Editor’s Note: This is a letter in response to the letter President Roderick McDavis sent to parents and alumni in regards to Palmer Fest. To read his whole letter please visit, http://daretobro.wordpress.com/2012/05/08/my-response-to-ohio-university-president-roderick-j-mcdavis
If you are like me, this email was not only unnecessary, but ridiculous. We cannot sit back and have our university’s president degrade us like that; share your voice! I have emailed him the following response:
President McDavis,
With all due respect, the email sent to all the parents of Ohio University students was not only overly demeaning, but also 100 percent unnecessary and untrue.
I understand that you have a job to do, and rebuilding our reputation as something more than a party school is a top priority, but responding to the incidents of Palmer Fest in that manner is not at all the right thing to do.
Saying that “a number of Ohio University students and their guests engaged in dangerous and illegal behaviors, which have been widely reported in newspapers and on websites,” is an egregious stretch of the truth.
If you consider police officials abusing their power and tear-gassing innocent students “dangerous behavior” on the students’ behalf, then yes sir, you are correct.
If you consider one of my fellow students getting a police baton to the face and being sent to the hospital for, — soberly, I might add, — crossing the street “dangerous behavior,” then yes, sir, you are correct.
If you consider undercover officers running into a bar and putting me in handcuffs because they thought my ID from Michigan was fake “illegal behavior,” even though I am 21 years old, then yes, sir, you are correct.
But, most importantly, you are attempting to put out a scare tactic to all our parents and have them diminish their image of our college, and that, sir, is dangerous behavior.
Students lucky enough to be an OU Bobcat have an immense amount of respect for their college and their campus, and maybe you are not out enough on our campus to realize this.
As a leader of my organization, and a representative for all of Greek life, the disrespect here is absolutely undeniable, saying that we embarrassed our local community. Well, sir, let me state my rebuttal on that statement.
While you collect hundreds of thousands of dollars in perhaps the poorest regions of Ohio, we (and by we, I mean all of Greek life, as well as many other student organizations) are out finding new ways to make our community better.
Tens of thousands of dollars are collected each year that go out to respected charities, as well as our community, to help rebuild and make it better.
A week ago, all the fraternities on campus pitched in to help a student who was affected by the tornado last year. The kid has almost no money, works two jobs, plays three sports and is a great example of perseverance.
His dream was to have a suit for prom. So, we all helped out by purchasing a suit, shoes, a watch, cologne, hair gel, etc. But that wasn’t in your email, was it?
Just this Saturday, my fraternity raised hundreds of dollars to help students with disabilities, but that wasn’t in your email, was it? Next weekend, Sigma Kappa is holding a golf outing in which they will raise more than $1,000 for Alzheimer’s Disease research, but that wasn’t in your email, was it?
Earlier this year, the language department held a canned food drive that collected an 8-foot-tall pyramid of canned goods for our struggling community, but that wasn’t in your email, was it? Those are just a few examples and, believe me, I could go all day.
President McDavis, I respect your position, I really do, but handling the situation in the way you have is not even close to the right one. Obviously, there are students who made poor decisions that day — I’m not denying that — but you are looking at a number of about 25 students. Deciding to send a message with such an aggressive tone and placing it upon 20,000 students to refute it is absolutely absurd.
Some drunken student who was visiting attempted to set a house on fire, not an OU student. Out of all the arrests made during fest season, not even half of them are OU students. The aggravated rioting charge from two years ago during Palmer Fest, which is perhaps the most aggressive offense in my college career, was not an OU student.
And, most importantly, the people who have the dearest respect and absolute love for this campus and our community, are OU students.
My greatest fear as a student here is that my degree will be diminished by our school’s reputation; however, having the interview skills to find a way to turn our social life into a positive is what helps me realize this will never be problem.
But having our university’s president exaggerating the actions of OU students is in no way helping the 20,000 of us who share that same fear of our degrees being somehow lessened. You, sir, are better than that.
Once again, with all due respect,
Shane Darrow is president of Pi Kappa Phi and a junior studying online journalism.
