What we do know is that the university tends to bury information in jargon. We strive to provide easily readable information to our readers so the university’s actions (and reasons for doing so) are easy to understand.
The university’s Board of Trustees was planning to discuss — and then vote Friday — on demolishing the Academic Center on President’s Street.
The building, located across from Bentley Hall and next to Copeland Hall, was built in 1911 and previously housed the Innovation Center.
The university announced Monday, three days before OU’s governing board began meeting Thursday, that the plans to discuss the demolition were delayed because of “unforeseen site conditions that have negatively impacted the project budget,” said Katie Quaranta, an OU spokeswoman.
The university did not provide a translation of this statement and Quaranta declined to comment further on what it means.
The delay in discussion could be because of reactions from the Athens Historic Preservation Commission, which protested the demolition because of the building’s historic value. The statement we were given does not provide any insight as to whether this could be true.
What we do know is that the university tends to bury information in jargon. We strive to provide easily readable information to our readers so the university’s actions (and reasons for doing so) are easy to understand.
The statement we were given is difficult to interpret and doesn’t explicitly explain why OU is not moving forward with talking about the demolition.
University officials should be more forthcoming.
Until then, we’ll continue asking questions, including those about the demolition and pushing for comprehensible explanations for university decisions.
Editorials represent the majority opinion of The Post's executive editors: editor-in-chief Jim Ryan, managing editor Sara Jerde, opinion editor Xander Zellner and projects editor Allan Smith. Post editorials are independent of the publication's news coverage.
