LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — When Neeli Bendapudi started work at the University of Louisville in 2018, she was greeted by throngs of employees and students in a sort of pep rally on the steps of Grawemeyer Hall.

Her successor, Kim Schatzel, kept a lower profile as she began her tenure on Wednesday. Schatzel walked across Third Street to the ‘Ville Grill, a campus dining hall, to have impromptu conversations with students over breakfast.

After Bendapudi bolted for Penn State University in 2021, Schatzel’s lower-key approach might be just what U of L needs: a rock instead of a rock star. (To be sure, Schatzel did grace basketball fans at center court at the KFC Yum! Center on Wednesday evening).

Schatzel, 66, came to U of L after a seven-year stint at another urban institution: Towson University in the suburbs of Baltimore.

During a wide-ranging interview Thursday, we discussed her commitment to staying for the long term, her background in manufacturing and business, her priorities for the university, her approach to antiracism and diversity goals and her impressions of Louisville.

What follows is a transcript of the discussion with editing for clarity and brevity.

You can watch the entire interview here:

Chris Otts 

I know you were familiar with the university, but being here in the role, what have your impressions been so far?

Kim Schatzel 

Well, the first thing I can tell you is the fact of how kind and welcoming everybody has been. I mean, that’s what really struck me, both about the U of L community, as well as the broader community, is how much pride there is for the university and for Louisville, and how much people want to let me know that and let me know how how important the university is and how great the city is. People have asked me, you know, ‘Oh, we’ll take you here, we’ll introduce you to this person, you really need to see this.’ So it’s been fantastic. I mean, the warm embrace has been wonderful for us, my husband and I. But really, the sense of pride is really there, and the desire to do more. You know, we do a lot as a university; we do a lot for the city, as well as for the state. But people people feel that sense of the fact that you know, we’ve got more potential to be able to make an impact. And let’s work together to decide what that is and how we can advance it.

Chris Otts 

So before we talk about your approach at U of L, I’d like to learn a little bit more about how you became aware of this opportunity. And what was your thought process as you considered, ‘Is this the time for me to make a big career move?’

Kim Schatzel 

That’s a great question. I had been at Towson (University) for seven years. (I) built a great team there (and) knew the state really well. My husband and I had made great friendships there as well. I learned about the opportunity (because) presidents -- particularly sitting presidents -- after a while get tugged about possible opportunities, and in all honesty, I never was interested. And then this opportunity was brought to me and I basically was told, ‘You really got to take a look at that. It’d be a fantastic match for you.’ I of course knew about the University of Louisville. I knew about its reputation. I knew people that had been here as faculty and staff and administrators as well as people that had been at University of Kentucky. I had done business in Louisville 20 years ago when I was in the automotive industry. So it wasn’t like I didn’t know the university from its national reputation and its excellence. So I just started talking more with more people and taking a look more at it. And you know, what really drew me was the fact that there’s very few institutions that are research institutions that have such a firm commitment to the impact on their community, both Louisville and the state. They’re less than 70 universities nationally that can be able to say that. And that really resonated with me. And then when I started to talk with people more, then came for the first set of interviews, the authentic nature of everybody around that mission -- how much they believed in that -- just totally shone through. And I’m a real believer that you got to walk the talk and the thing that I came away with was, from the trustees, to the administration, to the faculty, the staff, to the students, the alumni to the donors, they were going to walk that talk, and I want it to be a part of it. So as I tell people, I’ve interviewed for two presidencies in my life, and I’ve gotten both of them. So the University of Louisville is a very special place to me.

Chris Otts 

So do you see this as the last stop in your career?

Kim Schatzel 

Yeah, I really do. I mean, the kind of work that we want to do, and the kind of things that we want to do, because this is such a solid base to start with, are going to be efforts that are going to take a few years to be able to complete because of the fact that they’re going to be pretty comprehensive. I mean, they’re not going to be department- (or) college- wide. We’re talking about university-wide initiatives dealing with partners in terms of business and the community. So to be able to get that aligned and be able to lift that up, it’s going to take a lot of work to be able to do and time to be able to do and that’s what really excites me, that kind of transformational change. And that takes time to be able to complete.

