Latest news with #HouseBill2348
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Emporia State University faculty express no confidence in general counsel who opposes tenure rights
Steven Lovett, an Emporia State University attorney and author of the bill undermining faculty tenure at 32 Kansas public higher education institutions, outlined reasons for introducing the bill in the Kansas House. He said property rights tied to tenure were unnecessary to preserve academic freedom. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector) TOPEKA — The Emporia State University Faculty Senate passed an unscheduled, secret-ballot vote of no confidence in ESU's general counsel in the wake of his advocacy for legislation that would undermine tenure at state universities. The no confidence vote in general counsel Steven Lovett is the latest development in turmoil over ESU's decision to terminate tenured faculty in the fall of 2022. Some of the fired professors in 2023 filed a federal lawsuit in which they argue that tenure is a property right that was unduly taken away from them. Earlier this year, Lovett, a defendant in the lawsuit, proposed a legislative solution that would retroactively abolish property rights inherent in tenure. ESU spokeswoman Gwen Larson didn't answer questions for this story but previously said Lovett acted as a private citizen when he introduced House Bill 2348. A House committee is poised to take action on the bill, which received support from Lovett, his wife and one other academic. The University of Kansas chancellor and Kansas State University president were among three dozen opponents who warned in a hearing last month that the proposal would harm state universities and jeopardize academic freedom. ESU Faculty Senate president Mallory Bishop made a motion for a vote of no confidence in Lovett during a Faculty Senate meeting last week. Bishop, an untenured director of ethnic and gender studies at ESU, declined to comment for this story but outlined proceedings in an email she sent to all faculty March 6. 'This motion did not appear on the agenda, as my intention was to have an opportunity for Senators to vote without interference or undue influence,' Bishop wrote in the email. 'This is not conventional, but our policies and procedures do not explicitly convey how to conduct a vote of no confidence.' Bishop may have violated the Kansas Open Meetings Act by not disclosing the motion on the agenda. She also conducted the vote by anonymous ballot, which would be unlawful for a vote on binding action. As she wrote in her email, the no confidence vote 'stands as an expression of Faculty Senate views.' The result, according to her email: 10 voted in favor, zero against, eight abstained, and two unnamed faculty members walked out of the meeting without voting. Larson, the ESU spokeswoman, didn't respond to questions, including whether Bishop's concerns about interference were reasonable, if the process undermines the credibility of the vote, and what significance, if any, ESU administration places on the vote. Nicholas Fleisher, associate professor and chair of linguistics at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, was the primary author of an American Association of University Professors report on ESU in 2023 that warned of the university's attacks on academic freedom. He said in an interview for this story that the situation at ESU 'just sounds utterly dysfunctional.' Fleisher said it was 'utterly bizarre' that Lovett was allowed to keep his job as general counsel after bringing a bill a that affects the entire university. 'When we were interviewing people from ESU in the course of preparing the report, many people talked about precisely this kind of climate of fear and intimidation,' Fleisher said. 'There were a number of people who made allegations that some of the folks who were chosen for termination were chosen because they had clashed with either the president or the dean or another administrator at some point.' He advised concerned faculty members to speak up. 'Staying silent doesn't really buy you much safety in the long term,' Fleisher said. 'In this kind of situation, if you've got an administration that is behaving egregiously, it's generally better to call it out, draw attention to it, try to oppose it, as early as possible.' The House Judiciary Committee could take action on Lovett's bill any day, but its fate remains uncertain. During a hearing last month, Lovett said he wrote the two-page bill without direction from ESU president Ken Hush or anyone else. He argued the First Amendment protection of free speech should be sufficient to protect academic freedom at colleges and universities. He also proclaimed that he was voluntarily surrendering his own tenure at ESU. 'As the Legislature is examining government inefficiencies and costs, while demanding fiscal accountability and the elimination of waste, it is time to address the long-standing myth about tenure,' Lovett wrote in testimony provided to the committee. 'The taxpayers of Kansas, and the higher education system of Kansas, should no longer be burdened by the unnecessary expense or operational paralysis of any state employee's 'entitlement' to his or her job.'
