WUKY In Depth

PIKEVILLE, Ky. - Colleges and universities in central Appalachia are struggling to retain students. Roughly half the freshmen at the University of Pikeville don’t come back the following year. For the students who stay, many wonder if there will be jobs available in a region that for decades relied on coal mining as its primary industry.

“We feel like if you can teach them in the mountains, train them in the mountains, they’ll stay in the mountains,” says James Hurley, President-elect of the University of Pikeville.

PIKEVILLE, Ky. - For a lot of college students, summer is a chance to kick back and relax-- maybe do an internship -- before resuming classes in the fall. But some students in Appalachia won’t be returning to campus next August, at least not at the school where they originally enrolled.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - It’s often said that if you want to know what a community really cares about, look no further than its budget. WUKY is beginning a series of reports digging deeper into the priorities of Lexington’s Urban County Council members as they begin the process of crafting a spending plan for the city. First, Josh James has this look at a summertime favorite: parks.

WHITESBURG, Ky. - New statistics released by the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet show a staggering drop in coal production and a sharp rise in unemployment in the southeastern Coalfields, particularly in Letcher, Harlan, Knott and Perry counties.  According to the report, Eastern Kentucky coal production has reached the lowest level since 1965.