Budget takes bite out of another crucial resource: Office of Off-Campus and Community Services

Over the past year, I’ve found quite my niche as the Community Affairs Assistant for the Office of Off-Campus and Community Services. This PACE position allowed me to utilize my skills as a communicator, through resolving issues between tenants and landlords and educating off-campus students about their rights and responsibilities. However, recent budget cuts have resulted in what feels like a constant reorganization of the office (and the Department of Campus Life as a whole) and has ultimately led to the relocation of my former supervisor Jim Hintz.

Jim said farewell to the office last Friday, May 18, to take an off-campus living position at the University of Connecticut – a school which has paralleled many of its off-campus initiatives to those of Ohio University. And despite OU Student Senate’s fight to maintain the entirety of our office and its resources, administrators are still considering the altogether elimination of Jim’s position. I’m shocked by this thought, and cannot understand their inability to recognize the helpful services provided by our staff. Beyond dispersing housing and tenant information, we work to educate students about safety and legal issues relating to Halloween and spring street festivals. Additionally, the office assists in off-campus move-in and move-out and engages students in donation and recycling initiatives.

The anticipated reshuffling of the office would place us under the Department of Residence Life, entailing that the Community Assistants and the CA program would fall under the responsibilities of resident directors. From my experience, there is an obvious difference between a CA living off-campus and facilitating a genuine network of support and an RA overseeing a group of students contained in a residence hall; it’s a shame that administrators want to consolidate a set of resources that would perform much better if kept separate.

All this pondering has made me realize that I need to get some more concrete information about the situation. Therefore, I've decided to talk to a knowledgeable and objective source inside the department of Student Affairs. Look for a blog post (and some better insight) this weekend!