New building on UK campus to be named the "wildcat coal lodge"

Joseph W. Craft III, the president of Alliance Coal, and others donated $7 million to be given over a 10-year period for the construction of the new residence hall. The only three board members who dissented were faculty representative Ernie Yanarella, staff representative Robynn Pease and Student Government President Ryan Smith.

Students' and KFTC members Danny Cotton and Jordan Panning prepared a statement to be read to the board, but it was never read.

"What struck me was that, as students, we couldn't even get most of the board to read or hear a simple, half-page statement about how this name violates UK's standards for naming buildings. And that, when looking at the board's votes, the three who voted against this are three people tasked with representing students, faculty and staff" Cotton said.

It gets even more ridiculous. The new lodge will be a LEED certified building. LEED Certification stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of high performance green buildings. Certification assures that a building project is environmentally responsible, profitable, and a healthy place to work.

Martin Mudd, a graduate student and also a KFTC member attended the board meeting as well.

"Naming a new LEED-certified campus building the "Wildcat Coal Lounge" is a bad move for this university. It is an egregious case of industrial product placement in a public institution. It is an insult to Kentucky basketball fans who remember Joe B. Hall as a great coach worthy of remembering. It is a step backward for a university whose goal is to move forward to Top 20 status. Finally this decision ignores the industry's history of exploitation that has enriched coal corporations and corrupt politicians and impoverished Appalachia's communities and devastated its ecosystems. This decision is unacceptable, but sadly it is just business as usual in Kentucky. We must raise our voices in opposition."

"UK shouldn't name buildings after corporations, much less entire industries and lobbying groups. The way I look at it is we have the W.T. Young Library, I’m okay with that, but we don’t have the Peanut Butter Library. We have Blazer Hall, but we don’t have Ashland Oil Hallâ€  Cotton said.

The UK KFTC student group is looking into some next steps, including investigating whether the naming procedure violated UK's own administrative regulations.

In the meantime, let the board know what you think about this decision! You can find all of their contact information on the board of trustees website at http://www.uky.edu/Trustees/members.htm