Two recent lawsuits against Kennesaw State University raised alarms among some state lawmakers and university system administrators that conservative-leaning student groups are not treated fairly.
Chancellor Steve Wrigley of the University System of Georgia requested in a March 8 letter to KSU that it thoroughly review its student affairs department, noting the two suits. He requested a corrective plan be presented to him by March 16.
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And Rep. Earl Ehrhart, chairman of the state House of Representatives higher education appropriations subcommittee, said last week that he wants an audit of KSU’s student affairs department, which he believes has too many staffers, and he wants to explore the funding of such departments, saying they’re supporting political ideologies.
“We’ll fund things that support educational outcomes and not fund things that support political activism,” he told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The politically tinged row and threats of withdrawing funding are not the first for Ehrhart, a Powder Springs Republican, who wields his chairmanship of the appropriations subcommittee as a mandate to bring change to Georgia's college and university system. He has taken leading roles in how colleges investigate claims of sexual assaults, weighed in on a controversial art exhibit at KSU, and corresponded with former KSU President Sam Olens last year as Olens was dealing with football cheerleaders who were taking a knee during the national anthem.
Ehrhart, who is retiring from his political position after this term, described the events at KSU as “a mess.”
The Alliance Defending Freedom, a national network of lawyers specializing in freedom-of-religion cases, sued KSU in late February on behalf of Ratio Christi, a club that attempts to strengthen the faith of Christian students and evangelize non-Christians. The lawsuit alleges KSU repeatedly rejected the club's request to post a pro-life display in the space they prefer, and the university instead limited the group to a less conspicuous location on campus. KSU officials called the display "controversial," the club claims.
Two weeks later, the alliance filed another lawsuit against KSU, saying the university intentionally made it difficult for a student organization, Young Americans for Freedom, to bring Fox News contributor Katie Pavlich to campus. KSU made that difficult by charging the group an additional $320 in security costs, according to the lawsuit.
A hearing Ehrhart has scheduled Monday is not the only effort by Republican state lawmakers to advocate for like-minded Resident Student Organizations they believe are being mistreated on Georgia's public college campuses. Senate Bill 339, for example, would ask colleges to discourage people from interrupting students and guest speakers and punish those who do. The bill passed the Senate and was under review late last week in the House.
KSU has grown in size and scope in recent years. It has about 35,000 students, making it the third-largest university in Georgia. The current academic year has been turbulent as Sam Olens resigned as president last month amid complaints about KSU's response to national anthem protests by some cheerleaders.
Ehrhart believes KSU’s student affairs division is biased against conservative organizations, noting the lawsuits lay out complaints that KSU has a tiered system of student organizations that favors others.
KSU has “adopted and enforced an RSO Classification Policy that ranks RSOs in four tiers, giving higher-ranking RSOs greater access to campus resources, higher priority in making reservations on campus, and greater access to student activity fee funding than lower ranking ones,” one lawsuit says.
In the review ordered by Wrigley, KSU found inconsistent guidelines within the division and staffers inadequately trained on compliance and that the SRO classification system “can be open to subjective determinations and lacking in parity,” according to a review received by the AJC.
Ehrhart also complained that the university's LGBTQ student group has a presence on KSU's website. Some conservative groups were aghast earlier this month when the university's LGBTQ Resource Center produced pamphlets with guidance on using gender-neutral pronouns.
Ehrhart defended his oversight of a local campus from the Capitol.
“It’s meddling when I do my job,” he said. “I’m supposed to look into the finances. (Liberals) just don’t like it because they don’t agree.”
State Rep. Calvin Smyre, one of two Democrats on the 12-member committee, said he’s receptive to a discussion but in general believes the Georgia Board of Regents should be in charge of oversight of KSU’s day-to-day operations.
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