Kentucky State University students and alumni successfully lobbied state lawmakers to soften plans for strict oversight over the institution’s programs and spending and a mandated pivot towards applied learning.
But the bill the state’s General Assembly passed last week will still exert significant fiscal control over the historically Black land-grant institution while it stabilizes its finances and reconfigures as a polytechnic. Lawmakers argue that ramping up oversight for the cash-strapped institution is better than the alternative they previously considered among themselves—shuttering it altogether.
Kentucky State supporters are counting the final iteration of the bill as a tentative win. Students and alumni protested the original version as overreach into the HBCU’s business and mission and a potential hit to its liberal arts offerings. But the final draft now on the governor’s desk includes several amendments they pushed for and assuages some of their concerns.
The bill would give the commonwealth tighter control over the institution over a five-year period of “financial exigency” or until the General Assembly declares the university in a stable financial position, whichever comes first. During that time, the university wouldn’t be allowed to spend more than $20,000 without prior approval from the Kentucky Council of Postsecondary Education and must report monthly on its finances. (The original version set the cap at $5,000.)
The university would also have to conduct a review of its academic programs for “long-term viability, financial stability” and “alignment with the university’s mission as a polytechnic institution”—though the final version of the bill also emphasizes the university’s standing as a historically Black land-grant institution that offers “liberal studies” in addition to “highly technical, industry-based applied learning.”
If the bill becomes law, KSU can offer no more than 10 academic areas of study during its financial exigency period, with some exceptions such as all-online programs and programs in its College of Education. The university would also be tasked with maintaining faculty and staff levels to support an enrollment target of at least 1,000 in-person students. Students who owe the university $1,000 or more for over 60 days would be disenrolled under the final legislation, alongside other enrollment and admissions requirements. However, the final bill softens admissions strictures for certain groups, including veterans and transfer students. It also rolled back a requirement that all Greek life organizations would have to re-register, allowing groups in good standing to continue without rechartering.
The bill also gives new powers to the university president over the financial exigency period including laying off employees, regardless of whether they have tenure.
President Koffi C. Akakpo has stood behind the bill through its various iterations. He and other university administrators stressed to students and employees that embracing a “polytechnic” identity won’t mean losing other aspects of its mission.
Kentucky State University spokesperson Michael Strysick said the new label “means sharpening strengths already visible across Kentucky State in applied learning, STEM+H, research, and other fields tied to public need and student opportunity. That momentum is already evident in the University’s research profile and in growth across several high-demand areas.”
Even so, university officials were gratified by the latest iteration of the bill, which Strysick described as “clearer and stronger on Kentucky State’s identity as Kentucky’s only public HBCU and an 1890 land-grant institution.”
“The amended version is improved in many ways,” he said, “and we are grateful for the advocacy of our students and alumni on this.”
In response to concerns about state overreach, he said, “we see this as a partnership, pure and simple,” and university leaders “look forward to collaborating” with state officials on academic and financial decisions. He referenced two other bills passed by the General Assembly, with an overall funding increase for the university and $50 million for a new 59,000-square-foot Health Sciences Center at KSU. There’s a “real upside in that partnership,” he said.
KSU has been in dire financial straits before. A state report from March 2023 described its finances as “chaotic” and lacking in “effective safeguards and responsible management.” The report also called out former leaders and staff members for rampant overspending and poor recordkeeping.
Akakpo, who took over that summer, has previously described the bill as marking a new phase for the institution and a “historic moment in our ongoing evolution.”
In a statement after the bill passed, he promised to “continue to advocate for Kentucky State University in a manner that honors who we are, protects what matters most, and positions this institution for long-term strength and sustainability.”
Mixed Feelings
Still, not everyone is convinced. Students and alumni celebrated the passing of the more collaborative version of the bill, but the final legislation hasn’t rid them of all misgivings.
Michael N. Weaver Jr., a 2020 KSU graduate, initially raised concerns about the bill in an op-ed last week. He’s now relieved “the school lives to see another day” under a more palatable version of the legislation, but he wants to ensure the “state is being a supporter of the institution” and investing in its growth, not exercising “full control” over it. Weaver doesn’t have a problem with the university embracing a polytechnic approach so long as the state is funding that transformation and other aspects of its mission aren’t compromised as a result.
“I’m not against evolution as long as it doesn’t erase identity,” said Weaver, who also served as Student Government Association president and student regent. “Now it’s on the university leadership to ensure the identity of the campus is still the same but continuing to grow, evolve and develop.”
He also welcomes accountability and oversight for the institution but described lawmakers as heavy-handed in their scrutiny of the HBCU, noting that the institution has been historically underfunded. (Biden administration officials found the commonwealth of Kentucky underfunded the university by $172 million over three decades.)
“There are other schools within the commonwealth who also struggle financially,” he said. He’d prefer lawmakers push “to get Kentucky State the money that it’s owed” before assessing how it does with its finances.
Barry Johnson, president of the Kentucky State University National Alumni Association, said association members pushed hard for the newest version of the bill because they wanted to make sure the institution’s mission as an HBCU with liberal arts offerings was enshrined in the law—not just implied—in addition to its new polytechnic focus.
He too supports the STEM- and workforce-oriented direction of the university, but “it was almost, to some degree, a protection from what could happen in the future,” he said. He and other alumni also worried the original version of the bill could become a “blueprint” for lawmakers in other states that want to change the character of an HBCU or another university. He believes the new version makes clear that’s not what’s happening.
He remains concerned, however, about the lack of clarity on which liberal arts programs will remain in person versus online if the university has to limit itself to 10 areas of study on campus, he said. He’s taking a “wait and see” approach.
(Strysick stressed that the university already reviews programs annually and that the existing process would “help inform how programs are grouped within broader academic areas, potentially in a more interdisciplinary way,” in collaboration with the Council on Postsecondary Education.)
Over all, though, in light of the amendments, Johnson is hopeful about the future of the university, provided the funding to support the institution’s polytechnic transformation also gets the governor’s go-ahead.
“As long as all that comes to comes to fruition, I see it being phenomenal” for the institution, he said, “because you’ve got, in some ways, the best of both worlds.”
