Earlier this month, University System of Georgia Chancellor Steve Wrigley sent a letter to Kennesaw State Interim President Ken Harmon, pushing him to improve the handling of student affairs.
Wrigley sent the letter on March 8, and it addressed the recent shortcomings of KSU administrators to apply law and policy in the student affairs division.
The letter specifically addressed the two lawsuits that have been recently filed against the university by student organizations on campus. Wrigley said that he finds the allegations “extremely troubling.”
In the letter, Wrigley also directed Harmon to conduct an assessment of the student affairs unit.
Wrigley requested that the search be thorough and encompass all aspects of the department. Harmon was also asked to provide a plan outlining corrective steps that will be taken and to provide the plan to Wrigley by March 16.
The letter also mandated that KSU’s legal affairs director and chief of staff review all requests for campus events from student organizations. According to the letter, the involvement of the legal affairs director and chief of staff is to ensure that all requests are managed properly in the future.
“You need to lead systematic, fundamental improvement of some very basic functions within student affairs, and I expect this to begin today,” Wrigley said in the letter.
In line with the improvement of student affairs, Chancellor Wrigley said that Edward Tate and John Fuchko, General Counsel for the University System and Vice Chancellor for Organizational Effectiveness respectively, will be following up with Harmon directly to assist with the review.
Interim Provost Linda Noble spoke briefly about the letter at a faculty senate meeting on Monday, March 26, after Heather Pincock, associate professor of conflict management, brought up her concerns about what the letter means about the relationship between the USG and KSU.
“The letter from the chancellor was very strongly worded because the chancellor, I think, has questioned his confidence in this institution, but he wants this institution to be a fantastic, comprehensive university,” Noble said. “We are working to rebuild that confidence.”
Noble said she believes Wrigley is concerned about the university’s policies regarding free speech and that a number of “academic beings” and faculty members attended free-speech training on Thursday, March 22.
She also said she is meeting with KSU’s deans later this week to go over the freedom of expression policy and how it has an impact on student affairs.
Harmon was not available at the faculty senate meeting because he was addressing the Georgia House of Representatives Appropriations Committee about some challenges that KSU recently faced.
“The University has been the subject of critical media coverage, uncertainty through transitions and recently, legal actions on behalf of students where claims are being made against our administration that I have found deeply troubling,” Harmon said to the committee.
Harmon said that any policies and actions that run counter to the university’s goal of protecting its “marketplace of ideas” have been “identified and addressed.”
Harmon also mentioned the LGBTQ Resource Center’s pamphlet about gender-neutral pronouns that received attention from several media organizations, including Campus Reform, a news site focused on higher education, to the committee during the meeting on Monday.
He also mentioned the two lawsuits recently filed against the university and said that they sparked KSU administrators to begin a review of operations across KSU with a focus on the Division of Student Affairs.
This review includes student affairs policies, the classification system used for recognized student organizations, an analysis of funding and allocation of student activity fees and a review of event management among campus entities, Harmon said.
Harmon said the review identified a number of findings that will “rectify areas of concern.”
The areas include the “existing tier structure for student organizations, security fee guidelines and fee application to student groups and training and guidance on compliance with the Board of Regent’s policy on freedom of expression and speech among others.”
Harmon sent this review attached to a letter to Wrigley on March 16 as a response to the chancellor’s initial letter.
Wrigley sent his letter to Harmon after Alliance Defending Freedom filed two lawsuits against the university on behalf of two separate student organizations. The most recent suit, filed on behalf of Young Americans for Freedom on March 5, said that KSU uses a system to subjectively rank student groups.
The group also said that the university was participating in “viewpoint discrimination” after it charged them an extra security fee to bring a guest speaker on campus for an event.
The first suit was filed on behalf of Ratio Christi, a Christian group on campus, and said the university’s policy on where students can set up displays and speak to other students is unconstitutional.
Alex Guevara contributed to this article.
