NKU Magazine—Fall/Winter 2017-18

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Looking Back on a Half-Century of NKU PRESIDENTS PAST: A RETROSPECTIVE // P A G E 2 2

MEET OUR SIXTH PRESIDENT, DR. ASHISH VAIDYA // P A G E 2 3

SPACE TALK WITH NKU’S OWN ROCKET MAN // P A G E 2 4

Support NKU! Look for this giving icon throughout the magazine for ways to support the NKU departments and programs you care about, or log on now to nku.edu/givenow. Thank you!

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The Box—we know and love it, and some of us have enjoyed climbing on it (including a certain big-name celebrity). But do you know its real name or the artist who designed it? Learn these details and more NKU history starting on page 14.

CONTENTS FA L L / W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 - 1 8

nkumagazine FA L L /W I NT E R 2017 -18 V O L . 3 // NO . 1 EDITOR RODNEY WILSON ’00 ART DIRECTOR DIONNE LAYCOCK ’90 ASSISTANT EDITOR JAYNA MORRIS PHOTOGRAPHER SCOTT BESELER PUBLISHER ERIC GENTRY Vice President of University Advancement GINA RITTINGER ’02 Assistant Vice President of Marketing & Communications JULIE DIALS Assistant Vice President of Development & Alumni Relations

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CONTRIBUTORS KYLE BIGGS LIZZIE KIBLER ’16 BRYAN MCELDOWNEY CHRIS PLUMMER ’99 ALUMNI ASSOCIATION EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE JESSICA JOHNSTON ’99 President

FEATURES PAGE

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THE BIG 50

LOOKING AHEAD

ROCKET MAN

It’s hard to believe, but NKU was signed into existence a half-century ago. From details of that pen swoop to more recent innovations, we look back on 50 events, milestones and people from the university’s first 50.

What lies ahead for NKU? First up, we welcome the university’s new president, Dr. Ashish Vaidya, who spoke with us about his vision for the school—and the community’s role in charting the coming days.

Scott Nutter always loved rockets and space. When the astrophysicist’s NASAfunded ISS-CREAM project was chosen to leave Earth’s atmosphere, Dr. Nutter’s lifelong dream finally took launch.

MICHAEL MCKEOWN ’85 President-elect MARIA REYNOLDS ’87 Vice President TOM WIEDEMANN ’90 Past President AMY ARBINO WYLIE ’92 Director of Alumni Programs & Councils CORRESPONDENCE NKU MAGAZINE OFFICE OF MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS AC 701 1 Nunn Dr. Highland Heights, KY 41099 PHONE (859) 572-6948 WEB NKU.EDU/MARCOMM EMAIL NKUMAGAZINE@NKU.EDU

DEPARTMENTS PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE 4

NORSE NOW 30

Around Campus 5

AROUND THE HORNS 6 NKU 360º 8 NKU News 10 NKU Athletics 13

MYSTERY PHOTO 36 Junior BriAuna Keys is headed to the NCAA Student-Athlete Leadership Forum. Learn about off-field successes of some special NKU student-athletes. Page 13

NKU MAGAZINE IS PUBLISHED BY THE OFFICE OF MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS AT NORTHERN KENTUCKY UNIVERSITY FOR ITS GRADUATES, DONORS AND FRIENDS. © 2017-18.

NORTHERN KENTUCKY UNIVERSITY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. COMMENTS, QUESTIONS, CONCERNS? WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! EMAIL US AT NKUMAGAZINE@NKU.EDU.

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DID YOU KNOW Do you look forward to your copy of NKU Magazine but wish you could read about university happenings and enjoy alumni stories more than twice a year? You should check us out online!

In addition to the stories contained in these pages, NKU Magazine’s exclusive online content features articles, podcasts, videos and more.

Keep up-to-date with alumni, students, staff and faculty across all the university’s colleges and schools with in-depth features delivered in a variety of formats.

Head over to nku.edu/nkumagazine and read more from NKU Magazine today!

Have a question? Email us at nkumagazine@nku.edu.

A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT Dear NKU Alumni and Friends: I arrived at Northern Kentucky University in 1999 as dean of the Chase College of Law, and in the years since I have served as vice president for University Advancement, acting athletic director, professor of law and now interim president.

I cannot recall a time during my tenure when more big things were happening at the university.

We recently announced a new incoming president in Dr. Ashish Vaidya, work is progressing quickly on our $105 million Health Innovation Center and the creation of an Institute for Health Innovation; our Division I athletics programs are rolling, including our first foray into March Madness; and, we are launching many innovative new accelerated degree programs and micro-credentials for working professionals. Our leaders in Frankfort have finally acknowledged NKU’s historic underfunding, allocating $5.1 million in new funding to offset about half of our disparity and committing to a performance-based funding model for higher education.

And of course, we are preparing to celebrate our 50th anniversary.

As you know, NKU evolved rapidly from a small, one-building college to a bustling university of more than 14,500 students recognized regionally and nationally for our academics, athletics and unwavering commitment to community engagement and regional stewardship.

Guiding this transformation is the unstoppable energy of our students, faculty, staff, alumni,

4 n k u m A G A Z I N E // p r e s i d e n t ' s m e s s a g e

supporters and partners—daring us to break barriers, transform lives and change the world.

This passion has inspired every student stepping onto campus since the first day of classes in 1968.

Each of us has played an important and unique role in shaping NKU into the university it is today.

Our alumni share an undeniable pride in our alma mater—for what it has accomplished in the last 50 years and for the exciting opportunities of tomorrow.

Now, as we look confidently to our future, we continue to harness this undeniable Norse spirit and pride, sharing our tenacious belief that we can—and will—make a difference in the world around us.

This was true when our founders first came together more than 50 years ago, and this belief continues to guide us as we work to create an even brighter future together.

I am proud of what we have accomplished together, and I am equally excited about the days to come. Thank you for all that you do to support Northern Kentucky University and our students. We are forever grateful.

With deep appreciation,

Gerard St. Amand Interim President

[ A RO U N D C AMP U S ] NKU students are known across the region as entreprenurial, with a work ethic that makes employers sit up and take notice. But they've got work-life balance nailed down too, as evidenced by the appearance of hammocks around campus in recent years. The laid-back furniture offers students a place to read, nap or connect to university-wide Wi-Fi for some much-needed research time (or binge-watching).

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AROUND

THE HORNS NKU 360⁰

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H a p p y B i r t h d ay

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T H E AT R E A N D D A N C E

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a lu m n i awa r d w i n n e r s

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N e w A c c e l e r at e d D e g r e es

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t h e n o r s e h av e a r r i v e d

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[ NORS E ]

PRESIDENTIAL IDENTITY

NKU’s incoming sixth president, Ashish Vaidya, contains multitudes.

On Nov. 9, 2017, Northern Kentucky University named its sixth president, Dr. Ashish Vaidya. Vaidya, a doctor of economics, holds degrees from St. Xavier’s College and University of Mumbai in India and University of California, Davis. He’ll join NKU in 2018 from St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, where he currently serves as interim president following the tragic loss of former president Dr. Earl Potter. Prior to this, Vaidya served as provost and vice president for academic affairs at St. Cloud State, preceded by a series of administrative positions across California State University’s campuses.

During his speech at the university announcement, Vaidya took the opportunity to reflect on the theme of identity. Quoting Indian economist Amartya Sen, he said, “One’s identity need not be seen in unique terms. An individual is an intersection of a variety of identities.” Later in the day, speaking with a group of student leaders, Vaidya revisited identity, saying, “I believe that I have lots of identities—thinking about one doesn’t deny another one. You embrace the multiple identities that you have, and your identity gets shaped over the course of your life.”

As NKU launches a celebration of its first 50 years, the university reflects the truth of Vaidya’s words. From a one-building college in 1968 to today’s growing metropolitan university, to the opportunities that lie ahead in the next 50 years: NKU is all of these things, and it’s ready to be more. fa l l / w i n t e r 2 0 1 7 - 1 8 7

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[ NKU 360º ]

UPCOMING

EVENTS DECEMBER-APRIL BB&T Arena Check out the Norse basketball game schedule (see page 13 for more info).

FEB. 2-4 97th Annual Syrian Shrine Circus, BB&T Arena The Syrian Shrine Circus is sure to entertain fans of all ages! See aerial acts, Shrine Circus clowns, the human cannonball and animal attractions featuring elephants and tigers. For more info, visit thebbtarena.com.

FEB. 9 & 14 ROMANCE IN THE HEAVENS Haile Digital Planetarium, NKU Looking for something special to do this Valentine’s Day? Take your date out to dinner and then head to the planetarium for a show, music and dessert! The cost is $20 per couple. For more info, visit nku.edu/planetarium.

FEB. 9 & 10 Homecoming and the NKU Alumni Awards Celebration See pages 10-11 for more information.

THROUGH APRIL Six@Six Lecture Series Peanut butter cups. Theater costuming.

Women of the Civil War. Art as therapy.

This year’s Six@Six Lecture Series, sponsored by Northern Kentucky University’s Scripps Howard Center for Civic Engagement, highlights the outstanding research and creative work of the NKU community—students, faculty, staff and recent graduates—on a variety of topics. For more info, visit inside.nku.edu/civicengagement.

THROUGH MAY Haile Digital Planetarium, NKU NKU’s Haile Digital Planetarium is open to the public every Monday at noon and Friday at 7:30 p.m. through May! For more info, visit nku.edu/ planetarium.

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NKU!

As we draw closer to celebrating our 50th anniversary, we want you to join in our celebration by sharing your NKU memories! Take a walk down memory lane and tell us about those stand-out moments you’ll never forget—whether it’s a story about your favorite professor or the best class you ever had or something funny that happened on campus. Visit nku.edu/50memories to share your stories with us. Once we receive your submissions, we’ll post them on our website.

[ NKU 3 6 0 º ]

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NO-MOW ZONES NKU recently dedicated a total of 4.8 acres of campus as “nomow zones.” The four designated locations will help reduce the university’s carbon footprint by decreasing the use of fertilizers and gas-powered lawn mowers and create habitats for native species, as well as reduce soil erosion. “NKU is among the first in our region to specifically designate areas that were once mowed lawns as ‘nomow zones,’” says Tess Phinney, NKU’s sustainability manager.

SAFEST CAMPUS Highland Heights, Kentucky, home to NKU, is the seventh safest college town in America. The distinction marks the fourth year in a row that NKU has made the Top 30 list in annual rankings by Safewise, a Utah-based crime prevention and security firm. NKU strives for campus safety with the use of lighting, several blue light emergency phones and a 24-hour police escort system that anyone on campus can access.

