Several local organizations said they were unaware they were among 1,249 University of Kentucky partnerships at risk of termination before UK released the list of flagged groups on Dec. 9.
Ashley Smith, executive director and founder of Black Soil KY, and Hayward Wilkirson, director of The Kentucky Theatre, said there has been no communication from the university regarding potential changes to its relationships with their organizations.
The Lexington Herald-Leader reported two other local organizations, the Carnegie Center for Literacy & Learning and Kentucky Youth Advocates, also received no notice of their flagging.
“They’re being really tight-lipped because they don’t have a real strategy on how to communicate,” Smith said. “I’m not really sure how the university rebuilds universal trust with the groups that they’ve identified, singled out and are targeting, without offering any sort of compassion, empathy or professional courtesy.”
Wilkirson said he was surprised to learn that UK even considered The Kentucky Theatre a “partner,” let alone that UK was considering cutting ties.
UK and The Kentucky Theatre have had what Wilkirson described as a “cultural partnership,” mainly involving UK professors helping curate public film series and leading Q&As. The only clear financial tie he recalled was a recent space rental by a group within the College of Environmental Sciences.
“We have done a number of collaborations, but I wouldn’t have thought that they would rise to the level of partner, because there’s not been a contractual exchange, so they (the Office for Civil Rights) wouldn’t even know about it, really, right?” Wilkirson said. “Loosely, you’d call it a partnership, but it’s odd that they would have been particularly aware of it to even flag us.”
Wilkirson said UK terminating its relationship would not impact the theater beyond the potential loss of cooperation with film students and professors, but expressed concern for flagged organizations that are financially dependent on the university.
“If they weren’t accurate in their assessing or the published parameters aren’t the parameters they’re actually using, but they terminate that relationship, they’re doing you financial harm,” Wilkirson said. “I just wonder what the potential ramifications are if they essentially misjudge you, and if they’re not being open to the public, how would an entity know they have been judged accurately?”
He questioned UK’s process for determining which organizations to flag, given that while The Kentucky Theatre shows film series highlighting the experiences of specific groups of people, none of their programming restricts participation to these groups.
“This net they cast, they cast extremely broadly. Because in our case, anything we do is open to the public. That’s our whole point,” Wilkirson said. “We want to share with as many people as possible all these different kinds of human experiences. So the only way we could have been on that list is if they are simply looking for the mention of certain keywords.”
Smith said Black Soil’s events are not exclusionary, either, and that they attract “many different types of people,” while centering Black agricultural work.
“I’d be very curious to see, are they also accusing these groups of receiving special treatment? Because I will tell you, come hell or high water, we received no special treatment.” Smith said. “We had to actually have even more standards, hoops, loops to go through in order to prove we weren’t receiving special treatment.”
She said Black Soil has historically served as a bridge between UK and underserved agricultural populations, providing education, mentorship, internships, conferences and events since 2017.
Given UK’s lack of communication and follow-through regarding usual collaborations, including sponsorship of their September event, “State of the Soil,” Smith said it seems UK has already terminated the relationship.
She did not know about the OCR investigation, but said there was a sign over the summer that UK wanted to conceal their partnership when the assistant dean of land grant engagement administration told her not to post about a Black Soil student intern on social media.
“Don’t publicly acknowledge that the interns were coming here, but we still needed to give our staff support, time, effort and energy in investing in this student,” Smith said. “And it really at that time, didn’t click with me, of like, oh, this is a part of a larger ongoing issue that is now leading us to where we’re at now.”
Regardless of whether UK attempts to reconcile its relationship with Black Soil, Smith said they will no longer work with the institution to facilitate internships. She said interested students can contact Black Soil directly.
“I know my organization has positioned itself to be a benefit to UK, rather than benefit from UK. Long-term trust that you have built over years with historically marginalized, underrepresented, underserved, communities is now severed,” Smith said. “There really isn’t a coming back from this. So we have pulled our support.
UK spokesperson Jay Blanton confirmed that impacted organizations were not directly informed about the investigation, as UK is awaiting further guidance from the OCR.
“We’ve been pretty public about it, we posted it online,” Blanton said. “Nothing has happened other than we’ve we flagged them in our initial review. We’re taking the time to do a deeper dive, take a look at the list, and work directly with units to understand better those relationships. And I think we’re doing our due diligence there. That’s what we’re supposed to do.”
Wilkirson said while UK’s criteria and evaluations could be made more visible and understandable, he understands UK’s compliance with recent legislation is to protect the stability of everyone who depends on the university.
“I’m not necessarily trying to condemn them,” Wilkirson said. “I know you get in a hard spot where you realize you’re an employer of thousands upon thousands of people, and maybe you want to stand on principle, or is it fair for you to make the decision to ruin most people’s lives?”
