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kentuckykernel October 2026

What the Flock?

Kentucky basketball forward Braydon Hawthorne rides the inflatable bull outside the Gatton Student Center on Friday, Sept. 4, 2026, in Lexington, Ky. Photo by Will Luckett

What’s inside

Editorial UK Flock-Off!

Feature Overbrook: The unnoticed tapestry

News How UKPD uses license plate readers

Sports Bax against the wall

Opinion My Owala is working overtime

Editorial Board

Editor-in-Chief Sylvia Freire Managing Editor, Special Projects Editor Cara Raiford Chief Designer Merritt Manire News Editor, Features Editor Adah Hufana Assistant News Editor Abigail Wright Sports Editor Jenna Lifshen Assistant Sports Editors Sydney Cox Brett Ramsey Opinions Editor Ari Contreras Assistant Features Editor Gray Seibert Copy Editor Keyonna Henson Photo Editor Brooke Johnson Assistant Photo Editor Will Luckett Video Editors Piper Renaud Olivia White Podcast Editor Isabella Lindsey TikTok Manager Jackson Redish Social Media Editor, Newsletter Chloe Bradley

Address 507 Library Drive Pence Hall

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EDITORIAL:

UK, Flock-Off ! Editorial Board Kentucky Kernel

f you’ve walked around Kroger Field and The 90 recently, you might’ve noticed Flock Safety cameras, a type of camera sold as automated license plate readers. As students living in the age of a highly surveilled society, we inevitably feel invaded walking in certain spaces. However, our University of Kentucky community shouldn’t be one that joins that list. While we don’t promote Flock’s surveillance technology, we acknowledge it is useful for emergency detection and crime prevention. However, UK’s community wasn’t made aware of Flock’s arrival on campus. And when we did find out about them, it was from the Kernel’s intervention via an interview. UK only released a map of its Flock camera locations after the Kentucky Center for Investigative

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Reporting filed an open-records request, was denied and appealed that denial. Only then did the university release a map, with UK’s associate director of strategic and crisis communications Dani Jaffe saying the decision would “support our goal of ensuring transparency.” Transparency should not require appeals. Not a single campus-wide notice was sent to students when Flock cameras were installed. In an interview with the Kernel on Aug. 30, UKPD Police Chief Joe Monroe said the department prioritizes keeping the UK community aware of campus security updates. Why, then, did students learn about Flock’s presence from anyone but the university itself? Publicizing camera locations and policies shouldn’t require a fight, it should be routine. We want real transparency about Flock usage on campus: what information UKPD is monitoring, how the camera system works, the period footage is saved and the exact locations of all cameras.

Our concern stems from CNN reporting that a Kentucky police officer was arrested after using Flock cameras over 2,000 times to track his ex-girlfriend. If UK is not transparent, how are we to trust that similar accidents that have occurred in other counties won’t happen on our campus? Chief Monroe has said UKPD restricts camera access to fewer than a dozen people, audits who accesses the systems and has zero tolerance for misuse.

What’s to stop UKPD from abusing this technology? What protocols exist to prevent incidents like stalking? We are told there are safeguards, but we cannot confirm this. That is the problem. Until then, Flock presents a threat to our individuality. The university should release a statement detailing the extent of Flock’s surveillance. If it can provide clear information for other cameras on campus, Flock

shouldn’t be the exception. As students of this institution, the lack of such details is insulting. We deserve updates on if our safety is being handled properly. Privacy will always be nonnegotiable. If UK justifies its use, they should be responsible for reviewing how Flock cameras and other security footage is handled. — Have you gotten Flocked? Let us know. Email editor@kykernel.com

Flock Camera watches downtown Lexington, on Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026, in Lexington, Ky. Photo by Andrew Diebel

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Overbrook: The unnoticed tapestry

A tour group walks past the tapestry of William T. Young on Friday, Sept. 18, 2026, in the William T. Young Library in Lexington, Ky. Photo by Brooke Johnson