Chris Otts 

So let’s talk about that transformational change. What are those initiatives? What are the things, the directions, you’re broadly wanting to take the university from where it is today?

Kim Schatzel 

That’s that vision question that we all get asked, ‘What do we want to do?’ I’m starting up by doing a listening tour. I mean, I have some ideas of what I’ve looked at in terms of the university. And I know it’s going to revolve around various disciplines and degree programs that we have in colleges that we have. I know it’s going to involve community engagemen. I know it’s going to involve teaching and learning. Students’ success will be very important. Athletics, of course, is there, but really, how we hone that down to four or five or six or seven big initiatives that are going to really make a huge impact on the university and its national reputation, and its impact in terms of the community and the nation, that’s going to take some time. So I’m not going to be premature in making that judgment. I want to make sure that I talk to as many people as possible, be able to hear their thoughts and what their thinking should be (the) next steps and what opportunities that we have as university. So I’m going to spend the next 30 to 60 days, probably about 60 days, talking to as many people as possible to help to figure out what that would be, and then reflect back to the community and see if that resonates for them.

Chris Otts 

Well, you mentioned that you do have ideas. If you’re starting a conversation with say, faculty or students, you’re in a meeting or something and they say, ‘Well, what’s a prompt to get this conversation started?’ What would you say? What what could you throw out there where you think, maybe we should go in this direction?

Kim Schatzel 

I would put (it) as more, what do I want to learn more about? I really want to learn more about our research enterprise, where we feel that we’ve got centers for excellence and unique skills and unique expertise to be able to advance if it’s supported in the right way. The other place that I want to take a look at is the engineering school. I spent a lot of years in manufacturing. We’ve got the Ford (plants) and the Korean company (SK Innovation) coming here to be able to build battery technology. I think that’s a big area. I was talking to some folks last night about robotics, because we’ve got some expertise there. And coming from where I come from, drone technology (and) the Department of Defense is real big. We’ve got a lot of opportunities in different places. It’s really, how can we pull those together so that instead of having one plus one equals two, we have one plus one equals five. We can really take a look at some interdisciplinary support to be able to do that. Cybersecurity is another (in which) we have outstanding faculty and staff and programs and training. And if you look at the demand for that, the projections are for the next 20, 30, 40 years, there’s a shortfall in terms of all the skillsets needed in this really important area. So trust me, there is no shortage of opportunities that we have. But we got to make sure that those are priorities. It’s really easy to move 20 things an inch, versus five things a mile. And I’m really looking for the things that are going to be mega-initiatives that will move things a mile.

Chris Otts 

Are there certain metrics that you already know you’re going to be judged on? Your predecessors talked about (the) graduation rate, for example. Do you think that’s an important? Are there others (metrics) that you feel like you need to move in your time here?

Kim Schatzel 

So students success is, of course, it’s what we do as the university, to educate and graduate the workforce of the future. So the commitment is to be able to successfully have our students participate and receive their degrees. Graduation rate is an area that every university pays attention to. Particularly as an emphasis here, we want to work on closing the achievement gap that we have on campus. It was something that I was very proud of, in terms of Towson being able to accomplish that. There was no difference between the six-year graduation rate with Pell-eligible students and the overall population (as well as) Black students and Latino students. Inclusive student success is very important. What can we do to be able to increase research expenditures, and to be able to have more impact in terms of of research rankings? And then I want to take a look at what kind of a community we are, and be able to understand from climate surveys and employee satisfaction surveys. We want to attract and retain and develop the best faculty and staff that we can, because it all starts with the people.

