The college has given notice to NE Dance Director Kihyoung Choi of its intent to terminate her due to what the college said was her failure to report a Title IX incident, according to records obtained by The Collegian.
Vice Chancellor for Communications and External Affairs Reginald Gates did not immediately respond to questions clarifying whether Choi was still employed by the college or if she was allowed to attend the students’ end-of-year performances May 1-2.
On April 20, the Office of Human Resources sent Choi the notice based upon a referral the Employee Relations team received March 30, raising concerns that she violated the Texas Education Code and district board policy.
Last year, a female student reported to Title IX that a male student was stalking her, according to the records. Both were members of the Movers Unlimited Dance Company and were enrolled in Choi’s dance classes.
Title IX Coordinator Dan Moore led the investigation and interviewed Choi regarding the report Sept. 5, 2025. During the interview, the college says Choi denied knowing of the alleged behaviors.
Choi’s husband Steve Hwang said he and Choi thought then the Title IX investigation was closed. He said he’s not allowed to speak to Choi about the situation and had not been informed of the notice.
The March 30 referral to Employee Relations stated Moore obtained a screenshot that showed a text conversation between Choi and the female student. In April 2025, Choi messaged the female student “I told [name redacted] to stop stalking you.”
The college is stating this text message is evidence of Choi’s failure to report the stalking to Title IX as required. State law requires college employees to report any Title IX-related incident as soon as they become aware of it.
In a meeting with Employee Relations Business Partner Courtney Jones on April 15, Choi said she understood Title IX requirements and confirmed she sent the text a year ago.
Hwang said the college is not taking the full situation into consideration and that the screenshot it is referring to doesn’t tell the full story.
He said he knows the two students involved in the Title IX investigation, and that the female student called him last week to say she thought the investigation had been closed and had not been informed about anything.
The two students were in and out of their relationship with each other frequently, and last year in April they broke up. While stalking was the word used by the female and in Choi’s text, Hwang said it wasn’t actually happening.
“She [Choi] talked to the male student as precautionary,” Hwang said. “The male student said to Kihyoung he never did that. Then the female said she lied, [it] never happened, never witnessed the person stalking her.”
According to him, in the same text message chain between Choi and the female student, she admitted to saying he was stalking her, but that it wasn’t true.
“If you see the previous text message, it will say from this female, ‘Sorry, I lied,’” Hwang said. “And if you look at the whole text messages, then you’re going to be like, obviously, this is not stalking.”
Hwang said he believes what happened on March 30 was a former student trying to retaliate against Kihyoung. He was informed by another dance student the former student told them that he provided the screenshot to the college.
While Hwang said Choi should have been more careful texting these students a year ago, the reason she didn’t report it was because she knew it was a lie.
“They [the college] don’t want to listen to her,” Hwang said. “She’s crying because she wants to convey that to the school, but they’ve just stopped listening.”
Hwang said Choi hasn’t updated him about her status with the college, but he doesn’t believe she has been told she can attend the performance. He said the district’s last update given to her was that she is not allowed on campus at all, and she’s not been informed about anything different.
“Right now, to me, looking at Kihyoung, I can only see that the situation’s getting worse,” Hwang said.