Yahoo
24-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Gov. Laura Kelly skeptical Kansas House's anti-tenure legislation will reach her desk
Gov. Laura Kelly said she was skeptical the House and Senate would approve during the 2025 legislative session a bill that retroactively undermined property rights for thousands of tenured faculty at public universities, community colleges and technical colleges across Kansas. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector) TOPEKA — Thirty-five opponents and three advocates waded into the Kansas House's debate on legislation striking the principle that tenure awarded at Kansas public universities and colleges carried with it an employment property interest. The bill drafted by an Emporia State University attorney, who is a defendant in an ongoing ESU labor dispute and recently renounced his tenure, was the subject of a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee attracting state and national attention. A dozen faculty from Fort Hays State University have objected to the legislation, while a half-dozen from University of Kansas and Washburn University shared displeasure. There was criticism from Kansas State University, Pittsburg State University and Baker University. The bottom line among opponents was that the bill's broad language would fracture a fundamental safeguard of academic freedom. 'When faculty members can lose their positions because of their speech, publications or research findings, they cannot properly fulfill their core responsibilities to advance and transmit knowledge,' said Todd Wolfson, president of the American Association of University Professors in Washington, D.C. 'The common good is not served when business, political or other entities can threaten the livelihood of researchers and instructors and thereby suppress the results of their work or modify their judgments.' House Bill 2348 hasn't advanced beyond the Feb. 11 hearing at the Kansas Capitol, despite maneuvering by House Republicans to bounce it to another committee before returning it to House judiciary. Gov. Laura Kelly, who holds a master's degree from Indiana University in Bloomington, said she was convinced the tenure bill lacked traction in the Legislature. She predicted it wouldn't pass the House and Senate in the 2025 session. 'I'd be very surprised if it gets to my desk,' Kelly said in an interview. ESU attorney Steven Lovett, the university's general counsel since 2023, developed the tenure bill through some sort of rogue, covert operation leading to its introduction by Rep. Steven Howe, R-Salina. Lovett is a defendant in ESU's legal battle with former university employees that has been winding through state and federal court. In 2022, ESU fired 30 tenured or tenure-track faculty. A portion of those individuals filed a lawsuit to challenge their ouster. ESU officials said Lovett worked on the tenure reform legislation as a 'private citizen' rather than in his capacity as a top university attorney. The CEO of the Kansas Board of Regents, the state's higher education governing board, said Lovett appeared to have violated policy by directing a bill to the Legislature without consent of the state Board of Regents. During the House committee hearing on the bill, Lovett outlined reasons the property interest inherent in tenure had to be repealed for thousands working at six state universities, 19 community colleges, six technical colleges and Washburn University. His initiative was lauded by Christine Curley, who worked at Wichita State University and Southwestern College in Winfield. In testimony, she said faculty tenure hid administrative incompetence and unethical behavior. Tenure reflected 'a systematic failure in leadership and accountability within higher education institutions,' she said. The other proponent was Selayoa Lovett, who holds a master's degree from ESU and is spouse of the bill's designer — ESU's Steven Lovett. The Lovetts have a residence in Osage City. Selayoa Lovett's testimony asserted Kansas law made it nearly impossible to dismiss underperforming tenured faculty, including professors at ESU. 'Faculty with a sense of entitlement often exhibit attitudes of superiority, dismissing others as less qualified simply because they lack tenure,' Selayoa Lovett said. 'In my current position in the private sector, I frequently go above and beyond my job description to contribute to the success of my company. Why should faculty members not be held to the same standards?' She said 'around 30% of faculty fail to contribute at a meaningful level, relying on tenure as a shield from accountability.' 'The unfortunate reality is that many tenured professors choose to do the bare minimum, working only 20 hours a week and neglecting their students and the need for continuous growth and relevance,' Selayoa Lovett said. Joseph Cohn, director of policy with the conservative Heterodox Academy, said the 2024 Legislature in Kansas took a positive step toward protecting academic freedom by enacting a law aimed at weakening diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Last year's House Bill 2105, he said, prohibited public universities from using political litmus tests in faculty hiring and promotion decisions. 'But enactment of HB 2348 would be a tremendous step backward,' Cohn said. 'HB 2348 would end tenure at Kansas' public institutions of higher education both prospectively and retroactively. Ending tenure — especially in legislation that offers no alternative protections for academic freedom — would compromise the health of Kansas' public colleges and universities because it would leave faculty without key protections that allow for open inquiry to thrive.' Other opponents of the bill took Cohn's argument a step further. Lori Kniffin, an assistant professor up for tenure at Fort Hays State, said academic freedom in the education system and wider freedoms espoused in a democracy were at stake. She earned a doctorate at University of North Carolina at Greensboro after receiving bachelor's and master's degrees at Kansas State. She works in the School of Criminal Justice, Leadership and Sociology at FHSU. 'I have provided outstanding teaching, research and service through FHSU for the last five years,' Kniffin said. 'The tenure process is developmental and rigorous. Tenure is earned, not given.' Daniel Hoyt, a Kansas State professor and president of the Kansas state chapter of AAUP, said the KSU faculty handbook defined the purpose of awarding tenure as the quest to hire faculty of the highest caliber and to deliver full academic freedom in pursuit of ideas or inquiries without fear of retribution. 'HB 2348 eviscerates the faculty's freedom to do their work without censorship,' Hoyt said. 'We need more support and funding, not political attacks on faculty.'