RICH BOEHNE NAMED OUTSTANDING ALUMNUS OF KENTUCKY On Sept. 12, 2017, Rich Boehne—distinguished alumnus, chair of NKU’s Board of Regents and recently retired CEO of the E.W. Scripps Company—was awarded the prestigious Outstanding Alumnus of Kentucky (OAK) Award at the Governor’s Conference on Postsecondary Education Trusteeship in Louisville. The award was given to honor both Boehne’s impressive career and outstanding affection for his alma mater.

THEATRE AND DANCE From Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America” drama about AIDS culture to Jonathan Larson’s rock musical “Tick, Tick…

Boom!” to new and creative productions debuting in “DANCE ’18,” NKU’s Theatre and Dance productions offer something for everyone. For more info and to buy tickets, visit nku.edu/sotatickets.

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[ NEWS ]

Support NKU Health Innovation Center by visiting givenow.nku.edu.

[ ALUMNI ]

ALUMNI AWARD WINNERS

Each year, the NKU Alumni Association recognizes distinguished graduates for their contributions to the university, their community and society. This year’s Alumni Awards celebration will be KRVWHG LQ FRQMXQFWLRQ ZLWK 1.8Ĺ?V KRPHFRPLQJ DFWLYLWLHV DQG VHUYH DV WKH RIĆ“FLDO NLFN RII IRU NKU’s 50th anniversary celebration. Congratulations to this year’s winners!

MR. W. BRUCE LUNSFORD, ESQ. (’74) CEO, Lunsford Capital, LLC Outstanding Alumnus Award

SEN. WIL SCHRODER II (’08) iÂ˜ĂŒĂ•VÂŽĂž -ĂŒ>ĂŒi -i˜>ĂŒÂœĂ€] Ă“{ĂŒÂ… ÂˆĂƒĂŒĂ€ÂˆVĂŒ Outstanding Young Alumnus Award

This award is presented to an alumnus who has distinguished him/herself through professional accomplishments in ĂŒÂ…iÂˆĂ€ VÂ…ÂœĂƒi˜ wiÂ?`] ĂœÂ…Âœ ÂˆĂƒ >˜ iĂ?i“Â?>ÀÞ >“L>ĂƒĂƒ>`ÂœĂ€ vÂœĂ€ ĂŒÂ…i Ă•Â˜ÂˆĂ›iĂ€ĂƒÂˆĂŒĂž >˜` ĂœÂ…Âœ Â…>Ăƒ i˜…>˜Vi` ÂœĂ€ĂŒÂ…iĂ€Â˜ iÂ˜ĂŒĂ•VÂŽĂž 1Â˜ÂˆĂ›iĂ€ĂƒÂˆĂŒĂž ÂœĂ€ ĂŒÂ…i VÂœÂ“Â“Ă•Â˜ÂˆĂŒĂžÂ°

This award goes to an alumnus who has }Ă€>`Ă•>ĂŒi` ˆ˜ ĂŒÂ…i ÂŤ>ĂƒĂŒ £ä Ăži>Ă€Ăƒ >˜` Â…>Ăƒ i˜…>˜Vi` ÂœĂ€ĂŒÂ…iĂ€Â˜ iÂ˜ĂŒĂ•VÂŽĂž 1Â˜ÂˆĂ›iĂ€ĂƒÂˆĂŒĂž ÂœĂ€ ĂŒÂ…i VÂœÂ“Â“Ă•Â˜ÂˆĂŒĂž] >˜` ĂœÂ…Âœ Â…>Ăƒ `ÂˆĂƒĂŒÂˆÂ˜guished him/herself through professional >VVÂœÂ“ÂŤÂ?ÂˆĂƒÂ…Â“iÂ˜ĂŒĂƒÂ°

MR. ANDRĂ R. WARD (’86) President & CEO,The KhafreWard Corporation -iVĂ€iĂŒ>ÀÞ] 1 Âœ>Ă€` Âœv ,i}iÂ˜ĂŒĂƒ Distinguished Service Award This award recognizes alumni who have `iÂ“ÂœÂ˜ĂƒĂŒĂ€>ĂŒi` iĂ?ViÂŤĂŒÂˆÂœÂ˜>Â? Â?i>`iĂ€ĂƒÂ…ÂˆÂŤ >˜` ĂƒiĂ€Ă›ÂˆVi ĂŒÂœ ÂœĂ€ĂŒÂ…iĂ€Â˜ iÂ˜ĂŒĂ•VÂŽĂž 1Â˜ÂˆĂ›iĂ€ĂƒÂˆĂŒĂž ĂŒÂ…Ă€ÂœĂ•}Â… ĂŒÂ…iÂˆĂ€ ĂŒÂˆÂ“i >˜` ĂŒ>Â?iÂ˜ĂŒĂƒÂ°

10 n k u m A G A Z I N E // a r o u n d t h e h o r n s

DR. JACQUELINE S. EMERINE Associate Professor, Communication *Ă€Âœ}Ă€>“ œ‡ ÂˆĂ€iVĂŒÂœĂ€] ÂœĂ•Ă€Â˜>Â?ÂˆĂƒÂ“ (CEWNV[ 5VCHH 5VTQPIGUV +PĆƒWGPEG Award /Â…ÂˆĂƒ >Ăœ>Ă€` }ÂœiĂƒ ĂŒÂœ > v>VĂ•Â?ĂŒĂž ÂœĂ€ ĂƒĂŒ>vv member whose teaching, counseling or >`Ă›ÂˆĂƒÂˆÂ˜} Â…>` > ÂŤĂ€ÂœvÂœĂ•Â˜` ˆ˜yĂ•i˜Vi œ˜ the life and/or career of the nominating >Â?Ă•Â“Â˜Ă•ĂƒÂ°

[ NEWS ]

2018 ALUMNI WEEKEND

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Support NKU scholarships by visiting nku.edu/givenow.

NKU’s Alumni Awards is the official kickoff to our 50th anniversary celebration. Come join us to honor this year’s outstanding Alumni Award recipients and past awardees, enjoy dinner with other NKU community members and wish our university a Happy Birthday.

FEB. 9 2018 ALUMNI AWARDS RECEPTION STUDENT UNION 6 p.m.

Join us at BB&T Arena for a 6 p.m. cocktail reception with hors d’oeuvres and open bar. Sit-down dinner with wine service starts at 7 p.m., followed by the 8 p.m. award ceremony and after party. Guests will receive a special alumni gift and ticket voucher to the following day’s homecoming activities.

FEB. 10 WBB vs. Detroit BB&T ARENA 1 p.m.

FEB. 10 ALUMNI ASSOCIATION CHILI COOK-OFF BB&T ARENA 5:30 p.m.

Everyone is invited to this true Norse tradition in Victor’s Veranda for pre-game chili. Try them all, then vote for your favorite recipes!

FEB. 10 MBB VS. GREEN BAY BB&T ARENA 7 p.m.

Alumni Awards tickets start at $50 and are available for purchase online at nku.edu/alumni. Early bird rates are available until Jan. 22, 2018. While the Alumni Awards package tickets are the best deal for enjoying Alumni Weekend activities, basketball tickets can be purchased individually as well.

[ PH ILANT HROPY ]

THE GIFT OF LEARNING

For Dr. Carol Swarts, education was the key to a better life.

Now she’s giving back.

Carol Swarts is a bridge-builder. But she’s a physician, not an engineer, and the bridges she builds do not span highways or rivers, but rather the gap between a young person’s dreams and reality. How does she do it? The answer is simple.

“You have to give back,” says Swarts.

She has given back around the world, promoting breast self-exams and cervical cancer screenings in Kenya and planting trees in the highlands of Scotland. And she gives back right here in Kentucky, a place she holds dear because her late husband, inventor and all-around Renaissance man Frank Sinton Milburn, was a dyed-in-thewool Kentuckian. Swarts recognizes NKU is an accessible and affordable means for young people to get the education they need to build better lives, and she’s passionate about supporting the university. And the areas to which she gives are diverse. Biological sciences, world languages and literature, and study abroad are among the areas she has supported—reflections of both her medical school training and appetite for global travel.

Swarts’ generosity includes a planned gift to NKU that will benefit countless students and faculty in perpetuity, supporting education-abroad scholarships, undergraduate research and faculty research in biological sciences. Through her personal gifts and those of the Straws Charitable Foundation—founded in 1998 by Swarts and her family to provide support for education, research and the prevention of environmental degradation—she continues to have a tremendous impact on the success of NKU students and faculty.

But Swarts does more than fund programs. She loves to engage with NKU students and faculty.

“I’m a hands-on person,” she says. “I want to know where my money goes, what happens with it, whether it does any good. And I know it does at NKU. The language and literature students send reports. I got a write-up and a poster from a biology student. I have coffee with faculty members and sit in on classes. I know I’m making a difference because I can see it.” f a l l / w i n t e r 2 0 1 7 - 1 8 11

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[ NEWS ]

[ P E O P LE ]

MEET AMY ARBINO WYLIE

The new director of Alumni Programs and Councils brings years of academic experience to the role.

WITH 25 YEARS OF WORKING IN HIGHER EDUCATION, Amy Arbino Wylie (’92) understands the student experience. She knows what it means to be a Northern Kentucky University alumna too, holding a B.A. in psychology from NKU—and she’s excited to be back.

“I really wanted to be part of the ongoing growth that’s going on here," says Wylie. “As we celebrate the 50th anniversary this year, we have an opportunity to honor the past and continue to engage alumni in building the future.”

Prior to accepting the position, Wylie worked at Mercy College of Ohio, where she served as director of enrollment. Wylie’s most recent positions were dean of student affairs at Thomas More College and Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis’ director of Educational Partnerships and Student Advocacy.

“I always wanted to impact the lives of students and help them be successful,” says Wylie of her career. At NKU, she oversees a variety of councils and strategizes engagement for 65,000 alumni, and she credits her own college experience as reason enough to accept this position.

“I was really engaged as a student here,” she says. “It just made sense to continue that as a career.”

Q&A WITH JESSICA JOHNSTON

We sat down with the new Alumni Association president for a quick chat.

JESSICA JOHNSTON, newly elected Alumni Association president, is executive director and partner at Spotlight 360 Events & Promotions and a 1999 graduate of NKU’s radio/television program. We spoke with Johnston about work, her board presidency and chili cupcakes.

NKU Magazine: You’re from the area?

Jessica Johnston: I was born and raised on the west side of Cincinnati. I spent two years in St. Louis just after graduation, but I made my way back pretty quickly.

NKU: Tell us about your student experience.

JJ: I started undeclared but, after sampling some intro-level radio/television classes, quickly found my passion thanks to the wonderful communication professors. The time was incredibly impactful on my life.

NKU: How did NKU prepare you for your career?

JJ: Many of my professors were adjunct and working daily in their respective fields, which gave me both real-world perspective and connections at a number of places. I even landed my first “real job” from an internship at Jacor Communications, now iHeart Media.

