The American Association of University Professors is urging the Kansas Board of Regents and Emporia State University to reconsider its recent dismissal of university faculty.
Recently, the AAUP sent letters to both Regents Chair Jon Rolph and ESU President Ken Hush asking that the termination notices sent to more than 30 staff members last month be rescinded immediately. The letter states the terminations were “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.”
In the letter, the AAUP calls the process by which the terminations were decided “illegitimate and the terminations themselves to be summary dismissals in violation of widely accepted principles of academic freedom and tenure.” The letter would go on to accuse the university of selecting faculty members who were publicly critical of the Board of Regents and the university’s administration.
The letter follows two significant reinvestment announcements by ESU in the art and music departments over the past two weeks following the Board of Regents approval of the university’s Framework for Workforce Management last month.
