Our Voice
Milledgeville more than media’s portrayed hicktown
Recent scandal has thrown Milledgeville and GCSU into the national spotlight, but as the media continues to flood the city, the town struggles to keep up the positive image its citizens and government officials have worked so hard to achieve.
Despite the fact that GCSU is ranked 31st best in master’s universities in the south by U.S. News & World Report and The Princeton Review selected the college as a “Best in the Southeast” for the third year in a row, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, portrayed the university and the town as a drunken, backwoods ’ville that among its most distinguishable features are a Piggly Wiggly, an advertisement for cheap kegs and students riding around in the back of pick-up trucks vomiting over the side. In the fantasy Milledgeville the AJC created, the college women were scantly clad despite the cold weather, and our “night clubs” had to throw together makeshift VIP areas for a visiting celebrity.
Though the AJC has gone back and removed parts of various articles portraying Milledgeville as a backwoods college party town, the damage has already been done. Not until days later did the newspaper report anything about GCSU’s high test scores or how the school is an establishment the city can count on. Nor has it mentioned the dedication our police forces and employees at Oconee Regional Medical Center have performed to bring justice to Milledgeville.
Our city is more than Central State Hospital and Flannery O’Connor. Though the literary icon and the hospital are two things that Milledgeville is known for nationally, and are nothing to be ashamed of, we believe out-of-city media outlets need to focus less on Milledgeville’s negative qualities, and more on how to prevent sexual assault and rape — something that could have a positive impact on typical bar protocol.
Our students work hard to make GCSU the best it can be, and our police officers work hard to make it a safe place to live.
Please send responses to ColonnadeLetters@gcsu.edu.
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