Faculty concerned with Sook Academic Center's divisiveness, lack of communication
A day after a Faculty Senate meeting where faculty expressed concerns with Ohio University’s proposed Sook Academic Center — a building exclusive to student-athletes — faculty leaders continued to question why they were not involved in discussions around the creation of a building that will be used to educate students.
The center, which provides academic support to student-athletes at OU, will be located north of Peden stadium. It was announced last month after OU received a donation of $2.25 million from Perry and Sandy Sook, two OU alumni.
The university says the building will cost an estimated $5.5 million; no tuition or state dollars will go toward building the center, officials have said.
It remains unclear who will pay for the building’s upkeep and maintenance. The Walter Fieldhouse, for example, uses student General Fee money to operate.
Faculty Senate Chair Beth Quitslund said that she is unaware of who was involved in the decision-making process for the creation of the academic center. Faculty have also said the center segregates the student body between student-athletes and other students who could not use the new center.
“The question the faculty cares about is who was consulted about or asked to provide priorities for funding that matched the Sooks’ interests in OU,” Quitslund said. “And I simply don’t know.”
Quitslund said she doubts the Sook’s donation came as a surprise to the administration.
Katie Quaranta, an OU spokeswoman, said OU’s administrators could not respond to questions by press time Tuesday on whether faculty were consulted on the building’s creation or whether it is needed.
“A new tutoring facility for student-athletes is not really an obvious need if you don’t know a great deal about the academic support operations in (intercollegiate athletics,)” Quitslund said. “There are other, much more obvious ways to invest in student-athletes’ academic success, like endowing athletic scholarships.”
Steve Hays, an associate professor of classics and world religions and a faculty senator, expressed concerns with the new academic center, including the university’s failure to include faculty in discussions.
“So far as I could determine from other (faculty) senators (Monday) night, faculty and instructional leaders were not brought into discussion with the donors for the Sook Academic Center,” Hays said. “A large investment of this sort should not be committed to without broad consultation and debate.”
Hays said he thinks students should have been involved in the discussion.
“(Students) might have raised questions about fragmenting the student community,” Hays said.
Faculty also expressed concerns about the academic building being used as a center for donors and fans of OU Athletics.
Associate Professor of Journalism Bill Reader, another faculty senator, said he isn’t concerned with a perceived lack of communication with faculty.
“I am not concerned that the administration negotiated the details with the donor in relative confidence, and in fact, think that is standard procedure for a number of defensible reasons,” Reader said.
But Reader said he is concerned with the fact the center would exclude non-athletes.
“My only concern with the proposed facility is that it would create yet another expensive and exclusive space at this university that would only be accessible to a certain caste of students,”
Reader said. He added it would create a “caste system” with student-athletes getting “preferential” treatment.
Frank Zangare, a sophomore studying chemistry and pre-pharmacy, agrees with the faculty’s concerns that the center could exclude students.
“I definitely think that it would create a divide between athletes and other students,” Zangare said. “They’d be working separately and it could create a social barrier.”
Madison Campbell, a sophomore studying early childhood education, also thinks the center could hinder student relations.
“It would create division and it’s weird to have one because we’re not a Big 10 (Conference) school,” she said.
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