KSU Students, Alumni Sue to Block New State Law

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A group of Kentucky State University students, alumni and prospective students have sued the state to prevent a new law from going into effect, LEX18 reported.

The law assigns the historically Black land-grant university a new role as a polytechnic institution and exerts significant state control over its pocketbook and programming as the institution stabilizes its finances. Among other provisions, the law requires the university to get state approval for purchases over $20,000 and limits its offerings to 10 academic areas of study over the period of financial exigency. In addition to the lawsuit, plaintiffs are seeking a preliminary injunction to immediately prevent program cuts, employee layoffs and various restructuring changes.

The complaint argues the state has long fallen short of fairly funding the HBCU, violating federal land-grant equity and desegregation requirements and civil rights law. It asserts that the federal government has notified the state of the issue on multiple occasions, including in a 2023 letter from former education secretary Miguel Cardona and former agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack. The complaint also raises concerns that the level of control the state would exert over KSU under the law could conflict with the university’s accreditation requirements.

“Kentucky cannot underfund its public HBCU for decades, receive repeated federal notice of that inequality, and then use the resulting financial condition as justification to dismantle the institution’s historic mission and academic structure,” James M. Morris, the attorney representing the plaintiffs, told LEX18. “This lawsuit seeks to preserve Kentucky State University while the Court determines whether the Commonwealth’s actions violate federal civil-rights law.”