Storm Cat wasn’t famous for racing, in fact, his racing career ended early due to a knee injury. Storm Cat was Young’s most successful horse because he sired Seven hundred colors of yarn over 108 stakes winners. were carefully woven together. Swedish artist Helena The tapestry, Overbrook, covers almost an entire wall in the William Hernmarck installed the tapestry in June 2001, according to the exhibit T. Young Library at the University label next to the tapestry. of Kentucky. Outreach and engagement Thousands of students walk by specialist Jen Martin sees the it every day. Look closely, and it looks like a tapestry as something that has accompanied her journey at UK. variety of matted wool in sporadic “I was a student the first year colors, like a Georges Seurat the library was open…in April of painting. 1998,” Martin said. “So I started But take a few steps back, working here at the library in and the 264-square-foot tapestry January of 2001 as a student becomes a scene of Overbrook worker.” Farms with William T. Young and his most famous horse, Storm Cat. Martin said the tapestry allows Gray Seibert Assistant Features Editor

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her to think of the horse farms that surround Lexington. “I am reminded just how beautiful Kentucky is,” Martin said. “I love to drive down Versailles Road and look at the horse farms.” Junior interior design student Cierra Durham said she thinks of where she grew up whenever she passes by the tapestry. “I’m from London, Kentucky,” Durham said. “It just reminds me of the landscape and the hills … it just really feels like home in a way.” Martin said the first $5 million donated to the construction of the library came from Young.. “Without him we wouldn’t be able to stand in this beautiful building,” Martin said. William T. Young and Storm Cat have been looking over students for 25 years. Thousands of students walk by it every day. Many students, including junior civil engineering student Martins Afolayan, said they didn’t know much about the tapestry. Afolayan said he believes the tapestry just became part of everyday life. “When I first started coming here, I was like, ‘Oh wow!’ but I guess I’ve seen it so much now; it’s kind of faded into my memory,” Afolayan said. People don’t fail to see the tapestry, according to Afolayan.

He said that because people are in William T. Young Library so often, it just grazes their minds.

Why are textiles even important? College of Design assistant professor Jennifer Meakins said there is an importance of versatility in the world of textiles. She said she is aware that when people hear about the processes that go into textiles like weaving or knitting, they think of a grandmother’s quilt. But Meakins’ work goes far beyond that misconception. On top of the work she does in the school of design, Meakins is currently working for NASA to create textiles for the conditions of space.

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it is creating space-resilient textiles or a complex tapestry, the work is still brushed off. Meakins said that many crafts and professions are stereotyped. “It’s very much about gendered crafts, and a lot of times it’s dismissed,” Meakins said. “I know it is appreciated or thought of differently than a painting.” Meakins said UK having - Martin Afolayan the tapestry and being able for Junior civil engineering student people to see it is important. She said Kentucky is rich in craft culture. “We also twist things like carbon For Meakins, understanding fiber and glass,” Meakins said. where materials come from means “We’re basically knitting really high-performance, aerospace-level learning about labor and what it really takes to create something. yarns into textiles that hopefully Isabel Shirey, a Master of could be used for space travel and Fine Arts studio art candidate reentry.” and Teaching Assistant in 3D According to Meakins, whether

When I first started coming here, I was like, ‘Oh wow!’ but I guess I’ve seen it so much now; it’s faded into my memory”

A tapestry of William T. Young hangs in William T. Young Library on Friday, Sept. 18, 2026, at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Ky. Photo by Brooke Johnson

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A University of Kentucky tour group sits in front of the Overbrook tapestry by artist Helena Hernmark on Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026, in the William T. Young Library in Lexington, Ky. Photo by Scout Tarquinio

foundation, said that there is a fundamental misunderstanding about what it takes to make a piece of fabric because in the United States most people are far removed from the processes that make them. But Shirey said there is beauty in fabrics that everyone could see. “It’s an extension of us. It’s like our skin,” Shirey said. “We can look at our jeans and figure out the pattern. You can look at a washcloth and pull it taut and see the over and under and over and under.” Shirey said there is something familiar and comforting about the Overbook tapestry. She said seeing it in the context of something that’s painterly on the wall, full of color, full of depth and complexities. She said once you get closer and 8

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zoom in, there is that familiarity again. Shirey said she sees the tapestry as breathtakingly representative, especially given its sheer size on an upright loom.

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According to Meakins, quilting circles are important historically, whether it was enslaved women or pioneers. Meakins said having that one-to-one relationship with this craft illuminates the labor and material necessary for its creation. “You can never separate the cultural, political and social aspects with these particular material cultures,” Meakins said. Shirey said textiles are a representation of a community. She said the craft is historical, where there is passing down of knowledge. “Textile work always reminds me of communal spaces, and the library is a deeply communal space,” Shirey said. “For me, it is this desire to get back to our more material world.”

