Kentucky State students file state lawsuit against law ushering in polytechnic mission

Kentucky officials are facing a second lawsuit over a new law to make Kentucky State University a polytechnic institution. 

Filing the case in Franklin County Circuit Court last week, a group of anonymously identified students allege that Senate Bill 185 violates the Kentucky Constitution. The students argued that if the law is implemented, it could affect their programs of study at KSU. 

A group of KSU students, alumni and prospective students filed a federal lawsuit earlier this month also challenging SB 185. Earlier this year, the bill sped through the end of the General Assembly’s legislative session and was touted as a way to avoid closing the institution, which is Kentucky’s only public historically Black university. 

Among many requirements, the bill would pare down KSU’s academic offerings and direct the university’s Board of Regents to recommend which academic programs will be closed or substantively changed by June 1 to meet the new focus on science and technology education. 

The Franklin County lawsuit has been assigned to Judge Thomas Wingate. Several officials are named as plaintiffs, including Gov. Andy Beshear, the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education and KSU’s board. The students are represented by attorneys with Morris and Morris of Lexington. 

“The irreparable harm is intensified by KSU’s unique status as Kentucky’s 1890 land-grant university and only public HBCU, and by the Commonwealth’s longstanding federally recognized commitments to enhance, rather than narrow, KSU’s mission, programs, funding, facilities, land-grant activities, administration, faculty capacity, and student opportunity,” the students’ complaint says. 

The lawsuit also questions if legislative proceedings were properly followed before the bill became law, such as if the bill had three readings on the Senate floor. 

In response, KSU said last week that it cannot comment on “specific legal claims or allegations contained in the complaint” because it is in court. It said it will “follow all applicable laws and work collaboratively with state and federal partners in fulfillment of its mission, which is focused on students, academic quality, public service, and preparing graduates to meet the needs of the communities they serve.”

“This commitment carries particular meaning this week, as Kentucky State University observes the 140th anniversary of its founding on May 18, 1886, and more than a century of continuous service to the Commonwealth as Kentucky’s only public HBCU and an 1890 land-grant institution,” the statement said. 

Beshear signed SB 185 into law on April 13. It passed the Senate and House with bipartisan support. 

Read the students’ lawsuit