Wendell Berry has withdrawn all his papers from the University of Kentucky in protest of what he considers the university’s sellout to coal interests. Excerpt:
Berry, 75, said UK’s push to become a “Top 20” research university has caused it to stray from its land-grant university obligation to address Kentucky’s problems.
“The coal business came up, and that for me was just the last straw,” Berry said Tuesday. “I don’t think the University of Kentucky can be so ostentatiously friendly to the coal industry … and still be a friend to me and the interests for which I have stood for the last 45 years. … If they love the coal industry that much, I have to cancel my friendship.”
