To: Eli Capilouto, President of University of Kentucky and Governor Matt Bevin
End influence of coal money at UK
The University of Kentucky cannot be taken seriously as a place for higher learning as long it sells itself out to basketball hype and ego and to the likes of Joe Craft and the coal industry. The University of Kentucky should accept gifts and sponsorships only anonymously, thus curtailing obvious attempts to buy influence and to promote propaganda.
Why is this important?
As if having the University of Kentucky's basketbal coach named by the Lexington Herald-Leader to be Lexington, Kentucky's most influential person wasn't insulting enough (the readers at least acknowledged the school's president, Eli Capilouto, as the 5th most influential), it was appalling to read Joe Craft (the #10 person on the list) apparently having citizens fooled into believing he is "a giver." It would be interesting to know how Mr. Craft considers obliterating mountains, ruining land, polluting air and water, and ignoring climate change to be forms of giving. Exploiting natural resources and jeopardizing public health in exchange for his name being plastered all over buildings on the UK campus places him much more so in the categories of a taker and an aggrandizer.