Universities in the Commonwealth are pushing for higher student performance and funding. Morehead State University officials are reporting record success in student retention and fundraising for scholarships.
Beginning in 2017, the Commonwealth of Kentucky began utilizing a higher education performance funding system to determine funding levels for universities, of which MSU began implementing. Within the formula, student success measures were required.
“We have hit a home run this year”, says Dr. Joseph (Jay) Morgan, President of MSU. “Our student retention from fall to spring was 89%, URM retention was 93.3%, and our low income student retention was 89.3%.”
Morgan reports this is increased significantly over the prior years. “We are perfecting our system, and after tweaking it for a few years we are starting to see record success”.
Likewise, MSU reports record fundraising this year for scholarships. Last month, MSU named its 3rd academic college resulting from a multi-million dollar donation by Dr. Ernst and Sara Lane Volgenau. The Volgenau College of Education will begin with spring 2020 graduates and will carry the name of a distinguished family and alumni.
“We are pleased that the Volgenau Family shares our vision for student success and recognizes that student scholarships are our way forward”, “I never ask a donor for anything other than to support student scholarships, that is our commitment”, says Morgan.
The Volgenau College naming is the second academic college naming within two years under a university-wide campaign for scholarships.
“We aren’t stopping with this college naming,” Morgan said. “MSU continues into its second of a three year fundraising campaign with tremendous energy and success.”