One interchange between Schaus and me involved an attempt to have the University honor Athens native Arthur Carr, probably the first African American QB at a predominantly white university in 1903-04, on the occasion of the game this past fall with Howard, where Carr earned his M.D. degree. I suggested maybe something like a banner at Peden with a drawing of Carr throwing a football with some mention of him being an African American pioneer. I contacted Schaus about this about a year before the game was played. His response was that we had honored him by naming a dorm after him. The implication was that that was enough, and that I should get off his lawn. As a last ditch effort to get some recognition for Carr on the eve of the Howard game, I was able to interest the Athens News in doing a cover story about it. Just think the publicity that OHIO could have garnered had the AD's office been on board. Just one example, but I think that it's illustrative.
Seems to me that the better way to handle this, and examples like it, would be to say - "hey, I like that idea, here's my email address (or my card). Send me a note, and me or my staff can follow up next week". Then, as long as they follow up and reply to your note, at the very least they give the impression they're engaged with Alumni and fans. They obviously can't follow through on every idea every fan or Alumnus has.
Also brings to my mind the idea, again, that we have this highly touted program in sports admin, and this might be a nice project for a student group to take on. Maybe I'm naive or incorrect, but it seems like that is a far underutilized resource in Athens.