As Emporia State begins its fall semester Monday, the university and several of its professors terminated last year are awaiting word from a state judge on whether the results of their appeals will stand.
A month ago, Eighth District Judge Courtney Boehm held a hearing as part of Emporia State’s challenge of the Kansas Office of Administrative Hearings’ decisions earlier this year in the potential reinstatements of Michael Behrens, Rob Catlett, Dan Colson, Amanda Miracle and Lynette Sievert. The professors had appealed their dismissals shortly after they were let go following Board of Regents approval of Emporia State’s Framework for Workforce Management, which led to the terminations of over 30 faculty members.
No decision came immediately from the hearing last month and no new hearing date has posted to the Kansas District Court Public Access Portal.
In a separate but related update, the federal lawsuit filed against Emporia State by the aforementioned professors — as well as Charles Emmer, Brenda Koerner, Sheryl Lidzy, Chris Lovett, Max McCoy and Mike Morales — has been assigned to District Judge Daniel Crabtree and Magistrate Judge Gwynne Birzer but no court dates have been posted to the federal Public Access to Court Electronic Records website.
The lawsuit lists 14 counts, half of which are for civil conspiracy involving Emporia State, university administrators including but not limited to President Ken Hush, the Board of Regents as a whole and current and former Regents members. It also requests more than $75,000 for each plaintiff, not including costs and interest.
