As the semester winds down, the university has announced the 2017 commencement address speaker. Additionally, flex meal plans will be restructured for Fall Semester, and the English professor accused of sexual harassment requested a hearing.
Acclaimed journalist to deliver commencement address to 2017 graduates
Wesley Lowery, The Washington Post national correspondent and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, was chosen as the 2017 undergraduate commencement speaker, according to a news release from Ohio University.
Lowery attended OU from 2008 to 2012.
“It’s always exciting to come back to Athens and be around OU students,” Lowery said. “... Athens is a place that’s really special to me, where I got to do a lot of learning and a lot of growing, and so any time that I get to come back is a real honor and a real treat.”
During his career, Lowery has covered events including the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing and the 2014 Ferguson riots, while also serving as a lead reporter for Black Lives Matter protests. Lowery has also published a New York Times bestselling book “They Can’t Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a new Era in America’s Racial Justice Movement.”
OU interim President David Descutner met with Lowery in March during the annual Schuneman Symposium and invited him to deliver the address.
“In his relatively short career, Wesley Lowery has already accomplished a great deal, namely earning a reputation for excellence in reporting during his award-winning work at The Boston Globe and The Washington Post,” Descutner said in the news release. “We are so proud of Wesley and believe our graduates and their families will be inspired by this former Bobcat and his experiences on the front lines of contemporary history.”
Flex meal plans to see alterations for upcoming semester
OU will be restructuring flex meal plans for the next academic year.
Students with a flex meal plan will receive 225 flex points per semester to use at campus dining facilities including West 82 Food Court, Latitude 39 and Front Room Coffeehouse. Currently, flex meal plans allot students 450 points for the entire academic year.
OU Spokesman Jim Sabin said the alterations will alleviate problems caused when students do not return to OU for Spring Semester.
“At times that meant students would use all the points in the fall semester, then not return in the spring; they would then have to be billed for those used points,” Jim Sabin, an Ohio University spokesperson, said in an email.
As part of the restructuring, meal swipes will also increase in value, from $6.25 to $6.50. The flex meal plans allow students to use their unused weekly meal swipes at campus markets.
“The increase is to give students on a flex meal plan more value and encourage students to consider upgrading from a traditional meal plan to a flex meal plan,” Sabin said in an email.
Fire causes damage to Prokos Rentals
A fire broke out at Prokos Rentals at 88 E. State St. on Monday morning.
The Athens Fire Department was notified of the fire at about 5 a.m. and found the left rear side door open when firefighters arrived on scene. They found the fire in the reception area and the left rear storage area.
The building was left with smoke and heat damage throughout the building. As a result, Prokos Rentals relocated to 9 W. Stimson Ave., next to Hocking Valley Bank. It is unclear how long the business will remain there.
The Ohio State Fire Marshal was notified of the incident, and the fire is under investigation.
English professor accused of sexual harassment requests faculty hearing
The final steps regarding the investigation of an OU English professor accused of sexual harassment have begun.
Andrew Escobedo, who is facing dismissal stemming from incidents that occurred as early as 2003, requested a hearing before a faculty committee in an email to Descutner on Monday.
According to the faculty handbook, Escobedo is allowed 60 days to prepare for the hearing. The committee will be composed of all faculty senators in their third year of the term, but the person heading the committee will likely not be Faculty Senate chair, Joe McLaughlin.
McLaughlin said he will recuse himself from the hearing after being implicated in a civil rights complaint filed by two female graduate students against Escobedo and the university. He also said he will request for Descutner to ask the members of the Faculty Senate Executive Committee to appoint a chair of the hearing committee.
After the hearing, the OU Board of Trustees will review the committee’s decision and decide whether to sustain it or object to it.
Escobedo is on paid administrative leave and is banned from the university. He has repeatedly declined to comment about the situation.
