As the race for Athens mayor heats up, perfecting the relationship between students and residents remains a key plank of both candidates’ platforms. While both agree communication with Student Senate is crucial, Ohio University officials are calling for an increase in City Council participation.
Though student participation tends to hit a peak during presidential election years, civil involvement should also increase the other three years, said Becky Watts, chief of staff to OU President Roderick McDavis.
“What we’ve seen is the number of students who register to vote here instead of their hometown increases (during presidential election years),” she said. “Those elections tend to really elevate awareness for all of us.”
Though both mayoral candidates call for increased integration with OU’s Student Senate, Watts maintains there is a need for city representatives to become more communicative with OU.
“Important decisions are made, leaders are chosen and they represent me and they represent you,” Watts said. “ … The decisions that the municipal leaders are making have a profound effect on their lives.”
Republican mayoral candidate Randy Morris said that strengthening ties between Council leaders and students is essential to consistently increase student voter turnout.
Council needs to emphasize that student input is necessary and important, he added.
“One student out of 20,000 is difficult to reach out to, but Council needs to make it clear that they want to hear from students,” Morris said. “I don’t see enough of that going on.”
However, Athens Mayor Paul Wiehl said Council has made improvements in communicating with and engaging students, citing the city’s compromising with students on the recent noise ordinance.
“They said, ‘We have a problem,’ and we listened,” Wiehl said.
In the same vein as the noise ordinance cooperation, both candidates agree that one of the main ways to build a better relationship with students is increased communication with Student Senate executives and other large student organization leaders.
With an apparent need for both sides of the student resident relationship to be more proactive, Watts added that the focus should be on communication.
“Students need to contact their city council representatives and contact the mayor to talk not just about concerns or issues that arise, but about how we can all work together,” she said. “They need to talk about what they can bring to the table to lift up the whole community.”
kg278810@ohiou.edu
