Sam Olens, Georgia’s attorney general, was named on Wednesday as president of Kennesaw State University by the University System of Georgia’s Board of Regents, according to a university news release.
In a rare move, Mr. Olens was selected without a national search to fill the position, a point of conflict for many faculty members who regarded his appointment as a threat to shared governance. Students have also taken issue with Mr. Olens because of his defense of Georgia’s ban on gay marriage.
Students and faculty members attended Wednesday’s meeting of the Board of Regents to protest Mr. Olens’s appointment, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. More than a dozen students interrupted the beginning of the meeting with prepared statements. “We demand a nationwide search for a qualified president,” one student stood up and shouted.
In a written statement released by the university announcing his appointment, Mr. Olens said, “I am honored to have the opportunity to serve as president of Kennesaw State University.”
He continued, “I pledge to work in partnership with the Kennesaw State campus community to focus our efforts on advancing our academic mission.”
Mr. Olens has been attorney general since 2010, and was re-elected in 2014. Before that he served as chairman of the Cobb County Board of Commissioners from 2002, as a commissioner from 1999, and as chairman of the Atlanta Regional Commission from December 2004.
He has never held an academic post.
On Monday the American Association of University Professors asked the college to conduct a national search and include faculty members in the hiring process.
Hans-Joerg Tiede, the association’s senior program officer, on Wednesday called the appointment “an unwelcome development.”
“We continue to be concerned that this process pretty much excluded the faculty entirely,” he said. “We also have held for a long time that we believe that university presidents should have significant experience in educational matters and that is also, in this case, apparently lacking.”
Mr. Olens will take office on November 1.
