WICHITA STATE’S STUDENT NEWS SOURCE SINCE 1896 MONDAY
Volume 125
www.thesunflower.com
Sept. 28, 2020
PRESIDENT RESIGNS
Issue 5
AUDREY KORTE/THE SUNFLOWER
WSU President Jay Golden answers questions during an interview with The Sunflower on March 12, 2020. Golden resigned Friday after nine months on the job.
After just nine months on the job, University President Jay Golden submits resignation to the Kansas Board of Regents BY LINDSAY SMITH news@thesunflower.com / @Lindsay_KSmith
W
SU President Jay Golden resigned from his position just shy of nine months on the job. The Kansas Board of Regents announced the resignation Friday, which will be effective immediately. “Wichita State University President Jay Golden has submitted his resignation to the Kansas Board of Regents. The Board is thankful for his service,” the KBOR statement read. “We are appreciative of his hard work and dedication to the university and are grateful for his commitment to serving students. We wish him well in all his
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future endeavors.” After a closed search process following President John Bardo’s death in March 2019, KBOR named Golden as the 14th president in late October. In early June, donors threatened to pull funding from the university if the Board of Regents didn’t oust Golden after he changed Ivanka Trump’s graduation speech from keynote to optional. Students held a rally in support of Golden and after a four-hour meeting, KBOR took no public action and Golden remained president. Regent Jon Rolph told KMUW that Golden’s resignation is not related to the Ivanka Trump controversy.
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“I was just surprised. It was not something that was on my radar.” ALEKS STERNFELD-DUNN Faculty Senate President
“If the board was going to take action on that, it would have been in June,” Rolph told KMUW. The Sunflower reached out to the WSU Foundation who refused to comment. The Strategic Communications office didn’t directly comment and instead directed The Sunflower to KBOR Director of Communications Matt Keith, who has yet to respond.
Faculty Senate President Aleks Sternfeld-Dunn said the announcement came as a shock to many, including himself. “I was just surprised,” Sternfeld-Dunn said. “It was not something that was on my radar.” University Provost Rick Muma will take over as acting president until an interim president is selected. Sternfeld-Dunn said he believes past interim President Andy Thompkins would be a good choice to fill that position. “I don’t know who that will be, but I thought President Thompkins did a great job while he was here and then a national search will begin again.” SEE RESIGNATION PAGE 2