Mike Henry / Picture Editor / mh359006@ohiou.edu

Ohio University President Roderick McDavis shakes hands with Steven Schoonover after being presented with a check for $1 million, as Scripps College of Communications Dean Greg Sheppard looks on. Schoonover announced the $7.5 million gift, which will be used to combine old Baker and the Radio-Television building, in Robert Walter’s Dublin, Ohio, home yesterday evening.  

DUBLIN, Ohio — After about two and a half years in the works, Ohio University announced the largest cash donation ever from a living alumnus yesterday.

Steven L. Schoonover and his wife, Barbara, flew in from their Louisiana home to present a $1 million check to OU President Roderick McDavis as a part of a $7.5 million donation. The money will be used to transform the old Baker University Center and the Radio-Television Building into the main building for the Scripps College of Communication.
Until yesterday, Robert and Margaret Walter held the record of the largest cash gift from a living alumnus with $5 million in 2000, used to build Walter Hall. Robert said he hosted the presentation of Schoonover’s donation in his Dublin, Ohio, home because of his ongoing relationship with OU and his desire to give back.

“When you do things that are visionary and inspirational, it encourages people to do other things,” Walter said. “I intend to give more to the university in time, so I guess what he said to us is ‘this is a challenge to you all.’ And I would like to accept the challenge.”

McDavis said he was proud of the gift and hoped it inspired other alumni to contribute.

“[It] could easily lead to us becoming, if not the best, one of the best colleges of communication; it’s a very transformational gift in that regard,” McDavis said.

Schoonover is an OU Foundation trustee and the former CEO of CellXion, LLC, a company he founded in 1996. CellXion specializes in the construction and installation of telecommunications buildings and equipment.

Schoonover said he wanted to give back to OU because of what it added to his life.

“I made a significant amount of money in communications,” he said. “I want to give some of it back so I’ll encourage other people to do the same thing.”

Most of all, Schoonover said he wants the money to go toward making the Scripps College of Communication the best in the nation.

Although Dean Greg Shepherd said the college already has some of the top-ranked programs in the country, it does not have the facilities to match. Currently, the college’s five schools  are spread across nine buildings.

 “I think in addition to the technologically advanced facility, we have this opportunity for increased collaboration because we’ll all be brought together in one place,” Shepherd said.

The old Baker site will be renamed the Schoonover Center for Communication once renovation is complete.

Shepherd said the construction, which will begin this summer, will cost about $37 million. OU has secured more than $25 million in state-allocated funds. This money combined with the Schoonover gift and $500,000 from Roger Ailes, president of Fox News, leaves about $4 million that the college still needs to raise.

The Schoonover Center could be completed by spring of 2013, Shepherd said.

For the Schoonovers, this donation isn’t the first or the last. They gave $300,000 to the College of Communication during a previous fundraising campaign, and Steven Schoonover said they plan to donate more in the future.

“We’re going to give as much as we can,” he said. “When good things happen to the money we give, we’re always happy to give more."