By Jai’Michael Anderson

It has been almost two years since Kim Schatzel stepped into her role as the president of the University of Louisville.

In a conversation with the Cardinal, she reflected on her short time at the university and provided a few updates. Here are the takeaways.

Impact and Community Engagement

The president expressed her satisfaction with her presidency and stated that she has not faced any significant struggles so far, which helped her embraced her transition to the city.

She remains enthusiastic about the athletic program along with the university’s R1 research and Carnegie Foundation community engagement designations, which were among her top excitements when joining the university.

Getting to know the U of L community has also been an especially notable experience for the president.

“I’ve had a chance to be able to also fall in love with Kentucky and have spent quite a bit of time traveling around the state and meeting our alums and legislators and community members from across the state. And every place you go, everybody knows what raise L means,” Schatzel said.  

She recognized that the university’s alumni represent an array of impactful roles across the state. 

“I mean, they’re teachers, they’re police officers, they’re businesspeople, they’re engineers, they’re lawyers, they’re entrepreneurs, doctors, nurses,” said Schatzel. “It really has told me what an impact this university has on both the city and the state itself. So, I’m just excited to be here.” 

She also praised U of L’s connection to the greater Louisville community, mentioning her partnership with Craig Greenberg as a mutually beneficial relationship.

“We were both brand new in terms of our leadership roles and we both just love the city and realize the fact that we can just help each other in terms of making an impact on the city.”

One significant development she highlighted was the $300 million expansion of the Health Sciences campus downtown, which she described as one of the largest investments made in the city in a decade.  

Along with providing a large talent pool to businesses and nonprofits in the area, Schatzel highlighted that U of L’s programs benefit the overall community. 

“We have relationships in terms of a pathway with Central High School to be able to have students who are interested in law who work with our law school and who are interested in wanting to be physicians who work with our med school,” she said.

Lessons from students 

Upon her arrival in February 2023, Schatzel planned to learn more about U of L students and better understand the community. To this effort, she has held several listening sessions with students and faculty. 

Reflecting on the sessions, she noted the diversity of the student population and their motives for coming to the university instead of other institutions.  

“They felt that the faculty really cared about them,” she said. “I mean [U of L] had all the things that a big university would provide, but people knew who you were, and people took the time to know who you were in the classroom as well as outside.” 

Schatzel said she has also become familiar with the intelligence of students and the versatility of their studies, citing that many choose to double major or add a minor. 

“They have a broad array of interests, but they feel that the university provides all that support for them to be able to realize that,” said Schatzel. “The factor of the campus that I most enjoy is to be able to get inspired by you all, to know the fact that you being here is going to change your life.”

This multitude of interests extend outside of the classroom; U of L is home to more than 400 registered student organizations, with many being outspoken about topics like politics and the environment. 

Schatzel described the university as a marketplace of ideas that exposes students to different values and life experiences. 

“To be able to get to know people that didn’t have the same background that you did is all part of stretching yourself and part of what a university experience is all about,” Schatzel said. “The education just doesn’t happen in the classroom. It also happens in the residence halls when people are talking to each other — it happens in the organizations.” 

A Growing student body 

The university has had record-breaking incoming freshman class enrollment numbers for the past three years. Schatzel expressed her excitement for the surplus of incoming students and stated that the university is undergoing a controlled expansion to accommodate the demands of the increased student population. 

Among plans to increase the number of faculty and advisors on campus, she mentioned housing being a major concern. 

“We’ve got the largest housing population that we’ve had in our history,” said Schatzel. “that’s probably the one area that I think that we’re going to have to be super intentional on is the housing because that takes time.”

More information on can be found in the Campus Master Plan.

Another development due to the growing student population is that U of L received over $450 million in funding from the Kentucky General Assembly last spring, with an additional $302 million in agency bond authority.  

Part of this investment will help develop new buildings for the Speed School and Health Sciences campus. Schatzel said the expansion is crucial to providing world-class spaces for the university’s growing student body.  

Signage Policy 

Over the summer, the Planning Design and Construction Department proposed a signage policy that would prohibit the use of sidewalk chalk and any form of yard signage excluding signage directing people to an event.

Schatzel said decisions to update the policy stemmed from the posting of yard signs by unaffiliated parties like vendors. She said this caused some to believe that the university was sponsoring the messages presented on the signs and noted the aesthetic effects of the signage.

“In all honesty, they didn’t come down. So, it was a situation where people were putting yard signs up and they didn’t come down for days, weeks,” she said. “It rained, they fell over, and it was basically not very attractive to do that.”

The university is analyzing the efficiency of yard signs in disseminating information.

Though the president does not view signage as an efficient way to provide information, the university is taking input from the community on the matter. Questions about allowing specific types of signage have also been brought into the conversation.

Stability of Leadership 

The university has had three presidents since 2017. In addition, the Provost and many of the university’s deans have arrived within recent years with the latest hiring being Whitney Nash, Dean of the School of Nursing.

“Whenever you have a lot of turnover and leadership it’s kind of like you got to start again,” said Schatzel. “I think having that stability is really important for the university to be able to make the kind of progress that we want.”

Moving forward, President Schatzel is focused on bringing a sense of permanence to the university’s administration.

“You guys are stuck with me,” Schatzel said. “That’s what I like to tell people. You’re stuck with me.”

Photo by Vinny Porco, The Louisville Cardinal