Husted said McDavis’ efforts to achieve financial and academic success were among his accomplishments to warrant the commendation.
With more than a year left before he steps down as president of Ohio University, Roderick McDavis accepted a commendation Thursday from the state.
Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted made his way to Athens to give the commendation in Cutler Hall, citing McDavis’s years of public service to the university.
“A lot of times people, whether they’re elected or not elected, say they’re gonna do some things and then they don’t do them,” Husted said. “But (McDavis) did the things that he said he was going to do and he deserves to be credited for that.”
The two recounted speaking in 2005 when Husted was still speaker of the Ohio House and McDavis was in the first year of his presidency. McDavis relayed some of his goals in early conversations with Husted, they said.
“We’ve done some things to put the university on firm financial footing, improving academic standing and set enrollment records for students over the past five years, so we’re proud of what we’ve done,” McDavis said. “We not only have enhanced the offerings at the Athens campus, but we’ve added two new campuses as you know in Dublin and Cleveland … in addition to having a very successful Promise Lives Campaign where we raised over half a billion dollars.”
Husted said McDavis’ efforts to achieve financial and academic success were among his accomplishments over what will be a 12-year tenure when he steps down in June 2017.
“I feel good about what we’ve accomplished. We’ve done it as a team,” McDavis said. “We got a lot more to do, got another year. So we’re gonna work hard ... to make our university all that we want it to be, and we said early on that we wanted Ohio University to be an institution.”
McDavis announced his decision to step down March 10. OU’s Board of Trustees announced plans to create a search committee for the next president, whom it hopes to choose by the end of 2016 or the end of the 2016-17 academic year, according to a previous Post report.
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“We’re going through this political process right now where people are disappointed in some of their leaders and some of their institutions who are not doing the things that they promised,” Husted said. “Here’s an example of one of those institutions and one of those leaders where they did do what they promised.”
Husted and his office recently have been accused of removing inactive Ohio voters from the voter rolls, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio.
Husted denied the allegations in the lawsuit while at an event for the Athens County Republican Party late Thursday.
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