Kennesaw State officials and former KSU President Sam Olens filed extensions on Sunday, Sept. 9, on two pending lawsuits involving two student organizations that filed complaints against the university earlier this year.
Ratio Christi, a Christian student organization at KSU, filed a complaint against the university in February and KSU’s chapter of Young Americans for Freedom filed another complaint in March.
According to court documents obtained by the Sentinel, the university has filed multiple extensions, with the most recent indicating a 14-day extension lasting until Wednesday, Sept. 19.
The court documents state that “the requested extension is not for the purpose of delay or any other improper purpose; rather, it seeks time only to permit the parties to continue to attempt to resolve the case and to avoid any unnecessary expenditure of time, money and effort associated with preparing and filing pleadings that may ultimately be unnecessary.”
Both student organizations agreed to the extensions as a way to give the university time to resolve all or some of the issues raised in both complaints.
According to the court documents, “the parties have made significant progress toward resolving the claims and issues in this litigation.”
Ratio Christi said in the complaint filed in February that KSU’s policies on where students can put up displays on campus and speak to students are unconstitutional.
The group “sought to conduct a pro-life display on campus in 2016 and 2017 to prompt dialogue with students and faculty on the issue of abortion,” according to the complaint.
The complaint states that the group requested space on the campus green to put up their display, but the university denied their requests and redirected the group to a “speech zone” that the group said only comprises 0.08 percent of the university’s Kennesaw campus.
Alliance Defending Freedom filed a suit against KSU in March on behalf of KSU’s Young Americans for Freedom chapter after the university charged the group an extra security fee to invite a guest speaker to campus. The speaker was Katie Pavlich, a news contributor at Fox News and editor at Townhall Magazine.
The lawsuit states that, by charging YAF the extra fee for the guest speaker and not allowing the group to use student activity fee funding to clear the cost, the university engaged in “viewpoint discrimination.”
“All too often, university officials — including those at Kennesaw State University —seek to silence or restrict those who express ideas to which they object, using a myriad of different university policies to effectuate this censorship,” both complaints state.
A former KSU cheerleader also recently filed a complaint against KSU and Georgia officials. Tommia Dean, one of the five cheerleaders who kneeled in protest during a KSU football game in 2017, said in the complaint that officials violated her constitutional rights by attempting to keep her and the other cheerleaders off of the field during the national anthem last year.
The complaint also states that Defendants Rep. Earl Ehrhart, R-Powder Springs, and Cobb County Sheriff Neil Warren were “engaged in the conspiracy against Plaintiff [Dean] because of her race and because of she was protesting police brutality against African Americans.”
University Spokeswoman Tammy DeMel said the university is unable to comment on pending litigation.
Sabrina Kerns contributed to this article.
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