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UK’s Flock cameras: How UKPD uses license plate readers Adah Hufana News Editor The University of Kentucky has installed license plate reader cameras, or LPRs, across campus, according to the UK Police Department Chief Joe Monroe. These devices, also commonly called Flock cameras, capture images of every vehicle and license plate that passes by them. The majority are made by Flock Safety, a technology company “that helps law enforcement, businesses, schools, and communities find relevant information, respond faster, and make better-informed decisions,” according to its website. Monroe said the police department is transparent about the usage and locations of the Flock cameras on campus, along with the security of the information stored on them. “We also are very restrictive on who has access (to the information),” Monroe said. “There are literally probably less than a dozen people who have access to those cameras. I don’t even have access to it.” Flock cameras have been 10

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Photo by Brooke Johnson A flock camera faces the street outside Historic Memorial Coliseum on Friday, Sept. 18, 2026, at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Ky. Photo by Brooke Johnson

purchased by police departments and businesses in 49 states in order to help find stolen vehicles, find missing people or assist in other kinds of investigations, according to Flock Safety’s website. Cameras use artificial intelligence to store details such as the date and time a vehicle was captured, the make, model, color and license plate number of the

vehicle, according to the website. In Lexington, there are about 200 LPRs, according to DeFlock, a project that maps the locations of LPRs throughout the country. Some of these cameras are operated by the Lexington Police Department, while closer to the University of Kentucky’s campus, cameras are used by the UK Police Department. According to maps sent by Dani Jaffe, associate director of strategic and crisis communications, the police department operates 18 Flock cameras on UK’s North and Central Campus. The cameras were first installed in 2022. On North Campus, eight cameras are located along South Limestone and South Upper Street in the area surrounding Raising Cane’s, girlsgirlsgirls Burritos and the UK Good Samaritan Hospital. Another is located by Gatton Student Center facing Avenue of Champions. On South and Central Campus, multiple Flock cameras are located along Alumni Drive. Another is outside The 90. Monroe said only investigators and security operation center employees are allowed access to the cameras.

Use of the cameras is also limited to ongoing criminal investigations only, according to Monroe. “We have a very restrictive policy as well as an audit that we do to see who’s accessed it,” Monroe said. According to Monroe, UKPD has used the Flock cameras to investigate crimes related to motor vehicle thefts and property crimes. Monroe said some vehicles in the stadium parking lots were being targeted for their catalytic converters, and UKPD was able to identify the license plate of the person responsible and arrest them using Flock cameras. While UKPD and Flock Safety have stated the devices are secure and only used for safety and crime investigation, the technology has been misused in the past. The Washington Post identified 50 police officers across the country in August 2026 who used Flock cameras to stalk ex-partners or other people. According to the nonprofit law firm Institute for Justice, there have been cases of people being wrongfully pulled over or arrested due to an error in the technology labeling cars during investigations across 2026. In Lexington, WKYT found that between January and July, the city’s camera network was searched millions of times by agencies outside of Lexington, some even outside of Kentucky. Of the 7 million searches of the LPD’s network, 96% came from agencies other than Lexington. The police departments of Houston,

Dallas, Atlanta, Louisville, Indianapolis and Michigan State Police all appeared on the audit logs of Lexington’s camera network. Although Monroe and Flock Safety have stated the cameras only capture vehicles and not individuals, WIRED reported that the software on the cameras “explicitly detects people” and

store data. “We store (vehicle) data for 30 days unless it’s being used for an investigation purpose,” Jaffe said. Monroe said the problem is some police departments are giving all of their officers access to the cameras, leading to more misuse. “For me, it starts at the top with leadership; you have to

A flock camera faces the street on the corner of Avenue of Champions and South Limestone on Friday, Sept. 18, 2026, at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Ky. Photo by Brooke Johnson

records where in the image they appear, though the technology did not appear to have face-recognition capabilities. According to Jaffe, LPD does have access to UK’s Flock network and UKPD has access to the city’s. “UKPD and Lexington PD work really closely together all the time,” Jaffe said. “That’s in the interest of keeping our students here on campus, and many of our students and employees live off campus, too.” Jaffe said the policy regarding LPRs is compliant with House Bill 58, which regulates how the technology is used to collect and

have restrictive access, restrictive policies and it’s only used for certain things,” Monroe said. “Law enforcement across the country that is actually doing a good job and is using the tool appropriately are the ones that are taking the hits from these other departments that are misusing it.” Monroe said if someone within UKPD were found to be misusing the cameras, they would immediately be suspended pending investigation and he would move for termination. “We have a zero tolerance for misuse of technology,” Monroe said. kentucky kernel

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Column:

Smile For Flock! Editor’s note: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not reflect the policy or position of the Kernel.

