The Georgia Board of Regents Wednesday approved the appointment of Attorney General Sam Olens as the new president of Kennesaw State University. Regent Larry Walker abstained from the vote because of a business conflict, but the rest of the board members agreed Olens should be KSU’s next leader.
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That didn’t sit well with some in attendance, like Christine Ziegler. She’s a KSU psychology professor and Georgia representative for the American Association of University Professors.
“The process has been violated,” she said. “There’s no faculty input; there’s no selection going on.”
About two dozen protestors interrupted the meeting for that reason: they disagreed with the selection process. Before the vote, KSU faculty senate president Humayun Zafar asked the Regents to reconsider.
“The faculty of Kennesaw State respectfully requests an extension and continuation of this hiring process to allow for a search with interviews to be conducted,” he said.
The Board of Regents doesn’t have to conduct a search. Its policy manual says the board chair and university system chancellor will decide if a search is needed when a college or university has a vacancy for president.
The Regents decided not to launch a national search once Olens expressed interest in the job. University System Chancellor Hank Huckaby said KSU’s situation was “unique”and Olens was an “outstanding” candidate, so a national search wasn’t needed.
“Carrying on a nationwide search is very expensive,” he said. “It would probably cost anywhere from $200,000-350,000. And every time we go through a national search, we don’t always come out with a winner.”
KSU’s former president Dan Papp suddenly resigned in June. An audit of the university found Papp broke financial rules, including receiving a retirement payout of more than half a million dollars before he qualified for the money. The audit found several other cases of financial mismanagement at the school.
Huckaby says Olens should be able to help KSU straighten out its financial woes. His first day at KSU is Nov. 1. The university system says it’s still working out the terms of his contract.
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