Kennesaw State Interim President Ken Harmon met his best friend when he was only 10 years old, and the two have lived their lives together ever since — they grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, and attended the same college. Every year, Harmon and his friend go off on a motorcycle adventure together.
“For about six years now, every March, the two of us get on motorcycles and go on a big ride for a week to 10 days, just the two of us,” Harmon said. “Often times out in the Southwest in the desert, and then we go to spring training baseball. This year we were thinking about going to Florida, which we’ve done once before.”
The yearly tradition was one of Harmon’s conditions before he accepted Chancellor of the University System of Georgia Dr. Steve Wrigley’s request for him to take on the role of KSU’s interim president.
Harmon has been with KSU for 12 years and has served as provost at the university for seven. When Wrigley asked Harmon if he would step in as interim president, Harmon said he would be “happy to help.” Harmon also said he believes his experience at the university will help in the midst of a search for a new president.
The USG notified the public that Harmon would take over the position right after former President Sam Olens announced his resignation in December.
Olens was appointed by the Board of Regents in October 2016 in the midst of a string of protests over the search process and his lone candidacy. Many KSU community members had called for the Board of Regents to conduct a national search to broaden the list of qualified candidates.
Harmon took over as interim president after Olens officially resigned on Feb. 15. Harmon said he is deliberately staying out of the current national search process for KSU’s new president but will continue to keep an eye on it. He also described a meeting he had with Wrigley in December about the search.
“[Wrigley] said, ‘Ken, we want to do a national search, and we want to do it right.’ And so I’m extremely optimistic,” Harmon said.
Harmon said after a new president is selected, he plans to step down as provost and return to a faculty position at the university.
“This is mine and my family’s decision. Nobody has told me to get out of here or anything like that. It’s just one of those moments in time where I sit back and think about it,” Harmon said. “So right now, my plan is to go back and be a professor in the School of Accountancy, and it sounds like a lot of fun.”
In the meantime, Harmon said his focus while he serves as interim president will be on students and how to help with graduation and student success. He listed a few of the issues that university officials have begun to address, such as improving students’ first year experiences, availability of courses, availability of instructors to teach important courses and using software to project student needs.
Harmon recognizes that one of the larger issues at KSU is the availability of classes and instructors. He said that the university is in the middle of a budget discussion and is trying to reorganize and reallocate resources to alleviate some of the issues that students face.
Linda Noble is now serving as interim provost and vice president of academic affairs, working with Harmon before the search turns out a new president for KSU.