Abigail Wright Assistant News Editor

through major roadways that surround campus, with additional cameras extending toward the heart of UK, such as the one by The 90. The map depicting the academic There are plenty of things a core of campus provides some University of Kentucky student comfort— cameras tend to appear might reasonably worry about around major roadways to campus, while walking across campus: while most interior pedestrian getting swept up by the Patterson areas have no marked Flock Office Tower wind cameras. tunnel or being hit by In other words, if you’re an electric scooter, for traveling campus on foot, example. you may have discovered Now, apparently, you that the greatest loophole in can add being recorded the system is walking. by an automated license According to the plate reader (LPR) to Flock Safety website, its the list. cameras aren’t designed to But don’t worry. recognize faces. Instead, UK has made it easy its ALPR system captures to know where you are license plates, vehicle being watched. characteristics, dates, times Well, sort of. - Dani Jaffe and location. After initially The Flock website also refusing to provide UK assosiate director of strategic and says its network connects locations of its Flock crisis communications agencies in 49 states and Safety cameras, UK allows searches based on eventually released Find a place where the vehicle characteristics and license a map to the Kentucky Center plates. cameras can’t see you for Investigative Reporting after So if you’re wondering where on the news organization appealed campus to avoid Flock, the answer As the maps helpfully the university’s denial under is anywhere your car isn’t. demonstrate, there are plenty of Kentucky’s open-records law, places on campus where a Flock according to Louisville Public camera is not standing watch. If you drive, good luck Media reporting. The maps show clusters of UK associate director of The maps are less comforting strategic and crisis communications cameras around the edges and

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Dani Jaffe said the university ultimately decided releasing the locations would “support our goal of ensuring transparency.” So, in the spirit of transparency, here is your “UK Flock Survival Guide.” Please note it is based on the available maps sent to the Kentucky Kernel by UK.

...the university ultimately decided that releasing the locations would “support our goal of ensuring transparency.”

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for those who arrive on campus by vehicle. On map one, green camera icons appear around major roads near UK, including Cooper Drive, Alumni Drive and South Limestone. Map two shows another cluster of cameras around the roads surrounding the academic core, including Avenue of Champions, Administration Drive and South Limestone near Cornerstone Garage. The maps also depict two red camera icons, which Jaffe described as Flock cameras in need of maintenance. It is unknown if these cameras are still operating. In essence: Green camera icon: Flock is

watching. Red camera icon: Flock might be watching. No camera icon: You’re probably in the clear.

Remember to check Lexington’s map While the maps so far have just depicted UK’s campus and the surrounding areas, the city of Lexington also maintains an official map of its LPRs, including Flock cameras. According to their website, the city said it has a total of 125 LPRs throughout Fayette County; however, that number was last updated in Sept. 2024, with the map depicting Flock camera

locations last updated in Dec. 2025. At the time of publication, Lexington is directing the public to a map whose location data is almost a year old while Flock cameras continue to be installed, removed, deactivated and debated across the state. kentucky kernel

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Fortunately, if you’re looking for the most current information, there are always crowdsourced surveillance maps such as DeFlock and investigative groups such as KyCIR.

Meanwhile, Kentucky is having a Flock migration The timing makes UK’s continued Flock use even more interesting. Northern Kentucky cities such as Newport ended their Flock program in July, citing public feedback as a reason. Fort Mitchell followed in August. Independence also announced it would remove its cameras, with Florence following in September. Lexington and UK, meanwhile, are still Flocking. So while some Kentucky cities are rethinking Flock, UK appears to be saying: “What if we added another camera?”

has intensified scrutiny over who can access Flock data and how that access is controlled, raising the question: Who is watching the watchers? According to the Flock website, every search is logged, and local agencies control who has access to information, while the city of Lexington states on its website that access is restricted to law enforcement and subject to audits. Those safeguards may be meaningful, but safeguards are only as reassuring as the transparency surrounding them. And that’s the part that makes UK’s initial refusal to release its camera locations and overall lack of communication to students so frustrating. If the technology is safe, effective and responsibly managed, why hasn’t UK been more transparent with students?