NKU: What are your goals for the NKU Alumni Board of Directors?

JJ: I’ve served as a member of the NKU Alumni Board of Directors for five years. This year, we’re focused on aligning the board and councils, better allowing alumni serving in vital roles to continue the important work of university advancement.

NKU: What else should we know about you?

JJ: I’m married to David Johnston, MPA '08 and the Cincinnati Police Homicide Unit commander. Our 9-year-old daughter, Kaitlyn, is a future Norse volleyball player and Victor's number-one fan. And I once entered spicy Mexican chocolate-chili cupcakes in the Alumni Chili Cook-off.

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[ AROUND CAMPUS ]

RAPID RESULTS

New accelerated online degree programs solve the time-commitment problem.

Have you considered adding a degree to your resume, only to be overwhelmed by the time commitment? Beginning March 2018, Northern Kentucky University and Academic Partnerships will work together to offer accelerated online degree programs that deliver results faster than ever before.

Online and non-traditional student enrollment are important traits of the programs. Academic Partnerships works to offer accelerated degrees based on 7-week semesters and targets non-traditional students who, because of busy work and home lives, often can’t attend class in person. The company’s retention specialists remind non-traditional students of educational responsibilities to help them focus on finishing accelerated semesters.

Rather than falling behind when life and work outside of the program get busy, students will receive specialized help in accomplishing their goals.

—Kyle Biggs, Library Promotions Beginning March 2018, NKU will offer a variety of undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate programs in: • Business • Health care • Nursing • Criminal Justice • Integrative Studies • Psychological Science • Library Informatics • Sociology Learn more about NKU’s accelerated online degree programs at nku.edu/onlinedegrees.

[ AT HLET ICS ]

NKU STUDENT-ATHLETES REPRESENT NORTHERN KENTUCKY NATIONALLY! Volleyball junior Kelly Turner and track & field junior BriAuna Keys not only are key contributors on the court and track, nor are they just excellent in the classroom—both student-athletes also represent northern Kentucky on the national landscape.

Turner, who is president of NKU’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), is also a member of the Horizon League SAAC and the league’s representative on the NCAA Division I SAAC, which provides a voice for student-athletes within the NCAA structure, responds to proposed NCAA legislation, reviews governance structure and recommends potential NCAA legislation. Keys was selected as one of two Horizon League representatives to attend the NCAA Student-Athlete Leadership Forum, where she will develop leadership skills while exploring the relationship between personal values, core beliefs and behavioral styles.

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NORSE BASKETBALL HOME SCHEDULES Men’s Basketball DATE

OPPONENT

11/04/2017

Urbana

2:30 p.m.

11/10/2017

East Tennessee State

7:00 p.m.

11/12/2017

Wilmington

1:00 p.m.

11/29/2017

Berea

7:00 p.m.

12/02/2017

Morehead State

7:00 p.m.

12/10/2017

Eastern Kentucky

6:00 p.m.

12/28/2017

IUPUI

7:30 p.m.

12/30/2017

UIC

7:00 p.m.

01/11/2018

Wright State

7:00 p.m.

01/15/2018

Cleveland State

7:30 p.m.

01/26/2018

Oakland

9:00 p.m.

#TAKENOTICE, THE NORSE HAVE ARRIVED!

01/28/2018

Detroit

1:00 p.m.

02/08/2018

Milwaukee

7:30 p.m.

Norse Nation is delivering full-force support for northern Kentucky Norse’s upcoming campaign. As of early November, season ticket sales exploded from approximately 700 tickets a year ago to nearly 1,250 for the 2017-18 year, a total that produced a 78 percent growth year-over-year.

02/10/2018

Green Bay

7:00 p.m.

02/19/2018

Youngstown State

7:30 p.m.

03/02/2018-03/06/2018

Horizon League Tournament

4.93M Number of impressions the @NKUNorse Twitter account experienced in March

1.3M 400,000

Number of visitors to NKUNorse.com during Spring Break 2017 (week of Horizon League Championship). Spring Break 2016 saw just 12,000 views.

Number of viewers tuned in to CBS during the NKU vs.

Kentucky basketball game

Number of video views on the Northern Kentucky University Athletics Facebook page in March

50,000 $36.5 m

Estimated media value from last year’s first-ever NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament

DREW MCDONALD

TIME

TBD

Women’s Basketball DATE

OPPONENT

TIME

11/04/2017

Asbury

11/11/2017

Kent State

11/21/2017

Robert Morris

11:00 a.m.

11/25/2017

Oakland City

1:00 p.m.

12/05/2017

Austin Peay

7:00 p.m.

12/09/2017

Indiana

7:00 p.m.

12/28/2017

Milwaukee

5:00 p.m.

12/30/2017

Green Bay

1:00 p.m.

01/13/2018

Wright State

1:00 p.m.

01/15/2018

Cleveland State

5:00 p.m.

01/19/2018

IUPUI

7:00 p.m.

01/21/2018

UIC

1:00 p.m.

02/08/2018

Oakland

5:00 p.m.

02/10/2018

Detroit

1:00 p.m.

02/19/2018

Youngstown State

5:00 p.m.

03/02/2018-03/06/2018

Horizon League Tournament

12:00 p.m.

1:00 p.m.

TBD

CollegeInsider.com Lou Henson Award Preseason Watch List 2017-18 Horizon League Preseason Player of the Year 2017-18 All-Horizon League Preseason First Team

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WE LOOK BACK ON 50 MEMORIES FROM NKU’S FIRST IRST HALF-CENTURY.

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HAT MARKS A TRUE BEGINNING? Some trace Northern Kentucky University’s

roots back to a 1946 gathering of students and area high school teachers at Trailways Bus Station in Covington, Kentucky, for classes offered through the University of Kentucky’s Northern Extension Center.

And while that is a beginning, it’s not our beginning—that occurred on March 14, 1968, when Kentucky Gov. Louie B. Nunn signed legislation (the bill had unanimously passed both state House and Senate proceedings) establishing Northern Kentucky State College as a four-year institute of higher education serving the northernmost geography of the Bluegrass State.

As the 50th anniversary of that historic day approaches, we thought it would be fun to take a look at 50 events, personaliÌ ià > ` ÃÌÀ> } Ì Õ« µÕ À à vÀ 1½Ã wÀÃÌ xä Þi>Àà o >à Üi as meet a new face heading to campus soon to help us shape the coming 50 years.

ARCHIVAL PHOTOS AND OBJECTS PROVIDED BY SCHLACHTER UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES AND KENTON COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY

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THE BALLOON-SCHOLARSHIP FIASCO OF ‘73

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egislators signing bills use multiple pens so they can gift the writing instruments to key players in the law’s creation. In signing NKSC into law, Gov. Nunn used 35 pens to seal the deal, though the number of engaged citizens and activists was far higher—more than 3,000 people signed petitions asking for the creation of a public college in northern Kentucky by December 1967.

THE PRESIDENTIAL SHUFFLE While current presidential searches (like the one NKU just underwent) are met with a slew of applications, the school struggled to land its first leader.

Kentucky’s then-governor Louie B. Nunn was initially floated—jokingly—as the president, but the position was first offered to Dr. A.D. Albright of the University of Kentucky, who declined the offer in order to accept a Fulbright Fellowship in Belgium (he would be asked again). Second on the list, Dr. Ronald Carrier, also passed on the job offer. Third time being the charm, Dr. W. Frank Steely, dean of Clinch Valley College at the University of Virginia, said “yes” to being NKSC’s founding president in December 1969.

Our Norse athletics legacy wasn’t always a given— in fact, it took some convincing of President Steely by the school’s original dean of students and admissions, Dr. James Claypool, to approve an athletics program offering men and women equal scholarships. It worked: In 1971, NKSC debuted a baseball team, coached by Bill Akers, and a basketball team, coached by Martin “Mote” Hils.

FIRST DAY OF CLASSES NKSC’s first day of classes occurred on June 16, 1970, and launched a summer semester of 27 course offerings.

The class schedule filled one side of a single sheet of paper and was limited to general studies courses.

The cost? Full-time tuition was $80 for Kentucky residents, while out-of-state students had to pay a whopping $260.

The plan was brilliant in its simplicity: Release 103 black, 12-inch balloons from Cincinnati’s Fountain Square, with select balloons carrying medical vials stuffed with promissory notes for scholarship funds (the sum was to total $16,000). Designed to attract attention to a school that, in 1973, needed all the publicity it could get, the plan drew coverage from news outlets both local and national—but the attention was highly unflattering, and the university ended up scrapping the idea. (Esquire still included the balloon plan in its annual Dubious Achievement Awards, though.) However, an unofficial release did end up happening when, as a prank, some students released black balloons from the roof of Nunn Hall.

ALMA MATER While a school’s alma mater, or school song, may not matter much to the average student—it’s not exactly sung at the opening of every class—it is an important component of an educational institution’s tradition and historical identity. The need for an alma mater wasn’t lost on NKU’s founding fathers, who tapped one of the first six regents, Charles Wiley, to write the original lyrics and melody in 1970. The song is still used to close commencement ceremonies today.

Today, we know Chase College of Law as a respected and invaluable institution within the university—but this wasn’t always the case. In 1971, Chase was an independent entity, a night school operating out of a YMCA building in Covington, Kentucky. Faced with a looming eviction, the law school sought a new home and, according to hearsay, was almost made a part of Xavier University. (The initiative is said to have failed by one administrator’s vote.) But in June 1972, Chase’s merger with NKSC was officially approved on a day known campus-wide as Chase Day. f a l l / w i n t e r 2 0 1 7 - 1 8 15

BATHTUB REGATTA

What do you do when your educational facility is built on agricultural land, complete with an old farm pond? You toss a bathtub in the water and row across, naturally. And so, in 1971, began the Bathtub Regatta, the annual Rites of Spring kickoff that saw members of the campus community racing across Lake Inferior. (President Steely, the only racer allowed to have a motorized tub, often won.)

A longstanding rumor of bathtubs at the lake’s bottom was put to rest when Lake Inferior was drained to start construction on Loch Norse.

EARLY EATIN’S Long before students ever relied on a cup o’ joe from Starbucks or a burger and fries from Steak ‘n Shake between classes, having lunch meant feeding coins into a vending machine in exchange for sandwiches, peanut butter cheese crackers and Minute Maid orange soda. The first floor of Nunn Hall—the only building on campus in our earliest days—was the center of campus and home to a “cafeteria” of vending machines. We’re told the first floor of Nunn was a madhouse throughout the day, but particularly between the hours of 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.

CLASSROOM SNAKES Imagine walking into your first day of biology class and seeing a pair of boa constrictors loose in the room. If you took Dr. Jerry Carpenter’s class in the ‘70s, you may have experienced just this.

