Kimo Ah Yun elected first Black president of Marquette University

Dr. Kimo Ah Yun has been elected president of Marquette University, following five months as acting president following the death of his predecessor, Dr. Michael Lovell. He is the first person of color and second layperson to assume the role.

The university announced the news on Wednesday following a special board meeting where Ah Yun received a unanimous vote. The 59-year-old Black Catholic has also been provost of the Jesuit institution in Milwaukee since 2018.

“My top priority is ensuring we continue to provide a transformational education for our students so that our graduates are problem-solvers and agents of change,” said Ah Yun in a statement. 

Ah Yun, a Black American with parents of Chinese, Hawaiian, and Portuguese descent, was born James Kuuipo Choy Ah Yun Jr. and is a native of Compton, California. A first-generation high school and college graduate, he received a doctorate in communication from Michigan State University in 1996.

Ah Yun was hired at Marquette in 2016 as dean of the Diederich College of Communications. In 2018, he was named acting provost following the sudden resignation of Dr. Daniel J. Myers amid a cloud of controversy concerning a suspended professor. Ah Yun was named permanent provost and executive vice president for academic affairs in 2019.

Ah Yun has since generated his own share of controversy among the Marquette faculty, particularly in his opposition to unionization efforts among the school’s non-tenure-track faculty, who have sought collective bargaining since 2018.

As provost, Ah Yun expressed some openness to a possible union, though he had initially signaled opposition. However, after becoming acting president this summer, he signed a letter in October claiming that the school’s “Catholic, Jesuit intellectual life” demanded they block union efforts under a religious exemption from National Labor Relations Board oversight.

“We believe that maintaining our direct relationship with all our faculty and continuing our shared work to enhance the lived experience of faculty is the best path to preserve our autonomy, serve our students and care for our community,” he wrote, alongside Marquette Vice President and General Counsel Ralph Weber.

As Ah Yun’s path to the presidency became clearer, more faculty began to speak out about university messaging they see as disingenuous. They have emphasized the Catholic history of support for labor organizing, including Pope Leo XIII’s landmark 1891 encyclical “Rerum Novarum,” considered a classic Christian text on the topic.

Faculty at some U.S. Jesuit institutions, such as the University of San Francisco, Santa Clara University, and Georgetown University, have successfully unionized, while others—like those at Boston College—have faced similar challenges as the organizers at Marquette.

“Catholic Social Teaching is clear: Workers, including those at Catholic institutions, have the right to form unions and bargain collectively,” said Clayton Sinyai, executive director of the Catholic Labor Network.

“Marquette is trying to have it both ways: the university is saying that it is too Catholic to fall under the jurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Board, but not Catholic enough to recognize the faculty union voluntarily just because that’s what Church teaching calls for.”

According to the United Campus Workers of Wisconsin, which has headed union efforts at Marquette, Ah Yun’s October letter came after organizers informed him “more than 65%” of full-time non-tenure-track faculty had signed union authorization cards.

“What they're saying is they don't have to follow the law, and we're saying is that there are a lot of things we do as a Catholic university that we don't do because the law tells us we have to, but because of who we are,” said Dr. Kate Ward, a professor of theological ethics at Marquette.

Separate from the unionization efforts, just days before Wednesday's presidential announcement, a group of tenure-track members of the Marquette University Academic Senate—made up of faculty, students, and administrators and chaired by Ah Yun himself—indicated they will move for a vote of no confidence in the university’s leadership as early as Monday. (In years past, the UAS has also spoken in support of unionization efforts.)

“The [UAS] has lost confidence in the ability of its Executive Leadership Team–[Ah Yun] and Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Joel Pogodzinski–to lead Marquette in a way that enables faculty, staff, and administrators to fulfill the university’s mission,” reads a version of the vote text obtained by BCM.

“If Marquette is to survive as a university, it needs new leadership. Marquette deserves leadership that faculty, staff and students can trust to steward it according to its mission,” said Dr. Elaine T. Spiller, a professor in the Department of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences.

University officials have indicated that such a vote, even if successful, is “non-binding” and “symbolic.” However, at least a half-dozen American university presidents nationally have resigned recently after no-confidence votes from faculty, or plan to do so soon.

Ah Yun did not respond to a request for comment from Black Catholic Messenger on the impending vote and his opposition to the faculty union. For now, the university—which also did not respond to BCM—says his inauguration ceremony is being planned for spring 2025.

Nate Tinner-Williams is co-founder and editor of Black Catholic Messenger.

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