The Kansas Board of Regents voted unanimously today to allow Emporia State to implement a plan to dismiss employees, including tenured faculty. Impacted employees will be notified by the end of the week, according to a campus-wide email sent by ESU President Ken Hush.
Hush announced plans to submit the justification to dismiss faculty members to KBOR in a campus-wide email one week ago, on September 7. KBOR is allowing public universities to create such a justification in an effort they say will help university’s finances in the face of declining enrollments and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hush and interim provost Brent Thomas presented KBOR with the justification, called the Workforce Management Framework. Hush asked KBOR to pass the framework and “allow ESU to best position ourselves for our future.”
Hush said a majority of the employees who are dismissed will remain in their positions through May 2023 and have the opportunity to receive an additional three months severance pay. He did not clarify what would happen to the employees outside of the “majority.”
Hush added that current students will be able to finish their program.
“In terms of degree completion, there is zero impact to students,” Hush said.
At least four ESU faculty members attended the KBOR meeting, including Brenda Koerner, associate professor of biological sciences and president of the faculty senate last year, who was pointed out by Hush while he spoke to KBOR. Hush said he shared information with Koerner in spring 2022 about the framework that was never shared with the Faculty Senate.
Koerner later told The Bulletin that she knew about the possibility of the framework, but that Hush wouldn’t answer her questions about the policy. She said she felt she didn’t have anything concrete to tell faculty who were still struggling from the effects that the COVID-19 pandemic had on their classrooms
“Faculty were just trying to get from one day to the next,” Koerner said. “In all honesty, what they really needed this year was an opportunity to catch their breath and have an opportunity to think about where things should go. Unfortunately, with a decision today, whatever remaining breath that they had was just punched out of them.”
On Friday, September 9, the Faculty Senate held a forum to allow professors to share their opinions on the framework and ask Dean Brent Thomas questions about it. Student government held a similar meeting, with the deadline to return feedback to administration on the framework by 10 a.m. Monday, September 12.
“I felt like they did not take any of the faculty’s concerns that we provided to them on the framework seriously,” Koerner said.
Today, students held a peaceful protest in front of Plumb Hall asking administration to “stop the cuts.”
Sarah Spicer advises The Bulletin on stories about Emporia State’s framework to dismiss employees.
