No because if they lived in Rayne they are not living in the dorms they are living close enough to commute every day. Students that live in the dorms, usually live too far to commute. They they are going home to places like New Orleans, Houma/Thibodeaux, Baton Rouge, Lake Charles or Alexandria. They don't come back until Sunday evening or Monday morning. I see it every year at move in day and move out day. Most are not within easy commute range.
The ones that do commute probably have better things to do (in their minds) than go to a football game. They just don't care.
I never considered UL a commuter school, but the school always had a lot of international students that don't care about sports
You say tomato I say tomato. OK it doesn’t work in writing but you get it. So it may not be a “commuter school” bottom line is it has a $H!+ load of students that commute from small towns all over Acadian. Not sure how you would define those students relationship to the school.
Many students that live on campus, drives in from surrounding towns or for that matter lives off campus will leave after their last class of the week and come back right before their first class of the next week. So, no matter where they live during the week, come the weekend they are gone and they are not coming back period. And how do I know this,. I see it every week. I can't get out of my driveway Friday between noon and one thirty. The campus is a ghost town on weekends. The student parking areas are almost empty. And come Sunday evening it fills up again. It's been like that for years.
So whether you call it a commuter school or not, it makes no difference. The bottom line is, the campus is empty on weekends.
Commuter school or not, students don't go to games because mid-major college football does not interest them enough for them to make the effort. UL games are all televised if they want to watch, all major college football games are televised, and there are a thousand other distractions out there.
Making matters worse, you have a chicken and egg situation: Students see the student section on TV looking half-full (or worse) and get the impression that it's not the place to be.
Bigger name schools making regular trips here (Marshall, USM, App. St.) should help some. Nobody cares about no name programs with no history. Scheduling regional schools for the non-conference games would also help some. No one cares about Ohio.
It's just not a very interesting product for students, whether they live on campus or with their parents in Rayne. And it's not a UL problem, it's a problem across the board. Which mid-major programs are packing the house week in and week out?
All this talk about dorms and living on campus. Are any UL dorms co-ed? I can tell you that most if not all the dorms at App are co-ed either mixed floors or alternating floors.
All the new "residence halls" are coed. They are basically a small apartment. Harris hall is all female though.
1. UL is definitely a commuter school, that has been common knowledge and accepted as fact for years.
2. It being a commuter school, considering we are talking 20-30 minute drives is not a good explanation for lack of attendance. Especially since most of those kids get their New Iberia haircut for the express intent of going out to Lafayette.
We didn't build a long enough tradition of good teams worth going to the game over where the game day experience was looked forward to before ESPN+ made it too easy to stay home and watch it on TV.
I am in Houston and have had 3 kids attend three different Texas universities. Not surprisingly the University of Texas orientation had a specific topic for Freshman to NOT have cars with them their first year in college. The studies showed that most students would not fully engage in on campus activities and fall back into known weekend patterns within a 4 - 4.5 hour drive time. Meaning the kids from San Antonio, Dallas, Houston etc would be most likely to head 'home' over the weekends.
We have followed that advice for all three kids and I have to agree with the study.
In the early 1980s I used to drive from Abbeville to Opelousas daily because I was going to school at TH Harris.
TH Harris was the only place in the State one could take NDT (Non Destructive Testing) (on metal)
I was told it wasn't considered commuting until it took over and hour to get to school.
Someone lied to you about commuting.
We lived in NI and my Dad commuted to Lafayette to work everyday.
I worked in parking transit for 4 years in school, Lucien Gatineau (RIP Mr G) director of parking and transit for 30 years, a very smart man with a masters in urban and regional development, referred to the students Charlie is referring to, as commuters and rightfully so. Trust me when it came to identifying college students that man knew what he was doing. For my money I am going with Mr G and the university as to how they define the commuter student for my definition. Apparently there are many different meanings for that 2 word phrase out there. I know in my days in the transit department Mr G and the people above him Pratt and Blanco identified our school as a commuter school. We heard it in meetings all the time.
Driving to work doesn't make it commuting no matter how many times you say it.
Commuting means and always has meant an otherwise extraordinary or painfully uncomfortable distance.
Louisiana has two universities in every garage. There are no "commutes" in Louisiana unless you decide to drive past one university to attend another.
There are currently 6 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 6 guests)