This thread got started because the was a question about why there were few if any students going to football games on the weekends. One of the reasons presented was there are very few students on campus or in town on the weekend. I think that is a valid point because there feally are not many students on campus on weekends. (they go home). Also, many students don't live on or near campus, they drive in every day from adjacent cities. (Check the parking lot at Cajun Field on school days. maybe get a number of students transported by bus from Cajun Filed to the campus). Finally, and I think the most common reason is, the students of today just flat out don't care. They, do other things like work, party, study, play video games or want to spend time with friends and family in their home town. So call the school what you want, commuter school, what ever is not a commuter school or hell call it a ham sandwich school. It makes no difference, the students of today just don't go to football games.
Only way to get kids to remain on campus is to continue to build affordable student housing on and nearby campus and recruit students from farther reaching parts of the state. That's already part of UL's master plan, but I figure COVID and online learning trends are going to be a real challenge moving forward.
Increased cost of attendance, especially including cost of student housing, is going to be a really tough hurdle for most state universities. I know some students utilize their student loans to pay for housing, perhaps UL Credit Union could offer really low rates specifically for on-campus housing to get kids to campus and to keep them there.
I think to say "Finally, and I think the most common reason is, the students of today just flat out don't care...the students of today just don't go to football games." is too general a statement. They may not care in Lafayette, but they do care at a lot of universities. Just watch football on TV or just go down the road to B.R. Ever watch a Utah State basketball game? Students care a lot. We are not addressing WHY students at UL don't seem to care or show interest in UL athletics. Why do students not stay in town and attend games? Why do the people of Acadiana not fully support UL football? I submit that this goes back simply to our games themselves and partly to our schedule. They are boring, not with the play on the field, but with the lack of fan interaction that would make our games compelling for fans and students to attend. Unless and until we address game atmosphere or lack thereof, nothing will change. A UL football game should be an event in Lafayette for all of Acadiana including students. It is not. And the question "Why is it not?" is not being addressed. Give students a reason to either stay on or off campus and attend games or make a short drive to Lafayette for the game. It's not like once they leave it is too far to return for a game. A half hour drive back to Lafayette is nothing, but they'll drive to Baton Rouge if given a ticket? The entire experience from tailgating and pre-game to the game itself needs to be re-examined by UL if we want to make any significant improvement on attendance, season ticket sales and student support and make Lafayette a true college town where athletics is concerned.
They are not defining a school.
Just because a school has some commuters, does not make it a commuter school.
Knowing full well that Louisiana has continually outgrown its britches, there isn't a commuter school in the country that has these "housing requirements."
https://housing.louisiana.edu/future...g-requirements
Correct. What makes it a commuter school is the large percentage of students that live in towns like Opelousas, Crowley, NI, BB, St Martinville, Abbeville and small towns all around Acadiana with their parents. But that was established like on page 1 or 2 of this thread and it is still going.
Can we put an end to this thread? It is meaningless.
It makes me long for a band uniform thread.
How about we just call ourselves "a winner"!
GEAUX CAJUNS
In the long history of silly ass threads on Ragin Pagin (and it's a glorious history) this ranks up there. Something that is basically common knowledge is denied over and over again with the most ridiculous arguments. Being a commuter school is not an insult. It's a function of the fact the majority of the students who go there can drive there so it makes it much more financially possible to attend 4 years of college because they can forgo paying to also live there. It's not a good excuse for why we can't seem to build a consistent student fan base for a phenomenal football program, but it is a factor and to deny it just because you don't like the connotation is just foolish.
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