Named General Eisenhower and Captain Crunch, the reptiles were free to crawl around during class, causing many students to sit with feet on top of their desks. (Student reviews of the experience were … mixed.)

THE NORTHERNER NKU has long been recognized as a source of journalistic excellence, training some of the world’s hardest-working newshounds on its Highland Heights campus. And The Northerner has served as a training ground for media professionals from the beginning, when staff shared an old house with the Polaris yearbook team and, in the basement, a print shop. The Northerner came out of the gate swinging, picking a public fight in 1970 with President Steely over the removal of a letter from the independent publication’s pages— an emergency student government meeting was called, and the staff established the Letter Incident as an important piece of the paper’s legacy.

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CONCERTS AT REGENTS In the ’70s and ’80s, Regents Hall was a hot destination for national bands, with luminaries of pop music history playing shows there. “Bands wanted to play here for the acoustics—the space sounds great,” says former Assistant Vice President of Marketing & Communications Rick Meyers, who was a student at the time and recounts a Sly and the Family Stone concert that didn’t get started until midnight. (Other performers included the Eagles, Dave Mason, David Crosby, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Linda Ronstadt, Judy Collins and the one and only Dolly Parton.)

GOLDEN GIRLS Years before Northern Kentucky University had a championship-winning cheerleading squad, there were the Golden Girls. While we didn’t have Betty White, Bea Arthur, Estelle Getty or Rue McClanahan, NKSC’s Golden Girls and the popular sitcom of the same name did exist simultaneously for nearly four years. The Golden Girls drill team formed in 1971, originally led

by Irene Brownfield, who was secretary to then-academic vice president and founding father Dr. Ralph Tesseneer. For 18 years, the Golden Girls were an integral part of promoting school spirit on campus and performed routines during halftime at basketball games and various campus events.

NKU GETS SCHOOL COLORS

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ver wonder what that large piece of concrete outside Nunn Hall is?

While NKU does play host to many visual art pieces, this particular structure is, in fact, functional art: It’s a sundial. Known as Gnomonium Polaris Nordum, the 20-ton edifice features a groove that points to the North Star, while the concrete blocks (now sunk into the ground) surrounding it show the hours.

Requested by first President Frank Steely as a symbol of the university’s advancement, the sundial was created by artist Addison H. Clipson Jr in 1972.

GEORGE CLOONEY, CAMPUS MATCHMAKER Most people know that actor/writer/director George Clooney attended NKU for a few semesters before heading west to climb atop Hollywood’s A-list (he even pledged Pike during his years as an NKU broadcast journalism major). But for one NKU alum, Tim Schlotman (‘84), Clooney was both a friend and an accidental matchmaker.

“I’m sure everybody who went to NKU at that time knew George Clooney,” laughs Schlotman.

“George and I tied this girl’s shoe in a tree by that big sculpture that looks like a box—everybody used to hang out there in the middle of the day.

But she needed her shoe back because she had to go to class.” After retrieving the shoe, Schlotman and the shoeless student began dating—and the couple eventually married. Thanks, George!

THE ROAD TO NORSE NKU has experienced a few bumps in the road over the years in terms of mascots (read on for more on that).

In 1970, annoyed that our school still hadn’t chosen one, The Northerner issued a “Pick the Mascot” challenge to its readers. The results, however, were less than earnest and included such ideas as the Farmers, Mad Squirrels and Radical Liberals. Finally, in 1971, the Norsemen nickname appeared alongside the development of NKSC’s athletics program, with women’s teams dubbed the Norsewomen. The gender-neutral Norse moniker was eventually given to the entire athletics program.

What are NKU’s colors? They’re black and gold now, but the original colors were actually gold and white. The distinction is important in pinpointing the scheme’s origins; when the school needed colors, Dr. Claypool looked to his alma mater, Centre College, for inspiration. Its colors? White and gold.

FIRST BASKETBALL GAME Do you ever, while sitting in BB&T Arena or on your couch via local broadcasts, watch a Norse game and ask yourself, “What was the first game this team ever played?” Here’s the answer: On Nov. 12, 1971, the Norsemen played Calvary College in Newport, Kentucky.

The result? We won, with a final score of 109-65— not a bad debut.

RITES OF SPRING A tradition abandoned in recent years (though we think it’s due a comeback), Rites of Spring was a campus-wide celebration to end winter’s days of cabin fever. During the month of March or April, students would take a break from the hustle and bustle of college life to participate in a carnival-like celebration surrounding Lake Inferior. Students let loose by playing tug-of-war, busting watermelons, smashing cars, eating more spaghetti than is advisable and watching the aforementioned Bathtub Regatta.

THE RED SCARE

In 1980, the Red Scare touched campus when NKU offered an experiential course on Marxism and Maoism, taught by avowed communist Dr. Nina Schiller. Community outrage in the form of letters to local newspapers dominated pages, and the course was eventually cancelled, prompting Dr. Schiller to head for the courts with the matter. While she did eventually win the right to teach the NKU course, enrollment failed to meet minimum requirements and the class was, once again, cancelled.

On June 19, 1976, the little college that could took a momentous step toward becoming the regional university we know and love today when Northern Kentucky State College was officially dubbed Northern Kentucky University.

Fulfilling a campaign promise to elevate NKSC to university status, Gov. Julian Carroll signed the bill marking the new title. The change was largely titular—with a law school and a graduate degree, NKSC had long been more than just a college— but it was nice to receive formal recognition. f a l l / w i n t e r 2 0 1 7 - 1 8 17

Hey U! wasn’t fierce. Neither was he inspiring.

But Hey U!, a 7-foot tall reptilian monster that seemed to share DNA with Pete’s Dragon (the original) was cuddly, so we let him hang around campus. Campus lore has it a staffer was so dead set on adoption of the long-necked beast that Hey U! was instilled as NKU mascot despite losing out in a student poll. (He currently lives in the Schlachter University Archives.)

SCHOLARSHIPS FOR WOMEN ATHLETES In the early days of NKSC athletics, the school made a bold and culture-current choice to offer scholarships for women athletes, a first for a Kentucky public institution, by extending funding to Marian Keegan in 1974. And while the decision is laudable for equality reasons, it was also a savvy move for the fledging athletics program, which immediately attracted star athletes to the brandnew women’s basketball team and resulted in the near-instant excellence of NKSC’s sports presence in the region.

SMOKE-FREE Some alums (this editor included) may remember exiting a given academic building to encounter a suspended cloud of smoke waiting beyond the doors. But on Jan. 9, 2013, following similar moves by other state universities, NKU’s Board of Regents unanimously passed a resolution to transition the university to a smoke-free campus.

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M TUNNEL MURAL Almost everyone on campus has walked through the tunnel that connects Lucas Administrative Center and the University Center, but not many know the mystery behind the mural that covers its walls. In 1982, under the direction of Prof.

Howard Storm, four art students took paint to concrete and created the undersea mural featuring Neptune, fish, a mermaid and a sunken Viking ship. The aquatic theme was chosen as a contrast to the university’s brutalist architecture.

aybe it’s our comfortable campus environment or the forward-looking brutalist architecture, but NKU’s place in the history of fine arts sculpture is surprisingly robust. Take, for instance, The Box. Officially titled “Untitled,” the 8-by-8-by-16-foot aluminum box outside the Fine Arts Center was crafted by lauded minimalist Donald Judd. The piece stirred controversy, prompting the artist to deliver a minimal speech (saying simply that art should speak for itself) at the dedication. NKU is also home to other well-known sculptures, including pop artist Red Grooms’ “Way Down East” (currently in storage due to the work’s association with problematic “The Birth of a Nation” director, D.W. Griffith) and Cincinnati artist Patricia Renick’s 1974 piece, “Stegowagenvolkssaurus,” which contains the artist’s ashes and is displayed in the W. Frank Steely Library.

UNIVERSITY MACE It’s one NKU commencement tradition that traces its roots to medieval weaponry: the university mace. The walnut-stained mahogany spiral base, gold-leaf flame and gold-and-white braided cords were carefully designed by our very own Kari Messner (’91) and sculpted by local artist Jack True. The Northern Kentucky University Foundation gifted the mace to the university in 1991.THE

CONTINUAL CONSTRUCTION

ALUMNI LECTURE SERIES

Running from 20002011, the Alumni Lecture Series brought high-profile speakers to NKU’s campus, including Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bob Woodward, Democratic strategist James Carville, former White House press secretaries Robert Gibbs and Dana Perino, political commentator George Stephanopoulos and more. Former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo and one-time presidential candidate Alan Keyes grew so heated during one event that the conversation was reined in by the proceeding's moderator, Nick Clooney.

It seems like, ever since Gov. Nunn first drove a bulldozer during 1971’s university groundbreaking (about a mile away from the building site), few days have gone by without an active construction zone existing alongside daily classes. And that’s not far from the truth—the erection of Nunn Hall (shortly followed by Regents Hall, built with $1 million left over from Nunn’s construction) set off five decades of steady growth. From the W. Frank Steely Library (the third building to appear on campus) and the Dorothy Westerman Herrmann Science Center (2002) to recent additions such as the Votruba Student Union (2008), BB&T Arena (2008), Griffin Hall (2011) and ongoing construction of the Health Innovation Center (Fall 2018), NKU is always growing to meet the region’s needs.

For a regional university, NKU has received its fair share of attention from U.S. presidents over the years. First there was a congratulatory telegram from John F. Kennedy upon the opening of the pre-NKSC Covington campus. Gerald Ford, in his post-presidency in 1978, addressed a standing-room-only crowd in Regents Hall. And sitting president George W. Bush paid the campus a visit in May 2006 to speak about his American Competitiveness Initiative.

LAKE INFERIOR BECOMES LOCH NORSE For many of us, mention of Lake Inferior brings forth nostalgic memories of thick algae and that special smell only farm ponds possess. And while the lake’s water and a microscope made for fun biology experiments, 2006’s completed redesign of the water feature was celebrated with a campus vote to change the name to Loch Norse. An initiative of the Votruba administration, the project created a native plant area and an outdoor learning laboratory to study stormwater runoff and aquatic ecosystems, and spurred green development across campus.

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STEELY ARCHIVES There is much more to know about NKU’s 50 years than what lies in this magazine. If you want to see photographs, artifacts and documents connected to the university’s history, the Eva G. Farris Special Collections and Schlachter University Archives is the best place to start. Thanks to a renovation in 2006, this hidden gem on the first floor of Steely Library can acquire, organize and preserve a more sustainable public comprehensive record of all five decades of our story—from the 328-acre farm to the soon-to-be-completed Health Innovation Center.

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ith NKU’s NCAA Division I status secured in recent years, it’s tempting to wonder why the Norse don’t have a football team. But those of us around in the mid-90s know NKU football was very close to existing (sort of). Eventually football was shelved due to financial infeasibility, but for a short while coaches were being considered, funding initiatives were pursued and a football helmet prototype was on display under glass in the University Center.

