Ohio University’s Board of Trustees passed a resolution to change the name of the College of Fine Arts to the Jeffery D. Chaddock and Mark A. Morrow College of Fine Arts.
The college is being named after Jeffery Chaddock and his husband Mark Morrow after the two made a $25 million gift commitment to advance OU’s College of Fine Arts.
Chaddock graduated from OU with a Bachelor of Science in communication studies in 1988 and began donating money to the university right after his graduation.
“It felt good to be correlating a degree of success with giving back and doing it in a consistent manner,” Chaddock said. “Those are words very critical to, I think, this journey of philanthropy.”
The couple will give $40 million through upfront donations made now and donations to be given over 25 years.
Setting up this donation plan took nearly 18 months to develop in collaboration with the university.
“It takes a lot of work, believe it or not, to give,” Chaddock said. “(It’s) harder than you think when it comes to every aspect of that plan, and it's an 18-month process, surprisingly.”
Chaddock and Morrow said they have been drawn to giving to more underdeveloped programs or programs that do not have as much access to funding as other programs, such as athletics.
Morrow said he thinks the certain programs are more visible to the public because of higher levels of popularity, whereas the arts programs are not always as visible in the OU sphere.
“If the football player needs an indoor arena to practice, they seem to find the money very quickly, and the solution to their gaps are very quick and very furious and very timely,” Chaddock said. “We've had the history of the fine arts because in Appalachia, particularly the programs of creativity, arts, are the first to go.”
The gift will be divided into multiple endowments. It includes a $5 million commitment toward the College of Fine Arts Capital and Renovation Fund, and a $94.2 million project to match other donors’ named-space commitments for the Fine Arts renovation, Sam Pelham, a university spokesperson, said in an email.
The initiative includes renovation, relocation and new construction, which aims to expand the arts' impact across the campus and surrounding community, according to a university press release.
“Although there have been significant donations by Patton designated to amplify the College of Fine Arts facilities, the Division of University Advancement is continually working to secure more funding to meet this planned vision and to continue to invest in the college’s facilities,” Pelham wrote in the email. “In addition to individual donations, the college is also seeking grant funding for the project.”
The other $20 million is split into various programmatic and facility endowments, including the Kennedy Museum of Art, the Performing Arts Series, an endowment for the Performing Arts Series and a fellowship for the College of Fine Arts.
“Our mission is to give it through an endowment program so that the greater good can be served long term,” Chaddock said.
Despite the size of their donation, Chaddock and Morrow said they were surprised to hear the university chose to rename the College of Fine Arts after them, and they did not immediately say yes to the idea.
“It's not something you expect, and it takes a little bit of getting used to the idea,” Morrow said.
Chaddock said the couple's motive to donate was not to get recognition but to be proactive and inspire others to donate.
“I just would encourage others that the more you give, the more you get back, which is very critical,” Chaddock said. “I've never understood it.”
Chaddock said that in every action, he believes there is an equal and opposite reaction. The more someone gives, the more they get back, he said.
Morrow said he has seen the same thing and did not understand how the couple could give so much, but he realized they also get so much back in return.
“I never felt like we had the money to give what we gave in the beginning,” Morrow said. “I'll never forget saying how we can afford this…It was obviously on a much smaller basis, but it does somehow always seem to replenish itself.”
