Emporia State University graduate encourages student leaders, laments school’s ‘debacle’

EMPORIA — House Minority Leader Vic Miller regaled members of the Emporia State University student government Thursday with tales of his early 1970s escapades on campus — while lamenting the school’s elimination of tenured staff and programs last year.

He pointed to himself and his Republican counterpart, House Speaker Dan Hawkins, as examples of accomplished ESU alumni.

“Think about that,” Miller said. “The two leaders of the Kansas House both hold degrees from this university.”

He added: “That’s why I’m here. I wanted to tell you that you can and probably will be somebody, OK? Regardless of what you do.”

Miller was a guest speaker at the student senate assembly. He appeared with a framed poster of his own successful campaign for student government president — from 1972 or 1973, he guessed.

He told students about the streaking phenomenon on campus, which apparently earned the school recognition from Sports Illustrated. And he once funded a spring break trip to Padre Island, Texas, by making and selling T-shirts that read, “What the hell’s an Ichabod?” — referencing the mascot of archrival Washburn University.

Miller, now 71, said his “meteoric rise” in politics started on the Senate Operations Committee at ESU. Later, he was involved in an association of student governments from all of the state universities in Kansas. The group became a powerful lobbying force at the Statehouse, he said, before it disbanded.

If students had a similar lobbying presence today, Miller told them, they wouldn’t have seen “the debacle” last fall.

ESU attracted national attention for firing nearly three dozen faculty members, including those with tenure, and eliminating English, journalism, history, debate and other programs. The university defended the extraordinary action as an attempt to better align university resources with Kansas workforce needs.

“I want to cry when I see what happened to my beloved university, and what is happening,” Miller said. “And part of it is because there is not a strong enough voice in Topeka right now saying that’s wrong.”