On Thursday McDavis announced that he would be stepping down at the end of his contract in June 2017.
If you saw the front page of today’s Post or visited our website any time since yesterday afternoon, you already know the big news: Ohio University President McDavis is retiring.
In a “special announcement” Thursday afternoon, McDavis announced that he would be stepping down at the end of his contract on June 30, 2017. McDavis, an alumnus, has served 12 years for OU.
We can sit here and reflect upon McDavis’ career all we want, but perhaps what’s more important for the university and its students is to look ahead to what’s coming next.
As the university prepares to begin its search process for a new president, we urge the administration to be transparent in its endeavors to fill McDavis’ seat. To make the best decision for the university as a whole, the search is something that students should be a large part of. Transparency has been a problem in the past years of McDavis’ presidency and could be remedied during his final year.
Along with transparency in the process, we hope that McDavis will treat next year like many students might in their final year at OU. It would be excellent to see McDavis out on College Green talking to students, roaming the streets during fest season, grabbing a Chicken-n-Waffle sandwich at 2 a.m. on a Saturday night — really making the most out of his last days in Athens.
McDavis welcomed all of us to the university at our Freshman Convocation, and next year, he’ll be graduating his last group of seniors.
This upcoming year is sure to be stressful for the administration as they look for the best candidate, but we hope those decision-makers will be both transparent and inclusive with OU students, faculty and staff.
Editorials represent the majority opinion of The Post's executive editors: Editor-in-Chief Emma Ockerman, Managing Editor Rebekah Barnes and Digital Managing Editor Samuel Howard. Post editorials are independent of the publication's news coverage.
