Northern Kentucky University: A Panoramic History by Thomas R. Schiff

Author:Thomas R. Schiff [Thomas R. Schiff]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The University Press of Kentucky
Published: 2016-02-03T05:00:00+00:00

Lucas Administrative Center construction, 1976

This steady stream of new buildings allowed us to just barely keep up with the rising tide of new students, but finally more and more of our classes were housed in buildings designed for the subjects being taught. That made us feel a lot more like a university, and so did the fact that the Albright administration, under the leadership of Provost Janet Travis (1977–79), instituted professional standards for granting tenure and promotion, processes that had been somewhat haphazard and irregular during the Steely and Tesseneer years. The implementation of the new procedures created growing pains of a different kind, but it provided a secure foundation for our future as an institution of higher learning. In the middle of this process, in December 1978, NKU was awarded full accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

As the internal procedures for academic affairs were being professionalized, the university was beginning to become a cultural center for the northern Kentucky community. In 1976, through a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, the university commissioned sculptures from two prominent artists, Donald Judd and Red Grooms. Judd’s minimalist, conceptual aluminum Box was installed between Nunn Hall and the Fine Arts Center, where it remains today. Grooms’s colorful, playful Way Down East was installed on a low pedestal between the Fine Arts Center and the University Center. It was featured on a national tour by the Smithsonian Institution before being removed from the plaza after a spirited debate early in the Votruba administration over the cinematic and social legacy of D. W. Griffith, the filmmaker whose Way Down East had inspired the sculpture.

Under the leadership of Provost Lyle Gray, who succeeded Janet Travis in 1980, the Albright administration began to bring an impressive array of scholars, authors, and speakers to campus, among them Jacques Barzun, John Ciardi, Jane Goodall, Alex Haley, and Ken Kesey. Secretary of State Dean Rusk and the journalist Eric Severeid were among the early commencement speakers in Regents Hall, which also hosted concerts by such musicians as Judy Collins, Dolly Parton, Sly and the Family Stone, Linda Ronstadt, and Lynyrd Skynyrd. Under the leadership of Jack Wann, the Theater Department inaugurated its summer dinner theater in 1977 and its YES Festival of New Plays in 1983, the latter giving NKU theater majors the opportunity to perform in three world premieres every other April.

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