With a $13.75 million budget gap and a looming 3.5 percent tuition hike, some students and faculty are ready to proclaim Ohio University is on a self-induced trek to an era of oblivion and might never experience another golden era.
But not every previous generation of OU could have possibly been better. Co-ed ragers until dawn would not have been possible in the '50s when female students had midnight curfews on the weekend. Enjoying a savory burger from West 82 would have been impossible in the '70s - Baker University Center was a cliff.
Frustrated by the negativity that the onslaught of problems has generated, I decided to look back at the '60s and '70s, timespans that struck me as golden eras, to see whether OU truly is destined for doom.
Some claim the budget cuts will cause class sizes to balloon and students' educational experience will be diluted. That might be true; but we should ask the 3,000 students who piled into Templeton-Blackburn Memorial Auditorium for Psychology 101 whether or not class size prevented them from learning. My 200-person Anthropology 101 class that filled Bentley 236 to the brim now feels cozy rather than crowded.
We all know it's not hard to have a good time in Athens. With a lower drinking age, I can only imagine the intensity and hilarity of drunken Court Street quarrels and spills down Jeff Hill. Our No. 5 spot in The Princeton Review's party school for 2010 ranking shows OU still know how to let loose.
One hallmark of the '60s and '70s that is now largely a relic is the amount of protests. Anti-war demonstrations were commonplace
said Andrew Alexander, ombudsman of The Washington Post and former editor-in-chief of The Post. Student protests became so bloody and chaotic at OU that after the Kent State shootings that May 15, 1970, OU President Claude Sowle canceled classes for the remainder of the quarter.
Students still protest, but I do not think the most ardent members of Beyond Coal would slug an OUPD police officer who asked them to move their protest away from the Civil War memorial statue.
For the most part, today's OU students get along. That was not the case 30 or 40 years ago.
ROTC was looked upon negatively said Daryl Levin, a 1978 alumnus. There was still a feeling of 'anti-war' sentiment and people were ambivalent toward veterans returning to school. During Alexander's days, it was debated whether ROTC students should even be housed on campus. Some of the ROTC haters from the anti-war era will be either shocked or slightly amused that ROTC scholarship cadets are given honors housing in Johnson Hall.
The dorms and the dining halls, things all students know far too well, were new in the '60s and '70s. As the university saw enrollment balloon, the South and West greens were constructed. I know it might be hard to imagine bathroom tiles without permanent dirt stains and toilets that fully flushed, but trust me, these were inhabitable residences. Residential Housing even cleaned students' sheets.
But just because dorms were newer does not mean that dorm life was better. Alexander said during the '60s, Students were packed into dormitories like sardines. Today its is not uncommon for students to live alone in a double.
The world-class culinary dining halls are one aspect of residential life that has not changed too much. They served the same greasy burgers and clumpy mystery meat. I only ate salad and drank milkshakes from the dining halls Levin said.
The 2010-11 school year will mark the beginning of a new era. It will be the introduction of a leaner and meaner OU. Though people will bemoan it and say the university is headed south, in all honesty, OU will probably rise again. If you do not believe me go to the history textbooks. After The Post's weather read The sky is falling in the May 15, 1970, edition, OU was able to rise again. Just look back to the past for a golden example showing how this university will rise again.
Gabe Weinstein is a freshman studying journalism and
Monday columnist for The Post. Tell him why 2011-12
will be the best year ever at gw711008@ohiou.edu
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Opinion
Gabe Weinstein
