Ohio University will no longer be home to the Roger Ailes Newsroom.
The university’s president, Roderick McDavis, announced Monday night the school would remove a plaque and photo of Ailes and return a $500,000 donation, calling it the “most appropriate action” in light of the sexual harassment scandal that forced Ailes from Fox News.
The Athens News reports signage and a photo of Ailes had been taken down shortly after the announcement. The newsroom had been named for Ailes at the time of his donation in 2007.
“In recent weeks our campus community has been disrupted by the indirect impact of the Roger Ailes controversy,” McDavis said. “I have listened to the various viewpoints and perspectives of our faculty, staff, students and alumni. I have consulted with the dean of the college and other senior leadership. The distraction from the teaching and academic mission of the Scripps College of Communication has weighed heavily on my mind as I deliberated over the sustained effect on our university community should we continue to have our newsroom named for Mr. Ailes.”
Students had urged the university to take action, even covering the Ailes name and photo with tape for a time, in a campaign they dubbed “Abandon Ailes.”
(Photo: Courtesy Jenny Nelson, OU Graduate Student Senate)