golden
forks
SPECIAL EDITION
kentuckykernel Monday, May 3, 2021
Monday, May 3, 2021
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May horoscopes
AQUARIUS Jan. 20 - Feb. 18
PISCES Feb. 19 - March 20
ARIES March 21 - April 19
Practice caution this month if approached with anything that seems to good to be true. Avoid committing to early and without clear details, and keep a clear mind by resting often. TAURUS April 20 - May 20
If you’re feeling vulnerable, it’s because someone in your life isn’t being honest with you. Protect your heart but don’t get hard-hearted; your compassion is a big part of you.
Social energy increases for Aries in May, so expect to hear from friends old and new - combined with vaccines, maybe it’s time for a new going-out outfit for this summer.
GEMINI May 21 - June 20
CANCER June 21 - July 22
May will be a time of transformation for you. Keep an eye out for chances to say yes - to love, to life, to a new job opportunity. Don’t let past issues cause you to doubt yourself.
The end of the month heralds your birthday, so prepare for your time to shine by letting go of rigidity. Be flexible, and Venus moving into Gemini will give you a breakthrough.
The sun’s transit through Taurus will help you feel connected to Earth and other living beings. Sit outside to clear the garden of your mind as a season of growth hits.
LEO July 23 - Aug. 22
VIRGO Aug. 23 - Sept. 22
LIBRA Sept. 23 - Oct. 22
Drive at or below the speed limit, as the planets are bringing you challenges this month. Be careful to clarify mixed messages and don’t let your bravado give off a bad impression.
Worried? Of course you are, you’re a Virgo. Resist downward spirals by taking deep breaths and remember everyone else is to blame when things go wrong.
Karma is active for you in May, so be especially wary of past relationships resurfacing. Take care not to act rashly in love, the active theme for Libras moving forward.
SCORPIO Oct. 23 - Nov. 21
SAGITTARIUS Nov. 22 - Dec. 21
CAPRICORN Dec. 22 - Jan. 19
The lunar eclipse on May 26 will bring tensions in your life to a peak. Whatever happens, happens, so be honest with yourself about what it is you want and don’t ignore instinct.
Probably you should just buy the lottery ticket, because your sixth sense is on fire in May. If you’re feeling led to something, now is the time to seek guidance from mentors and friends.
Let your inner neat freak take over as this is the time for Capricorn to deep clean their home and their heart. Make room for relief by letting go of stale, cluttered spaces.
Disclaimer: the Kentucky Kernel is not responsible for actions taken due to actual or perceived interpretations of the above horoscopes. Act at your own risk and discretion.
Monday, May 3, 2021
LOOKING BACK, MOVING FORWARD MEN’S SOCCER ADVANCES TO NCAA THIRD ROUND No. 24 Kentucky (12-4-2) upset No. 11 New Hampshire (8-2-1) 2-0 in the second round of the NCAA Soccer Championships Sunday afternoon. Freshman defender Jalen Bigby recorded the first goal of his collegiate career in the 85th minute to put the Wildcats in front by two goals, sealing the deal on the victory and advancing Kentucky to the round of 16 later this week. Before Bigby’s goal, Kentucky jolted ahead 1-0 behind a goal from midfielder Bailey Rouse in the 35th minute, giving the Wildcats the lead before halftime. A red card for Oneil Smith-Elias in the 14th minute forced New Hampshire to play a man down for the final 76 minutes of the match. Kentucky trailed the shot count 6-4 at the half and 3-1 on their on goal attempts but the lone shot attempt was the difference
maker along with goalkeeper Enrique Facusse’s strong showing between the pipes, recording three saves in the first half. The Wildcats dominated the second half, using the numbers game to their advantage, racking up three corner kicks compared to two for New Hampshire. Kentucky forced New Hampshire to shift defensively most of the second half which led to Bigby’s deciding goal. Kentucky finished with seven shots, three of which were on goal along with three saves, 16 fouls and one offside call. Bailey and Bigby both finished with one goal on one shot attempt while Asensio’s lone assist led both teams in the category. New Hampshire ended their season with three shots on goal on eight attempts, one save and 12 fouls. Kentucky will continue their road to the national championship game this Thursday as they await the winner of Sunday’s matchup between No. 5 Wake Forest and No. 25 Coastal Carolina.
JACK WEAVER I STAFF Senior Dwight St. Hillaire finishes first in the first heat of the 400-meter during the Kentucky Invitational meet on Saturday, May 1, 2021, at Shively Track and Field Stadium in Lexington, Kentucky.
kentuckykernel
CONTACT Editor-in-chief: Natalie Parks
UK SOFTBALL SWEEPS TEXAS A&M
No. 17 Kentucky finally won their second SEC series of the season in dominant fashion in College Station vs. the Aggies of Texas A&M. Coming into the weekend, the Wildcats were sitting at no. 10 in the SEC but after a great weekend moved up to eighth. If nothing else changes, Kentucky would face ninth-seeded Texas A&M in College Station yet again for the first game of the SEC Tournament. Kentucky jumped out to an early lead and never looked back in the Sunday afternoon series against Texas A&M that pushed them up in the rankings. The Wildcats got things rolling in the top of the second inning, as senior Grace Baalman earned a single RBI to put the Cats up 1-0 early. In the top of the third, Kentucky would stretch their lead to three runs to none thanks to an Aggies wild pitch and a RBI from freshman Erin Coffel. After a couple quiet fourth and fifth innings offensively for both sides, Kentucky would look to put the game out of reach, scoring one run in each of the top of the sixth and seventh innings. A solo home run from sophomore Miranda Stoddard in the top of the seventh put the Cats up 5-1 heading into the final frame of play. Senior Autumn Humes had another stellar day on the mound, only giving up three hits and one run compared to her six strikeouts on the day. Humes finished the weekend 3-0 in an impressive showing. The Wildcats will head back home now for what is their final three games of the regular season, hosting a South Carolina team who has struggled in conference play. If the Wildcats are able to win the series against the Gamecocks, they set themselves up to finish .500 or better in conference play. The home series will start on Friday evening at John Cropp Stadium, with all three games available for viewing on SEC Network+.
