Gov. John Kasich last week defended Ohio State University President E. Gordon Gee in the wake of a Dayton Daily News investigation that found that the university spent $7.7 million on travel, housing and entertainment for Gee since he returned to campus in 2007.

Kasich acknowledged he hadn’t examined the details in the story, but said Gee is a great university president who is helping the state transform higher education.

“What I can tell you is that Gordon is 24-7 promoting Ohio State University. We have now become one of the most elite schools in America. We are attracting world class people to the university,” said Kasich, who graduated OSU in 1974. “So, I’m not here to kind of pick his budget apart. I don’t know what it all is. But what I will say is I think he has been a great president and we are lucky to have him here in Ohio and we’re lucky he came back.”

Ohio State is ranked 56th among national schools by U.S. News & World Report this year, and placed 18th among public universities on the U.S. News ranking for 2013.

The Daily News’ Gee story, which was based on documents it took the university nearly a year to release in full, revealed that Ohio State spent at least $895,000 for gatherings at the president’s mansion, $574,000 on private jet flights for Gee and $64,000 on bow ties, bow tie cookies, O-H pins and bow tie pins for marketing the university and Gee’s trademark bow tie.

Ohio State released a statement saying rigorous standards are used to review Gee’s spending, and Kasich noted that Gee has the backing of the OSU board of trustees.

But the board, which includes homebuilder Robert Schottenstein, developer Ronald Ratner, U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley, and TV basketball analyst Clark Kellogg, isn’t speaking publicly. The Daily News left more than 30 telephone and electronic messages for trustees on the 18-member board and none were answered. David Horn, the board secretary, also did not return multiple phone calls.

OSU spokesman Jim Lynch released the following statement: “President Gee maintains a very robust outreach schedule that requires extensive travel and events to forge crucial relationships with alumni, donors, and key national leaders. No public funds are used for these activities. Ohio State is getting an exceptional return on investment as President Gee has raised more than $1.6 billion in private funds and generated more than $1 billion in new revenue to support the university’s core academic mission.”

Gee’s discretionary expenses come out of the Mershon Endowment Fund, money that was donated more than 50 years ago and has been under university control since.

Although the board is keeping mum, the Daily News story generated a lot of buzz on campus and online. It was picked up in newspapers and on web sites throughout the country, and the social media response alone, in terms of tweets and online responses, ran into the tens of thousands.

“I think they should take a look into it and see if they could spend the money elsewhere and alleviate our tuition burden,” said Kristopher Chandler, a junior from Hilliard who is studying political science and history at Ohio State.

Katherine Purman, a junior from St. Clairsville studying psychology, said, “As a student, I think there are other things where I could see that money going, like scholarships.” Purman said she works a part-time job and gets financial help from her parents but still needs to borrow $6,000 to $7,000 a year for college.

Shelby Stults, a senior majoring in globalization studies, said, “I was really horrified finding out those facts and details.”

But Emily Shevelow, a junior from suburban Columbus studying speech and hearing, said Gee remains popular with students at Ohio State: “I’ve never met anyone who dislikes him, among the students anyway.” Shevelow said she wasn’t opposed to how Gee spent the money because, “He is supposed to represent Ohio State and keep us relevant.”

The Daily News investigation found that Ohio State slipped from 27th to 31st nationally for the size of its endowment during Gee’s tenure.

The university took two steps last week to boost the endowment. Firstoff, the university deposited into its endowment fund $483 million in up front cash it received from leasing its more than 30,000 parking spaces to a private vendor for 50 years.

Ohio State is the first public university in the country to privatize its parking operations, and some students and faculty had opposed the contract out of concern that it will lead to higher parking rates. But OSU predicts a 9 percent average annual return on the investment with about half of the gains being reinvested and half being spent on faculty, scholarships and transportation projects.

The second step is aimed at ensuring success for the university’s multi-year $2.5 billion fundraising campaign. Michael E. Eicher, who is credited with helping to raise $3.7 billion for Johns Hopkins University and $3 billion for University of California, Los Angeles, was hired as vice president for advancement to oversee communications, alumni relations and fundraising.

Eicher, who starts Nov. 1, will be paid a salary of $700,000 at Ohio State, roughly $240,000 higher than the salary of his predecessor.

In a written statement following the hiring, Gee said, “Ohio State is incredibly fortunate to have attracted Mike Eicher. He is among the nation’s most accomplished leaders in higher education fundraising, having created and led two of the most successful university fundraising campaigns on record.”

But Matt Mayer, president of Opportunity Ohio, a libertarian think tank, said Eicher’s high salary as well as Gee’s expense reports shows “there is a mentality that Gee will spend whatever he wants to spend to do whatever he wants to do.”

“It reveals a mentality that spending lots of money is OK,” Mayer said. “When Ohioans are being squeezed, we need our public leaders to be very mindful of how they spend money.”