CINCINNATI ' Ohio University's College of Communication might have a new name after OU President Roderick McDavis accepted a $15 million endowment yesterday from the Scripps Howard Foundation.
The college will receive the gift in $1.5 million annual allotments for 10 years. As a stipulation, all the money will go to programming and building or renovation, said Judith Clabes, president and CEO of the foundation.
In appreciation, McDavis said he will recommend to the OU Board of Trustees that the college be renamed the Scripps College of Communication.
There are only a few days in the life of a university that are really memorable and transforming
he said. This is one of those days.
The E.W. Scripps Company's Scripps Howard Foundation has financially supported OU's College of Communication for the past 42 years. For the past 20, it has solely focused on programs that directly benefit students. They consist of Scripps visiting professors, teaching fellows, scholarships and summer minority workshops.
We fund programming; that's what we do said Kenneth Lowe, president and CEO of the company. We let others worry about the bricks and mortar.
The first portion of the endowment will continue and expand programs already supported by the foundation. Future plans include the creation of scholarships to support students during internships and funds to promote innovation and multiculturalism.
The endowment's calling for an innovation fund addresses the reality that media and media outlets are rapidly changing, said Terence Oliver, assistant professor for the School of Visual Communication. This will keep us on the cutting edge.
Specifics about what the innovation fund will develop are intentionally absent from the endowment's provisions, Lowe said.
We're going to make it up as we go along because the landscape keeps changing he said.
Other faculty expressed interest in the creation of the multicultural fund, which could increase the diversity of students racially and geographically.
Those perspectives of different students will contribute to the highest level of education
said Claudia Hale, director for OU's School of Communication Studies. You can't put a number on that.
Lowe said the foundation chose OU as the beneficiary of this gift G
Lowe said. This is where it all began. So a (further) partnership with Ohio University was kind of a no-brainer.
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