editor@kykernel.com Incoming editor-in-chief: Rayleigh Deaton Managing editor: Michael Clubb editor@kykernel.com News reporters: Hannah Stanley Brooklyn Kelley Sports editor: Braden Ramsey sports@kykernel.com Asst. sports editor: Eric Decker Sports reporter: Barkley Truax Opinions editor: S arah Michels opinions@kykernel.com Asst. opinions editor: Gillian Stawiszynski Asst. photo editor: Jack Weaver Designers: Ryder Noah From Kendall Boron Social media manager:
Sarah Simon-Patches KENTUCKY KERNEL OFFICES 340 McVey Hall University of Kentucky Lexington, KY 40506
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Monday, May 3, 2021
In Memoriam
One of the defining experiences of 2020 and 2021 has been loss. Like everyone, the University of Kentucky community has faced its own losses. From gun violence and tragic accidents to fatal cancer diagnoses, eight members of the UK community lost their lives in the last year. Each individual left behind family, friends and groups on campus to grieve them. Along with these losses, the Commonwealth lost 6,513 Kentuckians to COVID-19 in the last 14 months. This collective grief has shaped the year for everyone. It would be impossible to look back on the year and not honor those taken too soon. The Kernel remembers those members of the UK community who died this year:
Photo by Michael Clubb
Asst. coach for UK football, former UK lineman, father
Photo by Michael Clubb
Photo by UK Athletics
Cullan Brown
UK junior, golfer and ‘absolute joy’ to know
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John Schlarman
Ben Jordan
UK basketball, baseball player with ‘big smile’ Not pictured: Dr. Bruce Holle, a retired UK professor who taught history and died of COVID-19
Monday, May 3, 2021
Staff employee photo
Susan Odom
UK chemistry professor and remarkable mentor
Photo from Facebook
Jesse Averitt
UK student and nurse with ‘heart of gold’
Photo from Twitter
Madilyn Grisham
UK student known for love of friends
Photo by Michael Clubb
Terrence Clarke
UK basketball player, ‘light’ of program
spring 2021 | 5
Monday, May 3, 2021
editorial
A new Kernel for a new normal
Rayleigh Deaton Incoming Editor-in-Chief
This time last year, we were presented with a new reality. The world shut down, and life as we knew it came to a screeching halt. We had to cobble together the pieces of normality that remained, constructing a normal similar – but not quite identical – to the old one.
It became a time of simple pleasures. While living at home during quarantine, I remember being disproportionally excited about donning my mask and going to the grocery store to get ingredients for dinner or driving through a coffee shop for a latté – leaving the house and entering civilization at all was cause for celebration. (I also perfected my chocolate chip banana bread recipe, but that’s beside the point.) It was also a time of incredible hardship. Many lost loved ones to a virus scientists at the time could only hope to understand. High school and college
This year sucked, for everyone, in a lot of ways. We found ourselves relying on our coping mechanisms more than ever before. So, we asked the Kernel staff what small thing got them through the year, and these are the results:
Barkley Truax: Anime
Gillian Stawiszynski: Stevie Nicks, specifically the song “Dreams”
Jack Weaver: Pretzels
Ryder From: Plaid pajama pants Hannah Stanley: Krave cereal and Keeping up the Kardashians
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students missed out on milestones like prom and graduation. We were unsure exactly what it was we were fighting, but we knew that life did not look the same, and it might never again. This time last year, I was working as the online content editor for KRNL, the usual in-person gath-erings in McVey replaced by online meetings filled with connection issues, sharing screens and the inevitable “Oh, your mic’s not on!” We, like my new family here at the Kernel, had to learn to move our work online, but we did it. The Kernel and KRNL owe their
2020-21 Editors-in-Chief Natalie Parks and Rachael Courtney a debt of gratitude. These incredible leaders kept operating and producing award-winning content despite COVID-19, no small feat. As the signs of spring bring hope that warmer weather and a break from classes are just around the corner, I hope our hard work and vigilance throughout this pandemic will pay off. I hope elbow bumps will turn back into hugs and families and friends can reunite. I hope the world will continue returning to normal. I look back at how far
we have come and am awestruck. We have gone a full year since that spring break turned into a half semester at home. It has been a year of confusion, hardship and missed op-portunities, yes, but I also see it as a year of learning. We have learned how much we need each other and how much we need to hold onto hope that everything will turn out all right in the end, acknowledging that our actions today will impact our tomorrow. It is my privilege to take the helm of the Kentucky Kernel, the next in a long dynasty of editors who helped make this pa-
per great. I am humbled to be part of something so much bigger than myself, and I resolve to do my part to help us make sense of these times. I will also strive to bring the Ker-nel back from a place of survival to a sense of thriving and growing as we look forward to life re-sembling how it was before. What we do now will be remembered. The stories we tell, the actions we take, will be written down in the history books. It is my honor to be your editor-in-chief as together we turn the page to a new chapter for the Commonwealth and for the Kentucky Kernel.
Kernel Corner
Braden Ramsey: NCIS Natalie Parks: Burt’s Bees peppermint chapstick Michael Clubb: My cats, George and Leo
Brooklyn Kelley: Bible studies and a brightly colored, welcoming room Sarah Michels: Airpods, because Olivia Rodrigo, the Black-Eyed Peas and podcasts saved my sanity
MICHAEL CLUBB I STAFF Leo and George (full names Leo McGarry and George O’Malley) snuggle in their Lexington apartment. George and Leo are brothers, and very good cats. They like playing with charging cords and drinking out of glasses.
Monday, May 3, 2021
Natalie Parks Outgoing Editor-in-Chief
I’ve been thinking about what to say in this parting column for a long time. I thought this would be my chance to finally explain just how damaging being the editor-in-chief of the Kentucky Kernel was to me; the happiness it took from me, the anxiety attacks it gave me. How it felt like I was the only thing protecting students from the University of Kentucky. How lonely I’ve been and how much pressure I felt to single-handedly keep student journalism afloat. But then I realized that I do not owe vulnerability to those who care nothing for me. Nor do I owe justification as to why I chose not to run for editor in again. No rational person, faced with the year I’ve had, would make that choice. I
had the dubious honor of being editor-in-chief of the Kentucky Kernel during the COVID-19 pandemic. My predecessor, Rick Childress, had the misfortune to be editor during the early days of the pandemic, and my successor Rayleigh Deaton will hopefully oversee the end of this miserable era. I was selected as editor the day the first case of COVID-19 was announced in Kentucky. The pandemic and my editorship are inextricably linked. And however else that’s shaped my year, I find that makes my future look lonely. Here is an experience I’ve had that I will never be able to fully share with another person. No one is ever going to get it, you know? Not really. No one is going to understand what it was like. Terrible, for the most part. I can’t express how much of the last year was just an effort to survive. For me yes, but also for the paper. Just to have a paper. Just to print on Mondays, I pulled an all-nighter almost every Sunday night. But for all that, we went far past survival and put out as high quality journalism as college newsrooms are
‘I am no bird’ capable of. Was it enough? I don’t know that there is a way to do enough. The inherent nature of journalism means that the job will never be finished. And what a job it is to be editor of an independent student newspaper, not only during a pandemic, but at the tail end of a lawsuit against the university we cover. Still, I tried. I tripled the number of articles I’ve written despite being the editor and not a reporter. And I know that this letter is going to come across as me seeking validation, and on principle I would like to object to that kind of attention-seeking. But after a year of being denigrated, under-appreciated and overworked, I desperately need someone acknowledge how hard it’s been and how much I’ve overcome. I also know that any kind of genuine support is too little, too late. Words and awards and generic statements of support mean nothing to me. But for me to recover from being editor-in-chief, I do need one thing: stop telling me I should be a career journalist. I get this a lot from grown-ups, particularly ca-
