Former OSU president E. Gordon Gee in a Sept. 10 interview with The Lantern. Credit: Lantern file photo
A renovation of former Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee’s new office space is set to cost $50,000 or less and be completed in September.
The Page Hall office renovations include minor construction, carpeting, painting and updating, according to an Associated Pressreport.
OSU spokesman Gary Lewis said in an email Friday afternoon construction has an approximate start date of “early next week,” and the project should be completed by mid to late September.
The space will have an area for an assistant, an employee and students who are working with Gee on his research of 21st century education policy.
Gee will also have an office in Moritz College of Law, where he is serving as a tenured professor, but the “Page Hall space will be the only space for his center/staff,” Lewis said.
Until then, “Gee and his assistant have been temporarily housed at Gateway and will remain there until completion of the Page Hall renovations,” Lewis said.
Board of Trustees Chairman Robert Schottenstein said July 31 no final decision had been made on Gee’s future office and denied reports that a $190,000 renovation project had been approved, adding that the goal was to find Gee an existing office to use, according to the Associated Press.
Gee’s new contract with the university, which is worth $5.8 million, promises Gee “mutually satisfactory office facilities” in the Moritz College of Law, the John Glenn School of Public Affairs or “such other location as the parties mutually agree.”
Gee announced his retirement June 4, effective July 1, and former Provost and Executive Vice President Joseph Aluttoassumed the role of interim president the same day as Gee’s retirement.
The announcement of Gee’s retirement came days after controversial remarks he made at a Dec. 5 OSU Athletic Conference became public. Comments about Notre Dame and the SEC in particular, among other remarks, brought national attention.
