challenging time to be the president of Public University.

Aside from the perennial task of finding resources to create a compelling educational environment, protest over the war in Gaza have been roiling campuses across the country.

Northeastern Illinois University has certainly seen its fair share in recent years, including in narrowly averted a strike.

And the departure of the former university president following a vote of no confidence by faculty.

Now a new leader is officially taking the reins of leadership at any IU, although we should note she's been serving as interim president since July of 2023.

But I do believe she was inaugurated recently.

She's gonna tell us about it.

Joining us now is Dr Katrina about Jordan, president of Northeastern Illinois University.

You came all the way from next door all the way from next.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Thank So you've been at Northeastern since 1997 became interim president last year, but you were inaugurated a couple of weeks You obviously know the university very well.

And you've already, you know, got a lot of experience in your role as interim.

Of course.

What do you see as the university strengths to build absolutely well, first of night, Northeastern has 157 year history and tradition and in serving Chicago in creating spaces and places for folks who >> otherwise wouldn't have access to higher education.

We started as the teachers college and expanded over the years to include number of programs.

One of our strengths is recognizing that education is the pathway for many communities offering mat.

Teacher education programs to practitioner programs.

We are also a strong option for new transfer students looking to complete their degrees.

We have long had a history of being that kind of destination location for neighboring to your partner schools.

We are also very proud to serve students that might not otherwise have an opportunity to go to college.

And we.

I the opportunity and the privilege to teach and train them up so that they can be on a level playing field with their competitors from around the city in the state?

we have extraordinary faculty, world-class faculty a real commitment to service teaching and student success.

So I think we have assistance to move us forward.

All that said, what would you say are some of the challenges going forward?

But you have to work on certainly well at the global level, if you will, any of our state universities are experiencing changes enrollment.

Declines fluctuations.

We are also currently in a in in a state where attention to higher education and funding for higher education has returned as a as a priority.

We have a long way to go to get to the front at a quit funding that we need to deliver our programs to have the kind of teaching and learning spaces that our students need.

So it's always resources.

of course, responding to changing demographics.

Students needs have changed substantially since the pandemic and trying to meet students where they are and still give them the tools that they need to be successful university.

As we mentioned, it's been through a little bit of turmoil in recent years.

A faculty vote of no confidence in the board and your predecessor, Cory Gibson.

>> Near faculty strike last year and also struggling with enrollment declines as well as low graduation and retention rates.

How are you working to steady the ship?

Certainly while the transitional year for the interim president, which I was privileged to take on.

>> What's really the beginning of that transition trying to we gather the university synergies that's positive energies around charting a path forward.

And that means getting folks together to engage folks that maybe have not been engaged to tapping into the streams and the resources and the community that we have.

It is also having strong decisive leadership where we can make quick decisions when we need to.

I think also we're engaging in the process of strategic planning relaunching this this year.

That will be formative as we chart a path forward.

And I think we we're seeing some returns.

We had a 4% increase Fall enrollment for the first time in several years.

It's just step, but it does show that the strong effort around marketing and communication supporting our programs and student success retention that we're moving in the right direction.

You're also a Hispanic serving institution and minority serving institutions.

What do you think that means?

And how does?

>> Had head of those designations?

You know, what does it mean about how you supported students?

Sure what we are proud minority-serving institution and on the oldest Hispanic serving institution in our in our region.

We also just qualify for in apz status, which is very you're going to have what that Asian American Native American Pacific Islander that larch wonderful community.

We have reached threshold of having.

>> percentage of students that help us qualify for grants and all kinds of things because serving population of students but taken together is that minority serving institutions specifically as a Hispanic serving institution.

You know what that means is a mission to serve.

We have a long-standing relationship with these communities rooted in both multiple campuses.

We have beautiful from Seville, historic campus and our Southside.

We have Avondale neighborhood campus for our Central campus.

And these are also extensions of status and commitment to being HSI the side.

It also means that our students are going to be in classes and programs that recognize the important diversity, the textures of difference and diversity that make their learning experience unique.

We're also going to be graduating students that have been in classes that look more like the world.

They're going to be and work end in a global environment our classroom, it's very much like the board rooms and and the the students that they're going to be teaching when they go out into the world.

And so I think we teaching and training students at one of the very successful on that front, universities have struggled over the last year with balancing students right to free speech with a speech that can be deemed hateful.

Some university presidents have even lost their jobs over this issue.

>> How do you plan to manage that issue?

>> Well, I it's very important think about 2 things.

First of all, universities have always been contested spaces beautifully.

So many ways we knew universities and spaces of higher education have tried to cultivate spaces where differing opinions and viewpoints can safely and productively be engaged.

We also are having to engage as universities and really what our role is in terms of speaking out and about things that happened at a national level and a global level.

What is our primary focus is to teach train and and and help students learn or is it to be a voice for certain positions?

And so I think we are like many institutions and ongoing work with how we situate ourselves in response to challenges in the world.

All right.

How you say would you describe your vision for any IU?

Wow, I would say it's some big and bold.

I been at the University for 27 years and I have seen what you education can mean in the lives of our students.

And I think one of the most important aspects of division is this ability so that our region recognizes not just that we're HSI, we're in a sigh but that we are contributing to the local and regional workforce.

We are helping to diversify our workforce with the students that come through northeastern.

I also know that we're going to have an opportunity to develop a stronger partnerships with two-year institutions to continue to grow that our growing programs like nursing program, cyber security in those things that think we're going to be impactful for our