On April 5, the Kansas Reflector published an article regarding ‘bonuses’ awarded to some of the
faculty at ESU. That article included uninformed statements, from the Mayor of Emporia no less, that
disparaged our faculty, attacking and insulting their integrity.
It is disappointing that our Mayor, who is also the owner of a business which relies on ESU students,
would publicly insult the employees of one of the largest employers and economic drivers in our
community. As a spokesperson for our community, reckless statements like this are unacceptable and
cannot be tolerated. Their only purpose is to damage the university and the cooperative relationships
between ESU and our regional community. More should be expected of the person who serves as our
Mayor.
Did ESU award stipends to recognize high-performing faculty? Absolutely. This is not the first time,
and we are absolutely going to do it again – talent and value recognition are part of our new model.
Rewarding and retaining high performers is our path forward at ESU. In fact, I first stated this
intention in a message to campus in January 2022 — so the fact that we followed through on what we
promised should not be a surprise to anyone.
Why reward high performers? 1) It’s the right thing to do; 2) We’ve done it before; 3) Certain faculty
have voluntarily taken on significant amounts of additional work to help make us successful; and 4)
It’s the tightest job market in recent history, making it more important than ever to recognize and
retain those who work hard to add tremendous value to the university and, consequently, to our
community and region.
The old processes and policies failed to allow academic leadership to reward faculty for above and
beyond performance. To imply that faculty received stipends for any other reason than because of
their hard work and for the value they add to the university is disgusting.
I get it. Anytime an organization goes through the level of change that equates to a total
transformation (make no mistake, ESU is in the midst of a total transformation) there will be a lot of
questions, emotions and opposing viewpoints. That is normal. A big part of our process has been to
seek constructive criticism and healthy dialogue to challenge our plans and ideas. That step has
helped us predict upside and downside outcomes in our decision-making process. What has occurred
throughout this process has been what we predicted would happen.
I am surprised, however, at the persistent stream of damaging misinformation being driven by a small
group’s extremely limited perspectives and personal agendas. That is partly why we have made the
decision to be selective about when and how we respond to various media outlets. We respect the
media and their role but choose not to engage with op-ed articles disguised as “news” that are driven
by personal agendas full of vicious accusations. Because of our public responsibility to those we
represent, and as a state agency of Kansas, we have chosen to be professional, and as a result have
remained politely silent. On this issue, however, it is our duty to speak up and defend our employees.
On the flip side, I can enthusiastically report that the support we have received from students, current
and past faculty and staff, donors, alumni, our foundation, legislators, Kansas Board of Regents and our community has vastly outweighed the critics in the extreme. That support has been demonstrated
through unanimous votes from the Kansas Board of Regents in favor of every action ESU has taken,
the unprecedented financial support from our university Foundation, and from both the Kansas
legislative and executive branches, which have committed to new and additional fiscal investments in
The ESU Model. From our alumni and friends, we also have seen reinvigorated relationships and new
forms of assistance for the future of Emporia State. Everyone is excited and future-focused.
In fact, I would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank each of you who have been, and still are,
energetically supporting the changes we have been making. Your validation, engagement and
encouragement are appreciated more than you know. It will take ALL of us coming together to create
a vibrant university.
As President of ESU, I call on our community leadership to work together because an Emporia without an Emporia State is not a place I want to imagine. I would echo what KBOR Chairman Jon Rolph said in his recent op-ed, “I encourage every member of the Emporia community to participate in this
transformation by contributing your abilities and strengths wherever and whenever you can.”
The plan has been clear from the beginning. Assess every inch of the university, analyze the data and
take action. That is just step one. In a transformation scenario, the way things have been done in the
past may not necessarily have an equivalent in a future environment. Our path forward is clear. We
must stop doing some things so we are able to invest in others — that path certainly includes
investing in our people. It also means we will continue to be laser focused on investing in programs
and experiences that have the greatest impact for the most students.
We will continue to do the right thing. We will continue to make changes. We will continue to tell our
story. We are proudly building a new Emporia State University, for a new era of students and our
community. And we are going to get it right because ESU is too important to the students we serve.
Ken Hush
President
Emporia State University
