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 HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, KENTUCKY - Since arriving at Northern Kentucky University eight years ago, President Jim Votruba has redefined the university's role in the community. In the process, he has reshaped both NKU and the region, earning widespread respect.
"You aren't going to find anybody who'll tell you anything other than: Jim Votruba is a great leader," said Campbell County Judge-executive Steve Pendery.
As co-chair of the Vision 2015 initiative, Votruba is now helping shape Northern Kentucky's future, laying groundwork for the next decade and beyond. To him, Vision 2015's most important goal is to cultivate a new generation of leaders to continue what he and others have begun.
"This community has benefited from a generation of leaders who built not only for themselves, but for the entire community," Votruba said. "The biggest challenge confronting us is: Is the next generation going to be as motivated and capable of building this region as this generation?"
It's difficult to imagine a more motivated and capable leader than Votruba, however. When he arrived with the idea to use NKU as the springboard for strengthening and improving NKY, he took the university and the region into uncharted territory.
His first major initiative was the 1997 Vision, Values and Voices campaign. Administrators boarded vans with boxed lunches and traveled across NKY to meet with community members and learn how NKU could help the region achieve its goals. Votruba used that feedback as the basis for widespread university improvements.
Community leaders say that's the kind of leader Votruba is - willing to roll up his sleeves and dig into the hard work.
"He's been wonderful," Pendery said. "There's no ivory tower stuff going on here."
Of his numerous achievements in the past eight years, Votruba is most proud of NKU's rapid growth. The university has added nearly 5,000 students and multiplied its course offerings. NKU now has 17 different centers, institutes and initiatives designed to meet community needs, and has emerged as a key player in the economic development of NKY. The General Assembly in March awarded $54 million to help build a regional special events center-which Votruba enthusiastically lobbied for-that is expected to yield millions in economic benefits. And still, with characteristic modesty, Votruba says, "I think that this university has always been a jewel. I think it's always offered high-quality undergraduate education. I think the public reputation is catching up to where it's been for years, certainly before I arrived."
The scope of Votruba's influence on NKY can best be seen in the community's reaction to last summer's rumors that he would leave NKU to become president of Michigan State University, his alma mater in his hometown of Lansing. The rumors, first reported by the MSU student newspaper, immediately generated a sense of panic in NKY. Within two weeks, Votruba issued a statement abating those fears.
He says today that he plans to stick around, and that his family has become emotionally invested in the community they now call home. He lives in Lakeside Park with his wife, Rachel. They have three children and four grandsons.
"Rachel and I love it here, and this is the most satisfying and challenging work that I've ever done in my life," he said. "I'm doing it on behalf of a community that we both have enormous respect for and love of."
Amanda Van Benschoten, .
Reprinted with permission from the Sunday Challenger. First printed May 29, 2005.
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