We are writing in response to the Sept. 7 article “Board of Trustees approves salary raise, bonus for McDavis.”
A $58,500 bonus and $35,000 annual salary raise for President Roderick McDavis are insulting to students. Not five months ago, we were told that another tuition hike was necessary to avoid a “detrimental effect” on the quality of education, and the university was “at a breaking point,” in Executive Vice President and Provost Pam Benoit’s words.
We are disappointed but hardly surprised that our money instead is being used superfluously to line the pockets of a man who already makes more than the president of the United States. When students went to April’s Board of Trustees meeting to protest the tuition hike, Trustee Sandra Anderson assured us that “We do not take this lightly.”
This raise and bonus make it clear that Anderson was simply being patronizing. Apparently our peers dropping out of school because they can no longer afford it does not mean much to her; she is willing to trade our futures for a more comfortable lifestyle for President McDavis.
The deeper problem here is that adult students, for some reason, are not seen as capable of governing ourselves; a body of unelected, wealthy businesspeople is instead put in charge of using our money to make decisions about our education.
It should not come as a shock that students’ interests and opinions come last, given that we have no institutionalized power. Imagine an Ohio University where student trustees have votes, are elected by the student body and make up a proportion of the Board that matches that of our financial contributions, which is roughly half of all university revenue. It is difficult to imagine that hypothetical Board first voting to increase tuition in the middle of a national student-loan debt crisis, and then five months later handing that money over to an already very wealthy man who has demonstrated a lack of care for what is best for students.
The good news is that we have the ability to work toward a more democratic university. Soon, state legislation (HB 377) will require Ohio University to decide whether to grant or continue to deny voting rights to student trustees. Student-trustee voting rights would be a partial but important institutional step toward preventing such outrageous decisions in the future. If students are ready to unite with their peers and fight together for student power, they are encouraged to join the Ohio University Student Union.
The Ohio University Student Union meets Thursdays at 8 p.m. in Bentley 110.