GOSNEY LOG CABIN Was it a schoolhouse?

A honeymoon cottage?

Let’s be honest, a lot of us here at NKU don’t know much about the Gosney log cabin, where it came from or its connection to our campus. Before the 1850s-structure made its way to Highland Heights, it had a home in Grants Lick and then A.J. Jolly Park. The cabin became a part of NKU’s story in 1982 as a symbol of how much education had changed in the Commonwealth but sat unused for nearly three decades until it was restored as a learning space for students in 2013.

HAILE PLANETARIUM Did you know NKU has a planetarium? It does— and it’s awesome. Established in 2007 as part of the Physics, Geology & Engineering Technology department and housed on the fourth floor of the Natural Science Center, the Haile Planetarium is open to the public and offers free shows several times a month. And you can even rent out the space for children’s birthday parties!

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Y.E.S. FESTIVAL

Begun in 1983 as the Year End Series, SOTA’s Y.E.S. Festival has grown into an awardwinning, and highly respected, outlet for groundbreaking theater. The Fine Arts department put out a call to playwrights for unproduced pieces and, in its first year, received over 200 plays from an international representation of writers. In 2017, SOTA students and faculty produced two plays—Mark Eisman’s “Unfrozen” and Tom Baum’s “Human Services”— awarding the two playwrights cash prizes and trips to campus to participate in the festival.

DIVISION I Anyone with even a passing interest in NKU knows the university reached an important milestone in 2016 when it was granted active status as a Division I institution by the NCAA. The end result of a plan first announced on Dec. 8, 2011, NKU started its four-year reclassification process in 2012. The Norse’s historic step forward was preceded by a successful DII run that included three national championships (two in women's basketball, one in men's soccer) and numerous regional and conference titles across its 17 programs.

DUELING VICTORS

In 2016, citing reasons that spanned everything from costume age to branding concerns to an ESPN rating as the ninth scariest mascot in the nation (that one kind of hurt), NKU decided it was time Victor E. Viking got a makeover.

Redesigning the character from head to Ugglike boots, the new look gave Victor an open smile in place of previous snarl, loosed his braids into a flowing mane and granted the squat frame a drastic slim down. And people hated it. Local media quickly picked up on the bad reviews and, in the end, the university settled on a mashup of the two Victors that included the newly buff bod and that familiar old snarl.

I

AN AWARD-WINNING UNION

f you’ve been away from campus for a few years, the recent trend of Norsing Up may need definition. Performed by placing thumbs to each side of the head and extending pinkies upward into makeshift Viking horns, the Norse Up gesture can be seen at athletic events and campus activities or putting in appearances in the hallways—but where did it come from? Campus lore holds that, during a 2013 national tournament, one cheerleader found herself the lone member of her squad without a plastic Viking helmet and, improvising for a photograph, created the iconic gesture on the fly.

In 2008, the Votruba Student Union opened to campus-wide acclaim. And a year later, acclaim came from an outside entity as The Kentucky Society of Architects awarded NKU the Merit Design Award of Excellence for the building’s architectural design. Further recognition came in 2013 when the American Institute of Architects Kentucky named the Votruba Student Union its sixth favorite building in the Commonwealth.

If terms like “informatics” and “health innovations” leave your head spinning, rest assured recent initiatives are actually part of NKU’s long dedication to furthering tech-savvy education in the region. Traceable back to the 1988 introduction of a slew of technology-focused programs (continued by interim president Jack Moreland’s 1996 drive to incorporate computers into NKU’s education and a robust email overhaul), the university continued with an aughts introduction of Wi-Fi everywhere, proceeded to smart classrooms and hasn’t stopped.

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THE PRESIDENTS Finishing up our 50 list, we take a look at university presidents past.

ILLUSTRATIONS BY CHRIS PLUMMER ’99 NKU’s first 50 years were marked by a bevy of grass-roots initiatives, but the school’s success is also beholden to our past presidents. So for our final eight listings, we look to the eight men who helmed a half-century of NKU.

W. FRANK STEELY, 1970–75 "Never before did so many do so much with so little,” said the school’s first president, and Steely’s stalwart support of NKSC contributed much of this “so much.” In 1970, while at the University of Virginia, Steely crossed snow-covered mountains in a rented Jeep to champion the college to legislators in Frankfort, Kentucky, potentially saving NKSC from the chopping block.

RALPH A. TESSENEER, 1975-76 (interim) Before his one-year interim presidency, Ralph Tesseneer acted as vice president of academic affairs and hired NKSC’s first faculty members.

Then-president Steely, occupied with launching the brand-new institution, set up in an old dance studio across the street from the Covington campus, giving Tesseneer a more traditional office to staff the school with scholars.

A.D. ALBRIGHT, 1976–83 In 1976, A.D. Albright finally said yes. Previous presidencies built a new school, but Albright’s challenge was the institution’s adolescent growth, including one important perception shift. NKU was initially considered a commuter school with a roadway access problem, but construction of residence halls enabled on-campus living, providing a collegial feel.

LEON E. BOOTHE, 1983–96 Leon Boothe helped walk NKU toward maturity, including a determined push past its regional reputation to expand beyond the tri-state’s borders. Among his many accomplishments over 13 years of service, Boothe globalized NKU with increased international enrollments, more study-abroad initiatives and additional foreign-language programs.

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JACK M. MORELAND, 1996–97 (interim) As interim president, Jack M. Moreland did much in limited time. In addition to technology initiatives, Moreland pioneered partnerships with local corporations, starting with the launch of the Delta Air Lines call center, which provided on-campus employment for students. Fidelity Investments’ move to campus continued this important arrangement.

JAMES C. VOTRUBA, 1997-2012 James Votruba, NKU’s longest-serving president, created new colleges, saw massive enrollment increases and stepped NKU toward Division I. “During that time period, NKU became a national leader in what is now known as regional stewardship,” Votruba says when asked about his proudest accomplishments, “taking responsibility for advancing not only the dreams of our students, but the dreams of our region and our community.”

GEOFFREY S. MEARNS, 2012-17 The impact of Geoffrey Mearns’ 5-year presidency will be felt long into NKU’s next 50 years. He championed changing the funding model for higher education in the state, helping NKU gain a more balanced footing among Kentucky universities. He also shepherded the Health Innovation Center, due to open in 2018, from paper to construction.

GERARD ST. AMAND, 2017-18 (interim) Gerard St. Amand was all set to retire from NKU, but when NKU needed leadership in 2017, he stepped in to oversee the university.

“When I was asked to serve … it was made clear that no one wants a transition period of simply ‘marking time,’ waiting for the next president,” St. Amand said. “Certainly our students can’t afford that, and neither can the region we serve.”

“We will do this together—of that, I assure you. I look forward to being your advocate, your ambassador and champion, be it in the corporate boardroom, be it in the state legislature or the governor’s office.”

—Dr. Ashish Vaidya, Nov. 9, 2017

understand, address and service global and regional economic needs. As he forged his academic career, beginning as a professor then moving into administrative roles, he remained driven by a desire to prepare students for meaningful lives that positively impact their communities. In fact, it was NKU’s proven commitment to regional stewardship that first put our school on his radar. “This is a passionate, can-do community,” he says, “with an unstoppable future.”

As we gaze toward the second half of NKU’s first century, it’s natural to wonder about Vaidya’s vision for the university. He brings with him a deep commitment to such ideals as student service, regional stewardship and global impact—but how NKU will pursue these ends is, in many ways, up to the NKU community as a whole.

Northern Kentucky University’s inaugural 50 years stand as a testament to bold visions, fierce determination and the scrappy entrepreneurialism that defines our school community. Our first half-century traces a path from a one-building college to a university actively serving student dreams and regional needs.

And as we celebrate the people and ideas that defined our beginnings, we’re also excited about what lies ahead—years that NKU will embark upon under the administration of our incoming sixth president, Dr. Ashish Vaidya.

“That’s a standard question they asked the candidates: What’s your vision for NKU?” says Dr. Vaidya. “Well, I would be foolish to say I knew what the vision for NKU is yet. I have some ideas about things we could be doing and should be thinking about, but a vision is borne out of collective thinking.

Vaidya was raised in India—not just a part of India, of which there are many, but across the country’s whole, his father’s government job exposing young Ashish to a wide variety of Indian cultures. His childhood also showed him the stark economic disparities present in the population, and he pursued economics—first at St. Xavier’s College and University of Mumbai, then stateside at University of California, Davis—in an attempt to

“I really want to be clear that I know every place is different.

And I know that one of my strengths is the ability to listen to other points of view and to consider that when charting a path forward. So that’s how I’m going to approach the opportunity of this position as well. People should not hold back. The campus and the community should be willing to have a conversation and talk about things we could be doing together.” f a l l / w i n t e r 2 0 1 7 - 1 8 23

ASTROPHYSICIST SCOTT NUTTER LAUNCHES COSMIC RAY RESEARCH BEYOND THE CAMPUS LAB

AND THE EDGE OF EARTH’S ATMOSPHERE.

BY RODNEY WILSON '00

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ON CERTA IN DATES OF THE YEAR, YOU F T MAY, UPON GAZING INTO T THE CREEPING DARKNESS OF THE EARLY Y EVENING OR PRE-DAWN SKY, SEE A LARGE BALL OF R LIGHT—STAR-LIKE, BUT BRIGHTER—EMERGE ER FROM ONE CORNER OF THE E HORIZON, STEADILY GLIDE ACROSS THE HEAVENS FOR AV A MINUTE OR TWO, THEN WINK N OUT IN COMPLETION OF ITS OVERHEAD JO JOURNEY. A plane? (No.) A bird? (Come on on.) A UFO? (Close, but it’s definitely id identified.)

That ball of light, the third-brightest object in the night sky (after the moon and Venus), is the International Space Station (ISS), a habitable satellite carrying an international crew of astronauts and cosmonauts conducting a variety of experiments and research projects. The spacecraft circles the globe once every 90 minutes, 220 miles above the earth’s surface, at a speed of 17,500 mph. And, as of Aug. 14, 2017, the ISS has some NKU on it.

“It’s very cool,” says Dr. Scott Nutter, professor of physics in Northern Kentucky University’s Physics, Geology & Engineering Technology department and member of the international scientific team that developed the research instrument known as CREAM on the ISS (nicknamed ISS-CREAM). “NKU has a piece up there.”

Short for Cosmic Ray Energetics and Mass for the International Space Station, ISS-CREAM marks the culmination of decades of work for Nutter. And the process of getting CREAM into space was the realization of a lifetime interest for the NKU professor.

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Dr. Scott Nutter poses with the SpaceX rocket that carried his project, ISS-CREAM, to its new home aboard the International Space Station.

