By Katie Perkowski

The Board of Trustees’ approval of the donation and naming of what will be the “Wildcat Coal Lodge,” has sparked debate among the UK community.

Students who attended Tuesday’s BOT meeting were denied their request to formally speak because they had not asked in advance.

The BOT Web site does not list any explanation of how students can request a speaking time at meetings.

To speak at a meeting, BOT Chairwoman Mira Ball said a person has to submit a written request with a topic at least a day before a meeting.

Ball said it is up to the chair and Board of Presidents to decide whether or not someone could speak, depending on how relevant the topic is.

UK Greenthumb member Nathan LeClaire attended the meeting and was among the protestors. LeClaire said he was unaware there was a formal process to be able to speak.

“To me it seems like red tape to try and scoop this past us as quick as possible, which is exactly what they did,” LeClaire said.

Although the approval of the proposal occurred in less than a week, Ball said it was discussed during the briefing of last month’s board meeting but the board was not ready to present it.

The approval of what will be the “Wildcat Coal Lodge” comes less than two years after UK

President Lee Todd created the President’s Sustainability Advisory Committee, which aims to make UK a model of sustainability in its operations, education, research and outreach, according to its Web site.

Bob Wiseman, vice president for facilities management, said almost 100 percent of UK’s electricity is coal-powered and the university spends about $19 million per year on it.

Wiseman said no discussions have been had to reduce the amount of coal used, but the university is using more natural gas than in the past because its cost has gone down. The university wants the best financial option, he said.

“What I’ve always said is for the near term we will always burn coal in our heating plans, and that our effort for just sheer economy reasons has been focused on how to reduce our overall electric bill and our electric usage,” Wiseman said.

Construction for the new Wildcat Lodge will begin in late summer of 2010 and is scheduled for completion in late summer of 2011, said UK athletics spokesman John Hayden.

“We’re just trying to add new student housing and just like the university, they build new dorms, so that’s just kind of what we’re doing,” Hayden said.