Ohio University students, faculty members, administrators and people with other university affiliations: We do not have to tell you that the state of our university is not as strong as OU President Roderick McDavis made it out to be in his State of the University speech on Thursday.
The president was right to say that this university has much to be proud of. The Russ College of Engineering and Technology's recent donations from estates total at least $85 million. The university as a whole is working toward its $18 million fundraising goal for the year, having achieved $14.6 million so far. The new Five Year Vision Ohio Implementation plan is a vast improvement over the vague Vision Ohio. OU students win nationally competitive awards, and applications for admission are up. Many of Ohio's athletic teams are doing very well ' men's basketball, women's basketball, swimming and diving, and club hockey all had victories over the weekend. And of course, OU has friendly people and one of the nicest campuses around.There is no crime in pointing out the things that are right with Ohio University. But OU is still not paradise on earth, and to focus only on the positive is to do a disservice to everyone.
Vision Ohio was still a colossal failure. The plagiarism scandal in the Russ College's mechanical engineering department is still making headlines. There are still allegations of gambling in the Department of Athletics. College costs for students are still rising. The university still eliminated 21 union jobs. Dining Dollars still lost $1 million. The university's trustees still think they should be allowed to conduct presidential evaluations in complete secrecy.
In short, this university is still a long way from perfection.
No one expects complete candidness from the president ' or any other public official, for that matter. However, the president needs to acknowledge the problems facing the university and discuss the steps being taken to remedy them. The administration cannot hope to pull the wool over everyone's eyes and convince the world that everything is hunky-dory.If the administration hopes to gain constituents' confidence, it will need to earn constituents' respect. And the first step toward gaining respect is to give it. Giving respect means not insulting the intelligence of the constituencies, and it means not wasting their time with fluff and circumstance ' like State of the University speeches that don't address the whole of the university.
Editorials represent the majority opinion of the executive editors.
17 Archives
OU administrators need to acknowledge the problems the university confronts
