Interview With the Host with President Kathy Franken

Transcript

Earlier this week, I got the incredible chance to sit down with someone special. Guiding UIU through transformation and growth, President and CFO Kathy Franken brings experience, dedication, and deep roots. As a university’s 22nd president and the first female to hold the position, she led strategic change since stepping in to this role. With a steadfast belief in UIU’s mission and the power of education to change lives, she inspires progress and pride across the Peacock community. Let’s check it out. One thing we keep hearing over and over is that UIU is for every type of student. Can you unpack that a little bit?

– Yes, so we have our traditional Fayette campus, which they’re residential campus students, and so they’re getting that traditional experience coming right outta high school. They might be participating in athletics, they may be in different extracurricular activities, really wanting that college experience in the traditional sense. We also then have what we call our distance education program, which includes our online program, our self-paced program, which is really great for working adults, military students because they can really decide they can take eight weeks to complete a course, they can take six months to complete a course. So it’s really what fits in their schedule. And we just really want to make sure that we are making it accessible to all of our students.

– Yeah, it’s amazing. It’s like you have an option for everyone. And you mentioned there online, so you’ve been doing it for a while, you know how to do it really well. Can you talk about that a bit?

– Yes, we have been in the online world since 1999, so we’ve done it a long time. I think one of the things that we are so proud of is that we continue to evolve and change the format of our online as students change, making sure that the platforms and the assignments and everything that’s a part of the online experience is really relevant to the current student demand and experience.

– Absolutely, and also, and we talked about this in the episode a little bit, but you know, it’s very affordable. All right, and that really opens the range of students that you know are able to come here. How do you make it so affordable? And the important, can you talk about the importance of being so affordable?

– It’s really at the root of what we do. We want to make sure that education at Upper Iowa is affordable for our students. We do not want that to be the barrier. A couple of examples of that is on our Fayette campus we have what’s called Peacock Promise and our ExcEL Honors program. Both of those programs allow our students to go to school tuition free on campus. Off campus with our distance education, we have scholarships related to corporate vantage partnerships. We have military scholarships. We have workforce scholarships, so lots of opportunities.

– And that ExcEL program, can you talk about that? It’s really cool.

– Yeah, that’s actually a new exciting program that we have in our first year. With that program, students go to school tuition free. Then they are also in part of what we call an internship work program, so they are working different positions across campus and maybe in the community, but then they’re also receiving some leadership opportunities that continue to help them grow and build their resume.

– Yeah, what a way to set them up for success afterwards. Incredible.

– Absolutely. Thank you, President Franken, for sharing your vision and leadership. From re-imagining UIU’s academic and athletic offerings to steering the IMPACT 2028 strategic plan, your work underscores the institution’s commitment to innovation, partnership and student success. And we look forward to all the incredible things ahead with your guidance. Thanks again for sitting down with me.