Design to Give Me Focus by Brian Fogel

Alone. At last? Or still?

The rush of Freon frozen air contracts my skin and pulls me closer to the point of aggravation.

The manufactured tree sap of tires crumbles the gravel, penetrating the rice paper thin and permeable windows. That fiendish fridge keeps on ticking, or buzzing, or digesting the left overs that I forgot weeks ago...

Sure the side of the room inhabited by another creature of this so-called academic land isn't there, but these contraptions of capitalism and convenience drive me along a winding path that has yet to be paved.

Bumpy, loud and unpleasant. I want to work in a place that is quiet by design not by happenstance or occasion. The longer I'm distracted from my work, longer my eye sockets dry like the Kalahari from these damned pixels.

Study Break by Caleb Ternent, Lauren Flum, and Lauren Fisher

Crisp, autumn air dances across your skin. The arousal invites a tensing of microscopic muscles, a long useless adaptation which stands your hairs on end. You spasm, a shiver, as the creeping coolness suddenly pounces, hijacking involuntary responses.
You lose your breath. Inhale.
Is that a skunk? You shift your head as muddled words make their presence known. They are as unclear as their meaning, the conversation's distance eats away at enunciation. No skunk at all!
Inhale again; your nostrils dive deeper into the cornucopia aromas that embrace you. Ragweed pollen floods your nose and violently leaves in one short burst.
Your sneeze accompanies the symphony of crickets. Quickly, the stillness consumes you, as you recline further onto the cool, damp grass. Feel the camaraderie with nature as you are enveloped.
Become one with its tranquility. Join its peace.

From the Front of the Room

Allison Cook, Rebekah Markovitz and Eli Shively

JFresh7 Reporters

I’ve just released the young bodies sitting before me. I feel my lips come to a tight close. I glance over the room. After a few moments, I quietly walk over to my chair. My feet are silent on the carpet and the chair creaks only slightly as I sit in it. I sit behind the table at the front of the room. It’s a smooth and shiny light brown surface. It’s cool to touch, just as the room was when I first entered. I remember shivering and now, with thirty bodies crowding in the tiny desks, the air is sticky and tense. I look over the room again. All faces are glowing against the white papers they stare at. I hear the smooth scratching of their pencils on paper. Brum Ching. Brum Ching. A pencil begins tapping towards the back of the room. The bodies begin to shift in the chairs. I look at my watch. Yes, ten minutes have passed.

Ohio University Homecoming

As I made my way out of the car and on to the red bricks, like all of those who came before me, the Convocation Center and Peden Stadium looked upon me. I bounced my way toward Baker University Center as the warm, early autumn breeze swirled around me. 

As the doors opened I was carried through the building  as if someone had released my helium-filled being into the sky. The crowds converged and I was separated from my friends. I emerged from the building and was blown over to Jeff Hill. 

Some students braved the climb, while others took the short cut through Glidden Hall. I could not stop my ascent, but I was not dismayed because the view of the rolling hills and greens below me was breathtaking. It was hOUme.

By: Mal Golski, Max McDulin, and Kate Ansel

A Secret Location

Step, step, step, right, left, step, step, step…sit. The wind ruffles the trees until their leaves gently fall to the bricks. Its sound does not overshadow a child’s counting. “1, 2, 3, ahhh you found me!” Through the windows’ reflections, I see her hiding behind an unusually large rock. It is quite an interesting thing, this building. Two circles, five rectangles and two semi-cylinders are all ready to mirror the lawn’s latest activities. As if on cue, a bell tolls and people begin to gather in a semicircle. Sorority girls appear suddenly laughing. A couple crosses through holding hands, while others decide to take a seat. Through my nose alone, I can tell the quintessential college students have arrived: Chipotle, Ginger, and Avalanche. My nose argumentatively claims this is not a tobacco free campus. With each moment I spend wondering for what everyone is congregated, the sun continues to set farther and farther west, behind the Panhellenic house. 

By Alyssa Murtagh 

I am in a group with Miki and Hannah!

The Dreaded Helicopter Parents by Caleb and Rebekah

September 18th-20th: Parents’ Weekend at Ohio University.

Greeting signs and festivities were laid out across the campus, as long separated families finally reunited. Joyous smiles were present on the faces of all on the grounds. Cheers filled the air after each Bobcat touchdown against Southeastern Louisiana. However, as little as four weeks prior, OU was brimming with far different emotions.

August 19th-21st: Move-in days at Ohio University.  

Rather than the splendor of Parents’ Weekend, the campus was adorned with dread and sorrow as parents dropped off their children to their new homes. Generally speaking, the day that a parent has to give up his/her child has long been regarded as an overall stressful (to put it lightly) and emotional day.

Why?

“Because...[your]...whole focus just walked out the door,” Amy Karageorge, an OU alum and mother of a current OU freshman, explains. This is true for nearly all parents; after raising a child for nearly two decades, and then having said child basically exit their lives takes an emotional toll. Thus, it becomes difficult for many parents to cope, resulting in calls, multiple texts, and unending Skype requests.

Some students, understandably, are fine with this arrangement, as the weight of this separation is likewise difficult for their well-being. Similar to the parents’ predicament, being raised for nearly two decades by the same people, and then leaving these people also takes an emotional toll. Obviously, some communication is expected, but when does this cross the line between “We miss you!” to completely overbearing?

While the previously stated line may be difficult to find (and in reality, it may be more accurately described as a gray area), the symptoms of the “overbearing” extreme are easily identifiable; when despite hundreds of miles of distance, the parent never ends their role as a parent. Multiple calls a week or month become multiple times a day. The amount of texting could mirror that of a dating couple. In short, the communication never stops.

