Ohio University’s Board of Trustees is at it again. This time it’s spending $35,000 in student and taxpayer money on what will be a largely meaningless evaluation of the university’s president.

Last week, the trustees announced — not “announced after considering constituent input” or even “approved in public” — that the university would pay that sum to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of OU President Roderick McDavis, four months after awarding him a new contract and $85,000 raise.

The trustees adopted a policy in February to evaluate the president the year before his contract expires. But they dove through a loophole this summer by awarding McDavis a five-year extension a year early.

Now, under the disguise of “shared governance,” trustees are spending frivolously in a time of fiscal uncertainty. If the board wanted to do a comprehensive evaluation, it should have followed its own policy and waited to award the contract extension. The purpose of the new policy is to learn whether the president is doing a good job before extending his or her contract. A comprehensive evaluation now is just smoke and mirrors.

Maybe the trustees waited to evaluate the president because they understood that “comprehensive” meant consulting campus groups whose evaluations might not reflect favorably on their guy.

Faculty discontent is at an all-time high and unionization is on the table. In Spring Quarter 2007, more than 75 percent of students said they did not have confidence in McDavis’ ability to lead, in a vote that produced record turnout among students.

McDavis might be doing a good job. He also might be the wrong person to lead this university through the tough days ahead. Either way, the trustees — who spend less than a week on campus every year — adopted a policy to determine that, but instead chose to ignore it.

And by doing so, they chose to ignore the growing tension on campus. Again.

Editorials represent the views of The Post’s executive editors.