LORMAN — An attorney for Alcorn State University football coach Ernest Jones said the university will have a due process hearing at 9 a.m. today regarding the coach’s employment.

But Wayne Ferrell of Jackson said Jones has not been told where the meeting will be.

And while Jones plans to be in attendance for the hearing, Ferrell said he does not know who will be on the panel to decide the coach’s future with the university.

“We’ve made a request for them to tell us who their witnesses are and asked them to produce whatever documents they plan to use in the hearing,” Ferrell said. “But they’re not telling us anything. I thought this was America, but, I don’t know.”

Alcorn President George Ross, who Ferrell said is the final decision maker in the case, was out of the office Thursday and could not be reached for comment.

In a call from his cell phone, Athletic Director Darren Hamilton refused to comment.

Ross has repeatedly stated that Jones has not been fired.

But Jones’ attorneys, Ferrell and Ricky Lefft of Columbia, S.C., claim they received a letter addressed to Jones and signed by Hamilton stating the university’s intent to terminate his employment.

In order to fire Jones without paying him the final three years of his four-year contract, Ferrell said the university has to prove that he is the purpose of the hearing.

But Ferrell said he does not know the claims made against his client.

“We’ve gone through some procedures and we’ve asked them to be compelled to produce whatever evidence they plan to submit, but we’ve not had any luck,” Ferrell said.

Ferrell said he does not know if Ross will be in attendance but that lawyers for Alcorn and for the Mississippi Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning will be present.

Ferrell received the notice of Jones’ termination Dec. 8, three days after Jones filed a $3 million lawsuit against the university that specifically names Ross and Hamilton.

The lawsuit, which claims the university did not uphold contractual promises, was filed after Hamilton fired seven assistant football coaches, allegedly without Jones’ knowledge or consent.

The coaches each received letters in their boxes from Hamilton the evening before Thanksgiving Day notifying them their one-year contracts would not be renewed.

Ross reinstated the assistant coaches on a day-to-day basis — their contracts expired Dec. 31 — on Dec. 8, the same day Jones says he was fired.

On Jan. 8, Ross said the assistants were still employed at the university “at will.”

Hamilton would not say why he fired the coaches.