Ken Hush is wasting no time in his new role as Emporia State University’s interim president.
A 1982 graduate from Emporia State and an inductee in the Athletics Hall of Honor in 1995, Hush has long demonstrated a passion for the university. He tells KVOE News he’s looking forward to learning, collaborating and using a team approach as he gets started.
Hush has also served on the Emporia State Foundation, including time as board chair, and was a driving force in bringing the Kossover Family Tennis Complex to completion earlier this year.
Hush is considered a “non-traditional” choice as interim leader because his career is in business, not education, and because Emporia State has had professors or high-ranking education leaders serve as interim presidents as needed over the past 20 years — including John Schwenn, Ed Flentje and Jackie Vietti. During a campus tour Thursday, Kansas Board of Regents Chair Cheryl Harrison-Lee says Hush’s skill set dovetails well with the Regents’ push to modify education goals and objectives.
Hush was named as interim president after the resignation last month of Allison Garrett, who is now the chancellor and chief executive officer of the Oklahoma State System of Higher Education. Dr. George Arasimowicz, Emporia State’s provost, has been serving as acting president for the past month.
AGB Search, based in Washington, D.C., was chosen to lead the search for a permanent president during the Board of Regents’ monthly meeting Wednesday. The parameters have not been announced other than it will be a closed search. However, Harrison-Lee says the Regents are moving forward “with urgency” to find a new leader. She also says the search chair and committee could well be set within the next 60 days.
4:20 pm Wednesday: Kansas Board of Regents names Ken Hush Interim President for Emporia State University
An Emporia native and Emporia State University Alumni has been tapped to lead the university on an interim basis.
Wednesday, the Kansas Board of Regents announced that Ken Hush has been selected to serve as the Interim President of ESU. Hush, a 1995 inductee into the ESU Hall of Honor, is no stranger to leadership positions at the higher education level as he has previously served as the Chairman of the ESU Foundation and at one time as a member of the Wichita State Board of Trustees. He was also a driving force in bringing the Kossover Family Tennis Complex to completion earlier this year.
In a news release, Wednesday Interim President Hush stated, “I am honored and humbled to be the interim president of the university from which I graduated in the community in which I grew up.” In the same release, KBOR Chair Cheryl Harison-Lee says “Ken Hush possesses a passion for Emporia State and brings extensive leadership experience to the role of interim president.”
The Board of Regents also announced a “confidential search process” led by AGB will be launched in order to select the university’s next President. Hush takes over for ESU Provost Dr. George Arasimowicz who was leading the university as the acting president following the resignation of Allison Garrett in October.
Regents members came to Emporia after Wednesday’s meeting to begin a campus tour. That tour continues through much of Thursday.
