It's time now for our Reporter's Notebook segment.

I'm Emily Prince and I am joined by Lily Burris.

Reporter at EKU.

Lily, thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you so much for.

Having me.

Yeah, we're glad to you.

So we're going to jump in talking all about Eastern Kentucky University.

Really beat that.

You cover quite a bit and talk about the developments that are happening there.

How are things going as the school year has.

Well as well underway has kicked off.

So start us off, Lily.

Earlier this year, EKU became the third largest public university.

Its enrollment numbers topped out.

Western Kentucky University.

What do we know so far about how that stands?

Are they still third largest?

Where does that stand?

So you can use enrollment numbers are about the same from last year to this year.

I believe they said it was less than a percentage point increase.

They won't know yet until sometime later this year when you releases their numbers at EKU is maintaining status, is the third largest university in the state or public university in the state?

But, that's what they're hoping for.

That's what they were talking about in the Board of Regents meeting.

One of the regents even specifically asked about WPA use enrollment numbers to see if they would get to maintain that they got that status early.

You said earlier this year, and that, I think, was the first time since the 1990s that they had had that status.

So it's been a while.

They were very excited and hopeful to keep it.

They were just shy of 16,000 students enrolled, but I think that's what they're working towards based on what they were talking about.

Okay.

So knowing that the enrollment is pretty much staying about the same.

But on the other side of that, how is the tuition revenue looking and how is that projected and kind of what's the hope to to kind of get that where it should be.

So the tuition revenue was not exactly what they had projected.

It was a little short, I believe the number was about $2 million short of what they had projected for FY 27, fiscal year 27.

They contributed the short to a couple of different factors less graduate students, and they had predicted less full time students, and they had predicted lots of universities are kind of facing up against the demographic cliff, which is this phenomenon where there are less students to go to college because there were less children born during the 2008 recession.

So there's a lot of universities competing for less students than previous years, which is kind of putting them in a spot of will we get the same students, won't we?

What can they do?

There's also been some changes to financial aid that they thought might have contributed to the change in enrollment compared to what they were expecting.

Yeah.

And so of those students, like you said, now that there really are kind of less that universities are having to compete with each other for, I know that EKU and President David McFadden mentioned some programs or some ideas for how to entice and enroll new students, and there were three specifically that you mentioned in your reporting.

Talk to us a little bit about those and where they stand.

So one of the programs that EKU has been working on is the College of Osteopathic Medicine.

They're going to have a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine Doctor of Osteopathy program, hopefully.

I believe the timeline for the first class to enroll was somewhere in the early 2030s.

2031 I believe right now they are planning to apply to the accrediting body this spring, the Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation, which will start the process from the legislation this year.

They received $50 million to kind of help start this process for startup funds for stuff like that.

They're still deciding where on campus to host this program.

They were debating new building, renovating the building.

This was shared with the Regents in September.

That so that's one of the programs that will be a graduate program.

There were some positions they were still writing the job applications for or job descriptions for looking for the starting up of that, working with community health programs to create partnerships and open that up.

They are also working on a new facility for the Model Laboratory School, which is a sort of it is a school to public school students.

We use campus has K through 12 students there, but college students get the opportunity to do practicum and they get to observe and they get to teach on campus.

There's also some research opportunities there that's getting a new building.

And so that's being worked on.

That's one of the big things that was presented by different university officials and president McFadden.

Additionally, the aviation program is getting a new FAA approved air traffic management program.

It will be an associate's degree.

I believe they're hoping to get that started by 2027.

And that will be your traffic controller type program.

I think it is similar to the one in Oklahoma City based on what McFadden said.

And so that is another program that they're working on.

And they had some significant interest from students about that.

One of the university officials was like, we are having students try to enroll before enrollment is open.

They are emailing me to let me know they want to be here.

Wow.

Wow.

Okay, so again, those three main programs I'm getting the gist health care, education and then aviation.

Do those seem to be like things where X is kind of sense himself apart in those pathways?

I know the health care will be the first public duo program in the state.

I believe one of the private universities in Kentucky has a Doctor of Osteopathy program, but this one will be the first one at one of Kentucky's public post-secondary education.

So that is new.

We have MD programs at you of L and UK, but so that's kind of a new set apart thing.

Model lab.

Lots of universities have teaching programs.

We produce a lot of teachers in this state.

But I know Model Lab.

It is my understanding that Model Lab is the first public model school in the state, or it was when it was formed many, many years ago.

And I'm not sure if aviation is different.

I haven't heard of any other colleges doing aviation, but I know it is something they are excited about.

They have quite a few planes for their multiple aviation programs at the school, and they were looking to get a few more based on some presentation.

Yeah, interesting.

Those definitely seem to be in demand and the culmination of those that seem to be pretty unique to EKU.

Lily, a final question before we wrap up.

Where does iQOO stand?

Of course, now that we know where their enrollment seems to lie, is there one of the more populated public universities?

Where do they stand with, you know, state funding, performance funding?

Where is that at, and are they happy with what they're receiving?

So you received 5 million in state performance funding for this fiscal year.

And McFadden said that they had the most growth according to the performance funding model, but they didn't necessarily get the most funding, and they are going to work with what they were given.

But they were, I think, hoping for more based on what he said.

I think they are hoping to get more in the future.

It's a relatively new performance funding model, and so they're hoping as it kind of adjusts and evolve, they will be able to get a little more and be able to match the growth to the funding that they've received.

Gotcha.

All right.

Interesting.

Well, the libraries, thank you so much for breaking this down for us.

We will certainly stay tuned on those enrollment numbers.

See if EKU maintains that top three public university enrollment kind of status there.

But thank you again.

Lily Burris the WEK for telling us about your reporting.

No problem.

Thank you so much.