However, there are far more bizarre instances on record. Some parents have called the president of the college after their child has had a dispute with his/her roommate. In very rare cases, some parents have even moved near campuses just so they can be closer to their child. This separation anxiety seems to be more typical in parents who (for lack of a better explanation) cannot stop being parents; they cannot handle that their jobs have, more or less, ended. They do not recognize their former role has ended, and it is time for their child to become an adult, but on their own terms.

The emergence of these “helicopter parents,” as they have come to be referred, may be the result of multiple factors. For instance, if the student does not have siblings, his/her parents may be more likely to “hover.” This is more or less so a symptom of a larger factor: “[forgetting] what it was like to have an abundance of time,” as stated by Ken Markovitz (who is the father of an Ohio University freshman). “Before,” Ken continues, “we were so busy with everyone’s schedules...I have to retrain my day to be productive.”

But this new-found time alone is not the sole cause of this phenomenon. Obviously the bond between the parents and their child must be considered. However, the real culprit may be something we’ve grown so accustomed to that we forget to factor it in: modern technology, chiefly, the cell phone.

Cell phones have made it so easy to communicate that a simple text message, given some time, may mature into ten texts, three emails, five missed calls, and a Facetime request. Without their child actually being there, parents have been left with enough gadgets to ensure near constant communication; restoring the presence they would have lost.

Although this may seem to be one of the advantages to the “global village” (made famous by Marshall McLuhan) aspect of modern communication (and in other circumstances, it most certainly is), it doesn’t allow for a healthy separation between parent and child. Moreover, it does not allow for their relationship to change as it should naturally. Furthermore, do to their parents’ over-involvement, some students may not be ready to cope with the stress of the workplace on their own, which in turn may also adversely affect their self esteem and self efficacy.

With the risk of damaging their child’s future, parents should to find some sort of medium between overbearing and enough communication. Parents should not “cut the cord,” so to speak, and leave their new students solely to their own devices. Some communication is necessary and generally welcomed.

There is no “one size fits all” solution to this problem. It requires trial and error and learning from what works and what does not. The solution is different for each family; it’s subjective. It would seem that Mrs. Karageorge has found her own happy medium as she “trie[s] to keep in touch with him,” but “ a lot of it as a parent is letting them sink or swim.”

Parents should not worry for their child’s future successes throughout college. Sure, they will fail from time to time, but they should not be helped by their parents as they were just a few years ago. Parents should not be there to pick them up and kiss their wounds; this is the time in their lives when they must learn to patch them themselves. And given the right amount of distance, most will swim. Just as Mrs. Karageorge states, “we tried to prepare him before.”

“We tried our best with that, and the rest was up to him.”

Freshmen reflect on OHIO's party school atmosphere

For years, Ohio University has been given the reputation of one of the top party schools in the nation.

 

Playboy noted Athens’ infamous HallOUween block party, numerous fests and the 18 bars along Court Street as factors. In addition to our nationally ranked party school, we are home to one of the top journalism schools in the nation.

 

However, when a freshman announces their acceptance, the family’s first response is almost always, “Oh, isn’t that the party school?” Bobcats are always on the defense of our wonderful hOUme.

Freshman Emma Kramer, an Information Design Publication student, said that the party school status did not affect her decision in any way when deciding to come to OU.

“The campus is beyond beautiful, which is probably why everyone came here, but the Scripps school really was the main part,” said Kramer. “Scripps is one of the top ten journalism schools in the country, I knew that it was going to be the perfect program for me. Plus no other schools in this area offered my major.”

Ohio University administration has frequently defended the school’s academics in response to the party rankings. After Princeton Review rated OU as the top party school in 2012, President McDavis responded in a letter to students in faculty.

“This ranking is not indicative of the overall experience of OHIO students and does not match the data we have collected,” said McDavis. “We take seriously our responsibility to help our students succeed in all facets of their experience, including addressing high-risk behavior.”

While students and faculty view the school for much more than the reputation as a major rager school, there are still preconceived notions from outsiders about how much OU parties.

“When I first decided to come to school here some of my friends were a little surprised because I was a good student in high school,” said Freshman Engineering student Maggie Riley. “Since I've been here, I've met some of the smartest people I've ever met. It's not OU's fault, and it's definitely not the only school who has to deal with party-savvy students.”

Similarly, Freshman Journalism student Brett Hanebrink is unphased by others’ opinions of the school. “People can think whatever they want about OU,” said Hanebrink. “It does have a party atmosphere but that doesn’t mean we don’t go to class. Wiz Khalifa once said, ‘Work hard, play hard.’”

Ohio University has historically been ranked in several publications as a top party school. However, the school has not been ranked in Playboy since 2008, when it was rated as the eighth best party school in the nation.

Other publications that rate universities as party schools have also noted Ohio University on their lists for 2015, including the Princeton Review, which ranked OU as #13 in the nation.

"I was scared coming here because of the reputation it had. Once here, I realized there is more to do on the weekends than party, which made me fall in love with OU so much more," said freshman Communication Sciences and Disorders student Emily Krause.

Many freshmen primarily considered the academic programs when choosing to come to Ohio University, and have only fallen in love more now that they have attended for a month, even with the party culture.

“Students party here, but what college campus doesn't? Coming to this school was the best decision I ever made,” said Kramer. “I have completely fallen in love with the people and the environment. I never thought I could love one place so much.”

While students may be looking past the parties and more into the culture and academics, students still pride themselves on beating Miami’s status. Playboy acknowledged the rivalry in their article, saying “Sorry, Miami University, but OU’s year-round antics are hard to trump”.