Welcome to UK There is a legitimate argument that Flock cameras can help police recover stolen cars, locate missing people and assist in investigative leads, with Lexington crediting the system with helping recover hundreds of stolen vehicles since 2022. But public safety and privacy do not have to be mutually exclusive. The Fourth Amendment does not become irrelevant simply because a camera is pointed at a license plate and not a face. All students deserve to know what technology is operating around them, who can access the information, how long it is retained and the legislation surrounding it. Until then, if you get the feeling you’re being watched while driving around, chances are, you probably are.

Flock isn’t the only one watching These privacy concerns are not just theoretical. According to CNN reporting, a Shively, Kentucky, police officer was arrested after authorities alleged he used Flock cameras to track his ex-girlfriend more than 2,000 times. The recent case Flock Camera watches downtown Lexington, on Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026, in Lexington, Ky. Photo by Andrew Diebel 14

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The following maps depict Flock cameras surrounding the University of Kentucky’s campus. Illustrations by Lauren Timmerding

Map one

Key

Red Camera: Flock may be watching Green Camera: Flock is watching

Map two

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Photo gallery: Campus life

Above: Mackenzie McClurkin, a sophomore biosystems engineering student, tosses a bean-bag backwards on Thursday, Aug. 20, 2026, at Kroger Field in Lexington, Ky. Photo by Xavier Patterson

Above: Bonnie Hughes (left), a freshman neuroscience student, and Aaliyah Bowman (right), a freshman neuroscience student, write letters to their future selves on Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026, at Champions Kitchen in Lexington, Ky. Photo by Brooke Johnson

Above: Mia Roberts, a sophomore business and hospitality management student, and Eraste Stampley-Boyance, a sophomore accounting student, laugh with a student at their Underground Perspective table on Thursday, Aug. 20, 2026, at Kroger Field in Lexington, Ky. Photo by Xavier Patterson 16

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Above: UK gymnastics team lines up for Big Blue U on Friday, Aug. 21, 2026, at Kroger Field in Lexington, Ky. Photo by Brooke Johnson Right: Local band Bedford bass player Samuel May and guitarist Colin Michael performs outside the Gatton Student Center on Friday, Sept. 4, 2026, in Lexington, Ky. Photo by Will Luckett

Left: Adrian Wattson, a sophmore pre-finance major, locks his electric scooter on Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026, outside Patterson Office Tower in Lexington, Ky. Photo by Brooke Johnson

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BAX AGAINST THE WALL ONCE HE WENT CAT, THERE WAS NO TURNING BACK. Jenna Lifshen Sports Editor The traffic on Interstate Highway 35. That’s all CJ Baxter could hear as he lay still on the ground of Texas football’s outdoor practice facility, tucked alongside the interstate. The roar of passing cars, horns blaring, engines rumbling and the constant howl of the highway in the distance. That’s the moment he knew his season was over. “It was the very last play of practice, and we were doing the goal line. I got tackled in a funny way,” he said. Playing at a school like Texas, practice stopped for nothing. It was always a nextplay mentality: find a way to fix the play, run it again. However, on Aug. 6 — only a few weeks before the first game of the 2024 season — the field was silent. A snap, a pop, a click. The second an athlete hears it, they know their fate. But for Baxter, it wasn’t the

