Jim Murray is tired of Ohio University’s “party school” reputation, and he wants OU students to fix it.
At last night’s Student Senate meeting, Murray proposed the idea of a group he calls “The Guardians of Bobcatland,” a collection of students who would clean up the city and restore the university’s prestige.
“The sole mission of The Guardians is to protect the beauty of Athens but also to protect the reputation and the integrity of Ohio University,” he said.
“What I’m asking you to consider is nothing less than transforming yourselves into superheroes.”
Murray suggested that The Guardians could even wear costumes and write songs about their conquests against “the infantiles,” who he said are destroying OU’s image.
“Toilet-training a mindless litter zombie takes hard work,” he said.
Although members of senate generally agreed with Murray’s point, they were skeptical about the implementation plan he offered.
“I don’t know that Student Senate is the right organization to put together another organization,” President Jesse Neader said.
Murray is a member of Clear Litter Everywhere in Athens Now, a group formed about six years ago by City Council at the behest of neighborhood leaders. Although it made some progress in its first few years, successfully lobbying City Council to create the position of litter control officer, Murray says CLEAN has been only “moderately successful.”
Senate members can make more progress than CLEAN if they take his suggestion and form The Guardians, Murray said.
“I don’t see why we couldn’t clean up this town in 72 hours,” he said.
Murray has lived in Athens for almost 30 years, and earned a Ph.D. from OU in 1976 and a masters’ degree in 1978. Since the ’70s, he said, the value of his degrees has decreased because of the university’s reputation as a party school.
“We’re being unfairly judged by the actions of just a few people,” he said.
“You have alumni out there whose degrees are being devalued as well. And they’ll just quit writing checks.”
Despite this, Ohio Student Government Association Delegate Andy Burnette said he did not think students would be willing to join the group.
“It’s an interesting idea, but I think he might have trouble finding students interested in engaging in this project, and the students he does find might have trouble relating to the everyday student,” he said.
Neader agreed most students would be disinclined to get involved.
“I don’t think that you’ll see any of my Student Senate members in a cape,” he said.
If senate does decide to create The Guardians, Murray said, he would not be involved because a student-led movement would be more effective.
“I think I’ve done my part now,” he said. “I’ve put the idea out there.”
— Kaitrin McCoy contributed to this report.
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