University of Kentucky journalism staff criticizes school president

More than a dozen members of the University of Kentucky's journalism faculty sent a letter to UK President Eli Capilouto this week informing him of their belief that UK should drop its lawsuit against its student newspaper.

UK is suing the Kentucky Kernel, which is staffed by university students, in order to appeal a decision by Attorney General Andy Beshear, who the school cannot name as a party in its lawsuit. Beshear said the university violated the state's open records law in its handling of the Kernel's request for records on James Harwood, a former associate professor of entomology who was accused of sexual misconduct.

In the letter the faculty gave Capilouto on Thursday, 15 members of UK's journalism faculty objected to Capilouto's "insulting treatment' of the Kernel and to UK's violation of state laws meant to ensure government accountability and transparency. They told Capilouto he should apologize for his comments at last week's UK board of trustees meeting, where he criticized the Kernel for printing "salacious details" to attract readers. They believe Capilouto's statement cast aspersions on the faculty who taught the students on the Kernel's staff.

At last week's meeting, Capilouto said UK was fighting to protect the confidentiality of victim survivors. But the journalism faculty pointed out that UK actually revealed the first name of a victim in the Harwood case by handing out two victim letters at the trustees' public meeting, one of which accidentally included a victim's first name.

Read more: http://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/2016/09/16/uk-journalism-staff-criticizes-school-president/90487796/