Panelists at an open forum on Athens poverty yesterday urged students to look beyond Ohio University and recognize the rural poverty that surrounds the campus.
Discussion ranged from Athens-area poverty to the recent earthquakes in Haiti, with the 17 students as well as the three panelists offering personal anecdotes and opinions.
There is a culture here ... it's got a reason
it's got a history it's got a language and it's got a way said Michael Skladany, an OU sociology professor and panelist at the discussion. We don't want to deal with poverty. It is something that runs contra to the American dream.
One focus of the discussion was why so many Americans feel compelled to donate to countries abroad when devastating poverty is so close to home.
Students pointed out that sometimes people need a tragedy - such as Hurricane Katrina and the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile - to motivate them to donate, and panelists argued that people would rather focus on the problems of other countries rather than recognize those in their homeland.
It's separation that leads to this
said Heidi Bender, a service living coordinator for Residential Housing. A lot of people were interested in helping in Nicaragua because people want to turn a blind eye to what's going on at home.
Some students shared personal anecdotes about their experiences with poverty. One student said she did not think she would ever attend college because her family could barely afford milk, and another said her father dropped out of school to work at a coal mine.
Poverty is more prevalent in Athens County than in the rest of the state, with 29.6 percent of people living below the poverty line compared a 13.3 percent state average, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Pamela Pate, a panelist and community service coordinator for the Campus Involvement Center, said that because most students are not from Athens, they might have never been exposed to its impoverished parts .
Pate is heading a program Spring Quarter to educate students about area poverty that will include presentations, discussions and a poverty simulation.
We're trying to build the interest of students who care about poverty and the county
Pate said. No one gets out of poverty without any help.
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Pamela Engel
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Panelist Pamela Pate, of the Campus Involvement Center, talks during the Right Outside of OU poverty discussion last night. Members of the Sigma Gamma Rho sorority organized the discussion.
(Mike Henry | PICTURE EDITOR)
