We've not seen any evidence of a negative effect on the reputation of our university
said Ohio University President Roderick McDavis at a press conference Wednesday during which he said football coach Frank Solich will not be fired.
He even insisted the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees did not discuss the matter during an executive session on Tuesday.
The board entered into executive session ' which means it is closed to the public, journalists included ' to discuss personnel matters.
If the board was not discussing Solich, as McDavis maintains, it begs the question of who else warranted an emergency meeting of the executive committee. The timing with the Dispatch article was purely coincidental.
In fact, not only was Solich's employment apparently unquestioned, his salary rose by more than $9,000 this year after a 4-7 season, a record number of student-athlete arrests and a drunk driving charge to which he initially plead no contest.
He later challenged the ruling, of course, saying the arrest was a result of being drugged with GHB.
A raise, even if it was the standard 3 percent for administrators, is still implicit approval of his policies and practices, policies that included weak attempts at punishing his 17 athletes charged with crimes. Some of them did have to suffer studying for a week.
Solich was actually referred to as a role model this week. Sure. He was arrested and so were 17 of his players.
Some have questioned whether this is an overreaction to a DUI charge, something many people are arrested for every year. But the everyone else does it logic does not even begin to apply here.
Solich is a name indelibly associated with OU, something both positive and negative, which, right now, is almost exclusively negative.
McDavis should have considered firing Solich in the spring, when his arrest occurred, but after months of the coach refusing to serve his education-based community service, it is clear to see he is some sacred cow at OU, impervious to punishment.
Solich should be allowed to finish out this season, at least for continuity, but Solich's employment as the head football coach at OU should end when this season is over.
Yet again, the president needs to be proactive in maintaining and improving the constantly falling image of OU by firing a huge source of resentment and negative publicity. This should have been handled correctly last spring, but it's never to late to fix a mistake. 17
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As the administration scrambles not to drop the ball, McDavis has chance to sack coach
