borna, you make some excellent points here. I've said in earlier posts -- a year or more ago -- that the university, in general, does not make itself relevant to the average resident of Athens County. Yet, OSU has a lot of Wal_Mart fans here. Somehow OU is seen as elitist by many locals, while OSU seems like it's the "people's university." It's a matter of perception. It wasn't always so. In my youth, there was less of this town-gown split than there is today. At that time, the city had two major employers -- OU and McBee. About a third of my high school class was made up of OU brats, a third of McBee brats and the rest brats of other persuasions. While there was some tension between the grouips there seemed to less of an "us" v. "them" mentality than exists today. One reason for this was the attitude of President Baker, who made it a point know all the Court Street merchants on a first-name basis and to meet and greet folks from all walks of like on the city streets. He made it an explicit point to not stay hunkered down in Cutler Hall but to get to know the community. In saying this I'm not complaining about McDavis specifically because none of his predecessors since Baker have really done much to improve town-gown relationships. I would, however, encourage him to do more mixing with the community. Also, it would be a good idea if our coaches did so as well. I do know that Frank has made some friends around town who are of the "good old boy" type that we need to recruit into our fan base. Don't know exactly what JG has done on this front. My basic point is that getting out in the community and talking to "the folks" needs to be done more often by more folks at the university. This would be a positive in many ways, including helping to cultivate a fan base. Winning is also an essential ingredient in the formula!
Interesting points but of course you're drawing from your experiences before consolidation. Not only is there a town/gown divide related to OU but there is also at our local high school. I did a study on this several years ago when the Athens City School district was considering reorganizing their elementary schools. It was amazing to see the under-representation of students who had attended certain elementary schools on everything from sports teams to courts (prom and homecoming) to students in honors level classes. I made the comment that had we been talking about disparities related to race, the federal government would have come in and reorganized things years ago. Obviously, the committee folded, the board tried a secret meeting and the whole thing fell apart.
My point is that if we were to get these kids together sooner, there might be some positive effects on how they and subsequent generations perceive the so-called educational elites.
Alan, I'm well aware of the problems brought on by the consolidation -- forced by state education bureaucrats -- of the old Athens City School District with The Plains School District and Chauncey Exempted Village School District. I applaud your attempts to provide an after-the-fact solution to some of those problems. However, I submit that the first cause of the problem was the forced merger. The Chauncey system is a good example in point. Prior to the merger Chauncey had students each year that scored high on the state Latin test.. They had a Latin teacher at that high school who knew how to teach students coming from the type of socioeconomic background that is typical of students from that area. And, I suspect that this was true of most of the teachers in Chauncey system. I just picked the Latin situation because of the steller performance in that area with an objective fact basis (the state tests). Now, when our children were at AHS, the kids from Chauncey were isolated and treated like second class citizens. None of them, to my knowledge, excelled in any academic pursuits. One teacher, who shall remain nameless, referred to these students -- in front of other students (including my daughter and maybe yours) -- as his "redneck students." A number of other teachers expressed the same attitude more subtly. As you know people, particularly young people, often live up to the expectations that those in leadership positions have for them. My wife, by the way, has worked for a number of years with student teachers who go to the elementary schools that serve the Chauncey area. Many of them come back after their first few days suffering from "culture shock," but she reports that after a while they really enjoy working with these students. I think the problems develop at the middle school and high school level.
Last Edited: 3/30/2011 10:14:51 PM by OhioCatFan