I cringed when I saw the headline. “Playboy Names Ohio University 2015's Top Party School.” Every year there’s press about my Alma Mater’s bad reputation, and every year OU gets taken a little less seriously.

We get it. HallOUween is awesome.

But here’s the side of OU you don’t see as a tourist just looking for a party.

Local Business and Culture

When it comes to food and drink, local business is thriving in Athens. Fair trade Donkey Coffee is popular among students cramming for finals. Worker-owned Casa Nueva is a favorite for healthy, local fare. Programs like Thursday Supper exist to feed families facing hunger. The Athens Farmer’s Market has gone from a once-weekly to twice-weekly event.

Athens is such a mecca of locavorism, even the food trucks source their ingredients locally.

I can’t even begin to cover the music and art scene. Bands like Elemental Groove Theory and Southeast Engine got their start in Athens bars. There are little art galleries hidden all over town. Donkey has a spoken word night each week. The Athena, a theater that has been showing movies since 1915, screens everything from student films to an International Film Festival.

And for the love of God, there are bars besides the Crystal.

Jackie O’s brews their own beer. Casa’s dance nights are legendary. The Union, before it tragically burned down, hosted some of the most bomb-ass drag shows I have ever seen. After the fire, four other local bars hosted a concert to raise money to rebuild it. This, from The Union’s competitors. Athens culture is ride-or-die.

Why? Because contrary to these eternally-repeated articles, Athens isn’t a giant party town. It’s a small, tight-knit community.

Student and Community Activism

By the numbers, OU is a large university. During the 2014 school year it boasted 29,217 students. Step onto campus, though, and you’ll see just how contained this population is. Before the change to semesters, all classes started at 10-after. This is because it takes approximately 10 minutes to walk anywhere on campus.

Non-student population stands at only 5 or 6,000 (according to one estimate), keeping the city small. That, and the whole thing is sandwiched between the hills and the Hocking River.

I don’t think I’m wrong in saying that the insularity of the community and the presence of the university have combined to create the most radical city in all of Appalachia.

For all that is said about OU’s Greek life, sororities and fraternities comprise only a small subset of the student body. For every drunken frat boy chanting misogynistic slogans, there are three student activists protesting it. Organizations like FuckRapeCulture fight to end sexual assault on campus. And from local fracking to the murder of Mike Brown several states away, Athens community members give a shit.

Perhaps the greatest source of student outrage is the university itself. In recent years, students have organized to protest the university’s lack of racial diversity, the university’s razing of the Ridges’ historical Tuberculosis Ward, and the university’s attempted purchase of a $1.2 million mansion for President McDavis after his previous $900,000 mansion became infested with bats.

This is nothing new. OU students have been protesting administrative decisions since 1969, when “women’s hours,” a university-wide curfew for female students only, prevented women’s involvement in student government.

If these people just came to party, why would they care so much about the quality and fairness of their education?

They wouldn’t. Because party culture isn’t the only culture on campus.

Straight-Up Academics

Administrative greed aside, I will never forget the resources OU has offered me. From helpful professors to student orgs, to the Alden archives, to university-sponsored talks and events, Ohio University is a wealth of knowledge— if you want it.

Like any other educational institution, you get out of it what you put in. If you want to take out $60,000 in loans to binge drink for four years, that’s your prerogative. Work hard, party hard, or both, every Bobcat is different.

Personally, my favorite memories of my OU experience? The ones that still punch me in the gut with homesickness each Fall? They aren’t the house parties that got weird or the desperation-filled nights at the bar.

They’re studying at Alden with a good friend, watching rain streak down the windows and soak the autumn leaves. They’re coming home from a half-day of archaeological fieldwork to take a much-needed nap. They’re meeting my local writer’s group at Union Street Diner, talking about our novel ideas until three in the morning. They’re gathering with fellow students on College Green to protest university budget cuts. They’re seeing Angela Fucking Davis speak about prison reform at MemAud.

In all my time at OU, I never attended a fest — unless you count High Fest, when I sat on the roof of my friend’s porch and played the ukulele. Wow. Much debauchery.

If I have any regrets, it’s that I didn’t pay enough attention. I didn’t take full advantage of the opportunities around me, of which there were many.

“OU is America’s #1 Party School.”

Is it? I wouldn’t know. But coming from someone who once called Athens home, Ohio University is so much more than that.