reer journalists. They hear that I don’t want to be a journalist after graduation and they lose their minds. They say that’s “such a shame” and that I would “be great for the industry” and a whole bunch of other things that are bananas insulting because they ignore the frustrations I’ve expressed. Sometimes they condescend to say they can “convince” me to be a career journalist because I “haven’t had a real taste of the job yet.” I’ve seen enough, thank you! Never mind that I don’t have a passion for writing, or that I’ve said over and over again that this year stole any affection I had for journalism, or that statements like this imply student journalists aren’t real journalists. When people tell me that I should be a career journalist, what I hear is that my well-being is not as important as a job. I hear that they want me to sacrifice myself for the betterment of their paper, that they don’t care about me as a person. I hear that I can’t be trusted to know my own mind, or what I want out of life, or that I’m just some silly girl who doesn’t un-
editorial derstand how things really work. If there’s one thing I’ve gotten out of being editor, it’s that I know myself. I know my strength and my depth of will and how far I can be pushed before I break. I know that I am a good journalist, but more importantly I am someone who is going to start choosing things for myself. But this problem goes beyond me. It’s past time to give student journalists and student papers the respect, appreciation and media credentials they deserve. If there is one lesson to take from this embittered monologue, it’s that bad experiences will drive students away from journalism majors and journalism as a career. There’s no overstating the importance of local journalism, and I owe a lot to a few really wonderful journalists who have shown me the way. But if you want college students to be career journalists, make it a career people want to have, and don’t be condescending about it. I don’t want to drive students away from journalism, either. Just because it’s not right for me doesn’t mean it won’t be right for
you. If you’re at all interested, come to the Kernel and they’ll set you up. I just thought I owed myself, and anyone who may be reading this, the truth about the last year. I’m a journalist, after all. Truth is what we do. And I must admit, it wasn’t all bad. There were good times, a few, and I’ve gotten to know people and this campus in a way many people don’t. Maybe I’m too close to this experience to see the good, and I should write a second column in a few weeks or months or years with a more generous perspective. But it was bad enough that I don’t think my thoughts will change. Normally at the close of their letters, outgoing editors will list some of the things they’re proud of. There’s one achievement I will lay claim to - this year did not break me. It almost did. I thought it would. But I’m still here, raising hell like student journalists are supposed to, and thank God for that. And now it’s over, and thank God for that.
send tips to editor@kykernel.com spring 2021 | 7
Monday, May 3, 2021
golden
FORK S
Years ago - or so the legend goes - an embittered Kernelite came back to the office, upset, hurt and insulted. A prominent campus figure had unfairly harangued the young reporter for an offense that he did not commit. It was at that moment, in the heat and sweat of tension, that the young editor vowed revenge. From those feelings of hate the Golden Forks were born. As a testament to that young reporter, we take it upon ourselves to strike back with venomous pleasure at those who have wronged the mighty “Fourth Estate.” Editor’s Note: OK, so that’s a lie. We’re just college students who feel like venting their frustrations at the end of the year. And in a year like this, we have more source material for roasts than ever and an equally great need for some humor to lighten our days. It’s unfortunate that some of you must bear the brunt of that, but take comfort in the fact that the summer Kernel will soon begin, and then comes the fall semester with our new editor-in-chief. Until then, if you’re upset, feel free to send in letters to the editor as always. But this is the last issue, so they won’t get printed, we’ll read them though. Have a good summer. This blurb was adapted from the April 28, 1989, edition of the Golden Forks awards. 8 | kentucky kernel
CLAPBACK S THAT BI TE BACK University of Kentucky The tweet that got UK “this you?”-ed into eternity. There’s so much happening here, we’re not sure what’s worse - the fact that UK’s social media manager would engage in an online squabble is almost overlooked by the condescending tone of the tweet, but then there’s the foolish belief that UK students would comply with COVID-19 guidelines. Everytime UK students were publicly outed for failing to social distance, someone quote tweeted this now infamous tweet to prove that everyone but UK saw this coming. Poor choice UK!
TEACHERS OF THE YEAR Syllabus Sticklers The academic year was long. And difficult. Grueling, some might say. Completely and totally devastating to our personal well-being, which is why students are so appreciative of professors who recognized that burn out and adjusted their assignments accordingly. Shoutout to everyone who cut the final paper from 10 to five pages or cancelled class just because. But this Golden Fork is not for you - it’s for the other professors, the ones who refused to accommodate the limited capacity students had for schoolwork because changing assignments was “against the rules.” Bonus if that professor said “I’m sorry this semester has been so hard on you” and still failed to make it any easier.
Monday, May 3, 2021
BEST SECURI T Y Kroger Field This year, the Kernel was denied photography passes to all but two of UK’s home football games. Understandably, the number of available passes was decreased due to COVID-19. But when other newspapers get passes because of their financial concerns and the Kernel was denied, despite the fact that the Kernel, as the student newspaper at UK, is the only outlet dedicated to covering UK and UK students (including student athletes) and has the strongest claim to coverage, the selection process seems a little skewed especially since we were rejected after offering to serve as pool photographer.
MOST LIK ELY TO DOUBLE TEX T UK Daily Screening We get it, we get it. We need to fill out our daily screening to remain compliant with UK’s COVID-19 protocols, cause those are taken seriously. But the endless reminders are really clogging up our inboxes, and to be honest, we’re not sure what good all of this screening is doing us when half the student body doesn’t fill out the questions and faces no consequences. The three questions we’re asked every morning also . . . don’t encapsulate concerns of COVID-19? And also . . . what’s to stop us from lying? More to the point - why do you think we’re awake at 8:00 a.m. when the first screening goes out?
COVID SUPERSPREADERS Mass Snowball Fights Or should we say supersledders? This two-night snow bonanza in February was a scene from a pre-pandemic world, and not in a good way. Literally thousands of UK students poured into “ The Bowl” outside William T. Young library, sans masks and with no regard for social distancing, to do stunts like ride an armchair down a hill and fistfight. Participants knew the risks of spreading COVID-19, but showed up en masse anyway. Reckless? Sure. Dangerous for public health? Yeah. But here’s what we really don’t get - when it’s under 20 degrees, why not wear a mask anyway to keep yourself warm?
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Monday, May 3, 2021
MOST SELF-AWARE Brad Calipari It takes something really unusual for a Kernel editor to do a genuine spit take, but the shock we felt when seeing this iconic tweet from Brad Calipari did the trick. Brad’s reply to this person upset about the basketball team kneeling for the national anthem is a level of self-deprecation the rest of us can only hope to achieve. “Isn’t nepotism a more correct term for your point?” A+ tweet, Brad.
MOST INCLUSI VE University of Kentucky Say what you like about UK’s efforts towards diversity and equity - even if that’s all talk, UK took a big action step towards inclusivity by (accidentally) offering 500,000 students admittance into the incoming freshmen class. The erroneous email acceptances were a big goof on the university’s part, but now at least they can say they’re welcoming.