Chris Otts 

So let’s talk about attracting faculty. Of course, money is in the equation, right. I’m not familiar with the situation in Maryland, but in Kentucky, as in some other states, support for higher education from the public has gone down. The overall trend is that, some 15 years ago, it was one-third students and two-thirds state (funding) and now it’s two-thirds tuition and one-third state (funding). Assuming that there’s no big change in that dynamic, should we expect tuition to continue to climb? Are there other ways that you can approach making higher education more affordable and having the resources that you need to accomplish your initiatives?

Kim Schatzel 

The model of higher education, not just in Kentucky, but nationally, has just completely changed. I basically started in higher ed in 2000. And that’s when it started switching. It was actually also why someone with my skillset coming from business suddenly became pretty attractive as a university administrator, taking a look at how you could manage in a way with reduced resources, but yet be able to move the organization forward. That is pretty common in business. At that time, it was not as common (to have that experience as) academic administrators. I enjoy numbers. I’m a data-driven person, (and) we’ve got great finance people here and great data people here. So to be able to take a look at opportunity areas that we have in terms of efficiency and cost reduction -- utilities, purchasing, things like that -- every dollar that we spend comes out of the pockets of our students or of the taxpayers of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, so we need to be as efficient as possible. And then the second side to that is, we want accessibility, as you pointed out, making sure that we are an accessible, affordable education to be able to have that workforce that we need for Kentucky to be able to be competitive, nationally and globally, for the kinds of industries that we want to be locating here and growing here. And then the third part is priorities. You can you can move little things a little bit. But you know, if you start taking a look at priorities, and being able to say, ‘this is what we want to do, we have to make these investments,’ you can really make remarkable return. And I look at things as a return on investment: We spend this money here, how can we realize that return that really impacts students’ success, really impacts our community? And oftentimes, we have to say no. And it doesn’t mean no forever. It means no, not right now. Because we’re working on this (and) when these get moving and start developing momentum, then we can move forward. It’s also getting support from private business to be able to do those things, (as well as) community foundations and nonprofits. We’ve got a lot of philanthropic support for the University of Louisville, and we need more to be able to do that.

Chris Otts

I’m not hearing any explicit goal or commitment around the level of tuition or how that will grow. Is that something that you will just be figuring out as you go?

Kim Schatzel 

Yeah, we want to be able to, as I said, make sure we keep ourselves affordable and accessible. So it’s a very serious decision when we take a look at those things. And of course, I’ll be talking to the trustees about it as well. You know, I’ve seen what we’ve done in the past, and it’s something that we’ll consider going forward, but affordability (and) accessibility (is) absolutely a priority.

Chris Otts 

I want to ask you about one of the more higher profile initiatives of your predecessor. She actually edited the mission statement of the university that was given by the legislature to U of L, to say not only to be a "premier metropolitan research university," but a "premier  anti-racist metropolitan research university." Do you share that anti-racist goal? And do you think that initiative will continue under your leadership?

Kim Schatzel 

I want to make it even more broad. When we’re talking about inclusion, we’re talking about inclusive success. That includes ethnicities; it includes race, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation. I talk about ableness as well in terms of doing that. So we want this institution to be a place where everybody can reach their fullest potential, and everybody can thrive. I look at expanding even more (and) I know the work that’s been done. I’ve taught started conversations about the fact that we want to operationalize those goals with the diversity (and the) strategic plan. I like to have some concrete, ‘what are we going to do this year, to be able to move it forward?’ I talked about eliminating the completion gap between Pell-eligible, Black and Latino students. That’s an outcome variable that speaks to exactly what we’re talking about. You can do a lot in DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion). But if you’ve got that gap, you’re not realizing the type of outcome that you should. That’s the commitment that we have.

Chris Otts 

I’m going to ask you about something in DEI, more broadly in the world of higher education. Just earlier this week, we saw the governor of Florida, take aim at (DEI). Nothing like that, to my knowledge, has been proposed in Kentucky, but we are a conservative state with a conservative legislature. So it’s not inconceivable. Do you feel like Diversity, Equity and Inclusion should be something that is up for debate or of any controversy? And if something like that were proposed from the governor’s office in Kentucky at some point, how would you react?

