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UK Student Newspaper Winning More Support In Legal Fight

Josh James
/
WUKY

More backers are lining up behind the Kentucky Kernel in its legal dispute with the University of Kentucky. The student newspaper met its fundraising goal this week – just before the state’s attorney general announced he's  intervening in the case.

Credit Office of the Attorney General

AG Joins The Fray

Attorney General Andy Beshear told reporters Wednesday that – if successful –  the university’s appeal seeking to block the release of documents pertaining to an associate professor’s sexual harassment and assault case would set an alarming precedent.

"UK's lawsuit would create a silver bullet that would allow any bad actor to entirely avoid the open records laws," the top law enforcement official warned. "For a university to push such a position is entirely irresponsible."

Beshear is taking the unusual step of intervening in the case, requesting the judge compel UK to hand over the materials for confidential review by his office.

"I do not take this step lightly. In fact, this may be the first time that the attorney general's office has sought to intervene in a case in this way, but what's at stake is too important and the ramifications are simply too great," Beshear added.

UK has so far refused to turn the materials over to the attorney general's office, citing its own concern about a "chilling impact" on future victims and survivors of sexual assault.

In a statement to WUKY, university spokesman Jay Blanton writes, "We believe strongly in our responsibility to protect survivors who muster the tremendous courage it takes to come forward with accusations of criminal acts. We believe strongly that to allow anyone – the press, a member of our university community, an employer, or any private citizen – to access confidential records will have a chilling impact on the willingness of survivors to come forward."

Blanton said, while the school is disappointed with Beshear's opinion, it further clarifies that "our dispute is not with the Kentucky Kernel, but with the Office of the Attorney General."

Credit gofundme.com
Screenshot of the Kentucky Kernel's GoFundMe campaign page at 4:57 p.m. Wednesday

Mustering The Money

Wednesday's announcement comes as the Kentucky Press Association delivered a $7,500 contribution into the Kernel's growing legal fund. That donation, along with more than $10,000 raised through a GoFundMe campaign, puts the paper well past its original $15,000 goal. The rapid response surprised Kernel editor-in-chief Marjorie Kirk.

"There's been almost like a rallying cry and people have really jumped up to support us and we really appreciate that," she says. "There are newspapers out there that won't fight any more just because they don't have legal defense funds, but if there's something that can rally people and really light a fire under their butts and inspire them to donate, it's something like young people who are wanting to change the crappy things they see at their university."

The comments echo a Facebook post by KPA executive director David T. Thompson: "Public agencies basically have a bottomless well because of taxpayer dollars available while newspapers are stymied because they don't have the financial resources like UK and other public agencies."

At the same time, the months-long tangle between the administration and the paper has attracted increasing attention on social media and from national news outlets like CNN and Buzzfeed, helping fuel the paper's campaign to fund future court fees.

Moral Questions

While the Kernel's editor-in-chief says the paper's relationship with the administration remains professional, both sides are laying out moral cases in the debate over the records.

Kirk says documents already obtained by the paper through other channels – which UK has not authenticated – show entomology professor James Harwood agreeing to resign amid a sexual harassment investigation, and she fears the university's current policies could allow perpetrators to escape scrutiny.

"If anyone, an employee or a student, is able to get away with something and not have it be public record, not have any acknowledgement in the public eye, that they did these things, they have the ability to go do it other places," Kirk suggests.

Harwood has denied the accusations. And the university continues to strenuously object to a public airing that could compromise the confidentiality of survivors who come forward to offer testimony.

In a blog post entitled The Tension of Competing Values, UK president Eli Capilouto wrote: "... in a handful of very specific cases, we are faced with the decision of whether transparency is more important than the need to protect the privacy and dignity of individual members of our community. It is not."

With both the university and the Kernel at odds in their respective roles, it will be up to the courts to decide where to draw the line. 

Josh James fell in love with college radio at Western Kentucky University's student station, New Rock 92 (now Revolution 91.7). After working as a DJ and program director, he knew he wanted to come home to Lexington and try his hand in public radio.
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