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Anti-civil rights attorney takes over at Board of Regents.
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By Mike Cuenca | September 15, 2002
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Last week the Kansas Board of Regents announced that the group of
finalists in their search for an Executive Director includes Reggie
Robinson, KU’s chief of staff and special counsel to Chancellor Robert
Hemenway.
In the six years since Hemenway and Robinson took over at KU, they have
undertaken an impassioned battle against civil rights both internally
and in the courts. KU has faced three times as many federal civil
rights lawsuits than before they took over, which reflects the failure
of their approach to internal complaint handling. Last year, they
successfully fought for a cynical and reactionary appeals court ruling
that seriously undermines the enforcement of civil rights laws in the
courts. Mr. Robinson’s professional background includes civil rights
litigation and he was a law clerk for the chief judge of that very
appeals court. Who else at KU is likely leading KU’s handling of and
approach to both their internal and external civil rights complaints?
Mr. Robinson is the right-hand man of the CEO of KU, an institution
that is undeniably in decline. If he has been doing his job, he has
been engineering and guiding many of KU’s misguided positions and
policies for Chancellor Hemenway. If he has not been doing his job, he
has been sitting on his duff, accepting a salary for doing nothing. One
or the other of those premises is reality and neither is a good
reference for a position that is crucial for the future of higher
education in Kansas.
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