WUKY's 'UK Perspectives' Features Provost Riordan With Strategic Plan Update

LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 28, 2014) — WUKY's "UK Perspectives" focuses on the people and programs of the University of Kentucky and is hosted by WUKY General Manager Tom Godell.  On today's program, UK Provost Christine Riordan provides an update on the university's Strategic Plan process.  Riordan discussed strengths, challenges and opportunities for the University of Kentucky.

"In December of 2013 our team really did in-depth benchmarking work, and they also looked at research related to national trends around the higher education industry. From that work, they also looked at how UK stacks up against some of these major trends. The data were pretty telling, and I think from that we were able to identify some clear strengths for the university, some clear challenges, and there are some really interesting opportunities that are going to feed into the Strategic Plan recommendations."

One of the strengths Riordan indentified is that UK is one of eight institutions in the country, public or private, with a full complement of undergraduate, graduate, professional and health care programs on one contiguous campus.

"We can create some leading-edge, multidisciplinary degree programs, research activities, and we are able to really look at how we can meet market realities and needs. You think about all of the areas that have major problems and issues today, and they really need multidisciplinary perspectives to solve them."

Riordan pointed to a decline in state funding as a challenge.

"When we look at our state budget today, as an example, it is $284 million, and it was $284 million back in 2003. When you really start doing an economic impact analysis, there's almost a 24 percent budget cut, because the buying power of the dollar is not the same as it was back then. What that means as a university is that we have to think strategically about how we craft our future from a revenue standpoint." 

To listen to the podcast interview from which "UK Perspectives" is produced, visit http://wuky.org/post/uk-looks-forward.

"UK Perspectives" airs at 8:35 a.m. and 5:45 p.m. each Friday on WUKY 91.3, UK's NPR station.