Yahoo
12-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Kansas university leaders condemn bill abolishing property rights of faculty tenure
University of Kansas Chancellor Doug Girod, third from right, and Kansas State University President Richard Linton, second from right, prepare to testify Tuesday against a Kansas House bill that would retroactively eliminate the property right inherent in awarding tenure to faculty at Kansas public universities and colleges. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector) TOPEKA — Academic leaders of the University of Kansas and Kansas State University said Tuesday legislation retroactively abolishing property rights inherent in tenure would run off distinguished educators, undercut faculty recruiting, destroy research programs, trigger an exodus of students and deliver a devastating blow to the state's economy. KU Chancellor Doug Girod and KSU President Richard Linton testified against a Kansas House tenure reform bill despite issuance of what the chief of staff to Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly characterized as a threat from Senate Republicans that state university budgets would be slashed if academic leaders spoke out against House Bill 2348. 'Eliminating or weakening tenure in Kansas would create an immediate and severe competitive disadvantage for our universities,' Girod said. 'Top researchers and educators would choose institutions in other states where tenure protections remain strong, while our current faculty would receive compelling offers to leave.' He said the value of tenure, in terms of recruiting and retaining faculty, contributed to an environment that attracted $546 million annually in research funding to KU. The House legislation placed in jeopardy KU's $8 billion annual economic impact to the state, the chancellor said, or an amount more than the gross revenue of all but one Kansas company. Linton, who heads the state's land-grant university in Manhattan, said debasing tenure so it no longer carried a property right would hit hardest at the university's cutting-edge research in animal health and food safety. 'We already face challenges convincing young people and innovative companies to build their futures here,' Linton said. 'Weakening our universities by dismantling tenure would only make Kansas less appealing to the industries and workforce we need to grow our economy.' The bill was introduced at the behest of Emporia State University attorney Steven Lovett, who was the lone advocate for the measure during the House Judiciary Committee meeting. Lovett, a defendant in a federal lawsuit filed against ESU by a group of tenured faculty who were fired in 2022, quipped at the outset that drafting and advocating for the bill had taken him from obscurity to something of a Darth Vader character. In a strange plot twist, Lovett confirmed he developed the two-page bill in his personal capacity rather than at the direction of his boss ESU President Ken Hush or anyone else. Lovett said the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was sufficient to protect academic freedom in higher education. 'Public universities are encumbered financially and culturally by the unnecessary impediment of tenure as a property right,' he said. 'One of the great fallacies obstructing necessary change in higher education is that academic freedom is preserved and protected by tenure and due process when, in fact, it is protected by the First Amendment.' Lovett's microphone-drop moment came at the conclusion of his testimony spelling out arguments for abolishing the property right of tenure. 'For what it's worth, I'm going to take the opportunity in this public forum, in this space, on my own, voluntarily, to renounced and surrender the tenure that I was awarded by Emporia State University,' said Lovett, who holds the rank of associate professor. 'Tenure should be a badge of meritorious work and service, and not a personal right paid for by my neighbors and my fellow Kansans.' In 2023, there were 2,830 tenured or tenure-track faculty at KU, KSU, ESU, Wichita State University, Fort Hays State University and Pittsburg State University. Blake Flanders, president and CEO of the Kansas Board of Regents, said the nine-member board providing oversight of state universities was opposed to the House bill. He also said Board of Regents policy required legislative proposals from institutions in the state higher education system, including ESU, to be approved by the Board of Regents prior to being submitted to the Legislature. 'That policy was not adhered to in the case of this bill,' Flanders said. 