Chris Steadman is associate director of KU's Wheat law library and last year's Faculty Senate President.

Legendary wrestling coach Dan Gable once said, “After you’ve wrestled, everything else is easy.”

It’s an aphorism Chris Steadham, a one-time high school wrestler, has taken to heart (he even named his son after Gable). Over the last year, he’s put the sentiment to the test.

Steadham, currently the associate director of the Kansas University School of Law’s Wheat Library, was president of the KU Faculty Senate for 2013-14, a year that saw the university at the center of national controversies and some of the fiercest grappling between faculty and higher education officials in years.

Steadham grew up in Rosehill, Kan., and went to KU, where he met his wife, Shanna. It might be hard to picture the calm, undersized and mild-mannered Steadham as a wrestler. He admits the sport is about the closest thing you can have to a sanctioned fight.

Wrestling in high school gave Steadham gumption and a strong work ethic, he said. As an undergraduate at KU, where he studied political science before returning for law school, he gained an appreciation for a higher education and its unique function.

‘A steady influence’

Those who have worked with Steadham in governance can attest to his work ethic and even keel.

“I thought Chris was a very calm, measuring, steady influence on the Senate,” said James Carothers, a KU professor of English and current Senate president. “He was a valuable leader to all of us last year, and he did that in some extremely difficult circumstances.”

“He’s extremely conscientious and hard-working,” said Kathleen Levy, administrator for university governance at KU. “He’s very careful in his decision-making process.”

When he started as president, Steadham saw his job primarily as a facilitator, there to make sure everyone’s voice could be heard.

Early in his first semester on the job, as Steadham was preparing for what he thought would be the year’s biggest debate, over post-tenure review, journalism professor David Guth posted what has become an infamous tweet following the Navy Yard Shootings in Washington D.C.

Guth tweeted: “The blood is on the hands of the #NRA. Next time, let it be YOUR sons and daughters.” The post inflamed guns rights supporters, including several lawmakers in Topeka who threatened to cut KU’s funding unless the university fired Guth.

Administration placed Guth on administrative leave that week and reinstated him (though not in the classroom) the next month. Chancellor Gray-Little has since said she didn’t have the legal authority to fire Guth over the tweet.

“I thought at first, ‘Well, this is not a well-thought-out tweet,’ but I naively hoped that it would blow over,” Steadham said. But once Guth went on leave and lawmakers started threatening the university over his job, Steadham realized the tweet and the issues around it weren’t going away.

As faculty watched the drama play out, Steadham said he felt pressure from faculty to both speak out strongly on behalf of Guth and to stay out of the debate.

Still, he didn’t want the Senate to jump to action hastily. “You want to think carefully and tread lightly before you get involved in somebody’s career,” he said. The resolution the Faculty Senate ultimately passed supporting free speech rights didn’t even mention Guth’s name.

Behind the scenes, Steadham joined the committee appointed by KU administration to examine the conditions around Guth’s leave and issue a recommendation. He said his experience on the committee reassured him that administration was “doing everything it could to do the right thing in a bad situation.”

From facilitating to leading

Not long after, in December, the Kansas Board of Regents passed a social media policy allowing university leaders to fire employees for “improper” social media posts, partly as a response to the Guth imbroglio.

In that case, the way forward was clearer to Steadham, and he didn’t hesitate to take a more active stance, in part because the issue of free speech at the university struck a deep chord in him and colleagues, but also because he had become more confident in his role.

“I about fell out of my chair when I read it,” Steadham said, referring to the policy. From the day the regents voted on the policy, Steadham was active in trying to formulate response to the policy from faculty and staff. “I had a feeling the whole (semester) we were on the right side of history on that issue, and that we were going to prevail.”

That didn’t quite happen. While governance bodies from Kansas universities, along with higher education and free speech groups around the country, called for the repeal of the policy, the regents held on to most of its punitive language while adding in language endorsing free speech and academic freedom.

Steadham, who went from facilitator of discussion to helping to lead strong responses to the social media policy, said the experience might have made governance stronger at the university. Even so, university politics can be a delicate balance, even when the stakes are high.

“When you have very little power, and your power is in persuasion and articulating a voice to be heard, you have to be able to identify battles worth taking a stand on,” Steadham said.