FAVORI TE CORPORATE OVERLORD Kroger From free flu shots for all UK students to COVID-19 vaccine sites across Kentucky, this year might as well have had a sign proclaiming “brought to you by Kroger.” If this is prep for a hostile takeover by corporate America, Kroger is making good headway by plastering their name on all sorts of UK-affiliated things, and that’s why they’re our favorite overlord. We definitely appreciate the goodwill, but all that generosity has us thinking that something is a little suss. Probably has nothing to do with a need for good press to offset the bad optics of not paying their workers hazard pay during a global pandemic. Probably.
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Monday, May 3, 2021
CROSSWORD
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SUDOKU
Monday, May 3, 2021
opinion
Ranking campus bathrooms
By Natalie Parks editor@kykernel.com
Forget climbing walls in the recreation center or SmartBoards in the classroom the campus amenity with the most day-today impact on student life are bathrooms. This is a space that, let’s fact it, everyone uses, and one that you’ll frequently encounter. Each building’s bathroom has a different style and different amenities, so the Kernel compiled this guide to help identify which bathroom is best suited to your needs. Spaces were evaluated on facilities, space, color coordination, selfie potential and social interaction. If you’re looking to dip out of an evnet, we recommend the women’s bathroom in the atrium of the Singletary Center (leather bench). For more details, check out our rankings below:
1. Main Floor, Rosenberg College of Law Law building
The light! The space! The cleanliness! This bathroom earned the top spot with its big, big mirrors and incredibly spacious sink area - plenty of space so that you never have to squeeze awkwardly past another
human. Along with well-lit sinks, there’s also a light dimmer to adjust the room and a bright color scheme that emphasizes how clean and new the space is. There’s also a coat rack with lots of hooks and outlets. Though there’s one stall that is consistently out, this bathroom has more stalls than most other bathrooms so it’s not a big deal. Plus, it has the fanciest paper towel dipseners and free, good tampons and pads provided by the Women’s Law Caucus.
2. Main Floor, Grehan Engineering Building
This bathroom smells kind of like the inside of a McDonald’s fry box after you’ve eaten all the fries, but it’s totally empty and has an outlet, so that’s a plus. Also, the stall doors go almost all the way to the floor for added privacy. However, the door to the bathroom is heavy but that’s offset by the newness and complementary color scheme of the inside.
3. UK Art Museum, Singletary Center
Spacious, great selfie lighting, calming, nearly always empty - there’s not much to say about these bathrooms except that they’re soothing. They just have a presence.
JACK WEAVER I STAFF A bathroom in the College of Law on Thursday, April 29, 2021, at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky.
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JACK WEAVER I STAFF A bathroom in the Gatton Student Center on Thursday, April 29, 2021, at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky.
Bonus: Alumni Gym
Though spacious and clean, this bathroom has nothing special to offer the discerning guest. With lots of stalls and a warm color scheme, this space is utility itself. The arrangement of the entrance could lead to awkward positioning if there’s ever a line.
The bathrooms in Alumni Gym, which sits inside the student center, are standard, spacious units. But, they also have showers, which is useful for post-gym sweat or if your dorm ever loses water. The showers have good water pressure but like all gym showers could have a better place to leave your stuff.
5. Third Floor, Gatton Student Center
6. Main Floor, Gatton Business College
4. Lewis Honors College
Helpful hack for the student center the bathrooms are on the same location on each floor. For privacy, the best bet is the first or third floor bathrooms. The main floor is always busy as it plays host to the visitors’ center and main entrance. Though the bathrooms are new, nicely constructed and spacious, their frequent use leaves a lot to be desired in cleanliness, with the trash occasionally overflowing. You’re likely to run into someone entering or exiting, and you may find yourself confronted with a long wait. But these bathrooms do have automatic door openers, unlike some of the more outdated buildings.
These bathrooms are good for one thing - there’s lots of stalls, but they can be busy during class change. The high volume of users gives little privacy, and the poor layout of the sink area means that at peak times the paper towel dispensers and trash cans are almost impossible to get to. Some of the bathrooms in Gatton can be hard to find, tucked away in the far hallway, but the teal color scheme on the outside is nice. All told, this is a bathroom for using the bathroom, but can be crowded and difficult to manuever. See RANKING on page 13
Monday, May 3, 2021
opinion
RANKING
9. Third Floor, McVey Hall
The McVey bathrooms are kind of CONTINUED FROM PAGE 12 crummy, but in a way that people are also crummy, so the vibes match and it’s fine. 7. Basement, William T. Young Library The top floor bathroom has a weird mix of This bathroom is good if you’re look- things going on, but it has a big window so ing to have a cry. It’s mostly always empty the lighting is nice and it has a radiator so and has good acoustics, so if you needed to it’s always, always warm. The stalls themcome in and just freak out for a little while selves are kind of meh and there’s only it would probably be fine. It’s mostly al- two of them, so there can be a line (and ways empty and has good acoustics, so if if there is the position of the door means you needed to come in and just freak out you’re going to hit someone who’s waiting for a little while it would probably be fine. when you enter or exit). But the best part This was good planning on the part of the of the McVey bathroom is that there is a university because the library is probably full length mirror in caddy corner from the the building students are most likely to cry sink mirror, so you can see both the front in. And, this bathroom has a clean, blank and side of your appearance at the same vibe so you can project whatever feelings time. And the full length mirror is tucked you’re having on to the space. Though the away behind where the door opens so if actual stalls and sinks are nothing fancy, you want you can hide there and scare peothere’s a chair for putting your stuff on and ple when they come in. a nice little entryway. Finishing touch - a big mirror so that after you cry you can 10. Ground Floor, Main Building Full length wood stall doors make this evaluate how puffy your cheeks are. space resemble a courthouse bathroom 8. First Floor, Jacobs Science Building that two characters in an episode of Law A euphemistic way to describe this & Order SVU would argue about when the bathroom would be airy. But actually, judge calls a recess during a trial because there’s just no door between the bathroom someone mishandled evidence. It’s defiand the hallway. Though the stalls still nitely old-fashioned, but the checkerboard have doors, the open concept space may floor gives off vintage UK vibes and the leave you feeling exposed. The overall lay- two-door entry means there’s twice as opout would be better if the trash cans were portunities to collide with someone. better incorporated into the sink area.
11. 12th Floor, Patterson Office Tower
This bathroom deserves a much lower ranking, but the tiling and walls are entirely yellow so it gets bonus points. There’s only two stalls and the entrance is awkward because of a dividing wall, but there’s an outlet and it serves as a tornado shelter. Plus, there’s a bench to rest your stuff on. And it’s yellow!
12. Thomas Poe Cooper Forestry building
While this bathroom is not technically nice, it nevertheless has a homey vibe. It was also updated in the last two years - but the wooden table and shelf remain, as does the radiator (dope!). This bathroom only has two stalls and navigating past the dividing wall and around the sink area is awkward, but that’s offset by the same comforting of being on an overnight school trip.
