KU names finalist for vice provost job

An administrator at the University of Akron is the third finalist announced for Kansas University’s vice provost for student success position.

Marlesa A. Roney, vice president for student affairs since 2000, will participate in a student forum from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. today in the Kansas Room of the Kansas Union. She will participate in a forum for faculty and staff from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday in the union’s Alderson Auditorium.

Roney also has served as registrar and senior project officer for Lilly Endowment Retention Initiatives at Purdue University.

KU plans to announce the names of five finalists in the search. The first two finalists are Don Aripoli, vice president for student affairs at Southwest Missouri State University, and Sybil R. Todd, vice president for student affairs at the University of Alabama.

Shawnee county: Whistleblower case headed for trial

A Shawnee County District judge set a date for hearing a whistleblower lawsuit between the Kansas Department of Revenue and fired employee Daniel Copp.

Judge Charles Andrews is scheduled to begin hearing the case Sept. 22 in Topeka.

Copp, a temporary warehouse worker for the Revenue Department, was fired in 1999 after revealing the mishandling of tax payment and refund checks misdirected to a warehouse for storage or shredding.

He sued the state for wrongful firing under the Kansas Whistleblower’s Act.

Initially, Andrews upheld the department’s argument that Copp was only a temporary worker and not entitled to job protection. The Kansas Court of Appeals later ruled that Copp was entitled to a trial.

Lecture series: Women’s researcher to speak at KU forum

A nationally known researcher on women’s issues will speak today at Kansas University.

Heidi Hartmann, founder and executive director of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research in Washington, D.C., will speak at 7:30 p.m. in the Kansas Room of the Kansas Union.

The institute, which focuses on women’s social and economic issues, publishes the annual Report on the Status of Women to gauge indicators of women’s status such as political participation, employment and earnings and reproductive rights. The Status of Women in Kansas report was published in November.

The speech is part of a series of Women’s History Month programs scheduled by the KU women’s studies program. Hartmann’s lecture replaces the February Sisters Forum that was canceled because of weather-related travel complications.