UK’s board of trustees vacancies, and who’s filling them: What to know

Gov. Andy Beshear has named new appointees to the University of Kentucky Board of Trustees not long after he placed public pressure on the school’s leadership.

The moves come amid concerns over transparency, hiring and worker protections at the state’s flagship university. Beshear’s latest appointments have ties to the governor.

Here are key takeaways:

• Beshear appointed two political donors who he has previously put in other positions — Mitchel Denham and Ruth Cecelia Day — to replace outgoing trustees Robert D. Vance and Paula Leach Pope, whose terms expired June 30. Day and her husband have donated more than $153,000 to Beshear’s campaigns; Denham has donated more than $22,000, according to financial reports.
• Faculty voted for Nathan Vanderford, an associate professor in the UK College of Medicine, to replace Hollie Swanson, whose term expired June 30. Vanderford and Karen Petrone, a history professor, are now the board’s two trustees who represent all of UK’s faculty.
• UK’s student body voted Nick Pace as president of its Student Government Association, so he now serves on the board of trustees.
• Beshear also is expected to soon fill the seat of Ron Geoghegan, a trustee whose term expires July 30.
• The governor holds significant leverage because 16 of UK’s 20 trustees are appointed by the governor, who can remove and replace them, or replace them when their terms expire.
• Beshear plans to send UK’s board of trustees and administration a letter demanding written answers about worker treatment and transparency as hundreds of employees are impacted by its public-private partnership with Compass Group.
• Departing faculty trustee Hollie Swanson used her final meeting to criticize UK’s “top-down” decision-making and its growing use of public-private partnerships, corporations and nonprofits, which she said erode the board’s authority over those areas.
• UK Provost Robert DiPaola said faculty have ways to communicate their concerns with administrators through meetings with the board of trustees and faculty senate.

The summary points above are based on the reporting of Herald-Leader journalists. The roundup was produced with the assistance of AI. Herald-Leader reporters and an editor reviewed this story for accuracy. You can read more about our AI policy here.