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Kennesaw State University students rally Monday against AG Sam Olens

Reports that Attorney General Sam Olens will become the next president of Kennesaw State University is triggering faculty concerns and a student rally planned for Monday. (AJC File)
Reports that Attorney General Sam Olens will become the next president of Kennesaw State University is triggering faculty concerns and a student rally planned for Monday. (AJC File)
By Maureen Downey
Sept 30, 2016

Students will rally Monday at noon at Kennesaw State University in opposition to Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens becoming the new president of the Cobb school with an enrollment of more than 33,000.

Olens is reportedly under consideration for the top job at KSU. He has deep roots in the county. Olens is a two-term Republican attorney general who previously led the Cobb County Commission.

In a guest column today on the AJC Get Schooled blog, KSU professor Leonard Witt explains some of the opposition to Olens, especially from the LGBTQ community at KSU. As attorney general, Olens ardently opposed both gay marriage and now gender neutral bathrooms, said Witt.

But there also is concern about the hidden process with which Olens is being considered by the chancellor and Board of Regents, he said, explaining, “They would be doing so without a whisper of faculty or any other constituency input, thus breaking a long academic tradition and its own normal hiring procedures.”

To read more, go to the AJC Get Schooled blog.

About the Author

Maureen Downey has written editorials and opinion pieces about local, state and federal education policy since the 1990s.

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