In August, many local businesses decided to show their school spirit by displaying ‘we support OU’ signs in their businesses.
Brooke Riffel, director of annual giving and dome society has been working on putting together a discounts page for the students to take advantage of the local business offers for OU students.
“I’ve already had conversations with businesses in the community,” she said. “One of my main objectives is to get my name out there. I want to get businesses to help out.”
Senior Jill Francis from Ottawa thinks that this is a small, but positive step in the right direction.
“I think it’s good that the businesses are being supportive of OU, however, I’d like to know how they’re being supportive,” she said. “I could say I support rainbows, but what am I doing to support them?”
Francis is also a transfer from Evangel University in Springfield, MO, and says that the community surrounding Evangel is vastly different.
“Ottawa’s community as a whole is rather small. As a city backing up a university, it could be a good thing, though,” she said. “Since I went to school in
Springfield, the community around the city supported Evangel, but I think it was a connection in a different way. It was a large city with many universities.”
Riffel believes that this is just a step in making students feel welcome.
“Students will be more familiar with the community and not be homesick,” Riffel said. “They’ll also feel a connection to the university. There’s more to do than students think.”
This is something Francis already recognizes.
“It’s obvious Crystal Plaza supports us because they let us into their business for movie night,” she said. “They have an active role in the community. It’ll be great to get out to these businesses and see what they have to offer.”
The Association of American Colleges and Universities has a program on their web site called ‘LEAP,’ which has information on ways to get college campuses and communities to join together.
According to www.aacu.org, the goal of LEAP is to “Sponsor campus-community dialogues in collaboration with other colleges in the region to discuss what really matters in college and how students should be prepared to reap the full benefits on a quality undergraduate education.”
The site, which has tips for organizing events, also has tips about high schools preparing incoming freshman for college life by sponsoring college readiness events with college faculty and local high school teachers.
Francis thinks there are already some events on campus that showcase this type of dialogue.
“I think attending the Fusion Business Expo and seeing all the different businesses in the community can really open it up to students,” she said. “Especially if someone didn’t know a lot about the Ottawa community or OU.”