While Ohio University President Roderick McDavis and his wife may be free from the bat infestation at 29 Park Place, news related to their off-campus move hasn’t stopped just yet.
The Post has compiled a timeline of the major eventsassociated with the university’s decision to relocate OU’s presidential residence from 29 Park Place to an off-campus house at 31 Coventry Lane. Seven presidents, including McDavis, have lived at the Park Place home since 1951.
The McDavises still reside at 31 Coventry Lane. The future of 29 Park Place will be up for discussion at the next OU Board of Trustees meeting Aug. 27 and 28 at OU’s Dublin Campus.
March 19
The Ohio University Foundation, which serves as the fundraising arm of the university, entered into a $1.2 million lease-purchase agreement for a new presidential residence at 31 Coventry Lane. The 4,586 square-foot home sits on a 2.86-acre property and is nearly three miles from Baker Center.
In February, Deborah McDavis broke her right foot in 29 Park Place after a bat alarmed her. A bat infestation had been a recurring problem in the Park Place home.
McDavis and his wife then stayed at the Ohio University Inn during her recovery and moved to 31 Park Place after the university made the lease-purchase agreement.
The Coventry Lane property is owned by Athens realtor John Wharton, who verbally agreed with Director of Athletics Jim Schaus that – as part of the lease-purchase agreement – he would pay the remainder of the money he pledged to the Walter Fieldhouse and donate an additional $100,000.
The four-bedroom home has a monthly rent of $4,318, according to a previous Post report. The OU Foundation furnished the home for $75,000, which included nine flat-screen televisions, a Wii gaming system, a vendor popcorn machine and a pool table.
March 31
Hundreds of students, faculty and staff — some wearing bat-inspired attire — gathered on Park Place to protest the lease agreement for McDavis’s new home as part of the Ohio University Student Union “Bat Rally”.
Before the “Bat Rally,” more than 100 OU faculty members signed a letter — penned by Associate Professor of English Joseph McLaughlin and Distinguished Professor of Physics David Drabold — urging OU’s administration to reconsider the lease-purchase agreement for an off-campus house for the McDavises.
April 2
Steven Schoonover, a major Ohio University donor and OU Foundation Board member, advised OU administrators to call faculty members “racists” if they condemn the possible purchase of 31 Coventry Lane for McDavis.
Schoonover suggested in an April 2 email to OU administrators and OU Foundation executive committee members the university take care of 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 in July as part of a public records request.
Thanks to his donations to the university, OU named the Steven L. Schoonover Center for Communication after him, which houses all five schools of the Scripps College of Communication. In 2007, he donated $7.5 million toward the construction of the building.
April 13
Vice President for Finance and Administration Stephen Golding said he wouldn’t ask either OU’s Board of Trustees or the OU Foundation to purchase the Coventry Lane house because Wharton’s agreement caused a “problematic” situation for the university. The knowledge about Wharton’s agreement was not shared with those tasked with a new home for McDavis before they signed the lease-to-buy contract, Golding said.
April 27
The Ohio Inspector General’s Office requested all OU records pertaining to the lease-purchase agreement of 31 Coventry Lane.
Inspector General Randall Meyer sent the request in a letter on April 27 that was received May 4 by OU’s General Counsel John Biancamano.
The Inspector General requested all records given to local news outlets or another requesting party “in response to public records requests regarding 31 Coventry Lane and/or donations and pledges made by John and/or Joyce Wharton (the home’s owners).”
Carl Enslen, state deputy inspector general, could not comment on whether or not the office has opened an investigation into the university or is looking into opening an investigation.
June 30
Stephen Golding, vice president for Finance and Administration, sent a memo to Board of Trustees Chair Sandra Anderson saying that local architecture firm RVC Architects performed a facilities assessment in May and that three options exist for renovating 29 Park Place.
The options include continuing to use the space as a residence, creating a multi-office and conference facility for the home’s first and second floors, or creating a multi-use office and conference facility for the whole building through “adaptive reuse.”
The cost of these options range from $830,000 to $2.1 million.
July 16
Schoonover apologized for the statements he made in April in a letter to The Athens NEWS after the “race card” email was made public. He wrote that his “off the cuff” statements were not intended to be serious.
“After reflecting on those comments, I know now that they were hurtful to faculty, students and others affiliated with the university,” Schoonover said in the letter. “I can assure you it was unintentional, but for that I am truly sorry. I want to sincerely offer my apologies to anyone who was affected.”
@megankhenry