Nutter’s path to outer space started with undergraduate work in Georgia, then graduate studies at Indiana University, where he reveled in the characteristics of the region. “I really do like the Midwest,” he says. “It was really wonderful, lovely territory to go hiking—all the oaks and other hardwoods!”

But grad school wasn’t all dirt trails through Hoosier woods for Nutter, as his time at Indiana University also directed him to astrophysics and working with high-altitude balloons to study cosmic ray physics—the same research he does today.

“I’ve been working on balloon-borne projects for a long time, since graduate school,” says Nutter. “These balloons go, essentially, into space. Anyone who went up on one would not be able to breathe, they’d freeze to death and their blood would boil—above 99.5 percent of the atmosphere, you’re in space.”

“Space is Re ally Sexy” G R O W I N G U P in Athens, Georgia, with Pennsylvanian parents (“I never quite learned how to like grits,” he quips), Nutter found science at an age when most kids wheel plastic vehicles up and down the driveway.

“I think I first started [with science] by being interested in dinosaurs,” he says. “Of course, that’s where a lot of kids start, but I blew right over the fire engine stage and got into bones. And then rocks. Then something happened in middle school, and I got really caught up in cool things like black holes and lasers.

After that, physics was it.”

The scientist was born into a nation gripped by the global competition for cosmic dominance—“The Space Race”—and the country’s obsession with space aeronautics slipped into his consciousness when he was only 6 years old. A kind of fascination quickly took root.

“Space is really sexy,” he says. “I remember seeing on TV these grainy, black-and-white images of the first Apollo 11, and that whole thing was, of course, on everybody’s mind. So getting into space right now? That’s sort of the culmination of a career goal.”

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He accepted a faculty position at Eastern New Mexico University, where he taught and conducted research for six years. And while the remoteness of the locale, coupled with the university’s smaller size, proved a challenge to the collaborative nature of his research, the experience introduced him to work that determined the course of his career.

“I was very fortunate in that a mentor—a faculty member and friend—had always been supportive to me,” he says. “I took a year off from New Mexico and spent a year with him at Pennsylvania State University as a visiting faculty member. He needed some start-up person there to help him with the project. That was in 1999, right at the beginning of the CREAM project.”

A Cosmic Misnomer T H E C R E A M R E S E A R C H P R O J E C T is currently run by 30 people (10 faculty members, 10 post-docs and 10 graduate students) spread between the United States and Korea. The instrument collects data that, back on the ground at universities like NKU, scientists use to work out answers to questions about cosmic rays—questions like, what are cosmic rays, anyway?

“Right now they’re believed to just be gas between the stars that’s swept up in an expanding shockwave from a supernovae explosion,” explains Nutter. “As it expands, just like you see shockwaves going through the air, this is going through gas that’s out in space.” Nutter further explains that, as the gas accelerates, a small fraction of its particles reach near-light speeds, becoming what we call cosmic rays.

First discovered by Austrian-American scientist Victor Hess in 1912—who, carrying electrometers, rode a balloon to a height of more than 17,000 feet during a near-total eclipse to measure rising radiation at increased altitudes—cosmic rays rain down on the earth from the solar system.

It’s also worth noting that cosmic rays aren’t rays at all: Hess named them based on a belief they were electromagnetic radiation. (He was wrong.)

“They’re just ordinary elements,” explains Nutter. “Hydrogen and helium, carbon and nitrogen, oxygen and iron—all these things that are out there waiting to become part of a new solar system. But the details of how that acceleration happens have to be teased out of the spectrum.

“They’re an important part of the energy balance of the galaxy,” he continues. “There’s as much associated with the motion of these elements at very high speeds as there is in starlight itself. When you look up at the sky and see the bright Milky Way—if your eyes could see cosmic rays, it would be just as bright.”

Collecting cosmic ray data is a matter of measuring two aspects—charge and energy—to better understand the elements’ origins. “Charge is pretty easy,” says Nutter. “ISS-CREAM does that with very thin layers of silicon.” Measuring energy, however, is slightly more complex, employing a technique known as calorimetry to determine how energy moves from one thing to another. “In particle physics, the calorimeter takes the particle that comes in and has some heavy material that the particle hits and goes ‘splat,’” he says, slapping the back of one hand into an open palm for effect. “When it goes ‘splat,’ it creates a lot of other particles. So one particle going really, really fast creates thousands of other particles going slower. We call this a shower, and we measure how big the shower is. That tells us how much energy the particle had.”

A large part of Nutter’s role in the ISS-CREAM project is running simulations on a virtual geometry of the instrument to create data sets similar to what the terrestrial team will receive from the ISS-mounted instrument. Which begs the question— why send CREAM into space at all, if the team can predict the data it’ll send back?

“We don’t actually know what the answer is, how many particles there are in particular energy or anything like that,” says Nutter. “We can just, particle by particle, look and have an average response for this kind of energy and an average response for that energy. But we don’t know how many of each kind. So the goal is to find out that, at this energy there’s that many, and at this other energy there’s this other many.”

And in order to determine answers to these questions, CREAM had to escape Earth’s surface—first into the skies above Antarctica and, finally, up in space.

H EL IX

While CREAM is getting all the attention for its recent journey into space, it is, in fact, one of two NASA-funded projects that Dr. Scott Nutter is involved with right now. The other is HELIX. “HELIX is well-named because it’s what we call a magnetic spectrometer,” explains Nutter. “Its goal is to measure the relative number of isotopes of beryllium in the cosmic rays.”

Measuring relative isotope decay helps scientists determine how long a cosmic ray has traveled in space. The measurement’s never been taken before.

“Beryllium particles bounce around in the galaxy’s very weak magnetic fields, kind of helixing or twisting up, and they arrive here,” he says. “We put a big magnet up in space and see how much they twist and the slight difference in mass between beryllium-9 and beryllium-10.”

Unlike its ISS-dwelling sibling, HELIX isn’t headed to space anytime soon—largely because it doesn’t yet exist.

“The project is in the design stage right now,” says Nutter. “We’re just beginning fabrication of some of the most basic aspects of it. The electronics are still being designed and tested, and we’re having prototypes come through. But the plan is for this detector to launch in about 2019 or 2020 from Antartica, then be refurbished in a second round of fabrication with better detectors that allow us to extend our energy range and be launched again four or five years later.”

Unfortunately for Nutter, the HELIX project isn’t likely to result in another trip to Cape Canaveral. “Our magnet is very much tied to the earth,” he says. “Superconducting magnets require liquid helium, and that wouldn’t last very long on the space station. So it’s not one that we could launch on a rocket.”

f a l l / w i n t e r 2 0 1 7 - 1 8 27

ISS-CREAM is a collaborative project involving scientists from the U.S., Republic of Korea, Mexico and France.

Up, U p and Away S O M E O F T H E M O S T Û> Õ>L i Ì Ã >ÃÌÀ « Þà V ÃÌà have at their disposal are helium balloons—not the multiV À Ìi>À`À «Ã Ì >Ì ` Ì Ì i Ã Þ ÛiÀ V `Ài ½Ã L ÀÌ `>Þ «>ÀÌ iÃ] Ì Õ} Ì i Ì Ài Þ ` Ãà >À] i Ì iÀ° Ƃ-Ƃ] Ü V ë à ÀÃ Ì i

, Ƃ «À iVÌ] i « Þà >À}i i Õ L> Ã Ì iÝ«i à Ûi Þ V>ÀÀÞ «>Þ >`Ã Ì Ì i i`}i v >ÀÌ ½Ã >Ì Ã« iÀi v À } `ÕÀ>Ì ] ÃÕL ÀL Ì> y } ÌÃ Ì >Ì V iVÌ `>Ì> i>À Þ vÀii v i Û À i Ì> ivviVÌð Ƃ ` Ì i LiÃÌ « >Vi Ì Ãi i v Ì iÃi >À}i L> ö "ÛiÀ Ì i L>ÀÀi Vi wi `à v Ƃ Ì>ÀVÌ V>° º Ƃ-Ƃ >Õ V ià L> à Ƃ Ì>ÀVÌ V> LiV>ÕÃi ̽à ÕÌ Ì i `` i v Ü iÀi > ` Þ Õ ` ½Ì >Ûi Ì Ü ÀÀÞ >L ÕÌ > «>Þ >` V } ÕÌ v Ì i Ã Þ v Ì iÀi½Ã à i v> ÕÀi > ` `À «« } > ÕÃi]» Ã>Þà ÕÌÌiÀ° ºƂ à ] Ì i Õ««iÀ >Ì Ã« iÀi] Ü `à blow either to the east or to the west depending on the time v Þi>À] > ` i>ÃÌ À ÜiÃÌ Ƃ Ì>ÀVÌ V> à > Ì Þ] Ì } Ì ÌÌ i V ÀV i° - Þ Õ Ãi ` à iÌ } Õ«] Ì i £ä À £x `>Þà >ÌiÀ] Þ Õ½Ài i] ¼" ] Ì iÀi Ì Ã >}> °½ / >̽à ÛiÀÞ V Ûi i ÌpÞ Õ V> LÀ } Ì ` Ü > ` ` ½Ì >Ûi Ì } v>À Ì }iÌ Ì°» >Õ V } Ì i , Ƃ L> à ` ` ÀiµÕ Ài ÕÌÌiÀ Ì ÌÀ>Ûi Ì Ƃ Ì>ÀVÌ V> Ì Àii Ì iÃ Ì «>ÀÌ V «>Ìi y } Ì «Ài«>À>Ì > ` instrument retrieval, which pulled him out of the classroom for iÝÌi `i` «iÀ `à v Ì i° Ƃ ` i½Ã µÕ V Ì « Ì Ì 1½Ã yiÝ L ÌÞ > Ü } Ì «ÕÀÃÕi à ÀiÃi>ÀV >à iÛ `i Vi v Ì i Õ ÛiÀà Ì޽à `i` V>Ì Ì V `ÕVÌ } ÌiÀiÃÌ } ÃV i Vi° º 1] Ì i «iÀà à v Þ V > Àà > ` Ì iÀ >` ÃÌÀ>Ì ÀÃ] >à Lii ÛiÀÞ ÃÕ«« ÀÌ Ûi v à i v Ì i ëiV > ii`à >Ûi Ì Ã ÀiÃi>ÀV ]» i Ã>Þð º ̽à ÛiÀÞ > `à ] ̽à iÝ«iÀ i Ì> ] > ` } Ì Ã i «ÀiÌÌÞ v>À V À iÀà v Ì i i>ÀÌ ° 7 i } ] Ãà à i V >ÃÃiÃ] > ` ½Ûi >` Ì >Ûi à i «i « i V ÛiÀ Ì Ãi°» Ƃà v>À yÕ } >à Ƃ Ì>ÀVÌ V> à vÀ Ã Ü À « >Vi } > ` i } ÌÃ] ÕÌÌiÀ v Õ ` Ì i >ÀVÌ V >VV `>Ì Ã v> >À° º V ÕÀ` -Ì>Ì Ã i > Üii ÌÌ i V i}i V> «Õà v > Ì ÕÃ> ` «i « i]» i Ã>Þð º Ûi` > ` À Ü Ì > À >Ìi > ` >Ìi >Ì > V>viÌiÀ >° / iÀi Ü>Ã Û i } Ì > ` > Ì Þ ÌÌ i }Þ > +Õ ÃiÌ ÕÌ°» 28 n k u m A G A Z I N E // r o c k e t m a n

