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Last Tuesday, the Board of Trustees voted against the interests of some students, faculty and staff when they chose to name the new Wildcat Lodge, the Wildcat Coal Lodge. However, this should not come as that big of a surprise to us anymore.

The board seems to have a clause in their bylaws requiring them not to work in the interest of the students or the university’s employees. They have been dragged, kicking and screaming, to every bit of progress this university has had in recent memory.
Remember the green fee? It took years before the board, in their infinite wisdom, decided to placate the student body with a meager, and as of yet meaningless, fee.

I could go into more examples of the board’s ineptitude but I simply don’t have the time or, more importantly, the space to adequately describe them all.

The most recent transgression by the board leads me to a question I’ve asked myself a dozen times since coming to UK: why is the board and the administration so fervently anti-student?

It’s not that I expect to agree with the board in every decision they make, but I do expect them to look out for, and take interest in, the students as well as the faculty and the staff. I don’t think that’s too tall an order, but I would apparently be wrong.

To use the example of the Coal Lodge, it’s not so much they voted to name it after coal and the coal industry, but more the board couldn’t care less about the opinion of the students or the rules and regulations of the university.

Ernie Yanarella, one of the faculty representatives on the board, suggested the board seek legal council on whether or not naming the building “Wildcat Coal Lodge” met the requirements UK set out for itself for the naming of a university building.

It was, of course, shot down. I say “of course” because seeking legal council when there is a legal question is a logical move and ultimately in the best interest of the university. I suspect it is for that reason the board chose not to do it.

This is very telling of how the board and the administration feel about UK. It is their own little, multi-million dollar playground, where they may do as they please without the tiniest amount of consideration for anyone or anything else, be it the students or the rules that govern the very university they are entrusted with.

If the Board of Trustees really gave a damn about the university, they would have tabled the issue until the next meeting. Thus giving them the time to seek legal council and give the UK community ample time to have their voices heard.

I’m not quite sure what the official job description is for a member of the board, but I think I can say with a reasonable amount of confidence that it is not to ignore students, faculty and staff and then flout the rules.

Even so, one look at the board shows that it is structured to do just that. There is a grand total of one student representative on it, two faculty representatives and one staff representative. That’s four people. Four people on a 20-person board. I would love to hear the argument that says the students, the faculty and the staff account for one-fifth of what goes on at UK.

The remaining board members are appointed by the governor to six-year terms. I would imagine that being appointed by a governor, to a term that is longer than that of the governor himself, might give a person reason to believe the rules don’t really apply to them.

These 16 board members are essentially accountable to no one, and even if they were, they wouldn’t be accountable to the groups most affected by their actions.

I think it’s high time that we reconsider how our university is run. The current system, under which the students get screwed, the faculty gets screwed even more and the staff are screwed the most, simply cannot continue to exist unchecked.

The power of the flagship university of the Commonwealth needs to be vested in the hands of the people who make the university what it is day in and day out, not some random friend of the governor with more money than sense.

We left Lexington, KY around 5pm on Friday and arrived in Roanoke around midnight.  We got put up by some great people in the community, with some amazing homes.  Here's the view from my bedroom window:

On Saturday, the campaign hooked us up with free breakfast and lunch and sent us out into the Roanoke Valley where we knocked on over 300 doors, reminding people to vote and trying to gauge their support from Creigh Deeds and the rest of the Democratic ticket.

Sunday, we had breakfast with the Mayor and his mom, two amazing people who treated us like we were family.  Mayor Bowers bought us food for the road, helped us out with gas money, and took us up to Mill Mountain where we saw The Star City of the South's namesake.

I want to close this off by saying a huge thank you to all of the people who helped us out this past weekend, you all made it a truly fantastic trip and we can't wait to be back this coming weekend to help you elect Creigh Deeds.