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Ohio University students spend weekend in 'emotional' and 'divided' Ferguson

By Bret Jamerson | Oct. 15, 2014

Students from Ohio University joined hundreds from all over the country in Ferguson, Missouri last weekend to protest racism and how police treat black people. Kelli Oliver, a senior studying commercial photography and OU Student Senate’s minority affairs commissioner, helped organized the trip to Ferguson. Students marched and protested last Saturday until after midnight, she said. “We saw a serious divide of wealth that is common in most large cities,” Oliver said. “St. Louis was large and wealthy and nice, and the suburbs around it are much lower class. It is segregated.” The continued protests come two months after Michael Brown, a 19-year-old, was shot by police in Ferguson, igniting national protests about law enforcement’s treatment of minorities and drawing attention from around the world to Missouri. The marches and acts of civil disobedience conducted last weekend were an effort to sustain protests and national attention on Ferguson, said Wesley Lowery, former editor of The Post and a national political reporter at The Washington Post. “This weekend was a culmination of the last two months and the emotion that’s been building up for the last two months,” Lowery said. “This was them trying to say, ‘This is going to have staying power. This is something we’re gonna try to transition to something bigger.’ ” Oliver said her experience in Ferguson contrasted greatly with how the media has portrayed the situation. “The accounts we heard from protesters were really shocking, with racism and how little the community is doing,” she said. In August, when the protests in Ferguson were drawing national media attention, Kevin Mattson, a professor of contemporary history at OU, heard the voice of his adopted son Jay pleading for a visit to where Brown was shot. “Ever since the Trayvon Martin slaying we have been talking to Jay about how he may be treated differently than his white friends by certain people, including law enforcement,” said Vicky Mattson, Jay’s mother and Kevin’s wife. “He is now very aware of racial risk factors.” The family traveled together to see the protests first-hand.Kevin saw this as an excellent opportunity to gain real-world experience, especially regarding race issues in the U.S.“It has brought awareness to the white community, nationwide, of issues the black community is always aware of,” Kevin said. His son Jay, a high schooler, felt he was a part of something bigger than himself when he chanted slogans and waved signs in protest. “It felt like a whole African-American movement.”The plight of young African American men is not a local problem but a national one, the Mattsons said. Initially the family was uncomfortable, but were immediately welcomed by local protesters who shouted, “Ohio’s in the house!” “We quickly realized there was a gentleman from California, and I also met a pastor from Tennessee,” Kevin said. “The national concern was evident.”@jetbramersonbj844311@ohio.edu

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Proposed Sook building among topics for faculty senate meeting

By Dina Berliner | Oct. 13, 2014

At Monday’s Faculty Senate meeting, Ohio University faculty members will get the chance to speak to members of the Board of Trustees ahead of Friday’s meeting and weigh in on the creation of a building for student-athletes.Board Chair David Brightbill and Vice Chair David Wolfort will attend the beginning of Faculty Senate’s second meeting of the semester Monday night, where faculty members will get some of their concerns and questions addressed.Questions were collected, narrowed down and sent to Brightbill and Wolfort in advance of Monday’s meeting, said Beth Quitslund, chair of Faculty Senate.Although the content of the questions vary, Quitslund said many of the ones to be discussed will help foster better relations between the faculty and Board members.The Executive Committee, along with the Educational Policy and Student Affairs Committee, will present a resolution to solicit faculty opinions on the proposed Sook Academic Center, a building for intercollegiate student-athletes to study at the north-end zone Peden Stadium.The facility, which was spearheaded by a $2.25 million donation from alumni Perry and Sandy Sook, was announced by OU in September.The final fundraising goal for the project is $5.5 million.The Professional Relations Committee will present four new resolutions for first reading:Second Resolution to Provide Consistent Language in Sections II. C and II. D of the Faculty Handbook Pertaining to Faculty Rank and Status and AppointmentsResolution to Clarify Procedure for Group II Annual EvaluationsResolution to Revise the Workload Necessary to Move a Faculty Position from Group III to Group IISense of the Senate Resolution on the Need to Need to Establish a University-Wide Group II Teaching AwardSeveral resolutions from senate’s meeting in September will also be up for second reading, the majority of which deal with language updates to the Faculty Handbook.

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Taking the land out from under them

By Seth Archer | Oct. 12, 2014

The land Ohio University owns on East State Street might be sold for more than $12 million, money that could be reinvested in buying land closer to its Athens campus.But selling the land would cost OU at least $496,000 a year in rent.OU’s Board of Trustees announced a resolution last week to sell most of its real estate on East State Street. The properties in question represent 70.63 acres of land, and the businesses which use the land include Lowes, Wal-Mart, Kroger, Staples and the Athens Mall.OU owns hundreds of acres in Athens County, including the land most university buildings sit on and the land it hopes to sell on East State Street. None of the land associated with OU’s Athens campus generates lease revenue. However, the university still makes hundreds of thousands of dollars from leasing land off-campus to corporations and businesses. Last year, OU made $759,480.28 in base rent. That does not include additional rent paid from businesses to the university based on businesses revenue for that year.In most situations in which businesses pay OU a percentage of their rent, 5 percent of a business’ revenue over a certain dollar-amount is paid in addition to the base rent.For example, Putnam Square Apartments pays $22,500 in base rent a year, plus an additional 5 percent on any money they bring in over $553,000.The land on East State Street OU wants to sell makes up 65.4 percent of the total base rent income. In other words, the university would give up a little under half a million dollars a year by selling the properties.The university’s Office of Real Estate Management found the more than 70 acres of rent-generating properties on East State Street as “surplus,” opening a route for sale.A memo from Stephen Golding, vice president for Finance and Administration, in the board’s agenda for this week’s meeting said rent the lease agreements currently generate for OU are “undervalued” warranting a sale of the properties.The properties have been found to be worth about $12.05 million, according to the evaluation. Selling the properties would be equivalent to generating more than 24 years of base rent, or less when the percentage rent is included.With the money generated from the sale, OU is possibly looking to expand its real estate holdings closer to the central campus. In the agenda, Golding said the new funds would allow the university to support the core mission of the university and expand the footprint of the Athens campus.A resolution at the board meeting will not sell the properties outright, but would grant the power to the President Roderick McDavis, or his designee, to “negotiate, evaluate, and dispose of these properties in a manner consistent with the requirements of Ohio law.”Decisions on what to do with any money generated are not final yet. First, the resolution allowing the properties to be sold has to be approved by the board. Then, the properties can be listed for sale. While they are being sold, two planning efforts are being undertaken by the Ridges Master Plan and Comprehensive Master Planning committees, said Donna Goss, director of Engagement and Real Estate Management, in the board agenda.The Ridges committee is looking at ways to improve the utilization of buildings and surrounding land at the former Athens Asylum, while the Comprehensive Master Planning committee guides the university in new construction and renovations. Business sitting on the land in question will most likely not be affected by the sale. A Kroger spokesperson said the company will likely transfer its rent to the new landlord.@SethPArchersa587812@ohio.edu

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