". The Kentucky Post. E. W. Scripps Company. 2008-02-28. Archived from the original on 2005-11-12.
  61. "Norse Code Radio » The Student-Operated Radio Station of Northern Kentucky University". norsecoderadio.com.
  62. Cincinnati Business Courier
  63. "NorseMedia: Northern Kentucky University, Greater Cincinnati Region". nku.edu.
  64. Blue Chip Cable Access Awards
  65. "Electronic Media & Broadcasting: Northern Kentucky University, Greater Cincinnati Region". nku.edu.
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