Like some college students, Cary Frith dreamed of fast-paced city life and world travel after graduation. The 1992 graduate of Ohio University's Honors Tutorial College did not plan to return to the campus she knew.
I thought I'd be in D.C.
New York or Chicago said Frith, who worked in those cities for several years in the magazine industry.
But now, 13 years later, she is an assistant professor of journalism in the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism.
A handful of Ohio University faculty and staff members, like Frith, return to OU after their experiences as students, and they see the campus in a different way now that they are at a different point in their lives. When you've been to a university you feel part of it
said head baseball coach Joe Carbone, who earned a degree in education in 1970 and returned to OU in 1988. I feel very comfortable
right at home here.
Assistant Professor of Visual Communication Sam Girton graduated in 1991 from the School for Visual Communications and sees the same student struggles today as when he was an undergraduate. You don't know who your life partner is going to be
what your job will be
if you'll be successful.
Activism in Athens Though students face personal uncertainties, they continue to contribute to local activism, something Frith sees as part of Athens' personality.
The character hasn't changed
Frith said. There's still the small-town charm and activism.
Activism saw a peak during Spring Quarter 1970, when Carbone and now-OU President Roderick McDavis were supposed to graduate. With the nation involved in the Vietnam War and riots erupting at schools throughout the state, demonstrations and protests gave way to violence in mid-May.
Many students felt if they were old enough to be drafted into a war they did not believe in, they could speak out against it.
Students really rose and said
'The university is not our mom and dad
' said Jan Hodson, assistant dean of the Honors Tutorial College.
On May 14 of that year, Hodson, then a freshman interior design major, stayed glued to the radio in her all-female Ryors residence hall, listening for news over rioters' yells from Uptown. Police unleashed pepper spray on student protesters surging onto Court Street.
Before the sun rose May 15, OU President Claude Sowle closed the school. Many students did not know where to go; the campus was evacuated. When The Post reached newsstands, the weather report on the front page read, The sky is falling.
Graduating seniors in 1970 never saw commencement in the wake of the violence, but this year, McDavis and Carbone will walk during the graduation ceremony. I'm looking forward to it
said Carbone, who plans to surprise his 80-year-old mother when he joins his graduating daughter crossing the stage.
Today, there are rarely riots for the police to break up. However, activism persists at OU -sometimes called Berkeley of the Backwoods -as students proved through debates, speeches and demonstrations prior to this year's presidential election.
Technological and social changes While the general struggle of youth and the student body's spirit have remained, Girton said, students' wallets are much fuller than they were even a decade ago, and they have new technology at their fingertips.
It used to be if you'd see a nice car around
