Sherman Smith | Kansas Reflector
Juan Chavarria, an assistant professor of accounting, information systems and finance at Emporia State University, says campus leadership should provide a roadmap in the wake of faculty layoffs.
As part of the next step of the Workforce Management Framework, the university will be identifying programs that will be affected by the framework and notifying department chairs and faculty in the programs, according to Emporia State Faculty Senate President Shawn Keough, who said he got his information from ESU President Ken Hush. Keough did not say what the impacts in regard to programs would be.
“(Hush) did not give a date when that information is going to be disseminated,” Keough said. “…But he did indicate that it would be soon.”
The Workforce Management Framework is a framework approved by the Kansas Board of Regents (KBOR) on Sept. 14. It allowed ESU to dismiss 33 faculty and staff members, including tenured faculty, from their positions. The framework comes after KBOR approved a policy allowing state universities to suspend, dismiss, or terminate faculty members due to the financial effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic and low enrollment.
Keough noted that Hush was “clear” that no one knows exactly what is going to happen next regarding the framework.
Currently, department chairs are unaware of which programs in their departments will be impacted, but that they “will be part of the conversation,” according to Keough. One senator expressed concern about the matter and how information about program impacts will be communicated in his department.
“My department chair is no longer (here),” said Senator Howard Pitler, associate professor of school leadership and middle and secondary education. “Who’s going to represent my department in the conversation?”
Keough responded by saying, “I don’t know…and I just chuckle because that’s a lot better than you seeing tears.”
According to one faculty senate member, during a private conversation Interim Provost Brent Thomas, dean for the college of Liberal Arts and Sciences, who was not in attendance at Keough’s request, commented when asked about the framework timeline that current ESU students and faculty will be notified this week if their programs are going to be suspended.
Senators raised concerns on what to tell prospective students whose intended programs may no longer be available when they apply, and how to advise current students given the lack of information. Keough reiterated that current students will still be able to complete their degrees at ESU even if their program is one of those affected and urged faculty senators to communicate that information to students in order to limit any confusion.
Mallory Koci, director of ethnic and gender studies, asked how students who may want to phase out of their programs can get help from their professional advisers when many advisers are new and may not yet be trained.
“I do have some grave concerns on where our students can get access to help and knowledge because the email (from the office of the president) makes it seem like the professional advisers would have those answers, but the reality is that I’m not sure that they do,” Koci said. “Not because they don’t care and don’t want to help, they just don’t know enough to be able to serve that role. So, then, who is supposed to help those students?”
Keough responded by stating that Shelly Gehrke, vice president for enrollment management and student success, said new advisers will be “hardcore trained,” unlike those in the past.
Keough also asked senators to refrain from using “termination” to describe the mass dismissal of 33 faculty members, adding that termination insinuated that dismissed faculty had done something wrong. Keough said he didn’t want “that kind of stigma” to be attached to any ESU faculty members.
Keough later asked faculty senators to talk to their constituents so they can make informed votes that reflect the thoughts of those they represent.
“Please make sure that we are representing the people that we are supposed to be representing the way they want us to represent them, not particularly the way you personally feel about something,” Keough said.
Sarah Spicer advises The Bulletin on stories about Emporia State’s framework to dismiss employees.