Keep funds for university press

The governor’s proposed list of program eliminations includes the “University Press at the University of Kentucky.” But no such organization exists. The correct name is the University Press of Kentucky. The mission statement says that the press serves “all Kentucky state-sponsored institutions of higher learning as well as five private colleges and Kentucky’s two major historical societies.”

This error strongly suggests that the executive branch might have had a poor understanding of what it was zeroing out. Since the proposed budget also has cuts to all of the universities, it would be unlikely that any of them would be able to come to the rescue of the press. Kentucky is poised to join South Dakota in laying claim to the dubious distinction of not having a single university press within its borders. But that is actually unfair to South Dakota because at least its historical society has a press. Kentucky would be alone in having nothing.

This story was originally published January 30, 2018 at 6:44 PM with the headline "Keep funds for university press."