13. Basement, Lafferty Hall
This bathroom has the same vibe as a bathroom in a horror movie where the villain corners an unrealistically attractive teen and murders them with a hatchet while lights flicker on and off, and the bathroom design is totally on the side of the killer. There’s foyer with a wall for them to hide behind and a big window right up against the stall for a jump scare. However, the bathroom is spacious and has a shelf. The bizarre color choices but do distract a little
JACK WEAVER I STAFF A bathroom in Patterson Office Tower on Thursday, April 29, 2021, at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky.
from the creepy vibe.
Bonus: First Floor, Lafferty Hall
This bathroom has more furniture than stalls, including two chairs and a coat rack. If you need to have a tête-à-tête about existentialism while smoking a cigar and looking in a dingy mirror, welcome. But this is not the place to fix your make-up because the COVID-19 handwashing reminder takes up the entire mirror in front of the sink, which is kind of small. However, the sitting area has four outlets to offset the confusing layout.
14. White Hall Classroom Building
White Hall bathrooms are the worst. The lighting is bad, they’re constantly busy and it seems like every time you swing open a stall the toilet is clogged. The layout is what makes these bathrooms so terrible; at peak times there’s constant crowding at the paper towel dispensers and no room between the sinks and stalls for people to walk to either one. The twists and turns right at the entrance mean you’re guaranteed to collider with someone every time you enter and exit, and that same setup is not ADA compliant. Only use this bathroom if you have to, but be warned that during class change there’s going to be a long awkward line. And somehow they’re just never clean. They always feel kind of dingy and just not great. Avoid if you can.
JACK WEAVER I STAFF A bathroom in Lafferty Hall on Thursday, April 29, 2021, at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky.
Monday, May 3, 2021
features
Kentucky Kernel marks 50 years of editorial independence
By Natalie Parks
editor@kykernel.com
In the spring of 1971, there was one thought on the mind of the University of Kentucky’s trustees: ‘how do we get the Kernel off our hands?’ The Board of Trustees’ answer to that question led to the Kentucky Kernel becoming the paper it is today, a financially and editorially independent student newspaper that serves as a bastion of free speech and free press. 2021 marks 50 years since the Kernel became independent and Kernelites both past and present are proud of that legacy. But how that independence came to be is a lesser known story, one that Kernel archives show to be a concerted effort by members of the university’s Board of Trustees to eradicate the Kernel due to their outspoken editorials. “The tension sort of began about a decade earlier when the Kernel began to editorialize in favor of allowing for integration of the SEC,” said Duane Bonifer, who was on the Kernel staff from 1986 - 1991 and now serves as chair of the Kernel’s Board of Directors. The Kernel was one of the early leaders in the South calling for integration, Bonifer said, which
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1972 KENTUCKIAN Right, Dr. Stuart Forth, chairman of the Kernel Press Inc., and the Board of Directors in a monthly meeting.
the university’s “pretty conservative” board objected to. A previous Kernel editor resigned without publishing an issue in protest of the university assigning an advisor to the Kernel in an attempt to control coverage, including barring content about integration from the paper. Combined with growing political activism and youth empowerment movements of the 1960s, the Kernel transitioned into a serious student newsroom that pursued journalistic
integrity at a higher level than ever before - and that was a threat to a university campus. “The Kernel staff has worked under the concept of a free student press, rather than being parentally restricted to the whims of a University administration or a Board of Trustees,” said a column about the power of student press in the Kernel’s April 7, 1971 edition, published the day after the fateful board vote that cut off the Kernel’s funding.
The initial article on the decision was written by managing editor Jean Renaker and also appeared in the April 7, 1971 edition of the Kernel. Renaker said that university president Otis Singletary proposed the Kernel’s budget be cut in half, which was accepted by the Board of Trustees with an amendment that the reduction take place within one calendar year. An editorial from then editor-in-chief Frank Coots, entitled ‘Kernel victimized by politics,’ decried
the decision as a failure of the Board of Trustees to fully consider the thoughts of students and faculty in the decision. Still, Coots noted that the compromise - letting the university’s funding fade out in the next year - was better than the original plan favored by at least three board members, which was to cease funding immediately. “This, of course, would have killed the Kernel,” Coots wrote. He noted that
the financial change was actually to the benefit of the Kernel, which would now be printed off campus and cut publishing costs in half. In his piece, Coots affirmed the Kernel’s commitment to keeping papers free of charge and laid out the plan for the newsroom’s continued operation. “They looked all over the state to find a printer who would agree to print the Kentucky Kernel really on faith more than credit, because the Kernel had no credit,” Bonifer said. Still, the decision veiled as an objection to using taxpayer money for a student paper - came across as reactionary to the Kernel’s history of, to speak euphemistically, persistent journalists, and the educational value of a student press was “always second on the list when compared to the university’s fear of a dissenting campus newspaper,” according to an April 7 editorial titled ‘Trustees can cut off Kernel funds, but not student power.’ Kernel staffers from 1971 and 1972 characterized the move as lashing out at a student press that was not afraid to criticize either the state or university administration. So long as they kept quiet, they believe they would have been allowed to continue as they were. See KERNEL on page 15
Monday, May 3, 2021
KERNEL CONTINUED FROM PAGE 14
But staying quiet wasn’t in their nature or their mission. “As state officials came under attack, they responded with criticisms of their own,” Coots wrote about the Kernel’s pointed editorials. But those officials also had the power to silence the Kernel by influencing the Board of Trustees and sat on the board themselves. The governor at the time, Louie Nunn, sent a state trooper to Lexington to pick up the Kernel and former Kentucky governor Happy Chandler vowed to “abolish that stinking sheet.” Nunn had control of the board by appointing his own men, which led the funding ceasure to pass after failed attempts in earlier years. One of the board members who voted for immediately cutting off the Kernel was the owner of another paper, the Wildcat. Even the efforts of UK president Otis Singletary were not enough to sway the board. Singletary, who had a known fondness for newspapers, was cited by Coots as the only reason the Kernel was not cut off entirely and immediately. “Singletary, at least, I won’t say give it a lifeline, but he didn’t pull the plug,” Bonifer said. Others were not as inclined toward benevolence for the Kernel. “This is only manslaughter. I wanted murder,” Chandler is reported to have said of the tempered decision. Chandler,
who would be appointed to the board again in the 1980s, continued his dispute with the Kernel for the rest of his life, including an altercation where he punched a student in the news - an act for which he received a letter of commendation from J. Edgar Hoover, then-director of the FBI. But in 1971, Kernel editors were aware that they were lucky to survive, and though criticized for accepting the board’s decision without much pushback, knew they had little room to negotiate or “face a sure death.” Nevertheless, the Kernel persisted, and in 1972 was publishing daily, independent papers with more pages than previous years. “The Board of Trustees cannot halt the thinking and power of a student community,” said the ‘student power’ editorial in 1971. “The Kernel will be just one example of how the student community can succeed.” That sense of free thought and independence has carried through to the Kernel of today. “The Kernel’s very independent spirit and attitude of being a watchdog of the university as opposed to a lap dog or a cheerleader for the university has continued on...there’s always, always been sort of a sense of suspicion or tension since then between the university and the Kernel,” Bonifer said. That fighting spirit was never more clear than in the last five years, as the Kentucky Kernel was sued by UK over an open records dispute. Bonifer said this
conflict marked a change in how newspapers and journalists interact since the time he was at the Kernel. “Colleges and universities have just become hyper sensitive to any sort of criticism or any sort of scrutiny whatsoever,” Bonifer said, especially because few papers cover them. So a paper like the Kernel, one with an inherent doggedness and long memory, is a particular thorn in the university’s paw. Through 50 years of independence, the Kernel has weathered many changes - going from a daily paper with 154 issues a year to a weekly paper. A transition to mostly online content has dropped the paper’s circulation, once one of the largest in Kentucky, from 17,000 to 5,000, and in recent years the Kernel moved out of its long-time home in Grehan. But the fundamental identity of the paper remains. “We definitely saw ourselves as a collegiate version of the fourth estate. And we felt that was very important to the students, first of all, which we felt was our first audience but also the families that read the newspaper,” Bonifer said. All of this is thanks to the efforts of the Kernelites from the 1970s, who not only sought independence but had to make a go of it. “Talk about a leap of faith, man. The company that agreed to print the Kernel and said ‘yeah, we’ll believe that you guys are gonna pay us for doing this for you’ -” that printer, along with the editor who took over in the first year of independence, are the real heroes, Bonifer said.
