Kent State Board of Trustees Welcomes Class of 2029, Congratulates University for Strong Enrollment

The Kent State University Board of Trustees welcomed the Class of 2029 during its regular quarterly meeting held Sept. 17 in the Kent Student Center. The Board congratulated the university administration for this year's strong enrollment.

Kent State embraced a first-year class of 4,023 students, marking the fourth straight year the incoming cohort on the Kent Campus topped 4,000.

The class included a record number of applications from, and admissions of Ohio students, who arrived from 78 Ohio counties, along with students from 42 states and the District of Columbia.

This year's freshman class on the Kent Campus boasts an outstanding average high school GPA of 3.57, and 561 of those students were admitted to the Honors College. Among the freshman class, 34% are first-generation students, meaning they are the first in their families to pursue a college degree.

Both Kent State's Ambassador Crawford College of Business and Entrepreneurship and its College of Aeronautics and Engineering each boasted their largest first-year cohorts in their histories. Meanwhile, the College of Architecture and Environmental Design brought in its second-largest class, trailing only the cohort that entered the college one year ago, while Kent State's College of Nursing welcomed its third-largest class of students.

Enrollment in Kent State's College Credit Plus program continues to grow with 3,875 high school students choosing to begin taking college courses at Kent State, up 6% from last year.

Enrollment for the fall semester is 33,319 for Kent State's eight-campus system and 24,930 for the Kent Campus alone. Altogether, the university's current enrollment boasts students from 47 states, plus Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, the Virgin Islands, and 94 countries.

Kent State's Regional Campuses welcomed the largest cohort of incoming students since 2021, with more than 1,300 new students attending courses on a Regional Campus.

Nearly 100 additional international undergraduate students enrolled this year, marking the fourth consecutive year of growth in this area, and includes 134 first-year students, bringing the university's total international enrollment to 1,799.

Board Approves Fiscal Year 2026 University Budget

The Board approved a $722.9 million balanced budget for Fiscal Year 2026. The new budget recognizes the importance of affordability and encouraging student success, addresses critical commitments and strategic investments and reflects the keen emphasis the Board and the university community have placed on effectiveness, efficiency and resource optimization. The balanced university budget is the result of dedicated leadership and strategic focus by all of Kent State's stakeholders.

The Fiscal Year 2026 budget is based on key revenue assumptions that include:

• State Share of Instruction is projected at $156.8 million, a decrease of $1.5 million from the prior year budget, due to enrollment increases experienced at other institutions and the reduction in at-risk funding within the formula allocation.
• Tuition and fee revenue is projected at $419 million, which is $12.5 million more than the approved Fiscal Year 2026 university budget and is the product of a conservative enrollment projection coupled with the fall 2025 tuition and surcharge rates.
• Auxiliary enterprises revenues are budgeted to increase $4.7 million, mainly within housing and culinary services.
• Investment income of $13.6 million is dedicated to the current funds, unrestricted budget.
• All other major revenue categories are projected to increase by $3.5 million in the aggregate.

The budget is also based on key expense assumptions that include:

• The university will continue to dedicate significant resources to fund financial aid, with particular focus on students with the greatest financial need.
• The university's budget for employee compensation includes increases in accordance with collective bargaining agreements as well as a 2% salary pool for nonrepresented employees.
• Healthcare benefits expense is expected to increase by 9.4% due to the cost of inflation.
• The allocation for maintenance and repairs has been increased by $2 million based on the amount expended in recent years.

Board Endorses Plan for Development of American Civic Literacy Course and Adoption of Resolution Regarding Exemptions

With the passage of Senate Bill 1 on March 28, 2025, the Kent State University Board of Trustees has approved the plan for the development of an American civic literacy course, as required by law. The course will be developed during the fall 2025 semester and approved through the university's regular curricular processes by early spring 2026. It will become a baccalaureate degree requirement for graduation beginning with the Spring 2030 semester.

At minimum, each student will be required to read the entire Constitution of the United States; the entire Declaration of Independence; a minimum of five essays in their entirety from the Federalist Papers, selected by the department chair; the entire Emancipation Proclamation; the entire Gettysburg Address; the entire letter from Birmingham Jail written by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; and the writings of Adam Smith, including a study of the principles written in "The Wealth of Nations." Students in any approved American civic literacy class must complete a cumulative exam at the end of the course that is modeled conceptually after the naturalization test administered by the U.S. government for U.S. citizenship.

As part of the planning process for the new course, three conditions were identified for exemption from the course requirement. Exemption may apply if a student achieves as least one of the following: completes a course offered under the College Credit Plus program that satisfies the content requirements and is approved by the Ohio Chancellor of Education; if a student receives a score of three or higher on the examination of an advanced placement course that satisfies the requirements and is approved by the chancellor; or if the student has completed at least three credit hours, or the equivalent, in a course in the subject area of American history or American government.

Board Established New Accounting, Business Technology and Analytics Graduate Degree

The Board approved the establishment of the Accounting, Business Technology and Analytics major within the Master of Science degree to be offered through the Ambassador Crawford College of Business and Entrepreneurship. The degree will be offered in an equal blend of online and in-person learning at the Kent Campus, effective fall 2026, pending final approval by the Ohio Department of Higher Education.

The new degree program will not replace the existing Master of Science in Accounting degree, but will instead complement it, allowing the department to offer both the traditional accounting path as well as a path for students who have a background and interest in statistics, mathematics and computers and want those advanced data analytics skills and technology for broader business applications in the industry.

Among Other Board Actions:

• The Board confirmed the conferral of a total of 4,606 degrees from spring 2025 on those Kent State students who have been officially recorded by the University Registrar as having completed the requirements of their respective programs of study during the period of Dec. 14, 2024, to May 10, 2025.
• Board members commended Kent State President Todd Diacon for his strong, thoughtful leadership. The review was Diacon's sixth as university president. He began serving as Kent State's 13th president on July 1, 2019, after first serving as Provost beginning in 2012.
• The Board approved the university to enter into an agreement with selected vendors(s) to participate in a reverse auction pricing event for the supply of energy across all campuses. In the event that the cost is lower than the Standard Service Offer, the university may enter into a contract with the selected vendor(s). The contract is estimated not to exceed $4 million annually for up to a three-year contract term.
• The Board approved $5.75 million in funding for central ventilation system improvements at the four Eastway Residence Halls (Allyn, Clark, Fletcher and Manchester). The project will address ventilation and dehumidification issues while improving air quality for the more than 1,000 undergraduate students housed in the complex, which was originally constructed in the late 1950s. Construction is scheduled for summer 2026.

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Photo Caption:

Kent State University students who make up the Class of 2029 pose for a group photo forming a K on Manchester Field, an annual tradition following Convocation.

Media Contacts:

Eric Mansfield, [email protected], 330-672-2797