PIKEVILLE — Pikeville College seems to be better off compared with a year ago when the liberal arts school was facing sagging undergraduate enrollment and a battered endowment.
The college's medical school dean died suddenly in 2007, and earlier this year, President Michael Looney bolted after seven months on the job. But things are looking better for the four-year school nestled in the mountains of eastern Kentucky.
"We are marketing the fact that we are small," said former Gov. Paul Patton, the school's new president.
Now, under Patton, the school is looking to bolster enrollment and expand its graduate school options, the Lexington Herald-Leader reports. The former governor is also looking to increase donations, starting last month with the announcement of a $4.5 million fundraising drive for its osteopathic medicine program.
More than 700 undergraduates were enrolled for fall 2009 — more than 25 percent being student athletes. Its capacity is about 1,000 students.
Patton told the newspaper that administrators are realizing the medical school serves as an attraction for transfer students and could help to boost enrollment. Administrators are also considering the addition of master's degrees in business administration and education, Patton said.
"Our medical school has been just a bang-up success," Jim Evans, the school's finance director, said.
To meet its goals, the school is marketing "a real college experience," Patton said. Students are organizing fraternity and sorority programs, and Patton has brought their efforts to the school's board of trustees.
Adding Greek life to the small school would be a "morale booster," Britta Gibson, the assistant dean for student services, said.
Still, the school's financial picture isn't perfect.
Last year, the college notched an $835,000 deficit and is about to report another deficit in the fiscal year that ended this past summer, Evans said. Patton is not taking a salary, and board members last year donated or raised more than $400,000 to help.
Patton has been touring the state marketing the college. The school is selling its athletics programs and its graduate school, among other things.
"The college needs to make itself more attractive to a broader range of students across the state and across the country," Patton said.
Weston Turner, an 18-year-old high school senior who recently visited the school, said the campus and its atmosphere was attractive.
"It's kind of small," Turner said, "and I like that."
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
