“We don’t want to survive, we want to thrive,” Kuti said. “So if we practice excellence in all the things that we will do, we will ensure that we achieve the optimal outcomes.”
Listening sessions for students and teachers will be held in the next eight to nine months, Kuti said, and the university has also been working with local employers like Premier Health and Dayton Public Schools to understand what they need.
Kuti, a Nigerian immigrant who came to the university for the first time more than 40 years ago, has spent decades working at Central State. He said he is approaching the job from a “sense of wonder.”
Kuti said he has some ideas for what would help students – for example, adding a college of allied health services and developing land near the university so students have a place to go without a car – but he said those will take a longer time.
Kuti noted that Black Ohioans have worse health outcomes than white Ohioans, something he researched for years. Having a college of allied health could help, he said.
In the meantime, CSU plans to work on other programs that help students. That includes programs for students on-campus, co-curricular programs, and internships and research opportunities that could help Central State students get jobs.
The university says it will be focused on six “pillars of access” – connecting to potential students, converting them to attending CSU, entering university without customer service or institutional barriers, innovating learning in the classroom, retaining students through more incentives and completing the degree within four years that has labor market value and leads to immediate employment in the degree area.
Amy Hobbs-Harris, the university’s interim provost, said at a recent student orientation, the longest line was in front of a table for career services.
“They couldn’t wait to get information about career services,” Hobbs-Harris said. “That really tells us a lot about what it is that the student wants and how we can meet their needs.”
Already this year, the university announced it is merging two of its colleges, the college of education and the college of humanities, arts and social sciences. Central State said that merger will give students more opportunities and reduce some administrative overhead.
The university has also touted its incoming class of freshmen after several years of declining enrollment. About 400 first-time, first-year freshmen have paid their confirmation fees this year, the university said, compared to 22 during the same time last year.
Kuti said the university is ready for the incoming students this fall.
“We’re ready for them,” Kuti said. “We remove obstacles for them to succeed, but their success depends on how hard they work.”
Before he was named the next president of the university, Kuti was the vice president of research and economic development and director of 1890 Land Grant programs.
The 1890 program is a designation for public colleges who serve historically underserved populations. Central State was not named a Land Grant Institution until 2014, though, when the designation was expanded. There are 19 1890 Land Grant Institutions, including Texas A&M, Kentucky State University and West Virginia State University.
The designation was a huge deal for Central State, because it opened new grants and research opportunities for the university. Today, the university’s extension efforts are in 42 counties, though Kuti said the university wants to eventually expand to all 88 counties in the state.
“Our mission is to make peoples’ lives better and provide solutions to problems here,” Kuti said.
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