A dorm called ‘Coal’
Mountaintop removal coal mining in Kentucky (Image source: mountainroadshow.com)
Private and corporate funding of higher education in the U.S. is nothing new, but blatant advertising of the coal industry to the point of requiring that a new dormitory for basketball players contain the word ‘coal’ in its name is kind of pushing things. A recent segment of the Rachel Maddow show pokes fun at a situation involving a private group of wealthy donors who are University of Kentucky basketball fans and apparently also big fans of coal. The group, called the Difference Makers, is offering to give $7 million towards the construction of the new dorm, provided it has ‘coal’ as its middle name.
‘U. Kentucky students to live in Coal’
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The coal industry has a long and important history in the state of Kentucky and continues to be a major part of its economy. This type of corporate advertising has also become increasingly common in the United States and elsewhere, with many new sports and entertainment venues taking the names of large companies; Staples Center in Los Angeles and the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. immediately spring to mind. Sports teams identifying themselves with local industry – as opposed to specific companies – has a longer tradition; the National Football League has both the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers, and the Major League Baseball has the Milwaukee Brewers. So what’s the big deal with calling a student residence the ‘Coal Dorm’ or something similar?
The organization Kentuckians for the Commonwealth sees it as the University selling out to ‘an industry that historically has cared very little about the plight of citizens it employs, people it employs and certainly the effects the industry has on people and ecosystems all down the line,’ according to member Martin Mudd, also a University of Kentucky Graduate.
Besides the environmental and social issues surrounding the coal industry, this type of ‘donation advertizing’ exemplifies a significant move towards private industry ingratiating itself and partnering up with the public sphere that may worry many students as well as ordinary citizens. The University of Kentucky is a public university, after all.
By Graham Land
Additional resources:
Kentucky Kernal – Basketball dorm naming rights causes stir over coal
The Rachel Maddow Show
The Mountaintop Removal Road Show
Dark and Dusty: West Virginia Mountaintop Mining
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Tags: carbon emissions, coal, Kentucky, Pollution, University of Kentucky
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