Town Hall meeting addresses budget, leaves students wanting more
By Samantha Pirc, Campus Life writer
April 18, 2007 | 2:32 a.m.
President McDavis and several other administrators spoke to a crowd of students, faculty and community members Tuesday afternoon about the university’s budget at a University Town Hall Meeting.
The third Town Hall Meeting of the 2007-08 school year was held in Baker Ballroom, and McDavis started things off by taking a few moments to speak about the shootings that occurred Monday at Virginia Tech.
“This is a very sad day in the history of higher education,” McDavis said. “Our community is shocked and saddened. All our hearts go out…to the entire Virginia Tech community.”
McDavis called for a moment of silence among all in attendance to show respect before announcing that the Ohio University community will honor the victims of the Virginia Tech massacre by having a candlelight vigil tonight at 9 p.m. at the West Portico of Blackburn Auditorium. He also encouraged everyone to wear burnt orange and maroon – the official Virginia Tech colors.
Official business began when McDavis stated that the university has come to a point where some difficult decisions have to be made regarding the budget situation.
The university is facing an $8.5 million deficit and must present a balanced budget to the Board of Trustees by June. 30 percent of the university’s income comes from the state, 65 percent is from tuition and the remaining 5 percent comes from private donations and research.
McDavis spoke briefly of conversations he has had with Governor Ted Strickland regarding state funding and tuition increases during the next few years. He also touched on how OU needs sufficient funds in order to deliver the same quality product they have been delivering.
“We have built a budget around people,” McDavis said, explaining that faculty and staff are the most important resource for the university. When the people are put first, however, it means that other things must be sacrificed. This means that the university has to reach inside its operating expenses
After this short presentation, the floor was opened up for questions from the audience.
Chief of OUPD Mike Martinsen spoke briefly after a question was posed about where campus safety fits into the university’s budget, a concern that has suddenly come to the front of many people’s minds after what happened at Virginia Tech.
Martinsen reassured the audience that OUPD does have a crisis response team in place that is ready to handle not just a shooter situation, but also floods, fires or any incident that could take place on campus. The team meets on a regular basis to train and to improve the level of professional law enforcement services OUPD can provide on campus.
Although a variety of questions were posed to McDavis and the other administrators concerning the budget problems with the university, a strong response from students present proved that they are still not satisfied with the reasoning and explanations that have come from the university concerning the four varsity sports that were cut.
Captain of the men’s swimming and diving team Drew Stetson bluntly asked McDavis to answer yes or no to his question on whether or not the university has integrity, and whether or not it should honor the promises it has made to students.
“Do we have reasons for taking the actions we did? Yes,” said McDavis’. He explained that the administration has repeatedly tried to explain the reasons for making the decisions and stated he was not going to add anymore to what had already been said.
Director of Athletics Kirby Hocutt also responded to Stetson's question, which was based off of a statement Hocutt had made in a letter to the swimming and diving team, by saying that he meant everything he said in the letter, and that at the time he did not know of the budget situation.
“Change was inevitable,” Hocutt said. “We stood behind the swimming and diving program as long as we could.”
He also said that he does not regret saying what he did to the student athletes because their scholarships to OU will, in fact, still be honored and, when it comes down to it, “What is most important is graduation and [earning] a degree.”
A female graduate student expressed concerns about the negative public relations effect the sports cuts were having on Title IX, saying that she had been an athlete during her undergraduate years and did not think that blaming the cuts on Title IX was giving it a very good reputation.
Drew Fattlar, a junior on the men’s track team, asked why other sports were being cut and penalized while football players were staying at the OU Inn before games and the football program in general was causing the department to loose money (due to the bowl game the football team played in this year).
“Have you seen a dorm on a Friday night?” Hocutt asked. He explained the reasoning behind having athletes stay at the OU Inn before a big game, so that they are away from a distracting atmosphere. Hocutt also defended money spent on the football teams participating in the bowl game by saying that the GMC Bowl is one of the most expensive, and the only other choice they really had was to turn down the invitation.
Neither Fattlar nor Stetson was satisfied with the town hall meeting, both saying they did not feel as if their questions had been answered.
“When I asked McDavis my question, he said it was not the right forum for that type discussion,” Stetson said. Stetson’s father flew down to ask McDavis the same questions behind closed doors, Stetson explained, and got few answers then.
“If he won’t answer behind closed doors and he won’t answer questions here, when is the right forum to have this discussion?” Stetson wondered. “They think that by allowing us to keep our scholarships things will be okay, but it is just so frustrating.”
“The question I asked got twisted,” Fattlar said. He also said that he felt like his question was picked apart “so that [McDavis] wouldn’t have to answer it directly.”
Fattlar said that the only reason he was even able to attend the lunchtime meeting was because his class ended early, and that he thought it was an interesting time to hold the meeting since most students are in class around noon.
Because so many students had questions concerning the budget, Hocutt announced he would stay for an additional 15-20 minutes after the meeting to make sure that student athletes had a chance to get their questions answered.
Fattlar said in an e-mail sent after the meeting Tuesday that he was impressed by Hocutt's decision to stay for additional questions.
"If we could see this sort of candid approach from all administrators--especially before decisions are made--the university would be a lot better off," said Fattlar.