Quonset workouts aside, the business of the trip kept Nutter « i ÌÞ LÕÃÞ v À Ì i Ì « Õà i ëi Ì Ƃ Ì>ÀVÌ V> `ÕÀ } i>V v à >ÃÌ ÌÜ ÌÀ «Ã° i Ì `> Þ LÕà À `ià ÕÌ Ì Ì i , Ãà Vi - i v] Ü iÀi i Ü À i` Ü Ì Ƃ-Ƃ VÀiÜà ëiV > â } L> >Õ V iÃ Ì Ãi ` Ì i «À iVÌ LiÞ ` >ÀÌ ½Ã >Ì Ã« iÀi] }>Ì iÀ } `>Ì> Ì > i > « ÀÌ> Ì « Ì° º , Ƃ >` Ì «À Ûi ÌÃi v]» i Ã>Þð º Ì >` Ì w ` ÌiÀesting science and show that it could work time and time >}> > >Àà i Û À i Ì° Ƃ ` Ì ` ` Ì >Ì° - Ì Ü>à > i>ÃÞ Ãi ] Ì ] Ì }iÌ Ì Õ« Ì iÀi°»

Ground Control to Dr. Nutter “ U P T H E R E , ” of course, is space—a place on the ISS Ü iÀi Ì i `>Ì> , Ƃ V iVÌÃ Ü Li vÀii v >Ì Ã« iÀ V Û>À >L ið ÕÌÌiÀ Ü>Ã Õ `iÀÃÌ> `>L Þ iÝV Ìi` Ì Ãii à «À iVÌ ÃiVÕÀi > « >Vi ÀL Ì] LÕÌ Ã iÞiÃ Ü `i Ü i i ÃÌ>ÀÌà Ì> } >L ÕÌ Ì i i> à LÞ Ü V Ì i ÃÌÀÕ i Ì ivÌ >ÀÌ ½Ã ÃÕÀv>Vi° º/ >Ì Ü>à i v Ì i Ì }Ã Þ LÕV iÌ ÃÌ]» i Ã>Þð º Ài> Þ Ü> Ìi` Ì Ãii > À V iÌ >Õ V ° ̽à ÕÃÌ Ì i LiÃÌ° - Ü i wÀÃÌ i>À i` Ì >Ì Üi ÜiÀi } } Ì «ÕÌ Ì Ã Õ« Ì i ë>Vi ÃÌ>Ì ] Ã> `] ¼*ÕÌ i v À Li } Ì iÀi°½» ÕÌÌiÀ ÌÀ>Ûi i` Ì >«i > >ÛiÀ> ] À `>] Ü iÀi À V iÌ V «> Þ -«>Vi8 ÌÀi>Ìi` Ì i ÃV i Ì ÃÌ > ` à v> Þ i 6 *Ã] «À Û ` } à >V Ã] > à ÀÌ iVÌÕÀi > `] w > Þ] > « >Vi Ì i ÌiÀÀ>Vi Ì Ü>ÌV , Ƃ À V iÌ «>ÃÌ Ì i >Ì Ã« iÀi° º/ i >Õ V ÌÃi v Ü>à >L ÕÌ Ì Àii ià >Ü>Þ]» i Ã>Þð º Ì Üi ÜiÀi >L ÕÌ >à V Ãi >Ã Þ Õ V> }iÌ° / i Û ÃÕ> «>ÀÌ v Ì Ü>à v>LÕ ÕÃ] Ü Ì Õ}i V Õ`à V } ÕÌ° / iÀi >Ài Û `i Ã] v V ÕÀÃi] LÕÌ Û `i à V> ½Ì Ài«À `ÕVi Ì i Ã Õ `°

A Lot of Stories to Tell Nutter knows that ISS-CREAM, still basking in the glow of a recent rocket launch, has attracted its fair share of attention. SpaceX special treatment and a slew of media interviews notwithstanding, the professor is quick to point out that his is but one project happening in a department passionate about exploring the science Li ` ÕÀ iÛiÀÞ`>Þ Ü À `] > V> «Õà w i` Ü Ì VÕÀ Õà `ð “I’m just one faculty member here at NKU with a project,” he says.

“I just happened to get my 15 minutes right now because we had a rocket launch, and it’s on the ISS, which is so cool. But when you get down to the nitty-gritty, there are people who do pretty neat stuff here, whether it’s on coral reefs in Belize or particle accelerators at CERN. “There’s such a wide variety of things going on over here,” he says. “And I think there are a lot of stories to tell.”

“It’s just this wall that hits you, and it’s more subsonic than you realize. You feel it as much, if not more, than you hear it,” he says, patting his chest. “You feel it just beating on you—thum, thum—you feel your clothes vibrating against your skin. You can feel the whole building trembling. It was really something, and I didn’t expect that.”

AC C ID E NTS AND TE STING GROUND S

Lab Discoverie s of a Personal Nature

University physics research, such as the ISS-CREAM project, is empowered to dig into cosmic mysteries for answers to some of the most profound questions we ask today.

If you didn’t realize NKU had a hand in experimental, NASA-funded astrophysics … well, you’re not alone. Carter Kring, NKU physics senior and one of two student workers in Nutter’s lab, never expected to work with space data at NKU.

“The fundamental reason is answering questions about the universe,” says Dr. Scott Nutter. “If there are discoveries that could lead to other things, it’s usually totally accidental.”

“I had no idea these things were happening here,” says Carter.

“I had always thought it was kind of a smaller school in terms of physics and sciences in general. But there are some really cool things happening here. It’s amazing that I get to be part of it.”

But these accidental discoveries quite often enable à } wV> Ì >`Û> ViÃ Ì iÀ >Ài>ð º7 >Ì Ì½Ã i Þ Ì lead to is a better understanding of detection methods and electronics," he says."Getting equipment to survive in space is actually quite challenging, and there are still things to be learned about that.” Nutter points to the space race of our time—the rush to transport humans to Mars—as an area where accidental discoveries could be invaluable. “That’s a long time to be subject to the radiation of space.”

Carter recalls visiting Nutter two years ago to inquire about career options, and his professor suggested he apply for an open position in his lab. The advice led to a position that, in effect, answered Carter’s original question about career paths. He Ü >Ã Ì i Û Ã > ` Ã Ã Ì «ÕÀÃÕi Ü À > ëiV wV wi `° “I started here at NKU as a physics major,” he says. “I knew that’s where I wanted to go, but I was kind of open-ended on what part of physics I wanted to work in. Working in this lab really showed me how cool astroparticle physics and highenergy particle physics are. It’s something I’ve put a lot of thought into now, and I think it would be a very cool place to end up in.” Carter mentions SpaceX and NASA as places he’d like to land after graduation, though he’d be just as happy working in a university, like his professor. “I just want to work somewhere where I’m contributing to science.”

Research like CREAM also establishes means for other projects to be sent to the International Space Station.

“The balloon instruments are the testing ground for other things that could eventually go to space,” he says. “I’m talking with other scientists about proposing to take a balloon project they’ve launched in the past successfully and move it up to the space station. I’m excited to continue the adventure.”

f a l l / w i n t e r 2 0 1 7 - 1 8 29

NORSENOW

[ E N T R EPRENEUER]

A VICTORY FOR VEGETABLES

F

Josh Young is on a mission to transform healthy eating.

or parents, the daily struggle to win the vegetable war with their kids is real. Waged since the beginning of time, mealtime skirmishes have shown no sign of a cease-fire—that is, until Josh Young (’11) added a revolutionary new weapon to parents’ dinner-table arsenal.

Young was studying business administration at Northern Kentucky University when he developed his idea of Vegy Vida, an all-natural dip that helps children enjoy the taste of vegetables. And he was determined to not use artificial ingredients or sugar in developing his product.

“Kids don’t eat enough vegetables. And kids who don’t eat vegetables become adults who don’t eat vegetables,” Young says. “There was a lot of research that showed that when you covered vegetables in sugar, kids would eat them, which doesn't help anybody.”

Rather than flavoring to mask the presence of vegetables, Young discovered an ingredient in cucumber extract that actually removes unpleasant flavors. The extract, referred to as the “bitter blocker,” changes the

30 n k u m A G A Z I N E // n o r s e n o w

way bitter compounds in food and beverages interact with taste receptors in a person’s (and especially a little person’s) mouth.

“I found a way to use the bitter blocker to take away the bitterness of veggies,” he says.

“That’s important, because kids actually have three times more taste buds than adults do.”

With the help of NKU’s INKUBATOR, a cross-campus initiative that connects students from different backgrounds to start businesses together, Young was able to build a foundation for starting his journey.

“It was a good experience,” Young said.

“It made you think about the business and make sure you weren’t putting energy and funds toward something that isn’t viable.”

Soon after Young graduated from the INKUBATOR, he received an opportunity to collaborate with Brandcraft, a consumercentric product development company focused on ideas that benefit community health and individuals’ well-being.

The collaboration was perfect for Young, who was focused on making a health-food product that’s actually, well, healthy.

“I think the tide is turning,” says Young.

“Throughout the last 15 years, the focus hasn’t been on health. It’s been on how cheap you can make a food product. We wanted to make food and beverage products that are truly healthy.”

Consumers’ desires to eat healthier are front-and-center in food industry circles, but “healthy” is far from a well-defined term.

There’s some confusion about nutritional benefits, and some companies use “healthy” too loosely for Young’s liking, touting qualities that just sound good to influence decisions at the grocery check-out.

Working with Brandcraft, Young partnered with classic veggie defenders— moms—to develop a tasty and healthy product, and it’s safe to say Young’s brainchild is a success. Vegy Vida dips are available in five 100 percent all-natural flavors—ranch, cheddar, buffalo, southwest and bacon—made especially for kids. They contain absolutely no sugar, GMOs or gluten.

Armed with this new “weapon,” parents are finally ready to win the dinner battle.

—Lizzie Kibler '16

NORSENOW

A FRESH START

K

One NKU alumna seeks to change the lives of second-chance citizens. atie Schad (’16) believes in second chances. That’s what makes her job as a social worker at Nehemiah Manufacturing so

important.

