By: Keith Kappes
Columnist
Carter County Times
Dr. Eli Capilouto, president of the University of Kentucky, deserves the respect and admiration of every Kentuckian because of his courageous public opposition to the failed attempt in the 2024 General Assembly to dismantle the funding of DEI initiatives at our public universities and colleges.
For those unfamiliar with DEI, it stands for diversity, equity and inclusion and ensures the fair treatment of students and faculty and staff members at our eight public universities and 16 community and technical colleges.
Some misguided lawmakers in the GOP-dominated House and Senate had decided to try to turn back the clock to when persons of color, women and others with differences were denied basic rights such as equal pay, access to college, advancement in the workplace and safe, affordable housing.
President Capilouto spoke out against the legislation and made it clear that its passage would be a major setback to efforts to guarantee the rights of non-white citizens, women, handicapped individuals and those with different gender preferences.
He spoke eloquently about how such a change would violate the historic tradition of public higher education as an open, welcoming place of opportunity where all could thrive.
Sadly, none of Dr. Capilouto’s seven university presidential colleagues or the newly-named president of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System found the courage to speak out publicly against such an abuse of power.
It was especially distressing to me that the president of Morehead State University chose to remain silent on this issue, despite the fact that MSU was the first of the regional schools to integrate in 1956 with black students enrolled and living on campus. And then MSU broke another color line two years later with the first black athlete on scholarship in the Ohio Valley Conference.
The removal of barriers to higher education access is good public policy and our state continues to benefit greatly from the culturally and intellectually rich learning and working environments on our public campuses.
Regrettably, the Republican supermajority in both chambers of the General Assembly chooses to ignore the important lesson from history that British historian Lord John Acton expressed nearly 150 years ago:
“Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely”.
(Contact Keith at keithkappes@gmail.com.)
