The 14th president of Eastern Kentucky University, was once a student there twice.

David McFadden, a first generation college student, is the first graduate of Colonel Country to lead the university.

Renee talked with him yesterday about growing enrollment and sharing their story to success, to decision makers in Washington and Frankfort.

President McFadden, thank you so much for dropping by.

It is so good to be with you, Renee.

We've been trying to do this for a couple of years, so I'm glad we get this time.

We want to talk to you first.

Just about the value proposition of higher ed.

There's a lot of discussion happening in a lot of spaces, particularly in the Washington political circles, about what is a professional degree.

What is the goal of higher education?

How are you interpreting those conversations, and how are maybe you resetting for what you're hearing in Washington?

You know, Renee, for me, you know, I'm a native Kentuckian.

I'm a first generation college student.

And, I'm the, you know, the first alum from the region that we serve to serve as president of Eastern Kentucky University.

I think that's such a powerful testament to the value of education.

Without it, without a degree, without that opportunity, it's just not possible.

And so I think you make it very personal first, and then you know, we can go to my student and live my life and have that conversation about the transformative power.

But then I think we can transition to the economic mobility that it creates.

And, you know, Georgetown does this study a couple times and, you know, every other year or so.

And, you know, what we see is that a, you know, a college degree and the in the lifetime earnings of a of a student is, you know, nearly $1.5 million more in earnings.

That is true economic mobility.

It is personal power.

It's economic power.

And I think that, you know, we've just got to continue to position that the investment in higher education is one that has a tremendous return to our communities here in Kentucky, to our economy, to really how we we we make Kentucky better tomorrow than it is today.

And so I think that there's a real opportunity to have that conversation.

And I do believe a lot of our policymakers here in Kentucky, those who represent us in Washington, have a deep appreciation for our public, for our post-secondary institutions, public and private, right.

And when you think about what the goal of higher education is, is to expand your your mind and your understanding of the world, but it is also an economic development tool.

Is the conversation two driven by what industry and business needs do you think at times?

I think that, you know, we've got to be responsive.

And so I think as you know, we think about Kentucky and we lay out a, you know, the pathway forward.

And you know, what's the future economic opportunities for our state.

We've got to be really intentional about that.

You know, we think about Toyota motor manufacturing and, you know, 1987.

And when all that happened, you know, we built, a support system to to really support manufacturing in this state and proud to have the only manufacturing engineering program in the state and to be supporting that.

But all of our institutions are doing that.

And so I don't think we can be, disconnected from, you know, where the economy is going, where the jobs are, because every student who walks across the stage at any one of our institutions should have the expectation that they're job ready, a career ready in that way.

And so what that means is that they've honed those skills that are essential for them to to be able to be successful in their careers and in some cases, that's passing a licensure exam.

Like our nursing students, we've had 100% pass rate for the last so many.

I mean, so many years of, you know, of our nursing program, but also there's, you know, there's critical communication skills, critical thinking, the ability to work in a team and really to discern fact from fiction and what's going on in the world.

Yeah.

Let's talk about how many students are welcome across that stage at EKU.

Talk about your first.

Let's go to the enrollment numbers.

How big was your freshman class and how does that stack up?

And then talk about your matriculation and graduation.

Nearly 2700 freshmen this year, that's, you know, really kind of where we've we've kind of been in this growth cycle since 2020.

We tipped over 16,000, students for the first time this fall since, 2017.

So we've been on a growth cycle since 2021, proud to be Kentucky's largest, comprehensive university again for the first time in and probably over.

And how is that metric determined?

Total enrollment.

So speed as their annual.

So last year, we kind of, on the degree seeking student side, we were the largest comprehensive, you'll probably get those data out for this past year, sometime in the next few weeks, and we'll see where where things are at this year.

But we've continued to see growth year over year.

Our freshman classes continue to grow.

We're growing at transfer students.

So lots of lots of excitement on campus, lots of high demand programs.

That are, that are really serving kind of the economic and, and growth opportunities for, for the state of Kentucky.

Well, let's talk about aviation in particular, law enforcement program, criminal justice programs we know have been very successful.

And highly sought after.

Talk about some of the standout programs at EKU.

I think aviation is one that gets a lot of attention.

You know, one of the fastest growing, GDP areas for Kentucky Aerospace aviation.

We're at over 500 students in that program now.

It is doubled in size, in the last six years.

So much demand, for particularly our pro flight students.

We've heard a lot about the, you know, the aging of the cockpit, the person, you know, the those pilots that are sitting there.

So just such a high demand program in an area that's that's growing, not just here in the state, but really all across the US.

And as we think about supply chain, you and I were just talking about, you know, we're all getting deliveries at home, right?

Logistics of those things.

Just a big role for our students to play in that space.

But again, you know, when we think about our Kentucky communities, you can use proud.

We're number one for per capita Kentucky enrollment.

We're number one for our graduates going back to work in Kentucky communities.

I think that a lot of that is driven by the fact when we think about education, first responders, health care, engineering, we think about the major.

You're hitting almost every community.

Those are the things that that we've we've done best for a long time.

Okay.

What is your online education offerings look like and how robust has that been or becoming?

Yeah.

You know, 2006 was the first time we stepped into the online space.

And I think we were probably the first public to really get in.

And so we're now nearly 5000 students online, continues to be the fastest growing sector of higher education, not just EKU but really across the nation.

And so, excited about meeting students where they're at.

And I do think there's an expectation for those who are working professionally.

There's we're looking for certain, you know, certificates or certifications that they need, but also, we've got a lot of first time, full time freshmen who, you know, are place bound for one reason or another and are deciding to pursue their their education online.

So as the school of opportunity, we want to meet them where they're.

At, right adult learners or nontraditional students as they're often called.

What does that picture look like?

I think for us, it's it is a significant number of individuals across the Commonwealth and who who have some college know degree.

You know, maybe they tried college.

It wasn't for them.

They worked in a career for 20 years, and now they're thinking, hey, you know, maybe I want to do something different.

The the economy has changed.

Tremendous.

When we think about the jobs of today and the jobs of when you and I graduate from college.

Yeah, it's changed tremendously.

And so the reskilling and the retooling, I think meeting them where they're at.

But the important thing is recognizing their experience.

And so we've been really focused on, company based education and credit for prior learning, trying to say, hey, if you work professionally, you hold these credentials, these industry credentials.

We can acknowledge and recognize those for credit and try to accelerate the timeline to a degree so that you can, you know, pursue whatever's next for you.