Ohio University students and faculty are calling on administrators to cut ties with a major school donor and strip his name from the communication school after he urged administrators to “play the race card” against opponents of plans to lease a new residence for the university’s African-American president.
“I think we should handle it the same way the Democrats do every time the Republicans attack President Obama…They label them racists,” Steven Schoonover, a member of the OU Foundation Board, wrote in an April 2 email to top school officials. “So if you are worried about the petition by the faculty just play the race card and call them racists and make them defend themselves!”
Schoonover was strategizing about how to discredit faculty members and “loudmouths” criticizing plans to lease a $1.2 million home for university President Roderick McDavis, who is black. McDavis and his wife were forced to leave the school’s on-campus residence in March due a bat problem.
“Seriously we have to stand up for what is right and the decision to buy that housefor [sic] the Presidents of Ohio University is the right decision,” he continued.
After an open records request by The Athens News brought the email to light, faculty and students called for Schoonover’s resignation, along with his name to be removed from all university buildings.
In 2007, Schoonover donated $7.5 million to build a new communication school, which bears his name. It was the single largest cash gift given to the university by a living alumnus at the time.
A petition from the Ohio University Student Union did not mince words, calling for Schoonover – and two other trustees who seemed to endorse his ideas – to resign, while also adopting transparency measures.
Joe McLaughlin, an associate English professor, told the Columbus Post-Dispatch, the emails are symptomatic of the privatization of higher education.
“It’s just like money and politics,” he said. “It’s like the Koch brothers, that’s exactly what’s going on here. …This guy should have absolutely nothing to do with anything at Ohio University.”
A university spokeswoman responded to TPM’s request for comment with the same one-line statement provided to other local outlets: “Mr. Schoonover made his remarks to express his personal opinion on the matter.” The spokeswoman did not respond to specific questions about whether the university would continue its relationship with Schoonover.
Schoonover did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Read Schoonover’s full email exchange, via The Athens News:
Correction: This story incorrectly stated that the Post broke the news of Schoonover’s remarks after a public records request. It was actually The Athens News, another local paper, that first reported the story. We regret the error.
“Joe McLaughlin, an associate English professor, told the Columbus Post-Dispatch, the emails are symptomatic of the privatization of higher education.”
Correction: Columbus Dispatch…not Post-Dispatch.
This just highlights one of the biggest problem we have fighting racism, because racists don’t even think racism is real. They believe it’s just a trick minorities use to manipulate us into giving them free stuff. And so the instant they hear an accusation of racism, they automatically shake their heads and think “here they go again.” And when we attack a racist statement or action, they just think “Hey, that’s what I do and I’m not a bad guy” and fail to consider the possibility they might be mistaken about that.
And it also highlights a big reason Republicans are so unsuccessful in elections they can’t rig. They know they can fool some of the people all of the time, so they truly believe that they can fool all of the people if they just work hard enough. But in reality, the only people you can fool are the ones who want to be fooled, and with everyone else, all you’re doing is making things worse.
I was going to comment along those lines but you said it better. By the way, I read the first two paragraphs of the article three times and just can’t even get in these guys heads at all.
“To let a small group of people overrule the Foundation and the University Trustees just doesn’t make sense.Everyone should know what will be said if we back down and that will be that “they almost got away with it but we caught them and they backed down” That will be a bad day for Ohio University.”
I am a proud grandad of a current OU student. Ohio University is Athens. What I heard seemed to be that a group of small people were trying to overrule the Foundation and the University Trustees. Peasants and rabble in the street etc.
I know this is a side issue, but … a bat problem requires a new residence? We’ve had bats in our 1890s house. We chased them out. We spent about $500 plugging & screening every hole under the eaves and around windows. The bats didn’t come back.
I’d guess there’s someone on the OSU board who just happens to run a construction company…