'If improvements are needed in the current structure, the board looks forward to working with the Legislature and being engaged early in the process.' In 2022, ESU dismissed 30 tenured or tenure-track faculty under a policy adopted by the state Board of Regents. Eleven of the dismissed faculty filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court. In court rulings, a federal judge pointed to the property right associated with tenure at Kansas Board of Regents institutions while allowing the case to proceed. The attempt to strip tenure of a property right has been viewed as potentially helpful in ESU's legal fights in state and federal court. Students, faculty, higher education associations and labor leaders objected to the bill aimed at 32 public universities, community colleges and technical colleges located throughout Kansas. Norman Philipp, a Pittsburg State professor and chair of the state university Council of Faculty Senate Presidents, said the Legislature's intrusion into tenure was 'unnecessary, unfounded and damaging.' He said members of the Legislature ought to reject the bill and work on strengthening each university's ability to develop world-class faculty. 'Academic excellence depends on a robust tenure system that ensures accountability while maintaining the security and freedom necessary for scholarly achievement,' Philipp said. Washburn University student body president George Burdick said the legislation was ill-advised because implementation would undermine the college experience and academic preparedness of students. He agreed with a statement of opposition endorsed by student body presidents at the six state universities. It called on legislators to maintain academic freedom on public university and college campuses in Kansas by deflecting the bill. In terms of potential budget reductions, Kelly's chief of staff Will Lawrence, said the assertion was made behind closed doors by members of Senate Republican leadership to representatives of the state's higher education institutions. The bottom line, Lawrence said, was testimony critical of the bill would come at the cost of reduced state tax dollars for offender universities. 'This is beyond inappropriate to threaten retribution to our universities for taking a policy position on a specific issue impacting their employees,' he said. 'This is the corruption we expect in Washington, D.C., not in Kansas.' Senate President Ty Masterson, R-Andover, said the assertion universities were threatened with retribution for offering testimony at the Capitol was 'a complete mischaracterization, if not an outright fabrication.' 'As we try to work together to find solutions and ensure our regents institutions can flourish, legislative leaders providing input about the wisdom and timing of testimony on certain legislation is certainly warranted,' Masterson said. 'It's unfortunate the governor's chief of staff would rely on false information to level wild accusations in an effort to score political points. That's the type of behavior that's actually all too typical of Washington, D.C.'
Yahoo
10-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Kansas House bill strives to strip property interest from definition of university, college tenure
Emporia State University President Ken Hush, center in sweater, remains a defendant in a federal lawsuit seeking to reverse the firing of 11 tenured faculty at ESU in 2022. On Tuesday, a Kansas House committee will consider a bill altering state law to declare awarding university tenure didn't mean a professor was receiving a property right associated with their employment. The bill was drafted by Steven Lovett, an ESU attorney and a defendant in the lawsuit with Hush. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector) TOPEKA — Legislation headed to a Kansas House committee Tuesday would redefine tenure at public higher education institutions to strike the concept that faculty members earning this academic status held a property interest tied to their employment. The bill was introduced by Salina Rep. Steven Howe, who chairs the House's higher education budget committee, at the behest of Steven Lovett, general counsel at Emporia State University. ESU is embroiled in state and federal court battles tied to the administration's decision in 2022 to fire 30 tenured or tenure-track professors. Lovett's role in drafting or advancing the House bill could be a conflict of interest because passage had the potential to influence his prospects of success as a defendant in the federal case. On Monday, an ESU spokeswoman Gwen Larson said it was a 'surprise to the university' Lovett had the bill introduced in the House. Larson said Lovett took that step as a 'private citizen' rather than in his capacity as a university attorney. Larson asserted all university employees had a 'constitutional right' — she didn't offer a citation from the Kansas Constitution — to present a bill to the Legislature. 'A bill submitted by Steven Lovett, which stipulates that tenure shall not be defined as an entitlement or property right, was done in his capacity as a private citizen,' Larson said. 'While submission of this bill comes as a surprise to the university, the university respects Mr. Lovett's constitutional rights and freedom of expression.' Eleven dismissed ESU faculty filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court challenging their firings on constitutional grounds. In addition to defending against that suit, Emporia State attorneys turned to Lyon County District Court in an attempt to prevail in the labor dispute. Phillip Gragson, a Topeka attorney representing ESU tenured professors targeted for dismissal, said his clients were aware of the House bill. 