Schad, a recent graduate of the College of Education & Human Services one-year advanced standing master’s in social work program at Northern Kentucky University, started her journey at Nehemiah nearly four years ago while still an undergraduate student. She loved her internship so much that she went back there to work part time while she pursued her master’s degree at NKU. What makes Nehemiah so special? For the last eight years, Nehemiah has provided employment opportunities for second-chance citizens—recently incarcerated people trying to get back on their feet.

Schad also manages the Beacon of Hope Business Alliance, a Nehemiah-based coalition that connects second-chance citizens to opportunities within area companies and social services. Nehemiah functions as a model to prove second-chance hiring creates some of the most loyal, hardworking individuals.

“For me, it’s not about being innocent or being guilty,” Schad says. “This population faces a lot more barriers than people realize.

I talk to people after they’re out, when they’re fighting to get back to a normal life.

Doing that in today’s society is difficult with the stigma of having a criminal record—not even just a job, but housing and family and friends. All they really need is a chance to work and get their life back to normal.

“I’ve seen people get promoted, find a new home and get their kids back. They say prison is the best thing that ever happened to them because they’re here now.”

This second-chance scenario was the case for Michael Taylor. Before Nehemiah, Taylor was a drug addict who ended up in jail on two felony convictions. But when he made the decision to get his addiction under control, he ran into a number of roadblocks.

“While I was in jail, I decided I wanted to change my life, but I didn’t know how to do that,” Taylor says. “When I got out, I couldn’t get a foothold anywhere. I was in and out of jobs until I landed here. I see two parts to my life: before Nehemiah, and after Nehemiah.”

Now, eight promotions later, Taylor is Nehemiah’s operations manager. He’s on his feet, married and recently bought his first home. Because Nehemiah gave him a second chance at life, he was able to re-enter society with full-time employment.

Taylor is but one example of those Schad gets to work with every day—people who need a little help finding the right direction.

“Many employees who come to Nehemiah just need a chance to prove themselves,” says Nehemiah CEO and founder, Dan Meyer. “We’re here really just to help those who need it most that no one else will hire. We’re here to help people who need and deserve a second chance.”

And Nehemiah doesn’t just benefit its second-chance employees—Schad’s chance to gain real-world experience while still a student was pivotal to launching her career as a social worker.

Schad’s decision to pursue her role at Nehemiah gives her the chance to learn daily from others who, in turn, get a second chance when they need it most.

—Jayna Morris

f a l l / w i n t e r 2 0 1 7 - 1 8 31

NORSENOW

CAMPBELL COUNTY TO COUNTRIES ABROAD

Kurt Drake’s accounting degree led to globe-trotting success as a compliance officer.

F

or most natives of Grants Lick—a tight-knit rural community on the outer edge of northern Kentucky— intercontinental travel isn’t high on

32 n k u m A G A Z I N E // n o r s e n o w

their list of priorities. Composed of largeacre farms passed down through ancestral lines, the town’s bucolic landscape and familial community just don’t give residents

many reasons to leave. And, despite a career that’s taken him around the world for positions with multinational corporations, Grants Lick native Kurt Drake (’95) counts

himself among that number—he didn’t plan on leaving town either.

“My parents are still in the area,” says Drake. “My in-laws are still in the area.

Travel was nothing I planned to do or tried to do, but I had an open mind and wanted to take a chance on experiencing something new.”

Drake’s open mind, coupled with a knack for work in an emerging corporate field, led him to positions with GE in

Florence, Italy, and Shanghai, China, as well as a group head of compliance role with Mubadala Development Company in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

But for Drake, prior to those global moves and his current executive position with a leading consumer-products corporation, there was Northern Kentucky University.

NKU was a second home to Drake long before he enrolled in the Haile/US Bank College of Business’s accounting program.

His father worked in NKU’s operations department for 25 years, and it was common for the young son to hang around the Lucas Administrative Center—so when it came time to apply to universities for undergraduate studies, Drake’s choice was an easy one.

“NKU was first on my list,” he says. “I wanted to stay close to home. I went to NKU baseball camps as a little kid, and one of my mentors growing up was [longtime NKU baseball coach] Bill Aker. I was always down there around the players.

“Also, my dad graduated from NKU with an accounting degree. I wanted to go into business, so I pursued accounting, with a focus on going to law school, and minored in English.”

During his time at the university, Drake utilized the Career Services team’s list of available opportunities to locate and secure a co-op at General Cable, a position he maintained for three years.

(He returned to General Cable in 2015 as chief compliance officer.) After receiving his B.S. in 1995, Drake took a position with accounting firm Deloitte and Touche, planning all the while to eventually return to campus and pursue a degree from Chase College of Law. His career, however, took a turn toward an exciting new opportunity that blended his experience with his interests—and Drake was more than happy to lean into it.

Compliance may sound like another corporate title in a term-littered landscape, but the field is critical to businesses navigating a global economy and its increasingly labyrinthine rules and regulations. (Think ENRON, Volkswagen and Uber to understand compliance’s importance to corporate health.) Drake, a trained accountant with a long-held

interest in law, found compliance work uniquely compelling.

“I wasn’t looking for it, but it is literally a perfect fit for me,” he says. “When I lived in Shanghai for three-and-a-half years as CFO, GE China, we had a few compliance-related issues and had to follow up and investigate.

The work was engaging, and the issues were important to the company. That was back in 2003. Ever since then, I’ve focused more on ethics and compliance, eventually getting into chief compliance officer roles for various companies.”

These compliance positions always brought him back home to Greater Cincinnati, but whenever occasions for international travel presented themselves, Drake leapt at the chance to learn about different cultures.

“It’s just a great opportunity,” says Drake.

“Traveling to a country versus living there is a totally different learning experience.

You realize there are actually a lot more similarities in people than differences.

People want to be dealt with in a respectful way and to be honest and cooperative.

“And when you’re trying to understand what people are telling you in a different language,” he continues, “it really sharpens your listening skills. You learn to not make assumptions about people based on what they wear, how they look or where they’re from. You have to pay close attention rather than make judgment calls based on appearance alone.”

As much as he enjoyed living and learning abroad, Drake’s road always led him back home to the United States, with positions at GE in Cincinnati, PPG in Pittsburgh and General Cable in northern Kentucky bookending his travels overseas.

Just last year, Drake—accompanied by his wife, Jill (’99), and their three daughters— moved to Texas for a role as chief ethics and compliance officer, vice president at consumer-products corporation KimberlyClark. He credits NKU with helping him get where he is today (and wherever life takes him in the future).

“Having an NKU education allowed me to apply my learning through practical internships,” he says. “This enabled me to transition to the workforce quickly and adapt to professional situations that I never would have predicted.” —Rodney Wilson '00

f a l l / w i n t e r 2 0 1 7 - 1 8 33

NORSENOW

A TEACHER'S LEGACY

NKU adviser and alumna Patsy Fisk honors her late husband.

I

f there’s one thing Patsy Fisk (’80) wants people to know about her husband, Mike (’79), it’s that he loved music.

Mike developed his love for music during his freshman year of high school, she says. And nothing could stop that love, not even a brain tumor. Despite an incurable glioblastoma diagnosis in the fall of 1994, Mike still headed to school every day to teach music. He continued to direct

34 n k u m A G A Z I N E // n o r s e n o w

the Alexandria United Methodist Church choir. And he kept playing his instruments— especially guitar—in the living room with their sons, Ben and Daniel.

But four months later, Mike developed aphasia and became a hemiplegic, losing vision, use of his vocal cords and motor skills on the right side of his body. He attempted chemotherapy, but his quality of life continued to dissipate. In April 1995, eight months after he was diagnosed, Mike

died. He and Patsy had been married for nearly 25 years at the time of his passing.

“I wish he would have been able to retire from teaching. We both had a passion for it,” Patsy says. “It’s a gift that keeps on giving to the community.”

That’s why she created a scholarship— the Michael Fisk Memorial Scholarship— nine years ago as a way to honor her late husband and their joint love for education. The scholarship awards $1,000

to one education major each year during a student’s clinical experience so the recipient can focus on learning and teaching instead of spending their time at a second job.

Paige Cobble is one of those students.

She was maxed out on financial aid, but the scholarship allowed her to complete her last semester and earn a teaching degree in elementary education.

“It made me really happy to see her get the help she needed,” Patsy says. “Groups of people can get together and provide opportunities for young people in someone’s memory. You don’t have to be a wealthy person to start something. It can be small.

It’s better than a headstone—it lives on.”

For Patsy, the choice to support students majoring in education was an easy one.

You could say it all started in Dry Ridge, Kentucky, where Patsy and Mike grew up together. The high school sweethearts were separated following graduation—he went to Richmond and she to Lexington—but four years later the pair reunited after both returned to their hometown to teach in the Grant County school system. Soon after, the couple decided to pursue master’s degrees from Northern Kentucky University.

For the next 25 years, the couple both worked as educators. Mike co-directed the Campbell County High School band and eventually transferred to Reiley Middle School to teach vocal, instrumental and general music. Patsy was an elementary school teacher for most of her career and transitioned to teaching seventh grade math before she became a math educator faculty member—and coordinator of admission practicum and advising—at NKU for three years.

Although she has since retired from three decades of teaching, Patsy still works with students every day. For the last 10 years, she’s worked as an adviser in the College of Education & Human Services Advising Center.

And she wouldn’t change a thing.

“My teaching experience enhances what I do. This is my dream job,” Patsy says. “I absolutely love it—the one-on-one relationship that I get to build with young adults. NKU is my final resting place as far as work goes. I want to do this until I retire.”

—Jayna Morris

LIGHT THE WAY

YOUR GIFT COULD MEAN THE DIFFERENCE. Did you know? Planned giving at NKU has never been easier. In fact, in 2015, the U.S. Congress passed a law that allows IRA owners 70 ½ and over to make a gift directly from their IRA to the NKU Foundation, tax free (up to $100,000). Another bonus? This gift counts toward your required annual minimum distribution.

For more information, contact Development & Alumni Relations at (859) 572-6062, or development@nku.edu

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MYSTERY PHOTO!

SOLVE THE MYSTERY FOR NKU HISTORY! What’s going on here? From the beads and festive headwear, we can guess it’s a Mardi Gras celebration, and the clothing has us thinking 2002 (because that guy giving us some love has the year on his shirt).

But what’s with all the WKs? “Wild Kids”? “Who Knows”? Did Andrew W.K. bring his tour to campus? Lucky for us, these partiers lost their

masks for the photo, so maybe you recognize one of these smiling faces—or perhaps one of those happy mugs is a younger you. Do you know what this event is? And what the heck “WK” means? Help us out!

Email your guesses to nkumagazine@nku.edu so we can put this Mardi Gras mystery to rest.