To stop brain drain, Ky higher ed must work on LGBTQ issues. This college in particular. | Opinion

Kentucky has a drainage issue, a brain drain issue.

Brain drain is the emigration of highly educated or skilled people from one place to another. A 2019 report from the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee found that from 1970-2017 Kentucky had the worst brain drain of any state. The study found a 28.59% gap between highly educated people leaving the state compared to those entering. The trend cannot be ignored, Kentucky is losing educated people and skilled labor left and right, and state institutions are not helping the matter.

Back in March, the Kentucky State Legislature passed SB 150. It is one of the most draconian pieces of anti-trans legislation enacted in the country. While the immediate effects of the legislation will obviously harm transgender people and their families, the long-term impact on the state will be very damaging.

Approximately 20% of Gen-Z identifies as being part of the LGBTQIA+ community. If Kentucky continues to attack LGBTQIA+ rights, it will hinder its ability to attract and retain an educated populace. A new study by The Hill found that 25% of college applicants avoid states entirely based on political reasons. Now more than ever, college applicants are including access to gender-affirming care in their decision process. While state governments will not feel the bulk of the consequences of these college decisions until much later, colleges will be the first to brunt the cost. In order to thrive, let alone survive, colleges must begin changing institutional policies to better protect the LGBTQIA+ community and use their political agency to influence policy at the state level.

One college that must adapt to the current political climate is Centre College. Centre has been in the midst of an inflection point since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020 Centre had a negative net income of $13.6 million, its first year of net income loss since 2012. While other colleges across the country faced similar financial straits, Centre has suffered a blow specifically at the hands of Kentucky’s staggering brain drain. Centre currently offers three premier scholarship groups, but with the sunsetting of the Brown Fellows Program, that number will soon drop to two. The program founded by the James Graham Brown Foundation was designed to strengthen scholars’ connection to the state in order to elevate the quality of life in Kentucky. However, the foundation chose to end the program due to numerous scholars choosing to leave the state for better opportunities.

While COVID-19 and the end of the Brown Program were out of the college’s control, its next woes will come from its unwillingness to adapt and counteract actions and sentiments from Frankfort. Centre has not exactly been on the cutting edge of diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, most notably seen in the previous administration’s mishandling of the 2018 student sit-in against racial injustice. While amends and progress have been made, the college is still woefully inept in handling issues related to race, gender identity, and sexual orientation. The college continues to struggle with transphobia and homophobia in Greek life, lack of campus-wide gender-inclusive facilities, and lack of written protection against harassment and abuse based on gender identity and expression in the student handbook.

While progress has been made regarding the latter two concerns, it has resulted from student and faculty/staff activists. When the Kentucky state legislature began considering SB 150, it was student and faculty/staff activists who organized a campus response. While over 100 students, faculty, and staff members went to protest the bill in Frankfort, Centre’s administration was notably absent. In fact, the administration hampered protest efforts by refusing to grant excused absences to students who chose to protest for transgender lives.

The President of the college, Milton Moreland, and the Dean of the college, Ellen Goldey, sent out short statements claiming to support transgender students. However, they failed to take any action to condemn the actions in Frankfort and the rise in transphobic rhetoric on campus. Statements only go so far; when LGBTQIA+ students are risking more than upper-level administrators, it is time to look in the mirror. Centre and Kentucky as a whole will miss out on top-flight college applicants if this assault on our rights continues.

Arthur Jenkins (They/She) is a senior Politics and History major at Centre College. They are also the President of Centre College’s Pride Alliance.