Steven Schoonover said in an April email to OU administrators and other foundation board members the university should call faculty critical of the agreement racists.
Steven Schoonover, a major Ohio University donor and OU Foundation Board member, suggested OU administrators label members of the faculty “racists” if they criticized the possible purchase of 31 Coventry Lane for OU President Roderick McDavis this spring.
In an April 2 email to OU administrators and OU Foundation executive committee members, Schoonover suggested the university handle the situation the way Democrats handle Republican criticism of President Barack Obama: by playing “the race card.”
“So if you are worried about the petition by the Faculty just play the race card and call them racists and make them defend themselves!” Schoonover wrote in the email, obtained as part of a public records request.
Schoonover said a house like the one at Coventry Lane is needed to attract high quality presidents to OU.
“Look what Rod has done for OU in fundraising... Many dozens of times the cost of that residence,” he said.
Scott Titsworth, dean of the Scripps College of Communication, sent an email to faculty of the college after details of Schoonover's emails were released.
“Statements made in the email from Mr. Schoonover are not consistent with the values we maintain as a College,” Titsworth said. “Schoonover Center is a location that is intended and designed to promote the ideals of open expression. Our faculty, perhaps more so than any other faculty on campus, should champion such dialogue and discussion. The most important thing we can do as educators is to promote robust debate while also recognizing the necessity of civility in promoting shared meaning in any type of dialogue.”
Titsworth also expressed that while he is appreciative of the support from Schoonover, the statements Schoonover wrote in the email “were insensitive to the necessity of having multiple viewpoints on matters related to the future of the University.”
In a July 1 email to students, faculty and others associated with OU, McDavis said The Promise Lives fundraising campaign had raised more than $500 million.
“Seriously we have to stand up for what is right and the decision to buy that housefor (sic) the Presidents of Ohio University is the right decision,” Schoonover wrote in the email.
Schoonover said someone needed to purchase the property and donate it to the foundation or the university.
“To let a small group of people overrule the Foundation and the University Trustees just doesn't make sense,” he wrote.
The university entered into a lease-purchase agreement March 19 for a new $1.2 million presidential home for McDavis and his wife, Deborah. Steven Golding, vice president for Finance and Administration, announced April 13 that he wouldn’t ask OU’s Board of Trustees or the OU Foundation to buy the property because OU’s agreement with the house’s owner John Wharton created a “problematic” situation for the university.
{{tncms-asset app="editorial" id="ed79acc8-2599-11e5-a605-03f466c1dacf"}}
Joseph McLaughlin, an associate professor of English who co-wrote the faculty letter submitted to The Post in March urging the university not to purchase 31 Coventry Lane, said in an email that Schoonover’s statements were “deeply offensive.”
“It is highly problematic that such an individual occupies a position of responsibility with the OU Foundation and has the ear of our executive administrators and trustees, no matter how much money he has given to the university,” McLaughlin said. “It is also disconcerting, though predictable, that in the face of legitimate and reasonable objections to the proposed purchase of the Coventry Lane property, Mr. Schoonover suggested the administration spin it as a personal attack.”
OU spokesperson Bethany Venable said, "Mr. Schoonover made his remarks to express his personal opinion on the matter."
The Ohio University Student Union responded to the news Sunday by posting a petition to its Facebook page addressed to the Board of Trustees members, the OU Foundation and McDavis. The petition, which has 188 signatures as of Monday afternoon, calls for Schoonover to resign from the foundation and for the Schoonover name to be removed from all campus buildings.
“I thought (Schoonover’s email) was disrespectful and that it was the completely unethical way of dealing with his critics instead of actually addressing the issue,” Ryan Powers, a Student Union member and junior studying philosophy, said. “All the critics who were also activists on campus, … it just totally disregards all of them.”
{{tncms-asset app="editorial" id="78aa613a-25e4-11e5-a4b3-1f6bfa8bff95"}}
The petition also calls for OU to adopt transparent policies, repeal its affiliated entities policy and recognize the rights of students, faculty and staff to join unions.
“Once the news came out, I thought it made it extremely clear that Schoonover and the other board members he was meeting with were not representing the interests of the students, faculty and staff who make up the majority of the campus and the institution of Ohio University,” Powers said.
Schoonover, a 1967 OU graduate, has been an OU Foundation trustee since 2000 and secretary of the foundation’s board since 2006, according to OU’s website.
OU named the Steven L. Schoonover Center for Communication, which houses all five schools of the Scripps College of Communication, thanks to his donations to the university. He gave $7.5 million in 2007 toward the construction of the center.
Schoonover is also the founder and former CEO of CellXion, a company which specializes in development and construction for the wireless telecommunications industry, according to OU’s website.
–Megan Henry contributed to this story.
am095013@ohio.edu
@AlxMeyer
md781510@ohio.edu
@MariaDeVito13
