Dr. Kim Schatz, old, just completed her first year as president of the University of Louisville.

Our Kelsey Starks sat down with her to talk about her first year and her future goals at U of L. So Governor Bashir recently made a pitch for more state funding as, as you mentioned, based on a 5% enrollment growth across the state.

Where does U of L stand with enrollment numbers right now?

And how do you keep that cost of higher education down?

That's a great question.

I mean, accessibility and affordability is is is a core of what we do.

In terms of enrollment, our enrollments are very, very strong.

We're working on retention rates.

We're working on accessibility.

We are the 30% of our students are transfer students.

We are the single largest destination for transfers within the Commonwealth itself.

So one out of four students when they transfer transfer to U of L. So those different pathways and that's what we're trying to do, is to be able to provide different pathways to higher education.

Kentucky does not have one of the highest educational payment rates in the nation, and it's something that's a priority for us to be able to provide that accessibility and affordability to do that.

And we work every single day to make that happen.

I often we often share on campus the fact that every dollar that we spend that comes out of the pockets of our students or comes out of the pockets of the taxpayers of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

So we are serious about the return that those dollars bring.

A lot of people may not know also that you are a first in your family to graduate college.

That's correct.

How does that perspective make a difference in how you view affordability and accessibility?

Very much so.

A first generation college student, you know, almost 40% of the students that you have are first generation college students.

So they are you know, it it means so much to them and so much to their families to be that person that that makes that transition and sees that opportunity.

One of my favorite days is commencement, because you just see the joy on the faces of the graduates as well as their families.

And it's a reminder that getting a college degree means so much to people continues to mean so much to people.

And you can watch the families see the fact that their child or their spouse or their sister or their brother or the grandchild is realizing one of their first adult goals and how enjoy it brings to them.

So being first generation and knowing what it means not just to the graduate, but to all the people that love them.

It really inspires me.

This is a great conversation and you want to hear more from Dr. Schatz, Ole and the president of Jefferson Community and Technical College, Dr. Ty Handy, as they are both featured this President's Day weekend on inside Louisville.

That's this Sunday at 12 noon, 11 a.m. Central right here on Katie.