Legislative Support for the Flagship

Senate Chamber, Kentucky State Capitol

Today, January 28, 2020, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear will present his budget address to the Kentucky General Assembly.  There is at least some optimism this year that higher education will not experience yet another cut.  UK, for its part, vigorously explains the needs of the university to the Governor and members of the legislature.

A century ago UK President Frank McVey faced the same challenge.  President for only two years as the 1920 legislature convened, McVey hoped to increase the state's support for his struggling university.  New and renovated buildings were desperately needed as enrollment was growing following World War I.  He knew he needed the support of Governor Edwin Morrow and the members of the General Assembly.

President McVey pleaded that "...if we are to live up to the beginnings we have made we must have enlarged resources.  Sometimes we feel we are like Alice running as fast as we can just to stand still.  So when and where we can, let us get behind the legislative program, and work for larger opportunities."

Soon after President McVey announced to the faculty, staff, and student body that the entire legislature would be visiting the UK campus and shared their itinerary.

"Students and faculty will assemble at 2 p.m. along the driveway leading from the main entrance to the Administration Building.  The members of the legislature will walk from the cars to the chapel accompanied by a company of [student] cadets and the band.  Faculty and students are asked to fill the chapel to overflowing.  After brief exercises in the chapel the legislators will be taken on an automobile ride around the university grounds.  Then will follow a reception at Patterson Hall by the young women of the university.  In the evening entertainment will be furnished by the Lexington Board of Commerce at the Phoenix Hotel.  There will be no classes Thursday afternoon."

Administration (Main) Building, 1920

Perhaps President McVey's plans for lobbying the legislature worked.  The university's total state appropriation increased the following year from $512,806 to $689,472.  Nevertheless, the struggle for adequate funding for the state's flagship and primary research university would continue to this day.

UK AND AN OPPORTUNITY OF A LIFETIME

Today, January 17, 2020, marks the anniversary of my beginning work at the University of Kentucky 47 years ago.  Earlier this week I watched a student arrive at the Margaret I. King Library for their interview for a student assistant position in the Special Collections Research Center.  I could not help but reflect back on the day I did the same thing nearly a half century ago.

But it almost didn't happen.  As I sat on a cold January day in my advisor's office on the 17th floor of the Patterson Tower, Dr. George C. Herring, a young, already internationally recognized scholar of American Foreign Policy, patiently took the time to discuss a book review I had submitted for his class.  At one point he asked, "Do you know the book, Elements of Style?"  I confessed I had never even heard of the book, much less read it, so he recommended I find a copy and study it.  I assumed he thought it would improve my writing since I could tell from the title it had nothing to do with American diplomacy.

As our session was ending Dr. Herring's phone rang.  I did not pay much attention to his conversation but he turned to me afterwards and said that a person from the Archives called asking if he knew any student that might need a job.  Dr. Herring thought I might be interested.  Thank you Dr. Herring, who I might add, became a dear life-long friend.

Well, in fact, I was not only very interested in the job, I desperately needed a job.  I had lost a job making bourbon as a one person operation on Sunday mornings at the Wild Turkey Distillery.  Then I lost jobs at the "For Mad Men Only" Bookstore and "The Store," adjoining enterprises in the 200 block of South Limestone.  "For Mad Men Only" specialized in Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Ken Kesey, Herman Hesse, Eldridge Cleaver, and Tom Wolfe among other 60s authors.  "The Store" on the other hand I will only describe as an enterprise that sold all types of paraphernalia and items a person still living the sixties "high life" might need including, among other things, an assortment of teas and colorful tapestries.

By the way, I did not lose any of my jobs for poor performance.  A new labor union at the distillery demanded that my part-time, non-union position be discontinued.  As a former member of the Amalgamated Meat Cutters Union (too complicated to explain here) I sympathized with the union even as I lost a good paying position.  "For Mad Men Only" and "The Store" both closed for reasons that were above my pay grade but may have been because the sixties finally ended sometime in the mid-70s.

When I left Dr. Herring's office I walked directly over to Margaret I. King Library and applied for the student position.  Fortunately, they hired me and I have made UK Libraries my life work.  Now I look back on the past 47 years and am thankful for the opportunities and experiences afforded me by UK Libraries.

I hope we hired that young student I saw earlier this week and I hope their journey is as good as mine has been or even better if that is possible.