Gov. Andy Beshear continued to criticize decisions made by the University of Kentucky during his regular media briefing Thursday.
At the briefing, he reaffirmed his stance against the appointment of federal judge Gregory Van Tatenhove as UK’s new law school dean, without mentioning him specifically by name.
Van Tatenhove has been a federal judge for the Eastern District of Kentucky since 2005, when he was appointed by President George W. Bush. He's also an alumnus of the school.
Beshear argued school faculty should have had more say in the appointment. Last month, he expressed worries that UK donors are pushing “partisan and undue outside influence” onto the university.
“I don't want a law school to be viewed as a Republican or a Democratic law school. I just want it to be the University of Kentucky law school,” he said. “And I believe that there's some people now that, because of that perception, may go somewhere else.”
In 2024, UK’s Board of Trustees dissolved the University Senate, putting faculty members that were directly involved in the school’s decision making process into an advisory role instead.
University of Kentucky President Eli Capilouto defended Van Tatenhove’s appointment during a Board of Trustees meeting last week.
“Judge Van Tatenhove offered a stern vision, a reverence for the college that taught him, and a commitment to our faculty and our students and our community that I felt was unparalleled,” he said.
Beshear also criticized the ongoing centralization of campus workers into BeyondBlue, a university-owned nonprofit.
Workers held a rally last month to voice their concerns about the move, arguing UK’s existing pay and benefits structure wouldn’t extend to new employees.
“Many of them are union employees, and there's a real concern that they will lose a lot of their rights as public employees or as union employees, and I think especially a higher education institution ought to be looking out for the people that work for them,” he said.
UK spokesperson Jay Blanton previously said that centralization is a way to boost efficiency.
“These are efforts about how, in a time when budgets are getting tighter, when we are being expected to do and be more for the state that we serve, it's appropriate to look at the services we provide and how we provide them, and try to do that in the best way possible,” Blanton said.
Beshear argued the decisions point to the consolidation of power at UK and that he believes in stronger oversight.
