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Students protest the Vietnam War outside Lindley Hall in 1975. 

OU professors teaching at the university they graduated from see changes on campus

About 1,028  full-time faculty and staff members at Ohio University also attended OU as students, according to University Advancement.

“I think it is like Homecoming every single day,” Dean of Students Jenny Hall-Jones, who is a three-time alumna, said. 

Though Hall-Jones said she enjoys working at her alma mater, she and other faculty members have witnessed changes on campus since they were Bobcats.

Communication studies instructor Tom Costello, a 1975 graduate who obtained a bachelor’s degree of general studies in the University College, has seen many changes since his time as a student.

“It was a different time. The '60s had ended with the civil rights movement, and we were in the middle of the Vietnam War so there was a lot of discussion (and) demonstration on the war both from a student point of view and a faculty point of view,” Costello said.

Costello also noted how the school has grown in size.

“When I was here, there was about 16,000 students and now there is about 22,000,” Costello said.

As a resident of Luchs Hall, Costello sometimes goes on rounds with the resident assistants and finds it interesting that for some reason doors are not open.

“When you walk down a floor section, all the doors are closed,” Costello said. “People are behind them and you hear music and I don’t want to think that there is stuff you’re not supposed to be doing going on behind those doors.”

When he was a student, he does not remember that happening. A lot of doors were open and people were always going across the hall and playing cards or eating pizza, he said.

The number of organizations on campus has grown, too.

“I think there is a whole lot more available from Greek life, to service organizations to organizations with a cause or mission behind it for change,” Costello said.

Teresa Franklin, professor emerita of educational studies, graduated in 1999 and studied curriculum instruction with an emphasis in instructional technology in a doctoral program.

Franklin does not think it was strange to come back to OU as a professor.

“Coming back as a student was different. In some ways you had to change your mindset from being the student to now being the faculty member,” Franklin said. “With faculty work comes a lot of expectations of publication and you have committee work and teaching courses and even students who need to be advised. In those days all of the faculty members advised and now the College of Education has advisors who help the faculty.”

Franklin said working with students and doing advising was one of the most rewarding opportunities because students and faculty are what complete the university.

“Students don’t leave a university and say ‘gee, I love that dean or that administrator’" Franklin said. "They say ‘wow, I had some of the best faculty, and this faculty member was a great faculty member because I learned x, y and z."

She still thinks that faculty and students are the heart of the university today. Franklin has also noticed that students are getting drunk earlier in the week than they used to.

“I do not think that this is unique to OU. My colleagues at other universities are seeing the same thing,” Franklin said. “When I was here as a student, I don’t think there was as much drinking as there is today.”

She also said the character of the campus has remained.

“I think that the grounds still look beautiful, which is one of the things OU has going for it,” Franklin said. "When I went to college, we called it Harvard on the Hocking and I still think it has that look."

Hall-Jones said she has mainly seen physical changes to campus.

“I think the biggest changes I’ve seen in the 25 years I’ve been here is more psychical changes to campus," she said. "I don’t feel like the essence of campus has changed really or the culture of students.”

@TF_Johnston

tj369915@ohio.edu

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