President Karen Holbrook to Retire

The thirteenth president of The Ohio State University announced her retirement on June 7th, 2006. This came as a surprised to me, but it was more of surprise when she was booed at the commencement ceremony last Sunday. According to her statistics and letter, the university has vastly improved over the years. It now ranks 21st in the nation and 1st in the state for public universities according to the U.S. News & World Report. It also jumped 15 places to the 24th in the rankings of total federal research expenditures in 2004. Annual giving, incoming ACT rates and the freshman-sophomore retention rates have also increased. The freshman-sophomore retention rate has risen to 89.7% while the six-year graduation rate has risen from 55% to 68% in five years. (Yah! I should be part of this statistic!)

The only significant story that I found on why students may not like Karen Holbrook came from The Sentinel and it basically stated that The Ohio State University has an excess surplus of money. Enough to be able to give each student $865 back each year. Oh come on, that is pocket change compared to the increased value of a diploma from Ohio State. Besides, The University operates as a business and from my experience a business would rather have a surplus of money and earn revenue each year. The only other comments I have ever heard about people not liking her are for what she did during the riots to try to control them and reduce drinking. Apparently, she also made it stricter to tailgate and drink in the streets and parking lots during football games. This is not that big of a deal as it is illegal to riot and drink in the streets in Ohio. All in all, her graduation speech was decent and there was no reason for students to boo her at a ceremony of that type.

I guess I just bleed scarlet and gray.