The Ohio State University-Mansfield Dean Dr. Stephen Gavazzi and North Central State College President Dr. Dorey Diab met with the Richland County commissioners on Thursday afternoon to discuss their intent of labeling the 640-acre campus as “Campus District Sector.”
Gavazzi explained that the campus has planned this initiative in partnership with Richland Community Development Group.
“The idea behind this would be to create a boundary line of the geographical campus, which runs roughly from Lexington-Springmill to SR 39 and SR 39 past Home Road and up Walker Lake Rd. Our hope is that that would begin to brand that area in which people would increasingly recognize the benefits of having two co-located institutions of higher learning,” Gavazzi said.
The university administrators plan spend the academic school year of 2014-2015 putting a plan in place, “so that we hopefully have something in place by mid-2015, which could help guide and direct this development,” said Gavazzi.
Gavazzi noted, “We would like to begin a process of planning for what a much more vital relationship between the campus and the communities that surround us look like, or what the ‘town-gown’ relationship would look like.”
At the meeting, Gavazzi gave the commissioners a book titled, “Town and Gown: From Conflict to Cooperation,” which is a guide to building positive relationships between the municipality and its local post-secondary schools.
In respect to this initiative, Gavazzi pointed toward the new off-campus housing that is being constructed on Lexington-Springmill Rd. and noted, “The partnership we’ve seen sprout on Lexington-Springmill Rd. with regard to the off-campus student housing represents, I think, the beginning of a renewed relationship between private investment and public entities that we represent. Our hope is that student housing will be an ignition point for some fairly substantial growth and that it will benefit the area surrounding Rt. 39 and Walker Lake Rd., as well.”.
The first building for the new student housing is slated to be framed before Christmas, said Gavazzi.
Commissioner Ed Olson stated, “The only real concern I have is that there’s a number of manufacturing jobs that are close to home, but they all require higher skills….The second thing is that this area over the next 10-15 years is going to become more important as a medical services area….so it’s going to take a lot more education on your part for students to become qualified for those jobs.”
Diab responded, “We certainly understand that and are taking that to the next level in alignment with the strategic initiative.”
“I see both OSU and North Central having a revolving door with people constantly coming back to school, even if it’s just to pick up a single course,” said Olson.
Gavazzi stated, “We’re already seeing that happening. We have a 60-plus program that an increasing number of local residents are taking advantage of, maybe someone wants to pick an extra course or get a new profession. And that’s really part of why we wanted to have the increased visibility of the campus district—to remind people that we’re here as an asset not just to the traditional students, but for the nontraditional students, as well.”
Referring to the initiative, Commissioner Tim Wert stated, “This could be one of the most exciting things that happens to this whole area if it’s done correctly.”
Commissioner Gary Utt commented on Diab’s and Gavazzi’s partnership, stating, “It looks like between the two of you guys that there is cohesive dedication to get this thing done and I applaud you for that because it needs to grow.”