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noise he heard from his knee that worried him. It was the silence. On the day he landed on the watch list for the Doak Walker Award as the nation’s top running back, he tore his PCL and LCL in his right knee. Baxter was coming off a breakout freshman season, becoming the first true freshman running back to start for the Longhorns since Ricky Williams in 1995. The No. 1 running back in the 2022 class was also entering a running back room that was looking to replace Bijan Robinson. Robinson left Austin, Texas, as a unanimous All-American and Doak Walker Award winner before the Atlanta Falcons selected him No. 8

overall in the 2023 NFL Draft. Those were the shoes Baxter was stepping into, but the expectations didn’t worry him. “I mean, at the end of the day, I was never trying to be him (Robinson). Yeah, as great as a player (he was), it was just coming there and being myself, being the player that they recruited,” Baxter said. In his first season, Baxter rushed for 659 yards and five touchdowns on 138 carries, added 156 yards through the air and earned Freshman All-America honors. Baxter was set to take over the starting spot his sophomore season, with veteran running back Jonathan Brooks departing to the NFL. Baxter had plans for what he wanted out of the season. “I write everything down,” Baxter said. “I like to read it more than to express it to others.” He would never get the chance to chase the goals he set. The recovery process for his knee was physically demanding, but the mental aspect

was a whole different ball game. “I think for the longest, even up until some time last year, it was one of those things like, ‘Am I going to be myself again?’” Baxter said. It was a question that loomed and one he simply couldn’t answer yet. As the months passed, Baxter said he realized the injury was changing him in ways that extended far beyond the field. His faith grew with it too. Baxter found himself returning to the Book of Job, which has since become his favorite book in the Bible. To Baxter, the story of the man who had everything stripped away from him mirrored the question he was confronting himself: What was left when football, the accolades, awards and honors were taken away? “I feel like I was Job when that happened,” Baxter said. “Job was someone who had everything. He had it stripped from him, and it was like testing his faith.” The injury is something Baxter never would have chosen.

But what it gave him was something he wouldn’t give back for anything. “I’m not happy that I got injured,” Baxter said, “but I’m happy with what the injury did for me.” That perspective wasn’t immediate. Baxter said he found it over time, leaning on his faith and the people around him as he worked through his recovery. “As time went on, I prayed more, and I seeked advice from mentors of mine. It was one of those things like, you may not be the same, but you may be a better version of yourself,” Baxter said. Baxter realized they were right. He was never going to be the same person he was before. But eventually, Baxter said he discovered that didn’t have to be a bad thing. “I was like, ‘I need to change,’” Baxter said. “I think it’d be good

for me, my mental, my physical, just everything — meeting new people, being around a new program.” When Baxter entered the portal, he said he knew exactly what he was looking for: transparency, trust, honesty and loyalty. But above everything else, belief. “My big thing was I wanted someone who would believe in me,” Baxter said. “Somebody believed … that I can reach the top again.” For him, that cut the search down to just two schools – Kentucky and Indiana.

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Then he finally met Kentucky head coach Will Stein face to face. “It was something about Coach Stein when I met him in person,” Baxter said. “Just the look he gave me, the conversation we had, it went so well that I was like, ‘I think this man is telling me the truth.’” Kentucky wasn’t unfamiliar to Baxter. He had taken an official visit as a recruit in 2022, years before his career would eventually bring him back to the same place. But after three years in Austin, Lexington definitely felt different. It was slower. Baxter said that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. “Austin is so fast … I like Lexington. It’s low-key,” Baxter said. “That’s what I need.” It didn’t take long for Baxter to realize just how much he needed it. Through everything — the injuries, the recovery, the portal process — Baxter said he never reached a point where he hated football. But there were moments where he couldn’t

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help but wonder why it kept happening to him. Then, just a few weeks before

the season, during fall camp at Kentucky, he said something felt different. “I had a moment where I sat down and just talked to myself, and I was like, ‘I feel like a little kid playing football again … that’s how I feel being here,’” Baxter said. As a player who has gone through so much with his body, Baxter said he now - CJ Baxter dedicates significant time to Starting RB for Kentucky Football caring for it, even using some of his NIL earnings to do so. The biggest change, however, is how he said he approaches the game. “One game at a time, one practice at a time,” Baxter said. “Literally, one day at a time is the most important thing for me. The game will be here when it gets here. Just keep preparing, keep repairing my body.” After spending so much time on

I think for the longest, even up until some time last year, it was one of those things like, ‘Am I going to be myself again?’”

