OHIO unveils new Paw Print Park

There’s a new student space on Ohio University’s Athens Campus, and it screams Bobcat pride.

Ohio University Housing and Residence Life kicked off Homecoming weekend with an Oct. 7 grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony for South Green’s new Paw Print Park. Located behind Nelson Commons, Paw Print Park was developed with input from and focus on OHIO students – their wellbeing, their engagement and their community.

“It’s not just what happens in the classroom,” President Hugh Sherman said of the Ohio University experience at the park’s grand opening. “On a residential campus, it’s the many activities that take place – in the residence halls, in recreation, with all the student organizations that we have. That’s an important element of the high-quality education we provide.”

The park features two giant Bobcat paw prints – one designated as a hammock space with sunshades and metal poles that can accommodate as many as 56 hammocks, the other available for student gathering and events. 

In addressing the crowd, Jneanne Hacker, executive director for Housing and Residence Life, noted the park’s three goals, including student engagement and wellbeing – in alignment with OHIO’s new THRIVE initiative – and adding to the University’s visual identity and iconic landmarks. 

Complementing the Bobcat weathervane that sits atop the adjacent Wray House residence hall, Hacker said Paw Print Park’s aerial view “represents a Bobcat walking across South Green, creating a path for our fellow Bobcats to realize their promise, and symbolizing many of the characteristics that we find valuable in our students: tenacity, curiosity, strength, intelligence and a strong sense of trust.”

Hacker also noted the role the park will play in creating the strong sense of community, identity and amenities found on OHIO’s residential greens. 

“One of the things that Housing and Residence Life takes a whole lot of pride in is making a large residential experience feel very small and intimate, and part of that is by design of our greens, the programming that our student leaders create for our students to engage, to build those Bobcat-to-Bobcat connections that we know are critically important to our students and their transition, their growth, their development and their success,” Hacker said. “We are really hopeful that by designing a space that engages students not only in their halls, but outside their halls, we will find that this is a space that our entire student community, campus community, will benefit from.” 

Hacker thanked the project’s many campus partners as well as the students and student leaders, including members of the Residence Hall Association, Student Senate and resident assistants, who, she said, were instrumental in envisioning what the space would become. One of those students, Brandi Kirkwood, spoke at the grand opening, seizing the opportunity to thank Housing and Residence Life.

Kirkwood, a senior studying community and public health, noted that her experience as a Student Services Ambassador and building manager with Housing and Residence Life gave her “the ability, the confidence to stand up here and speak.” 

During the event, students were invited to try out the space, with Housing and Residence Life raffling off 10 hammocks, setting up corn hole and other games, providing OHIO-themed snacks and inviting a local band to play. As one student attendee said, Paw Print Park feels “like a playground” for students.