KSU Offers Formal Apology for Advisor Incident

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Kennesaw State University has apologized for the conduct of an academic advisor caught on camera behaving rudely towards a student and has suspended her from advising until she gets additional training.

According to WSB-TV, Abby Dawson has not been fired but has been re-assigned within the university’s faculty. In late May, Dawson was placed on administrative leave pending an internal investigation into her conduct recorded on a cell phone video which went viral after it was posted online.

KSU students say the unhelpful attitudes from academic advisors has been a persistent issue, but widespread awareness of the situation only began when junior Kevin Bruce recorded an interaction he had with Dawson while waiting at the WellStar College of Health and Human Services for one of his exercise science advisers to arrive and sign a form for him. Dawson said that Bruce was harassing staff by sitting in the office.

“Sitting here until somebody’s available is harassing them,” Dawson says in the video.

The video went viral and galvanized the campus, with many students discovering their individual issues with their student advisers may be part of a larger problem. Despite earlier cries that the issue was racial in nature, KSU students told WSB-TV that students of all backgrounds have come forward to complain about the advisers at the college.

KSU Provost and Vice President of Student Affairs Ken Harmon said Friday that Dawson’s behavior was not representative of the university’s culture and acknowledged that the university needed to make changes to its advising structure, WSB-TV reports.