Bradley spoke with LPM's Bill Burton about a hiring freeze, DEI policies, and the turnover in U of L's top spot.
Bill Burton: You have become the University of Louisville's seventh president in the past nine years. How has the school been affected by such frequent turnover at the top, and how do you plan on combating it?
Gerry Bradley: Yeah, it's a great question. And I do think that, you know, it's never a great thing to have a lot of transition. I think that's that's an obvious statement. I do think that, you know, one of the things about the University of Louisville has been its resilience. I mean, during this entire period, we had the birth of U of L Health, essentially. When you think around our enrollment, we have the highest enrollment in our history. And then if you look at our research side of the house, you know, we're an R1 research university. Our research expenditures has grown also, and our funded research has grown over that period of time. So I think the bottom line is, yeah, I mean, it's not good. I mean, as you said, you know six, seven presidents, we've also gone through a lot of provosts during that period of time. So I think, you know, people are still able to do the job and get the work done. And I think it's a testament to the people at the university. It's a testament to the leadership at all levels.
BB: U of L is in the midst of a hiring freeze because of the threats of federal funding cuts. So how are you steering the university through this time of uncertainty?
GB: Yeah, I mean, you know, looking at what are the what ifs right now, and there's a lot of unknowns, Bill, as you know, around what are the cuts that are going to happen, particularly around ([National Institutes of Health] cuts, around indirect cost recovery rates. So, you know, typically, we've been getting about 57% of our costs covered as indirect costs, and that has been reduced to 15% or at least it's been proposed by the administration. At this point in time. There's a hold on that, but we don't know what's going to happen. You know, when the reconciliation bill is resolved in October, so what we're doing is a precautionary measure, Bill, is, you know, essentially keeping our cash on hand, you know, preserving our strong budget position right now by just being prudent. And I think you know, what we want to do is to protect the people that we have here, to protect our currently employed students and faculty.
BB: The funding freeze is not the only federal issue that is a concern for universities nationwide. The Trump administration is pushing against Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs. What are you doing with that situation?
GB: Yeah. I mean, I think we are aware of House Bill 4, you know, and we also aware of the dear colleague letter that was, you know, issued by the Department of Education, and we're aware, of course, the executive orders, and we're going to be compliant with all of those. And so we're working hard right now to understand the different clauses within House Bill 4, and also with how that's going to impact our work and our processes in the past. Will it bring changes? Absolutely. I mean, there are things that we've done in the past that we will change now going forward, but one of the things I get great comfort in, Bill, is that, you know, we are a very inclusive campus, and we are a very diverse campus.
BB: You talk about the university being diverse and inclusive, but you also just recently canceled the graduation event for LGBTQ plus students, so are you concerned an action like that could hurt the school's reputation and eventually its enrollment?
GB: No, I don't think so at all, Bill, because I think that particular event was canceled just because of the framework that it was held in, because it was restrictive in who could participate in that. I think you know, when you think about what we should be doing going forward, is we need to make sure that we broaden those events, that they have different groups in there. So it's not like that group couldn't have a particular opportunity to celebrate, but also that there are other people that are also celebrating, whether there be a different group, like, you know, and I'm going to make this up, but if it was, you know, military-connected students that were having a graduation ceremony, but to have a broader event where all those groups could be represented, so that it wasn't seen to be exclusionary.
This transcript was edited for clarity