'If it passes,' Gragson said, 'it's a death knell to the Kansas higher education system.' The hearing on House Bill 2348 has been scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Tuesday in the House Judiciary Committee. Howe and the Kansas Board of Regents didn't respond to requests Monday for comment. Emporia State President Ken Hush summarized the legal drama to members of Howe's higher education committee in January. Hush pointed to a federal judge's order in December that concluded faculty tenure was associated with a property right. 'That obviously means an entitlement in a job forever or until this is settled in some form,' Hush said. 'As a state agency, we're working with the attorney general on this. The other option is to correct that via legislation.' Academic tenure in the United States is often viewed as a contractual right granted college or university educators who demonstrated a commitment over the years to teaching, research and service. Tenure evolved as a mechanism to encourage intellectual autonomy among scholars. Absence of some form of job security would likely shift the focus of researchers and teachers to noncontroversial, insubstantial topics. Some critics of tenure have argued the system made it difficult to hold faculty accountable for on-the-job failures. In 2022, the Kansas Board of Regents clouded the issue with a policy making it easier to terminate tenured faculty at state universities based on financial problems or declining enrollment. The policy was an outgrowth of uncertainties created by the COVID-19 pandemic. The policy didn't eliminate standard justifications for possibly firing a tenured faculty member, such as personal misconduct, criminal offenses or violation of university policy. Only ESU implemented the streamlined policy to dispatch tenured professors. Under the new House bill, 'an award of tenure may confer certain benefits, processes or preferences, but tenure shall be discretionary and conditional and shall not — nor shall it be interpreted to — create any entitlement, right or property interest in a faculty member's current, ongoing or future employment by an institution.' 'Surely the law can't be that a tenured professor can never be let go when a university is downsizing,' said Rep. Paul Waggoner, R-Hutchinson. Howe, who introduced the tenure reform bill, also made a recent motion in his House committee to add $2.2 million to the ESU budget for legal expenses in the faculty firing case. He said it would be unfair if ESU had to pay court-related expenditures through internal reallocation. 'This motion is basically to support Emporia State University in their effort to create efficiencies,' Howe said. Ron Barrett-Gonzalez, co-chair of the Kansas conference of the American Association of University Professors, said the House bill ought to be relabeled an attempt to seize property and due process rights from educators while inflicting general harm on the people of Kansas. He said the legislation would remove employment protections held by tenured faculty across Kansas in addition of forbidding those rights from being conferred in the future. 'We see this bill as being fundamentally flawed,' said Barrett-Gonzalez, a professor of engineering at University of Kansas. 'This bill, if passed, will effectively take the property rights of thousands of faculty members … without compensation or due process.' The House bill could jeopardize accreditation among engineering, medical and law schools, damage national reputations of targeted colleges and universities, make it more difficult to recruit or retain quality faculty and invite a collapse in student enrollment, Barrett-Gonzalez said. Language in the bill indicated it would directly apply to the six public universities operated by the state Board of Regents. It could involve the state's 19 community colleges, six technical colleges and Washburn University in Topeka, said Heather Morgan, executive director of the Kansas Community College Association. She said the association didn't have a position on the bill and assumed other state laws would exempt community and technical colleges from the tenure reform. In 2014, the Legislature and Gov. Sam Brownback approved legislation that ended tenure for K-12 public school teachers. The Kansas Supreme Court subsequently issued a decision that K-12 tenure could be deleted by state lawmakers. Rep. Sydney Carlin, D-Manhattan, Sen. Marci Francisco, D-Lawrence, and Rep. Barbara Ballard, D-Lawrence, serve communities that host either Kansas State University or KU. All three said they were disturbed by ramifications of the bill introduced by Howe and the ESU attorney. 'It made my heart sick,' Carlin said. 'This is just another attack on educators. Tenure is really an investment in the university and the professor.' Francisco, with a Senate district covering the KU campus in Lawrence, echoed that sentiment. She said the legislation sought to substantively and negatively alter the employer-employee relationship between higher education institutions and faculty. 'It allows people to really do harm to you without recourse,' Ballard said. 'No one gives you tenure. You earn it. Everybody, not just faculty, deserve due process.'