features
1972 KENTUCKIAN Sports editor MIke Tierney answers the phone in the Kernel office
1972 KENTUCKIAN Editorial page editor John Gray speaks to Kernelites in the newsroom.
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Monday, May 3, 2021
features
Two decades of Kernel coverage
By Sarah Michels opinions@kykernel.com
The past year has been a news triple threat, between coverage of COVID-19, the election year and a racial reckoning in America. Sometimes I wonder how we even filled a paper every week with content before the madness of 2020. Over the past week, I’ve travelled down Kernel memory lane, picking some of the best, most iconic, or most significant stories each year from 2005 to 2020. And let me tell you, the Kernel has covered a LOT. From more serious stories on fake bomb threats and student drownings, to squirrels with a knack for knocking out power lines, somehow, there has always been plenty of news to cover. So, come along and explore the Kernel archives with us. 2020: “Lexington protestors march after no charges for death of Breonna Taylor” After Breonna Taylor’s death was publicized by local and national media, Lexingtonians took to the streets, and the Kernel followed them. 2019: “Two among thousands: Meeting Sean Culley and Taylor Nolan” The Kernel’s profile on two suicide victims, UK students Sean Culley and Taylor Nolan, delved into the people behind the statistics. 2018: “The bomb threat to UK’s White Hall: 22 hours of uncertainty” This piece features a timeline of events from that infamous November day, from Haily Duvall’s first GroupMe messages spreading false information and fake screenshots about a bomb
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threat, to Duvall’s interview with the Kernel before being identified as the perpetrator, to her eventual arrest. (Resulting Scooby Doo memes not included).
2016 and 2017: James Harwood’s sexual harassment allegations and the beginnings of an open records battle In 2016, former associate professor James Harwood was accused of sexual harassment and assault by multiple students. The university refused to turn over records related to the case. Thus began a long open records battle between the Kernel and the University of Kentucky that is still dragging on today. The Kernel has published nearly 50 articles since 2016 regarding the original case and the ensuing court fight. In 2016 alone, the Kernel covered Harwood’s initial resignation, the Kernel’s attempts to obtain open records, UK’s allegations that the newspaper was to blame for reduced sexual assault reports, marches protesting sexual assault at UK and UK’s first lawsuit filings against the Kernel. In 2017, the Kernel published articles about the circuit court decision in favor of UK, analysis of the costs of the university’s lawsuit, opinion articles on the issue and claims that students could be at risk due to the ongoing legal battle. This March, after five years of appeals and legal costs, the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Kentucky Kernel in the open records lawsuit, finding that UK knowingly ignored its legal obligations under Kentucky’s Open Records law. But don’t get too comfy yet—the battle might not be quite over. 2015: The Memorial Hall mural debacle Another story that keeps on
STAFF FILE PHOTO University of Kentucky freshman Larmont Stewart waves a burning T-shirt on State Street following the Kentucky menís basketball teamís last-second game-winning shot over Wisconsin in the 2014 Final Four.
going. In 2015, the Memorial Hall mural, a 1934 fresco that features slaves, became a point of conflict between Black students and the administration, leading President Eli Capilouto to cover the offending artwork. This gesture did not last long; in December 2015, the mural was once again uncovered, so as to promote conversation regarding the state’s troubled racial history rather than stifle it. As with most controversial issues, both sides had something to say; the Kernel published letters to the editors both defending the artwork and artist and calling for it to be re-covered, as well as a student opinion piece questioning the administration’s willingness to foster a more inclusive campus environment. To cover
or to uncover, to be or not to be? Six years later, it seems to be a never-ending a question. In June 2020, UK announced it would remove the mural once and for all in light of protests over police brutality that revived discussions about racism in today’s America, but over eight months later, it was still standing.
even after their eventual loss. For their efforts, the Kernel awarded State Street celebrators the “Least Original Award” in the annual Golden Forks. If Ben Franklin were alive today, I’m sure he’d have to add to his old adage: nothing is certain except death, taxes and burned couches after a Kentucky victory.
2014: State Street shenanigans In 2014, UK men’s basketball made a valiant run to the National Championship, where they lost to UConn. Passionate—and slightly inebriated—fans were with them all the way, setting ablaze to couches on State Street when UK made it to the Sweet 16, the Elite Eight, the Final Four, the National Championship, and
2013: “CSF breaks water balloon world record for sixth time” Does the Christian Student Fellowship still do this? CSF’s tradition of breaking the world record every year offered a bit of unfortunate number of wet socks. In this particular year, 238,174 water balloons were thrown See COVERAGE on page 17
Monday, May 3, 2021
COVERAGE CONTINUED FROM PAGE 16
by UK students and by others who heard about the attempt and just had to be a part of it. According to the article, organizers were up until 3 a.m. picking up remnants of water balloons. But hey, at least that entry in the Guinness World Records Books was totally worth it, right? In all seriousness, CSF used the event to raise money for important causes like building wells in Africa, so maybe it should have a future in the post-COVID world. In 2013, women’s basketball also made the Elite Eight for the second year in a row, which was a big deal for the team, but you’d never know, because well, everyone was too focused on men’s basketball’s March Madness run…oh wait. Thankfully, with the recent volleyball national championship, it seems like women’s sports are getting more of the attention— and couch burning— they deserve. 2012: UK men’s basketball at the top, per usual Yeah, yeah, yeah, UK men’s basketball won the NCAA title and about five thousand articles were written about it. Barack Obama, Mitch McConnell, and Jimmy Kimmel got in on the celebration. Even I have to admit the Kernel’s graphic on the historic run and broken records along the way was pretty dang cool. Needless to say, there was a State Street celebration, where 50 people were arrested (talk about an exciting Monday night!), apparently not deterred by President Capilouto’s email imploring students to “be safe, be respectful, and don’t be stupid.” We’ll let this naivete slide, since it was only your second year as president. 2011: “Fourth-degree assaults reported in library” Not only was there a Willy T.
