When Ken Hush was selected Emporia State’s 18th president in June, he became one of six state university heads in Kansas. Of those six, four have doctorates, another is a medical doctor, and one, Hush, has no advanced degrees.
Hush, whose highest degree is a dual bachelor’s, has refused to answer questions from The Bulletin regarding his background in the past weeks, despite multiple opportunities.
Hush was selected as ESU’s president after a closed search, the finalists of which the Kansas Board of Regents declined to reveal for privacy reasons, according to KBOR records custodian Renee Burlingham.
Because of the closed search, the campus community had no opportunity to evaluate candidates. Hush’s credentials are relevant to his ability to lead the university, but both Hush and KBOR have refused to release his resume, CV, or additional qualifying background. KBOR denied an Open Records request, asserting the information is exempt from the state’s Sunshine law.
Additionally, Hush refused multiple interview requests from the Bulletin to answer questions about his background. On Monday, when stopped outside his office on the second floor of Plumb Hall by a Bulletin reporter, he gave a curt answer: “No comment.”
Hush has been interim president since November and graduated ESU in 1982 with bachelor’s degrees in business administration and marketing.
On June 22, Hush was named ESU president with an annual salary, determined later, of $275,000. Additionally, he was allowed “retention compensation up to $55,000 per year of service” from the ESU Foundation for up to five years or until a total of $275,000 is reached, according to his appointment letter from KBOR.
Since graduating from ESU, Hush has spent much of his career in executive positions at Koch Minerals and Carbon, according to the ESU website.
During that time, according to Federal Election Commission records, he contributed tens of thousands of dollars to KochPAC, a political action committee that has funded mostly Republican candidates as well as climate change deniers.
The question he was asked in the hall outside his office was why he had contributed $43,385.87 to KochPAC.
After asking why the contributions were being questioned, he said, “No comment.”
“No comment?” he was asked.
“Yeah, I’m not gonna answer that question,” Hush said.
Koch Industries began as an “engineering firm” and grew into “one of the world’s largest private companies,” according to their official website.
A PAC, or Political Action Committee, is “a group formed for the purpose of raising money (and) giving that money to political campaigns,” according to Michael Smith, professor and chair of Social Sciences, Sociology and Criminology.
Hush’s contributions to KochPAC occurred between 2004 and 2013, around the same time the Koch Industries started to become more widely known as political activists, according to Smith.
“Does he (Hush) support their libertarian agenda as far as less government regulation of greenhouse gasses?” Smith said in an interview Monday. “That’s certainly something they’re (Koch) more known for, but I think you could certainly take it as an indication that he is generally aligned with at least some of their values.”
Since 2010, KochPAC has contributed over $22 million in election cycles, according to OpenSecrets.
This year, for example, KochPAC gave $2,500 to Jason Smith for Congress, according to FEC records. Smith was a congressman from Missouri who supported former president Donald Trump in his decision to not sign the Paris Climate Accord saying it was the “right call,” according to Smith’s official website.
“The great part about the US (is) you’re still free to believe what you want to believe,” said Stewart Gardner, assistant professor of biological sciences, in an interview Friday. “At the same time, you know, we have scientists for the state that work. And we want to support their work and the findings they find.”
Gardner is the president of the Kansas Academy of Sciences, but said his comments only reflect his personal beliefs, not those of the academy.
Smith said he thinks there is an attempt to balance the political scales in higher education by inserting Republican figures in a community where most of the professors probably lean liberal.
“The argument would be that since most professors themselves probably are more on the left,” Smith said. “Let’s pull it back by bringing some conservatives in.”
When asked if the addition of more right leaning figures should make higher education concerned, Smith said multiple students and professors have also come to him with the same question.
“Everything I’ve heard has been very consistent that the restructuring of the university is being motivated by projected changes in student enrollments and major demands,” Smith said. “We have been told to expect changes that may be painful, okay? But I have not seen any indication of any infringement on academic freedom as such.”
Hush made 110 individual contributions to KochPAC between 2004 and 2013.
Hush, an Emporia native, was inducted into the ESU Athletics Hall of Honor in 1995 for his performance on the men’s tennis team during his time at the university.
In October, ESU opened the $3.2 million Kossover Family Tennis Complex on Campus. This complex was named after Greg Kossover, a major donor to the university and ESU Alumnus.
In January, Kossover was named chair of the search committee after Allison Garrett resigned to take a position as chief executive officer for the Oklahoma State System of Higher Education.
The search to find the new president was a closed search that did not allow campus or community members to know or interview candidates.
KBOR denied an Open Record request to release the names of the finalists for the search due to “maintaining confidentially of applicants,” but did release the schedule for June 21, when they interviewed four finalists. The finalists were identified only by number: 24, 28, 29 and 38.
Of the current Kansas state university heads, Hush holds the least academic degrees. Those officers and their credentials are: Kansas State president, Richard Linton, PhD in food science; Pittsburg State University president, Dan Shipp, EdD in educational leadership and administration; Fort Hays State University president, Tisa Mason, EdD; Wichita State University president, Richard Muma, PhD in higher education administration; University of Kansas chancellor, Douglas Girod, MD.
