Assistant Provost Molly Kerby spoke to the faculty senate Thursday on House Bill 4 – nicknamed the “anti-DEI” bill – explaining how the legislation could impact WKU if it officially passes.
Following its Senate passage on Wednesday, HB 4 awaits a decision from Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear to either sign the bill into law or veto it. If Beshear vetoes the bill, which Kerby said is suspected, it will return to the General Assembly for a potential veto override.
“It’s not near as bad as I think we had set ourselves up for,” Kerby told the Senate.
Kerby said many people on campus are concerned about the legislation’s potential effect on curriculum and programs on campus, but emphasized that the state government is “not in our curriculum in any kind of way.”
“One of the things in this, if you read this bill, they repeat over and over again that this does not affect academic freedom or the First Amendment,” Kerby said.
According to Section 2 of HB 4, the bill would not affect “academic freedom of faculty, students, and student organizations” or “academic course content or instruction.”
The bill states that institutions shall not “require any student to enroll in or complete an academic course of which the primary purpose is to indoctrinate participants with a discriminatory concept.”
Regarding scholarships, Kerby said they must not be “exclusionary.”
“Just as long as it’s not exclusionary and it’s not earmarked for a particular person based on a certain thing,” Kerby said.
Moving on from HB 4, Faculty Regent Shane Spiller encouraged faculty to “take control of the curriculum.”
“The curriculum belongs to the faculty,” Spiller said. “So if you’re feeling pressure to do curriculum in your area, you need to be asking your chair, your dean, ‘What can we cut back on?’”
Spiller also encouraged faculty members to take advantage of the university sabbatical process.
“It is a tremendous benefit that’s in the handbook that you can get,” Spiller said. “Please, when you’re eligible, take advantage of this. Don’t think the university can’t go on without you; it absolutely can. Make it go on without you.”
Also at the Senate meeting:
- Faculty Senate Chair Gordon McKerral announced that WKU Athletics Director Todd Stewart will speak to the Faculty Senate at its April meeting about how Athletics will move forward under the “new budget climate.”
- McKerral shared a report online detailing notes from his meeting with WKU President Timothy Caboni earlier this semester, including discussions around daycare options for faculty members and a work group in charge of assessing the Colonnade program’s curriculum to ensure students see its value.
