Ohio University donor faces protest over race-related email
ATHENS, Ohio (AP) — Some students and faculty at Ohio University want a major contributor to leave the school foundation’s board and have his name removed from a campus building after he advised administrators to “play the race card” in a dispute over purchasing a new residence for the university president.
More than 200 had signed a petition against Steven Schoonover as of Monday, The Columbus Dispatch reported.
The protest followed an email that became public Friday, which Schoonover wrote April 2 after hundreds opposed a plan to spend $1.2 million on a new residence for President Roderick McDavis, who is black.
In the note, Schoonover, who donated $7.5 million to the Schoonover Center of Communication, urged university leaders to do what he said Democrats do when Republicans criticize President Barack Obama: “call them racists.”
Schoonover’s email also called demonstrators “loudmouths” who “have probably never given a dime to OU.”
Opponents called Schoonover’s statements inappropriate.