Todd Touts his Numbers

UK President Lee Todd is bragging, and why not. After years of criticism over the university's perceived lukewarm commitment to African American students and faculty, Todd established a mission to make a better showing and has been tracking his numbers. He also took some shots over the school's lack of commitment to advancing women. He may not be able to claim that the university has arrived, but the data show a positive trend.

Todd has also been tasked to double the number of college graduates at the research university and that necessitates retaining students in the system until they complete their programs.

This from Lee Todd in Kentucky Alumni Magazine: (Warning: Big .pdf file)

2008 – ‘09: Statistics Tell A Powerful Story

• Record high number of freshman applicants: 11,120
• Record high number of Governor’s Scholars/School for the Arts Students: 389
•Record high retention rate: 81 percent
•Record high number of African-American first-year students: 347
•Record high number of African-American undergraduate students: 1,234
•Record high doctoral student enrollment: 2,391
•Record high first-professional (dentistry, law, medicine, and pharmacy) enrollment: 1,558
•Record high number of full-time faculty: 2,096
•Record high number of African-American faculty: 84, including a record 11 new African-American faculty
•Record high number and percent of women in executive/ administrative/ managerial positions: 234, or 48.4 percent
•Record high research expenditures of $337 million

I often use this space to feature one of our top students, share a story about a faculty or staff member who is leading us in our Top 20 mission, or tout a new outreach initiative.

Even though I am a UK College of Engineering alum, I seldom use this opportunity to simply hype numbers and statistics.

As I often say, it is the efforts of our students, alumni, faculty, and staff that are transforming communities across Kentucky, and I love to tell those success stories.

However, sometimes the raw information is so powerful that it is the story. Such was the case at your alma mater in 2008-09, when UK experienced a “record” year.

As impressive as these statistics are on their own, the depth and breadth of excellence that we are experiencing across the university community is what is so striking to me.

From measures in undergraduate, graduate, and professional education to diversity measures and research totals, UK is taking bold strides forward in a period of budget cuts and financial turmoil...