Kentucky
Students must remember who hurt, helped and stayed silent during the 2024 DEI battle
One of the most important pieces written on the 2024 anti-diversity movement in Kentucky was penned by independent student newspaper editors from the state’s seven public universities. They opined, “University officials have been hesitant to take a stand, which is why we felt we must.” They were right to do so and should be commended. In the aftermath of Kentucky’s rapacious 2024 legislative session, these brave young writers and their allies should remember a few things.
They should remember this was never about DEI. It was really about retrograde anti-Black racism. They should remember principled politicians like Tina Bojanowski, Josie Raymond and others feverishly fought against it. They should not forget that professional writers like Linda Blackford and Joe Gerth relentlessly accentuated contradictions and pushed for honesty and decency with their brave columns. They should remember Marc Murphy told more truth about this issue with his powerful cartoons than most people could with words. Urban League President Lyndon Pryor and public school administrator John Marshall were warriors and did us all proud.
On the other side, students should be clear that politicians Mike Wilson, Jennifer Decker and the 92 other Republicans who voted in favor of the mean-spirited, racially retrograde bills they sponsored in the state Senate and House are the closest things we have to white citizens’ councilors in the 21st century. And it all happened on the watches of Republican leaders Robert Stivers and David Osbourne. None of them should be forgotten or forgiven.
University presidents didn’t speak out against anti-DEI Bill
The students rightfully named Kentucky’s public university presidents who failed us all when they wrote, “Only one university president, Eli Capilouto of the University of Kentucky, has spoken out against the bills.” Murray State’s Bob Jackson, Louisville’s Kim Schatzel, Western Kentucky’s Timothy Caboni, and Northern Kentucky’s Cady Short-Thompson did little more than release less than convincing statements. Eastern Kentucky’s David T. McFaddin, Morehead State’s Jay Morgan, and even Kentucky State’s Koffi C. Akakpo, president of the state’s only public HBCU, said nothing at all.
Kentucky’s private school presidents should not be allowed to hide or let off the hook, either. Only Simmons College of Kentucky’s Kevin Cosby spoke out. Presidents like Bellarmine’s Susan Donovan, Transylvania’s Brien Lewis, Centre’s Milton Moreland and others didn’t say a word.
Diversity is not going away. DEI is in the best interest of every single student.
These presidents did not speak out because they clearly were not caring or committed enough to do so. Their advisors probably told them they could ignore this instance of Black suffering just as their public university counterparts were doing and get away with it. They probably told them they should remain quiet because no one really cared or was paying attention anyway. They were wrong. People were paying attention and will remember. In the end, their silence was tantamount to agreement. Shame on these presidents and their advisors for such a moral failure.
By choosing the path of least resistance Kentucky’s college and university presidents not only showed a failure of leadership, they also ignored the guiding words of Martin Luther King, Jr.: “Cowardice asks the question, is it safe? Expediency asks the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? But conscience asks the question, is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because it is right.”
Kentucky’s public and private university presidents who refused to speak did not do right. And their silence in the face of evil places them on the wrong side of history. We need them to do better.
Gerth: Good riddance to the Kentucky legislature and its shameless Republican power grab
Anti-DEI bills only failed because Republicans couldn’t agree
Finally, students must remember this was a battle won, not a war. Victory came this time around only because Republicans couldn’t agree on how far their devilishness should go. The same thing happened in Alabama last year, only to have Republicans return this cycle and pass a mind-blowingly backwards anti-diversity law. Students who know history will know Gov. Kay Ivey did her best to channel former Alabama Gov. George Wallace and stand in the proverbial modern schoolhouse door to prevent Black access and progress when she happily affixed her name to this backwardness.
Like their Alabama confederates, Kentucky’s racially retrograde politicians who are hellbent on pushing the state into the past will return from their temporary retreat to continue their war on equality, justice, and democracy next year. We can only hope college and university presidents will respond differently when they do.
We don’t need these presidents to simply change diversity position names at their schools and fall back on the tired excuse that they said little to nothing publicly but were “working behind the scenes.” That’s problematic. We need them to stand before us and admit they were wrong. We need them to find their moral compasses and do what is right. We need them to be stronger, more communicative and caring, and actually lead. And we must embrace each and every one of them who chooses a more just path as we move forward, no matter how terribly they failed us this time around. We must forgive and support them if they change because it’s the right thing to do.
Dr. Ricky L. Jones is the Baldwin-King Scholar-in-Residence at the Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute and Professor of Pan-African Studies, University of Louisville. His column appears bi-weekly in the Courier-Journal. Follow him on Facebook, LinkedIn, Threads, and X.
Clara Strack scored 26 points and grabbed seven rebounds as No. 12/13 Kentucky thumped Wright State 96-53 on Friday night inside Historic Memorial Coliseum.
Three other Cats also scored in double figures. Tonie Morgan had 18 points, six rebounds and six assists. Freshman Kaelyn Carroll made six threes on her way to a career-high 18 points. Asia Boone hit five threes en route to a 17-point night.
Wright State scored first on a three, but Kentucky got baskets from Strack and Morgan to lead 4-3. After WSU scored, Amelia Hassett drained a three and the Cats led 7-5. Wright State tied the game at 7-7 before Morgan and Strack scored to give UK an 11-7 lead. However, Wright State scored the next four to tie the game again.
Strack made two free throws, and Morgan made one, to give the Cats a three-point lead. A Boone three extended the lead to 17-11. Strack scored two more buckets and the Cats had a double-digit advantage. A Morgan three-point play capped the 13-0 run that gave UK a 24-11 lead. Kentucky would lead 31-13 after one quarter.