Illustrations by Kelly Doherty

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the sidelines, being on the field has never meant more to him. “The biggest thing for me was just durability, playing and being available,” Baxter said. “I feel like anytime I’ve been on the field, I’ve been blessed to do great things and play well.” In his two active seasons at Texas, Baxter totaled six touchdowns. Through five games this season, he has already matched it. Two of those came against No. 9 Texas A&M, when Baxter helped Kentucky pull off one of the biggest road wins in program history. Baxter had already earned a spot on the preseason watch list for the 2026 Comeback Player of the Year Award, but added comeback player

of the week honors following the win. But while couches burned on the streets of Lexington in celebration, Baxter was already back to work. “The first thing I did when I got in from playing the A&M game was watch the film, and I’m critiquing myself in and out,” Baxter said. “I just feel like there’s so much left on the plate for me.” For everyone outside the program, Kentucky had pulled off an upset. The locker room saw it differently — the win was expected. “To outsiders it was an upset, but to us it was like we expected to do that because of the week of practice we had, preparation that we put in,” Baxter said. The win gave Baxter another

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glimpse of the player he said he had spent nearly two years trying to find. But this time, he said he wasn’t interested in looking backward. “We have eight guaranteed games (left),” Baxter said. “God willing, we play until January … that’s the ultimate goal. Playing in a national championship.” Two years ago, Baxter lay on the practice field alongside I-35, listening to the traffic roar beyond him while everything around him stood still. Back then, the 19-year-old said he wondered if he’d ever return to the player he was before. He doesn’t wonder anymore. “I would say I found that player,” Baxter said. “But I found a new version of that player.”

Opinion:

My Owala is working overtime Editor’s note: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not reflect the policy or position of the Kernel.

Megan Michaels Staff Picture this: It’s 3 p.m. and it’s 95 degrees outside. The sun is blaring down, I’m sweating profusely and my shoulder bag has become especially heavy. I’m walking with hundreds of other students trying to get to the same place and speed-walking to escape the heat, only for me to get inside the building and drink my entire water bottle. It doesn’t take long to find another University of Kentucky student complaining about the

same problems. Some are having even worse experiences. Trying to walk across campus in these conditions is almost unbearable. As we are going on almost the second month of being back at school, the Time and Date website attributes the temperatures during August and most of September as being very extreme with many days reaching into the 80s and 90s. So, while on my way to my class one August morning, I wondered, “Why doesn’t the university treat extreme heat conditions the same way they do extreme winter weather?” And that is an intriguing

question, one that I’m not alone in asking. Each week, I usually try to check the weather app on my phone to plan ahead what my outfits will be depending on the forecast. Each week, my heart breaks a little more. Every time I have stepped outside, I question if I truly need to go where I am going and catch myself weighing the pros and cons of skipping a class or an event. My jeans and sweater outfits, along with my fall playlist on Spotify, will just have to be put on hold, I suppose. We are in the middle of September, so why can’t

Previous page: Students walk in front of White Hall during the first day of class on Monday, Aug. 24, 2026, at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Ky. Photo by Scout Tarquinio Left: A University of Kentucky student rides a scooter through campus on Aug. 26, 2026, at Alumni Commons in Lexington, Ky. Photo by Will Luckett

the weather hear my pleas and just let me embrace my white-girl autumn aesthetic? But in terms of reasons to cancel class, there are tangibly fewer when it comes to heat than it does in winter conditions. In January, during the frosty winter blizzard, classes were canceled for three days in a row, due to hazardous conditions, according to the Kentucky Kernel. Freezing temperatures, icy sidewalks, snow that piled upon the landscape; the kind of extreme that warrants school closure. The torridity we have experienced, though, has come with sweat, misery and perhaps the loss of my sanity. So this toasty weather should be considered with the same seriousness when students are arguably suffering more in it, if maybe in a different way. Overbearing heat could just as easily be grounds for canceling school. A full closure probably isn’t realistic, but that doesn’t mean UK has no obligation to respond to the heat at all. Even though winter is coming,

spring will eventually also, and so will another potentially sweltering summer. So then what can UK do to try and ease our suffering? Perhaps they could put out water stations like they do for move-in. We know they have the mobile water stations, and spreading them around campus would be a great way to keep students from overheating. Maybe even getting the AC working in Funkhouser’s basement, perhaps? On the UKNOW website, there is an article dated August 31st, 2026, that gives suggestions about how to prevent overheating, although all it discusses is what we can do as students, not what the university can do to help us. While class cancellations may not be implemented, surely the university could and is able to provide us with such simple amenities. I know I want fall weather to come, and I know the university can’t change the weather, but could they at least make this heat a little less tricky to beat? kentucky kernel

kykernel.com