Ohio University Student Union will be sponsoring a second installment of the Bat Rally.
Similar to Christopher Nolan’s Batman movies, Ohio University Student Union’s “Bat Rally” will also get a sequel.
A follow-up to last week’s “Bat Rally” will take place Tuesday in front of 29 Park Place. The rally is a demonstration against OU’s decision to enter a lease agreement to house President Roderick McDavis and his wife Deborah at 31 Coventry Lane.
The house can also be purchased for $1.2 million by the Ohio University Foundation, the university’s nonprofit fundraising entity.
“Without a follow-up event, we can’t really have a collective way to say what we are going to do next,” said Ryant Taylor, a Student Union member and former Post columnist.
The rally is not expected to draw as many attendees as the March 31 protest, which drew hundreds of students and faculty to 29 Park Place as well as attention from national media.
Tuesday’s protest has 162 people “interested” in the event on Facebook. Around this time for the last week’s event, 770 people were interested in the event.
On March 31, Student Union sponsored the Bat Rally and hundreds of students attended the event-turned-march, which started off at 29 Park Place before students marched through East Green, ultimately ending up at Cutler Hall.
During the rally, Student Union passed around a petition seeking student input on how the $1.2 million is spent. About 300 people signed the petition, the Student Union said in a news release last week.
On April 2, Student Union sent the petition to McDavis, OU Foundation President J. Bryan Benchoff and the Ohio University Board of Trustees in an email.
The petition reads: "We demand that the Ohio University Foundation allow Ohio University students, faculty, and staff to vote on how to spend the $1.2 million that the 31 Coventry Lane property is worth. We demand that the Foundation complies with the voting results."
Student Union has not received a response, Powers said.
“The petition says that we demand that there is a vote and that the foundation complies with the demand,” said Ryan Powers, a member of Student Union and The Post’s Publishing Board. “We want this effort to be a democratic movement.”
Student Union members said they will give an update on the university’s response to the petition at the rally.
“We want to use this as an opportunity for people to come out and voice what they think they should do next in response to whatever the update is,” Powers said.
The rally will meet at 29 Park Place, but thunderstorms are predicted in Tuesday’s forecast.
“Depending on the weather, we might elect to go somewhere else,” Powers said.
“I’m sure a lot of people will still come out,” Powers said, noting that he expects the event to be smaller. “That’s the thing about building movements, there are peaks and there are dips.”
Taylor said he is hoping for about 50 people to show up.
Ohio University Police Department did not comment on whether it will be barricading 29 Park Place, as it did for the “Bat Rally” last week.
@megankhenry
