Last week, Ohio University President Roderick McDavis decided to give $10,000 a year for the next five years to the university to help pay for the Urban and Appalachian Scholars program.
As Student Trustee Tracy Kelly put it, it's a positive gesture. Additional scholarship money is important, and the students in the Urban and Appalachian Scholars program are deserving recipients. McDavis, like the university presidents across the country who have done the same, has earned recognition and appreciation for this act.
Such a gesture would be much more impressive, however, if it had come before waves of criticism. McDavis finalized a contract extension in January, which gives him a 29 percent raise - $85,000 more a year. His donation ($50,000) pales in comparison to his remaining raise ($375,000) over the next five years. Unlike most Americans, and indeed, most students and Athens residents, McDavis won't have to tighten his belt. He's been granted immunity by the Board of Trustees, who fail to comprehend why this frustrates the people who pay his salary and suffer the fallout of his decisions.
Moreover, $10,000 doesn't go very far. According to OU Admissions, for the 2008-09 school year, in-state tuition, a double room and a Super 14 meal plan cost $18,396. Add in books and supplies ($870) and health insurances ($918) and total costs come to more than $20,000 - for one student, for one year.
The gift money is a token, a lovely gesture, but ultimately nothing more than that. If McDavis truly wanted to be a hero, he would do something really radical, like donating it all to Urban and Appalachian Scholars. Eighty-five thousand dollars could pay for a student's entire education.
Now that would be a truly amazing legacy.
Editorials represent the views of The Post's executive editors.
4 Opinion
Following other university presidents, criticism, McDavis donates $50,000