Kim Schatzel 

That’s a great question. I don’t know the particulars of what’s going on with higher ed in Florida with the governor’s office there. Again, my point around DEI in the more broader sense: I’m looking at the fact that students’ success and employee success, both in terms of administrators, faculty, and staff, is what we’re looking for. So if you’re going to look at DEI as an outcome where people are going to realize their fullest potential, it’s in our best interest to want to be able to support those efforts. That’s how I think about DEI. We want to be able to have everyone on this campus realize their fullest potential, inclusive of all identities and demographics.

Chris Otts 

One more question on that. I’m told that Black faculty is an issue that the university has been talking about for a while, but where there’s not been much action. I’m told that if you just took away (the) Pan-African Studies (Department) that you would remove half of the Black professors in the entire College of Arts and Sciences. Do you see this as an issue? And how might you address it?

Kim Schatzel 

Having faculty that represent the student population is critically important. As a woman, I know that when I went to school and started as an engineering major, there weren’t a lot of people that looked like me. So if you don’t see it, it’s tough to be it. So having a diverse faculty that represents what the student population look like is a goal. I don’t know the particulars; this is Day Two for me. But that’s an area that I really want to make sure that (during) the listening tour and meeting with people that I learn more about, because it’s an important outcome that we want to have.

Chris Otts 

You were a businessperson. And you made a career shift to higher education. Can you tell me how that came about?

Kim Schatzel 

I get asked that a lot because I’m one of 2% of college presidents that have had significant C-suite experience. So I’m a bit of a unicorn. I had a great career in business. You know, I started in manufacturing. I was a shop brat. I spent much of my career as a materials manager, as a foreman, as plant superintendent, as a general manager of a manufacturing plant. And I really enjoyed manufacturing. It was not a lot of women that were in that back in the 70s and 80s. I was the CEO of a company that was a multinational and really enjoyed it. I ended up stepping away from the CEO role, took a couple of years off, had my second child at that time in my late 30s. And I was starting to think about, what did I want to do next? I didn’t want to start another business. I didn’t want to go work for somebody else. I was sitting on some boards, and I decided that I would see about getting a PhD. It wasn’t like I had an epiphany. But I was curious about doing it. I was really fortunate. The fact that I lived not too far from the University of Michigan and Michigan State University. I went out and talked to some faculty there and met a faculty member who was very encouraging to me to because I was not a typical, traditional doctoral student. And then I really enjoyed being a faculty member. And as I said, what happened in the early 2000s, someone with my business background suddenly became that skillset that was more in demand. And I kind of fell into an administrative role. I’ve had two fantastic careers. So I would definitely tell people to re-pot themselves when they hit about 40 to 45 years old.

Chris Otts 

There’s one parallel, in that, at Towson, you were at a university set very near a large city. In terms of the university-municipal dynamic, what did you learn there that you think would be good to bring here?

Kim Schatzel 

That’s one of the reasons that the U of L position really spoke to me, the fact that it’s an anchor institution for Metro Louisville, very similar to Towson and its role in Greater Baltimore. As a university president with business experience, I really found it fantastic to be able to be working not only with those that are either county executives or in the legislature, or in city council, or mayors, which I did, but also with the business community. We were able to bridge a lot of those gaps in terms of workforce development, in terms of research, in terms of connections that we could provide as a university. It’s a great part of what a university does, and I’m looking forward to doing it here.

Chris Otts 

Tell me about, to the extent that you have any time outside of (work), how you plan to spend it.

Kim Schatzel 

I want to get to know the community. I’m a foodie. So I like to be able to go to restaurants and try different things. I want to get to know the arts community, the museums, the cultural events that we have. I’m getting to meet a lot of people. I can’t wait for my first (Kentucky) Derby. There’s just a lot to do and a lot of people to meet, and I’m really excited about it.

Reach reporter Chris Otts at 502-585-0822, cotts@wdrb.com, on Twitter or on Facebook. Copyright 2023. WDRB Media. All rights reserved.