Ohio University’s campus should have a firm grasp of its interim president by Friday, Jan. 20, when the Board of Trustees is expected to announce a temporary appointment to replace President Roderick McDavis.
That event will mark the first time The Post will be able to announce a new university president — even if only a temporary one — since it did so in 2004, when McDavis was named OU’s 20th president.
For some student newspapers, it’s a little more typical to cover the appointment and re-appointment of presidential candidates, as such qualified academics are often shuffled from university to university (or in McDavis’ case, from university to AGB Search, a higher education search firm.)
Of course, it’s been 13 years since The Post placed the headline “McDavis lays out ideas” on its front page. In McDavis’ first few weeks on campus, though, he sat down with then-campus editor Matt LaWell to outline his goals of increasing diversity on campus and establishing OU as a prominent research university. His Cutler office has received plenty of correspondence from our newsroom since.
At the time of publication, OU has seen four open presidential forums — Duane Nellis, Dean Bresciani, Robert Frank and Pam Benoit have all taken time to field questions from students and faculty members. In March, a permanent president will be chosen from those four candidates.
McDavis will likely be on the cover of The Post one last time for our Feb. 16 issue, right before he formally exits Cutler. A new president will then take office July 1.
It is important to note here that there are many ways a university president and his or her office can communicate with students. That office may not necessarily need a student newspaper as their outlet to perform such a task.
Who requires student media — and that connection to Cutler — is the students and the faculty responsible for shaping their campus. Students and OU employees have had a choice to between attending those open forums or reading coverage online at The Post. That choice is absolutely vital, because it is how a reader gains control of his or her voice. By sending our reporters a question you’d like us to ask the current or next president, we become an advocate of sorts to seek the answer.
As we move forward into another presidency, and the final weeks of the current one, our reporters ask that you consider how student media could better serve you. It’s our sole job, and we take it seriously.
Emma Ockerman is a senior studying journalism. Want to talk to her? Email her at eo300813@ohio.edu or tweet her @eockerman.
