LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear released a statement Tuesday questioning the decision-making at the University of Kentucky amid a fraught period for the school's athletics department.
Beshear said he is “losing confidence and growing increasingly concerned” after the university announced last month that Mitch Barnhart, the longest-serving athletic director in the Southeastern Conference, is retiring to take on a new role at the school.
"My concerns include the creation of a new $1 million job that has no defined duties," Beshear said in the statement, “and the announcement that the new dean of law was the only candidate not recommended by law school faculty.”
The university announced last month that Barnhart will step down at the end of June. Kentucky President Eli Capilouto later named him the executive-in-residence for the UK Sport and Workforce Initiative, a role that will pay Barnhart $950,000 per year through August 2030, according to contract details. The contract vaguely defines the job, mostly describing it as a collaborative role for the “promotion of sports.”
Supporters have also questioned the school's decision-making, and some have expressed concern over the direction of some of its sports programs — as men's basketball coach Mark Pope is coming off a second round exit in the NCAA Tournament and has missed on a couple top transfer portal targets — though it is less common for such critique to come from an official like Beshear.
Beshear's concerns also included hiring decisions.
“I've been told that despite previously saying the dean (of law) must be approved by UK's Board of Trustees, the university has shifted and now states that approval is not needed,” Beshear said. “I worry that these actions are related to certain donors pushing partisan and undue outside influence onto the university. I hope students, faculty, trustees and the community attend this week's board meetings and ask the tough questions that should be answered."
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