Community assessment under way for Athens and OU

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Athens Mayor Steve Patterson and City Council President Chis Knisely are urging residents in the “45701” area code (the Athens area) who don’t work for Ohio University to take part in a community assessment “to understand the quality of the relationship between the city of Athens and Ohio University.”

The assessment is part of College Town Assessment, LLC, a third-party evaluator that measures campus and community member perceptions of one another. OU and the city of Athens recently received CTA’s Larry Abernathy Award for outstanding Town-Gown Relations.

According to a news release, “All community and campus stakeholders are being invited to share their experiences and perception of the relationship. Your thoughtful answers to the survey are critical!”

The results will be analyzed to identify what is working well and what can be improved in the city and university relationship, the release states, adding, “This is an excellent opportunity for you to provide feedback.”

Recipients are being asked to respond by Oct. 31 (next Wednesday). The letter says the assessment will take about 15 minutes to complete. Answers are completely confidential, and the data gathered will be released only as summaries.

The survey can be found at this link: www.collegetownassessment.com/survey/ou-athens

The data will be shared with the Healthy Campus Community Coalition to improve the relationship between the two entities, the release states.

Anyone with questions or concerns about the survey or who would like to become involved with the Healthy Campus Community Coalition should contact Terry Koons, associate director for health promotion at OU: Koons@ohio.edu or 740-593-4025.