Kentucky State University prepares to officially welcome its new president

Kentucky State University is preparing to officially welcome its new president, LEX18 reported this week.

Dr. Koffi Akakpo has been on campus since summer 2023, but his inauguration is set for Friday, officially making him the 19th president in university history.

Akakpo his philosophy includes focusing on student retention and enrollment both on campus and online. Enrollment is currently at about 2,300 students.

He said it's important to keep sharing KSU's story as a historically black college.

"We have come a long way," Akakpo said. I came here July 1 last year and found an institution that was troubling. ... We needed to balance the budget, enrollment was so low, and then our dorms and some our buildings were in very bad shape. So, look back at 13 months, and now I can say a lot has happened."

KSU hadn't had a permanent leader since July 2021, when M. Christopher Brown II resigned amid growing concerns about the school's financial health.

State lawmakers stepped in and passed a bill in 2022 that included $23 million to address a budget shortfall, with measures in place to create a management improvement plan and financial accountability.

An audit ordered that same year revealed a "chaotic accounting environment" that lead to undocumented credit card transactions, extravagant bonuses and a lack of controls that put millions of dollars in federal grant funding at risk. It primarily focused on the school’s financial and internal policies between July 1, 2018, and June 30, 2021.

Akakpo, originally from Togo in west Africa, previously worked in Ohio state government and then served at North Central State College in Mansfield, Ohio, and Bluegrass Community and Technical College in Lexington, Kentucky.

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