Will Klatt writes to the editor about McDavis' actions during his open office hours.
A couple days ago, I was invited to an event on Facebook that asked students to come to President McDavis’ office hours. I was curious, and ended up going to the event. I went in part because I’m involved in the Student Senate’s Administrative Accountability Committee, and in part because I didn’t recognize any of the students who had congregated outside President McDavis’ Office. I wanted to see what they had to say.
After about 10 minutes, President McDavis joined the students in a conference room in Cutler Hall and a couple students began to ask some questions related to how the university could pay poverty wages to student employees at the same time they were giving massive pay increases to top administrators. I didn’t know the students who raised the questions, and they did so in a respectful, and often insightful manner. President McDavis almost immediately became irate, raised his voice and aggressively pointed his fingers at the students asking questions. He angrily interrupted the students’ questions on a number of occasions.
To be honest, my initial reaction was to become embarrassed. I felt bad that a number of students — for which many of whom this was likely their first interaction with the administration — were being berated and, at times, verbally attacked by the president of our university. The president was disrespectful, hostile and anything but civil with the students he interacted with at the meeting. I couldn’t be more impressed with the reaction of the students whom I had just met minutes before.
Afterward, I asked these students about how they felt the meeting went. They told me they felt attacked and were upset at the way they were treated in what was supposed to be a civil conversation. Given President McDavis’ encouraging emails he had sent to the campus over the past couple weeks, I was surprised and disappointed in his flagrant lack of civility. I hope he apologizes to the students he berated during his office hours.
During the meeting, President McDavis made it clear that the administration wasn’t open to any type of meaningful, shared governance reform, and there’s no way it’s interested in scaling back excessive compensation for the most generously paid employees on campus. The other take away I took from the meeting was that the administration was genuinely worried that Student Senate’s demand for higher wages for student employees on campus was resonating with students.
However, this letter isn’t really directed toward students on campus who deserve to be paid a living wage. These students have by and large already been won over, and I’m pretty confident they’ll be joining campus leaders in calling for justice and fairness in the coming weeks.
This letter is directed to those on campus with less of a direct stake in seeing student employees paid fairly. Faculty, OU employees represented by AFSCME Council 8, mid-level administrative and clerical staff will all have an opportunity to either sit on the sidelines, or stand with students as we demand a fair deal for this campus. We all deserve respect and to be treated as valuable members of the university community. This campus deserves to see some real change across the board, and we’ll only get there if we all work together. I hope you’ll join us.
Will Klatt is a masters student at Ohio University.
