With the Kansas Board of Regents set to vote Wednesday on Emporia State University’s Workforce Management Policy framework, professors have organized a last-minute petition to draw more attention to concerns tenure may be paused, if not eliminated.
Professor Michael Smith posted the petition on www.change.org with the title “To Begin Anew the Re-Envisioning of Emporia State University.” It essentially reformats a resolution approved unanimously by the Faculty Senate on Friday, asking the Board of Regents to reject what it calls a proposal for a suspension of tenure at ESU. It also calls for the current review process to be stopped with no changes to programs, staffing or structure.
In addition, the petition asks that federal CARES Act and other monies be used to stabilize Emporia State’s finances for 12 months. It also requests a partnership with the Kansas Leadership Center specifically for beginning a process for re-envisioning ESU with a focus on transparency at every level, notably all data used to justify significant decisions, and widespread involvement of students, faculty, staff, alums and community partners.
President Ken Hush has said the ESU framework is needed to because of a notable decline in on-campus enrollment and a lower-level decline in overall enrollment the past five years, as well as ongoing negative financial effects of COVID-19 and a need to update class offerings that reflect the university’s “strike zone.”
The Faculty Senate believes any move to suspend or end tenure gives the university administration a chance to fire professors for any reason. Faculty Senate members also say they weren’t engaged in the framework discussions until late in the process and were given an unreasonable timetable for developing their response once the plan was outlined to the media last week.
Click here for a link to the petition
Click here to watch the Kansas Board of Regents monthly meeting.