Footstabber on the loose weeks before finals in 2011, but that there was a 2012 fall return. An excerpt from the 2012 article: “The April 2011 bulletin said: ‘In both incidents the victims reported that the suspect crawled under the study desk and used an unknown object to puncture their feet.’ UK spokeswoman Kathy Johnson said in an email to the Kernel at the time that both victims were females wearing sandals.” Police chief Joe Monroe said that it was too early to determine whether the same perpetrator was responsible for both incidents, and I guess we’ll never know, because the Footstabber disappeared as quickly as he appeared. 2010: “Fire marshal recommends closing of SAE house” The 2009-10 Golden Forks said it best: what the hell? Sigma Alpha Epsilon’s fraternity house was closed for a year after they set a student wrapped in toilet paper on fire. The worst part? It (allegedly) wasn’t even hazing, just pure goofiness. Unfortunately, a decade later, SAE is still getting itself into some serious trouble with the law, due to a violent burglary that led to their suspension from UK Greek life and a date in court. 2009: “UK plans bicycle permit parking” Those who hate UK Parking and Transportation Services, you’re not going to want to hear this one. In 2009, UK announced that student bikers would have to pay $15 lifetime passes for a permit to park on the bike racks on campus. They had to place the permit stickers on their bikes, and if students didn’t comply, the bike would be impounded after three warnings. The money was intended to add more bicycle racks on campus, perhaps a noble cause, but the backlash was so intense that UK quickly scrapped the fee. Despite their quite public loss, at least PTS got an award
out of it— the Golden Forks “Go Green to Make Green” award, that is. 2008: If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. “The “false sense of security” award goes to UK Alert, for telling some people about some emergencies, sometimes.” – Golden Forks, 2007-2008. Think getting a text message, email, phone call and voicemail every time there’s danger in the area is annoying? Well at least you weren’t around in 2008, when only some students got messages at all, and those who did, often got them hours after the danger in question was relevant. And when the system finally hit its stride, students took issue with the “emergency” service being used as an alarm clock, letting them know that school was delayed and they could actually go back to bed. I wonder what 2008 UK students would think of our reg-
ular UK Alert phone calls about gas leaks, especially that one time we got one while on Winter Break. 2007: “UK guards against squirrels after critters cause power outages” Despite the generous sacrifice of these brave squirrels, UK students didn’t get out of class. Sorry, ya’ll. The administration did pick up a $100,000 bill for guard installations to keep the squirrels from hurting the power—and themselves. I guess campus tour leaders must have had to update their infamous and wildly entertaining squirrel facts after this one. 2006: “Community mourns drowning deaths” It’s not all fun and games at the Kernel; the newspaper has covered a lot of heavy stories like this one. Whenever a UK student dies, the community needs
features
healing, and anything the student newspaper can do to help, it does. In 2005, the Kernel covered a student who died after being run over by a train, in 2019 we covered two suicide victims, and in the years since the shooting of the Kernel’s very own Jonathon Krueger, the staff has written about the grief surrounding his death as well as the court proceedings that linger on to this day. We don’t like writing about these tragedies, but they are often some of our most significant work. 2005: “Dueling Digits” “It’s not a game of chance… it’s one person’s wit against someone else’s.” I’ll let that sit with you for a bit. After doing a quick Google search, I’m sorry to report that despite a few article mentions, the rock-paper-scissors club seems to have disbanded. You really don’t know you’re in the good ole days until they’re gone.
STAFF FILE PHOTO Participants throw water balloons at the CSF water balloon fight in Lexington, Ky., at Johnson Center field on Friday, Sept. 7, 2013.
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Monday, May 3, 2021
features
First Black editor of the Kernel now a journalist in Los Angeles
By Sarah Michels opinions@kykernel.com
Originally, Tyrone Beason balked at the idea of being the Kernel editor in chief. He knew it would be a lot to handle for a shy kid who wanted to focus on his studies, but after a little convincing from the Kernel staff and advisors, Beason took the job anyway. “They helped make me comfortable with the idea of using that as a tool—being the first Black editor would give me a kind of an insight into covering the campus and covering the state, Kentucky, in a way that maybe other editors who are not people of color would be able to do,” Beason said. Beason was at the helm of the student newspaper from fall 1993 to December 1994, a time when many social topics were rising in temperature, including same-sex marriage, LGTBQ+ people serving in the military, flag burning and abortion. While he didn’t necessarily intend to become a trailblazer, Beason gradually grew into the role. He didn’t shy away from using his identity as a “Black kid from Kentucky” to further his reporting either; one of Beason’s favorite projects was an autobiographical series called “God Bless the Child” that explored his burgeoning awareness of his socioeconomic status in America.
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He said the Kernel series was prophetic of his eventual career path, in which he uses an introspective, multicultural lens to focus his reporting. One example is his recent stint as an election reporter for the Los Angeles Times. “Most of my stories had to do with race and identity and belonging and America grappling with the uglier aspects of its past, and how those chapters in our past inform what’s going on today,” Beason said. “I think that gave readers, kind of coverage that maybe not everybody was thinking about.” Beason could have written the Biden inauguration story from his living room, but he decided to take a different approach. He roadtripped from South Carolina to D.C., stopping at various landmarks to hear stories from various community members about how race has shaped their lives and the nation. Beason said the piece was a burst of inspiration for him. “I’d felt so locked down during the pandemic all year and so this whole thing about getting out and seeing America and helping it rediscover itself really was born out of a feeling of me wanting to recharge and to learn about America again as well, you know, and I turned that into my job,” he said. Before joining the Los Angeles times as an elec-
tion reporter and currently, a reporter on race and identity in America, Beason worked at the Seattle Times for over two decades. During his first years, he covered everything from biotechnology to business. Like his recruitment as an LA Times political reporter and Kernel editor, Beason didn’t anticipate this career path. But when opportunity comes knocking, Beason not only opens the door, but welcomes the new, often unfamiliar duty. He advises other journalists to maintain an openness and curiosity about their abilities, as well as different subjects and their interdisciplinarity. “A lot of the stuff that I do now might be about race and identity, but actually I write like a business reporter even now,” Beason said. “I think about how economic trends affect culture and politics and people’s sense of place or displacement from where they live. It all goes hand in hand.” Eventually, Beason settled into an 11-year role as a Seattle Times magazine writer, followed by a position as a social justice columnist, before he left for the LA Times in 2019. He said he feels like he is living his dream job right now, as a “reporter of America,” with the entire country as his “wellspring of inspiration.” Beason anticipates compiling the material from his America
beat into a book someday. For even an experienced professional like Beason, despair about a particular story, the work or the general state of the journalism industry sometimes creeps in. When this happens, Beason said he tries to reconnect with why he’s in the business in the first place by exploring unfamiliar communities, museums and street art. “I think we all take our work very seriously in this field and sometimes it’s okay to just go out and just talk to people and get ideas from them and listen to their stories,” Beason said. It’s both a horrible and amazing time for journalism right now, Beason said. While the financial aspect of the business is crumbling, the work of journalists across the country, energized by this moment in history, is thriving. While constant fears of layoffs are all too real, Beason said now is as good a time for experimentation as any. “If we’re not going to take chances now, when are we ever going to do it?” Beason asked. “It’s never going to be totally safe to be different, but I think allowing reporters to have a little more attitude in their writing for example, helping journalists integrate text and video and graphics and creating new storytelling techniques, you know, it may not make us a lot of money, but I think it might
Tyrone Beason, the first Black editor-in-chief of the Kentucky Kernel. Photo from Twitter.
