A "You are not alone" sign lays fallen on the ground in front of administration's parked cars. President Hush's parking spot sits empty while a faculty senate meeting to plan an open forum to allow faculty to voice their concerns around new university framework begins Sept. 8. (photo by Sam Bailey)
Last Wednesday, Emporia State president Ken Hush sent an email to campus announcing the planned reconstructing of university programs to better serve their “singular focus – students, students, students.”
Tomorrow, those same students plan to gather on the quad to protest the “academic downsizing” Hush announced in the attempt to “save ESU” at 10 a.m. in front of Plumb Hall, according to protest fliers.
In Hush’s email, he said the university will “align its resources” with programs that “excel” like nursing, business and teacher education. This has caused many students to fear for the future of their education.
“(I fear) I’m the only one of my friends who’s program wouldn’t be cut,” said Olivia Carlson, sophomore elementary education major. “And so it’s super sad to see that their lives would completely change if this were to happen, and they would have nowhere to go. I just really feel for everyone who is honestly scared about that, because it is terrifying. You’d have to change your whole life.”
In addition to worrying students, the announcement sparked concern among faculty at ESU. A major concern being the expulsion of tenure, a title professors can hold after years of proving academically advanced and experienced enough to gain protection of their jobs. This allows for professors to speak freely without the fear of losing their job for voicing their opinions or talking about hard hitting topics.
An untenured professor who wishes to stay anonymous in fear of administrative retaliation says that they understand that businesses need to rethink their models from time to time but a university is not the same.
“Here, I think is the difference when that model has built itself for centuries, literally centuries on the idea that the notion of tenured professorship brings with it a certain amount of security,” they said. “Which allows any professor to say, I can comfortably teach what I teach (and) set down meaningful roots in a community.”
The apparent threat of tenure has caused not only concern among professors themselves, but the students the university says they are focused on.
“It’s really unfortunate to see people who work really hard at their job and trying to make an impact on students to just be cut without any knowledge or anything,” Carlson said.