Wright State opened the second quarter with an 11-4 run to cut the Kentucky lead to 35-24. However, the Cats responded in a big way. Threes from Josie Gilvin and Boone gave UK a 17-point lead. A Morgan layup, two Strack free throws, and threes from Strack and Carroll (three times) compiled a 22-0 run that ended the half. Kentucky led 57-24 at the break and Strack led all scorers with 18 in the first 20 minutes.
In the third quarter, WSU scored first on a free throw but a Strack basket gave the Cats a 59-25 lead. After three Wright State points, UK got layups from Morgan and Jordan Obi to lead 63-28. After a Raiders’ three, Kentucky went on an 11-4 run, sparked by another three from Carroll, to lead 74-35. The Cats would lead 74-37 after three quarters.
Kentucky scored first in the final stanza on a Strack basket. After WSU scored twice, Carroll hit another three to make it 79-41. Kentucky would build the lead to as many as 46 (96-50) before settling for the 43-point victory.
The Cats now take a break for the holidays before hosting Hofstra on December 28. Tipoff for that game is set for 2 p.m. ET and the game can be seen on SEC Network Plus.
Will Stein‘s play-calling mantra is simple: Feed the Studs. It only works if you have studs. Kentucky must acquire talent to be competitive. It starts in the upcoming transfer portal, but there are long-term deficits that must be remedied by high school recruiting. Stein is building a staff that has cut its teeth on the trail.
One of the first things we learned about Joe Price, the new Kentucky wide receivers coach, is that he is known in the Lone Star State as East Side Joe. That is a reference to his hometown of Houston, a talent hotbed in the state of Texas. Safeties coach Josh Christian-Young just spent a couple of years at Houston after four years in New Orleans at Tulane.
New offensive line coach Cutter Leftwich first called Denton, Texas, home. He played college football in Louisiana at McNeese State, and spent time coaching at UTSA and North Texas. Kentucky’s two new coordinators each cultivated reputations as excellent recruiters and are coming to Lexington via the state of Texas and Louisiana.
Are you picking up the geographical theme yet?
Texas and Louisiana produce some of the most talented football players in America, not only in terms of quality, but quantity. In the 2025 On300 rankings, Texas led the way with 42 players, while Louisiana contributed a dozen, tied for the sixth-most. The issue is that Kentucky hasn’t gotten a lot of those players over the years. Might a tide finally be turning?
Sloan has Adaptable Recruiting Pitch
Within his first 24 hours on the job, Joe Sloan flipped four-star wide receiver Kenny Darby from LSU to Kentucky. Sloan’s connections in the state of Louisiana quickly paid dividends. He cultivated those connections for more than a decade in the Boot, but those weren’t always there for the former East Carolina quarterback from Virginia.
“I was 26 years old when Skip Holtz hired me at Louisiana Tech, and I had never been to Louisiana. He said, ‘Hey, what do you think about recruiting Baton Rouge?’ I said, ‘All right, that sounds good to me,’” Sloan recalled on Wednesday.
“He gave me, it was really nice a Crown Vic. The first one, it was a light baby blue. The second one was red, cherry red. It was nice; rolled down there and we started just developing relationships.”
You can expect Stein’s staff to lean on prior relationships to bring players to Kentucky. Jay Bateman has plenty of those in the DMV, the same region where the Wildcats recruited Josh Paschal. However, Kentucky can’t just rely on Texas, Louisiana, and the DMV to build a roster. Sloan believes this staff has the tools to adapt and find the best players from near and far to suit up in Kentucky blue.
“Recruiting it’s a people business. Coaches, mentors, and family members, they want to know that you have a plan for their son, on and off the field, to develop them to their fullest potential. What I look forward to is the opportunity to develop relationships right in all the areas that we’re going to recruit. I think that’s what it’s going to be,” said Sloan.
“That’s what it’s about, having open doors, answering the phone, creating relationships, and developing a trust with the people around the players that we’re going to recruit, that we’re going to take care of those young men. That’s what I’m going to do, that’s what I’ll continue to do, and that’s what we’ll do here at Kentucky as an entire program. So in terms of, I don’t know that it’s just one area, it’s more about the ability to develop those relationships and the excitement to do that, and I’m fired up.”
No. 1 Kentucky outlasted No. 3 Wisconsin 3-2 in the five-set thriller to earn a trip the the NCAA national championship. The Wildcats clinch their first national final appearance since winning the title in the Spring of 2021 and second in program history.
In front of a sold-out T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, MO., Big Blue rallied in a dramatic fashion after a devastating 25-12 loss in Set 1. Kentucky was able to punch back in Set 2, earning the 25-22 victory before dropping the next set 25-21 to the Badgers.
With their backs against the wall, the Cats fought off a rallying Wisconsin team for the 26-24 Set 4 victory to push the match to five.
With momentum on their side, Kentucky took back what it lost in the first and fired on all cylinders in the fifth. The Cats raced out to a 6-1 lead early in the fifth before clinching the 15-13 win, hitting a match-best .409.
Outside Eva Hudson powered 29 kills on .455 hitting with seven digs, two blocks and a service ace to power the Kentucky winm while Brooklyn DeLeye tallied 15. The Big Blue defense made the difference, registering eight big-time blocks against a career-night by Wisconsin’s Mimi Colyer.
With the Wildcat win, Kentucky clinches a spot in the national championship to face No. 3 Texas A&M for the first ever all-SEC final in NCAA women’s volleyball history.
KENTUCKY TO THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP AFTER A FIVE-SET THRILLER 😱#NCAAWVB x 🎥 ESPN / @KentuckyVB pic.twitter.com/RJNIv2eumg
— NCAA Women’s Volleyball (@NCAAVolleyball) December 19, 2025
Final stats here.
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