TOPEKA — Emporia State University has asked a district court judge to review and reverse the reinstatement of five professors fired last year as part of a university-wide restructuring.
The Office of Administrative Hearings ordered the reversal of the terminations of Amanda Miracle, Robert Catlett, Michael Behrens, Lynette Sievert and Dan Colson because the university failed to provide a specific reason for firing them. ESU responded with petitions in Lyon County District Court seeking to reverse the OAH orders and rule in favor of the university.
“It was kind of a short-lived victory, I guess, in that we then have to go to district court,” said Sievert, a professor of biological sciences. “They’re appealing the fact that we won.”
In October 2022, ESU and the OAH signed an interagency agreement outlining the appeals assignments and service agreements. Kansas Reflector obtained a copy of the contract, which shows ESU agreed to pay a service bill of $115 per hour for OAH services.
Gwen Larson, spokeswoman for ESU, said the university has not yet received any billing statements from the OAH so she does not know the cost of the hearings. OAH didn’t immediately respond to a Kansas Open Records Act request for related documents.
Four additional professors who appealed their terminations are still waiting for decisions on their cases, and two other professors’ terminations were affirmed by OAH.
The university informed some of the professors they were being placed on...
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