Ava Miller treads the boards of Putnam Hall, practicing dances for her coursework as a dance student — the same floors she first learned to dance on more than a decade ago.
Miller is one of the 1,156 registered Ohio University main campus students hailing from Athens County who attended Ohio University in Fall 2012, according to the Ohio University Factbook. In contrast, just 694 students came from the entire state of Pennsylvania.
Many Athens natives have grown up on the greens of the university, taking dance or music lessons on campus, sitting in on their parents’ classes during school holidays, or playing Humans versus Zombies, but some students never envision a future for themselves at OU.
REDEFINING “HOME”
For Erika Williams, a sophomore studying English, it was not until she was a senior in high school that she took note of all that Ohio University had to offer.
“I never wanted to go to OU,” Williams said. “But senior year, everything changed. When I was looking at colleges, I realized that I was looking to see if they had the qualities of OU. I was looking for what I already had.”
On the other hand, the exposure to the campus can sometimes have the opposite effect.
“I started to develop a split impression of the university,” said Daniel Bell-Moran, a sophomore at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn., studying international studies.
“On one hand, there were many different academic opportunities and a degree of internationalism that the school offers. Yet at the same time (there’s) the emphasis placed on athletics, as well as the party culture.”
Both of Bell-Morhan’s parents teach at Ohio University.
DEBUNKING “TOWNIES”
Some students find the idea of a childhood in Athens intriguing, but others have a preconceived perception that can come off as condescending toward “townies.”
“The peer response to when I say I am from Athens is usually, ‘oh wow, you don’t seem like a townie,’ ” said Miller, a senior studying dance and psychology.
“‘Townie’ has such a horrible stigma. The people students think of as townies are not real townies.”
Miller said students often have an incorrect stereotype of the students who were raised in Athens County.
“The townie stereotype is someone who is poor, Appalachian, who acts and talks in a certain way and are maybe not as intelligent,” said Jackson Lavelle, an Athens native and senior studying political science.
Lavelle, Miller and Williams all said, however, they think students’ impression of Athens natives as being unintelligent and uncultured is entirely inaccurate.
In fact, there are currently 19 different countries represented in East Elementary — just one of four elementary schools of the whole district — and the Athens City School District scores above average, according to standards set by the Ohio Department of Education.
Miller said she tries to show people the beauty of her hometown: the Athens she has always known.
“I like to have people come to my house and meet my parents, to experience Athens from my perspective,” she said “They expect me to live in a trailer just because I am from Athens County.”
Williams said she agrees the response from other students about her roots can be quite predictable.
“The most common reaction that I get is people asking if I know someone else from Athens,” she said. “People expect you to know everyone from Athens, even if they are a few years older than you.”
THE NO. 1 PARTY SCHOOL
In a similar fashion, Williams said people expect some students from Athens to have partied like some OU students when they were younger.
“People always ask when I started to go to college parties,” she said. “It was when I was in college.”
Students from Athens County have a different perspective on the party culture because they have grown up seeing the effects of it and have had their parents to guide them through.
“I always knew that it was a party school,” Miller said. “But it didn’t mean anything. ... When I was in high school, we would drive around on Friday and Saturday nights and just see the parties, not do anything.”
However, Miller said not all students stood passively watching the party scene.
“Some people flaunted it, loved it, embraced it,” said Miller. “I just never thought it was that cool.”
Her mother, Juli Miller, a permanent part-time instructional faculty member in the College of Social and Public Health, said she did not try to hide her children from that reality.
“We talked about (the partying),” Juli said. “Going to mass on the top of Mill Street on Sunday mornings, we would see the remnants of Saturday night. We would talk about choices and prevention. You can’t just act like it isn’t there. You have to hope your children make the better choices.”
Children of professors also have to deal with the unique situation of fellow students who have their parents as instructors.
“I have many encounters with students who didn’t like (my mother),” Miller said. “I have had encounters with people my mom has had thrown out of the university for cheating. ... My mom isn’t a mean teacher, they just get what they deserved for cheating.”
Miller’s mother often has friends or acquaintances of her daughter in her classes.
“I am never different to students that my daughter knows. In classes of 100, it is easy to treat everyone equally,” Juli said.
As fair as a professor might be, his or her children still have to deal with the inevitable negative reactions.
“There are horrible comments,” Miller said. “But I know my mom better than anyone ... I have learned now, but it’s hard not to take it personally. It’s nice because my friends who know my mom are quick to defend her, and I appreciate that.”
FACTORING THE DECISION
Though students said they were exposed to the intellectual and cultural benefits of the university, many said it was the financial incentive that drove them to choose OU.
“I chose OU because of the cost,” Lavelle said. “I received the Cutler Scholarship (a scholarship program that helps develop effective leaders), and basically got a full ride-tuition, room and board.”
Dependents of university employees have instructional fees waived, although they still pay the general fee.
Candace Boeninger, assistant vice provost for enrollment management and director of Undergraduate Admissions, said students from Athens are an integral part of the OU community.
“Whatever the hometown, each individual brings a set of talents, interests, experience and skills,” she said. “It’s good for the university and good for Athens when students who have deep ties to the local community choose to study at Ohio.”
Boeninger said she believes students from Athens should do the same college procedures as students from far away.
“We want them to come for an official campus visit, engage in conversations with our faculty and students from all over the world, and try to see us with new eyes when they’re going through the college search process,” Boeninger said.
And the Athens you grew up in can be different than the one you experience as a Bobcat.
“I remind them that it’s one thing to experience the university as a community member, but it can be very different and exciting to consider what Ohio can offer you, personally, for your own college experience,” Boeninger said.
mo403411@ohiou.edu
@MegOmecene
