Members of Ohio University’s Student Union say administrators need to do more than not cut funding for the Survivor Advocacy Program – they need to provide proper funding in the first place.
To The Editor,
In a Post article called “Tally of Students Charged While Protesting: 6,” Vice President of Student Affairs Ryan Lombardi criticized the Student Union’s protest at the Board of Trustees meeting, saying “In terms of anything we’re doing to support survivors of sexual assault … there are no plans at all to diminish any support whatsoever to any of those programs.” Just to be clear, the only reason Ohio University cannot cut funding to the Survivor Advocacy Program is because OU has never funded the program to begin with.
Lombardi’s comment is a pretty representative sample of the messaging students are getting from administrators about the Survivor Advocacy Program, whose federal grant is set to expire in October. Notice, however, that no administrator is promising that the university will fund the Survivor Advocacy Center next year. Notice that no one has approved an annual budget, promised that SAP will operate independently instead of reporting to another university organization’s agenda, or mentioned that SAP currently operates on an annual budget, only slightly greater than President Roderick McDavis’s last bonus from the Board of Trustees.
Ohio University community: you should be worried, and you should be angry. Right now, survivors of sexual violence on this campus go to a cramped basement for help, while athletes will soon have their own $5 million academic center. Right now, the head coach of the OU men’s basketball team, Saul Phillips, makes at least 15 times more money than the director of SAP, Delaney Anderson, who effectively has to be on call 24/7 to answer phone calls on SAP’s hotline, go to the hospital to be with victims if necessary, and handle emergencies as they arise.
And right now, as much as OU administrators are saying that they care about preventing rape and supporting survivors of sexual violence on this campus, they have not promised a goddamn penny. They have made no long-term plans. They don’t have any intention of even relocating the office to the ground floor. And until they make promises in writing, Lombardi’s words will remain an irresponsible lie.
This is a joint letter written by members of the Ohio University Student Union.
