UK student group accuses administration of pattern of ‘hostility’ after tense exchange
A student-led group that has been pushing for on-campus police reform and meeting with University of Kentucky administrators to improve equity for students of color accused officials of a continued pattern of “hostility, disrespect, and a lack of professionalism.”
The Movement for Black Lives University of Kentucky statement was posted online late Tuesday after the student group’s Twitter account was critical of the university’s COVID-19-related testing and campus reopening plans. The university’s account responded to the criticism, sparking a public back-and-forth between the university and critics.
The university account countered that some of the Black Lives UK group’s Twitter assertions were false. At one point, it said, “Interesting that we have more faith in your fellow students than you do” after the student group questioned how responsible some students — at off-campus bars and parties — will be about following social distancing and mask-wearing rules.
The exchange was “proof that the university is failing to tackle the two major pandemics happening in our nation — COVID-19 and racism. After the events of today, we know that the university is making decisions based on money rather than the health and safety of the Wildcat community,” the student group wrote in its statement.
After the student group accused the university of reopening to make money, the university said that student health and safety was a top priority while planning for the semester. Some commenters criticized the university’s responses to the student group, while the university account maintained that the tweet trading was “important dialogue.”
UK spokesman Jay Blanton said Wednesday that the university has expressed that the UK group’s concerns should be part of the larger “institutional effort” underway around diversity, equity and inclusivity that will involve about 500 members of the campus community.
“The university – and senior officials – have had a number of meetings with the Movement for Black Lives UK student group and other student groups on our campus,” Blanton said. “They have pressed and pushed their university — as they should — with concerns about a range of issues. We have pledged to continue meeting with them to continue the dialogue. We share the same goals — a more equitable and just campus community.”
“Every voice should be heard and listened to, and the table should be big enough to accommodate everyone who shares our desire to change our culture for the better. We want their engagement in that process.”
The student group’s statement was issued on the day President Eli Capilouto sent an email to the campus promising on-campus culture change.
“Where there are gaps we know we can fill, we must close them. Where there are opportunities that can be seized immediately, we must take them. And where there are places where equality of access and opportunity have been denied or deferred, we must not delay,” Capilouto wrote in the email.
In previous meetings with administrators, student leaders said they were shouted at and had their questions shot down. Movement for Black Lives members met with top administrators via Zoom on July 17, Khari Gardner, the UK senior who started the student group, told the Herald-Leader two weeks ago. Students were joined by members of the United Campus Workers Union, a vocal union of university workers, including graduate students.
Gardner said he left the meeting feeling “very disappointed and saddened that some of the people in the administration would use a tone like that with us and be what some might consider rude in their discussions.” The groups met with UK Police Chief Joe Monroe, Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration Eric Monday and Associate Provost Kirsten Turner, and the groups were shown a presentation on the police department with information that was “all really available on their website.”
“It was not a tone that felt like they wanted our opinions on things,” Gardner said. “It felt like a tone and a situation where it felt like they just wanted us to listen, not ask any more questions, and stop.”
At the time, Gardner said he gave the university a two-week deadline — to expire on July 31 — to respond to the group’s demands on campus police. In the group’s statement Tuesday night, they wrote that Monday told the group that they couldn’t meet the deadline because they were busy planning for the upcoming pandemic-driven semester.
This story was originally published August 5, 2020 at 1:25 PM.