Professors’ association calls on Emporia State to reconsider terminations

EMPORIA, Kan. (WIBW) - An association of professors has called on Emporia State to reconsider the termination of more than 30 staff members at the end of September.

KVOE reports that the American Association of University Professors has urged the Kansas Board of Regents and Emporia State University to reconsider the recent dismissal of 33 staff members.

Recently, the AAUP sent letters to both Regents Chair Jon Rolph and ESU President Ken Hush to urge that the termination notices sent in September should be immediately rescinded.

The letter states that the move was “effected without a declaration of financial exigency, without any meaningful faculty participation, and without affording the affected faculty members academic due process, as AAUP-recommended standards require.”

The AAUP also calls the termination process “illegitimate and the terminations themselves to be summary dismissals in violation of widely accepted principles of academic freedom and tenure.”

It went on to accuse ESU of only terminating faculty members who were publicly critical of the BOR and university administration.

The letter follows two reinvestment announcements from ESU in the art and music departments over the past two weeks after the BOR’s approval of its Framework for Workforce Management in September 2022.

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