City Council, OU prez discuss issues of mutual concern
By Corey Ryan
July 28, 2008
Athens City Council and Ohio University President Roderick McDavis met for a lunch meeting last Thursday to discuss ways to improve their working relationship. The talks touched on a variety of issues, including housing, students’ cars and mass transportation, and enrollment projections.
The meeting between six council members and McDavis at Stephen’s restaurant in uptown Athens provided the council representatives the opportunity to question McDavis regarding transportation, development, the environment, problems with noise and graffiti, and funding for a fire truck.
Third Ward City Council representative Nancy Bain, who is also an OU professor, said she thinks students have a mentality that discourages walking to class. Council and McDavis agreed that Athens has too many cars.
OU does not have a policy that forbids students from bringing cars. Freshmen living in residence halls, a university requirement for most students during their first two years, cannot purchase parking from OU, but are pointed in the direction of privately owned parking lots near campus. Sophomores living in residence halls can park on campus with a parking pass.
McDavis said the surplus car problem could take care of itself.
“When you get to above $4 a gallon, that is a disincentive to have a car,” McDavis said, referring to the current high gas prices.
Christine Knisley, at-large representative on council, asked McDavis about improving public transportation and encouraging students to take advantage of it.
“I’m very open to any recommendations,” McDavis said. “We ought to get something that combines our resources together for the benefit of the students and the city.”
McDavis suggested students may not have sufficient information on public transportation. If the city wants students to use public transportation, there needs to be an annual effort to provide students information because more than 4,000 new students arrive annually.
That number of new students should grow gradually, but not to a huge amount, McDavis said, which could affect the already overcrowded and overpriced city housing market.
Part of the Athens Comprehensive Plan calls for an increase in owner-occupied housing in the city, in order to slow or halt the conversion of traditional residential neighborhoods into mainly student sectors. About 85 percent of the housing in Athens is rental housing, according to the “2006 Ohio University Off-Campus Housing Analysis.”
First Ward council representative Kent Butler approached the subject of housing as a problem for OU in retaining staff because housing prices are so expensive. This is because the values often are set according to what the property can bring as a student rental, rather than a family home.
The average annual rent per bedroom is between $4,950 and $6,650, according to the “Off-Campus Housing Analysis.”
In order to achieve more owner-occupied housing, Butler suggested the university think of an incentive plan for employees who purchase property within the city limits.
“It helps to have different people from different backgrounds in the community,” Butler said. “I think the university can be a leader.”
One place where OU has shown leadership is with the environment. In April, McDavis signed the Presidents’ Climate Commitment, a comprehensive plan that calls for universities to limit greenhouse-gas emissions and develop a specific plan for achieving climate neutrality.
“What are we going to do to protect the environment in our neck of the woods?” asked McDavis, one of 600 university presidents who signed the PCC. “It’s as small as turning the lights off when you leave a classroom,” he added.
OU may be a part of the solution to bettering the environment, but City Council is also concerned with other pollutants, graffiti and noise.
“We can offer our support and join into the conversation,” McDavis said. “It’s a concern, and I would like to take a look at it.”
McDavis said one approach would be to reach out to Student Senate.
“I’ve had talks to people with the university who have taken jobs because of the hills and the brick streets,” said Elahu Gosney, at-large council representative. “We need to preserve that.”
Debbie Phillips, Fourth Ward council member, mentioned funding for a fire truck, asking McDavis if the university could help since so many calls come from university property. Currently the university does not have any funds allocated for that purpose, McDavis said, but he will look into it. (Athens city government for years has been trying to persuade OU to contribute to fire protection in Athens.)
City Council should expect to hear back from McDavis soon on a lot of the issues discussed on Thursday, the president said. After the lunch ended, McDavis suggested the group meet again in the near future.
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