point us towards something that people will grasp onto that they’re not getting from us now.” There’s no question that Beason has enjoyed a successful career—one that doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. It all started with the Kentucky Kernel, which Beason described as a “boot camp” for the real world, thanks to the great degree of latitude the staff was given to run their own show. He urges today’s student journalists to step up and be more of who they are, tapping into their identity instead of extracting themselves from their reporting, so they can get deeper, ask better questions and find more interesting stories.
While career journalists are set in their ways, unwilling to take risks because of job security, Beason said student journalists have a unique chance to experiment. “Student journalists are very well positioned to think big, to be rebellious, in a sense to do journalism in a way that maybe people are telling you not to, for whatever reasons, and just to see what works—maybe it doesn’t work but it’s okay to fail and try again,” Beason said. “As an industry, what do we have to lose? If anything, we have something to gain from the spirit of experimentation that journalists and your generation bring to this profession.”
Monday, May 3, 2021
features
Recent grad making waves as reporter By Sarah Michels opinions@kykernel.com
In the Kernel newsroom, former opinions editor Sarah Ladd is a living legend. I used her username and password to login to our website for over a year before our accounts were updated. The opinions editor before me, Brianna Stanley, did the same. Such tangible evidence of Ladd’s legacy is harder to come by these days, but her name is still infamous in the newsroom. And for good reaso - Ladd was at the forefront of the Breonna Taylor coverage at Louisville’s Courier-Journal, less than two years after graduating college. She said it was empowering to be part of the effort, providing not only local citizens, but national and international outlets
with the background and context they needed. “It was crazy to feel like, wow, we’re really a part of history and everything we’re doing and recording, every photo we’re taking could end up in history books,” Ladd said. Now that protests have lessened, Ladd is on the COVID beat. With growing pandemic fatigue, she regularly brainstorms new, interesting angles to keep readers’ interest. Ladd’s also had to deal with some personal fatigue, after over a year working from home instead of the Courier-Journal’s downtown newsroom. She’s faced the same dilemma as many others—finding a separation between work and leisure when both exist in the same space. Not to mention, Ladd is currently pursuing her Master of Fine Arts in Creative Non-Fiction at Spalding
University. “It’s a lot, and I think that we all have this tendency to not put our mental health first,” Ladd said. “You have to do that, so I like to go out for walks. It’s better now that the sun’s out and spring is here, so I’ll go out and just put my phone down and leave the house for like an hour and walk in the sun and that always helps.” Ladd has always been a local journalist. She grew up in Bardwell, a small town in Western Kentucky, where the newspaper was a huge part of daily life. Every time something big happened, like an ice storm or a grave robbing, Ladd wanted to go out and talk to people about it and find out how they had been affected. “As I got older, I realized like that’s what a journalist does, so that’s what I want to do. I think for a long time I didn’t have that
NATALIE PARKS I STAFF Kentucky Kernel reporter Sarah Ladd interviews Benny Snell, University of Kentucky running back and NFL draftee, as part of the Kernel’s coverage of the State Street celebration following UK men’s basketball’s win on Saturday, March 30, 2019 in Lexington, Kentucky.
label on it, but storytelling has always been very close to my heart,” Ladd said. It wasn’t until her junior year that Ladd joined the staff of the Kentucky Kernel. A first-generation student, she spent two years at West Kentucky Community and Technical College before earning a scholarship to attend the University of Kentucky. One of her community college professors had previously taught at UK, and he told Ladd that if she was serious about journalism, she needed to check out the Kernel as soon as she got on campus. Ladd did just that. She set up a meeting with the editor and told her that whatever they needed her to do, she would do. She spent time working for pretty much every desk but sports during her years at the Kernel, trying to cram four years of experience into half that time. She laments only having two years to spend among the people she grew to love, from reporting news events alongside her fellow staffers to late production nights in the office, getting ready to send the week’s paper to the presses. “I think there’s a bit of camaraderie in that, you know, you eat Insomnia Cookies and you stay till the papers done, and you feel very much like empowered by that,” Ladd said. “Like, we’re journalists, we’re losing sleep to put out a paper and inform the community, and I always smile when I think about those nights.” Her time at the Kernel brought Ladd out of her shell as a “painful introvert,” she said. Stories like “Babies and Backpacks,” which features UK students who are also mothers and fathers, and a feature on older people who viewed education as a lifestyle coming back to get their degrees were a few of her favorite projects.
Despite warnings from her UK professors, Ladd’s biggest shock coming from the college to the professional journalism world was how deeply the digital side of journalism had permeated even print journalism. “I don’t think I quite realized how big of a factor that was in putting out a paper,” Ladd said. “I’ve had my Twitter threads go viral, and it’s just something I didn’t think would ever happen as a journalist.” Ladd credits her Mobile Journalism professor David Stephenson and Professor Kathleen Urch for imparting vital digital journalism skills. “I use skills [Stephenson] taught my class like every time I’m out covering an event. It has saved my butt more times than I can count,” Ladd said. “You know, [Urch] always talks about the battery packs and all this stuff and you think, I’ll never need that, but I did. I had to think back to the things she told me and use them when I was out on the streets for like five hours.” When things get tough, Ladd’s readers push her through. Last year, she wrote about an army veteran who died from COVID-19 before he could meet his newborn son. Before long, readers were emailing Ladd, telling her that her story hit them hard, and reminded them why they were going to wear their mask or take precautions. “People like that keep me going because it reminds me that what we’re doing is really important,” Ladd said. “I know people out there appreciate the work journalists do, even when sometimes it may not feel like that, you know people appreciate the contribution to the community, people appreciate coverage, people appreciate hearing the truth.”
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