Dear Thorobred Family,
Today, the Kentucky State University Board of Regents took an important step in the implementation of Senate Bill 185 by approving the University’s academic plan for submission to the Council on Postsecondary Education by the June 1 deadline.
This action is a milestone, but it is not the end of the work. It moves the University into the next phase of review, planning, and implementation, guided by responsibility to students, faculty, staff, alumni, partners, and the Commonwealth.
Throughout this process, our focus has been on more than meeting a statutory requirement. We have been asking what Kentucky State must build, strengthen, and focus so our academic programs best serve students and the needs of Kentucky.
That work requires discipline: examining data, listening to academic leadership, maintaining accreditation standards, protecting student progress, and aligning our academic offerings with the future we are preparing our graduates to lead.
The plan approved today reflects academic planning that began before SB 185 and has continued through the University’s ongoing start, stop, and grow work. Over the past several years, Kentucky State has reviewed academic programs, reorganized Academic Affairs into three colleges, reduced degree pathway complexity, strengthened advising, implemented DegreeWorks, adopted a multi-year catalog, and launched new programs aligned with student interest and workforce need.
SB 185 has accelerated and sharpened that work. It has required us to look carefully at how programs connect to one another, support student completion, respond to workforce needs, and position Kentucky State as a polytechnic university rooted in applied learning, innovation, research, partnerships, and service.
Our emerging academic model is organized around six academic areas of study: Applied Sciences, Engineering, Health Sciences, Humanities, Natural Sciences, and Technology. The majority of our existing majors already fit within these areas, giving Kentucky State a strong foundation for this next chapter.
These six areas are designed to work across disciplines, connecting classroom learning with applied research, internships and co-ops, industry projects, labs and makerspaces, entrepreneurship, community engagement, and Extension.
They also affirm the role of the humanities and interdisciplinary studies at Kentucky State. A polytechnic model does not abandon the essential skills that help students think critically, communicate clearly, solve problems, adapt to change, and lead with purpose. It connects those skills to the technical, scientific, health, agricultural, business, and community-centered work our students will be called to do.
This work also requires difficult decisions. Under the academic plan, proposed program actions would continue through the CPE process. Those include recommendations related to Childhood Development and Political Science, as well as changes within music-related academic offerings. General Music as well as Music Industry and Technology would remain part of the transition. Anticipated academic program changes would not jeopardize Kentucky State’s Concert Choir or Marching Band, both important parts of the University’s history and heritage. Both ensembles will continue to recruit new and continuing members.
As we move forward, students remain central. Where any program is proposed for closure or substantive change, the University’s responsibility is clear: affected students must have a path to completion through appropriate teach-out plans or arrangements.
I thank the faculty, deans, department chairs, staff members, student representatives, administrators, Board members, CPE partners, and others who have contributed to this serious work. It touches the heart of the University and the future of the students we serve.
Kentucky State’s mission remains clear. We are Kentucky’s only public HBCU and an 1890 land-grant university. We provide transformative educational experiences, serve communities, discover solutions, apply knowledge, and prepare leaders who can advance the Commonwealth and the world.
The Board’s action today is one responsible step in that continuing mission. It is not a departure from who we are. It is a disciplined effort to ensure Kentucky State University is strong, focused, sustainable, and ready for the needs of this moment.
Onward and Upward,
Koffi C. Akakpo, Ph.D.
President
Kentucky State University