Editorial by Kernel staff. E-mail

Serving as president of UK certainly brought criticism to President Lee Todd and his administration. However, as polarizing and controversial as his decisions have been over the past 10 years, he clearly cared about the university and pushing it to the highest possible tier.

Todd’s legacy will largely be linked to the Top-20 Plan, something that in the end has not received enough support to  to achieve its goals.

Catapulting this institution to a higher level lost out to budget cuts, tuition hikes and the fact that for UK to achieve the status it desired, it would have to place much greater emphasis on holistic academic success.

Nevertheless, Todd addressed science, technology and research, building them up to a higher level of prominence.  Yes, there are areas where the university has room for incremental improvement, but to give UK a foundation to build on, the “best” aspects of the institution have to be highlighted to drum up interest in the school as a whole, which has happened.

He may not have been able to fix every campus issue, but Todd left his mark on campus from the smoking ban to a new medical center.

The candor with which he spoke at the retirement announcement confirmed his passion, but showed just why his time is coming to an end: he needed more support to begin the complete overhaul necessary to elevate UK.