UL's Assault on Greek Life Escalates

[RaginScotsman]

The gestures and optics of the university for all things related to everything athletics (mostly football) have been documented and discussed on the board at length. We all get it. I’m sour too.

But taking it back to the start of this thread. Let’s get some questions answered. What happened in this instance with the Greek organizations in question? Specifically?

[UL_Cajuns]

1. We have to stop self imposing a tether to the Baldwin era. It’s not fair to our current student athletes and fanbase to look at “bowl eligibility” seasons and say, “wow. We would have killed for this 20+ years ago” and act like that’s good enough. It’s not. The standard has been raised since then. We have people donating to RCAF, and they are being told those donations are an investment. Bowl eligibility was something to be excited about in 2005. It’s 2023. In your words, let’s change and adapt. Let’s recognize our new standard and let that be our metric of success.
2. “Support your university.” I do. I buy season tickets. I give what I can to RCAF. However, this is NOT the pitch we should be making to the community. That implies this is a charity and people should attend/give out of the goodness of their hearts and because it’s the “right” thing to do. While we may have a few thousand left who do for that reason, it is no way to grow our BUSINESS. I’ll say it again: this is a business. Not a charity. Let’s act like it. Which brings me to point 3.
3. Let’s run this thing like a business. You want to tell 18-21 year olds to change and adapt to the times? How about decision makers at this university? We are still using setups and pricing models for tailgating that were enacted in the Hud era. We are still acting like there is demand for the entire Cajun Field parking lot to be an RCAF lot despite the RCAF steadily scraping by at 2,000 members. If you run a business and you have 6 of your 30 tables seated and a customer complains that their dish is undercooked, do you scold them and tell them they are the reason your restaurant is empty? Why are we hellbent on turning away the few people left with an interest? Great student crowd to start last season and we corralled them in 2 sections and lined the sections with security like a pen. Closing game against Georgia Southern I took a pic of a security guard standing immediately behind the couple students we had on the rail just waiting to jump them for saying the wrong thing. What BUSINESS operates this way? None. It’s embarrassing.

I’m not saying one way or the other if students should boycott. If they think it’s in their best interest, so be it. This university is not acting in the best interest of what little it has left in terms of athletic support. I’ll most likely never stop, but it’s exhausting to keep propping this thing up because “it’s the right thing to do” when the people who are actually in charge wanna cut the legs out anyway.

We are more alike than you think. Ima RCAF, Krewe Allons, alumni donor.
Keep up the enthusiasm!
Cause I won’t stop until I die for Ragin’ Cajuns athletics !
The expectation was set when we won the SBC championship in in 2020 and 2021. We cannot go back. Agree on that!

[Turbine]

So how can we change that? What are you going to do?

Follow the model Utah uses

MUSS

[cajun4life]

That’s the point. The Greeks don’t represent but a small % of the students.
Welcome all the students!!!
Greek, religious organizations, honor organizations, student organizations etc. the Greeks are a small % of students. There are many other great student organizations at UL. If Greeks want to boycott their fellow student athletes then so be it but it’s not right. Let the other students and other organizations support our athletes. Geaux Cajuns!

The Greeks represent a small percentage of the student population, but are the majority of students who actually attend games. They also set the tone for how rowdy and into the game the entire crowd is.

But yeah, let’s keep trying to marginalize the purpose of Greek organizations on campus.

[Big Poppa]

That’s the point. The Greeks don’t represent but a small % of the students.
Welcome all the students!!!
Greek, religious organizations, honor organizations, student organizations etc. the Greeks are a small % of students. There are many other great student organizations at UL. If Greeks want to boycott their fellow student athletes then so be it but it’s not right. Let the other students and other organizations support our athletes. Geaux Cajuns!

All students are welcomed. But when it come to athletics support mainly at football and basket ball 80% are Greek. So, what does it say for your student body as a whole when 10 to 15 percent of the whole enrollment makes up 80% of your supporters?

[fanof71]

Some top notch "best in class" posts are in this thread...well done gentlemen...

[Big Poppa]

The Greeks were not the cool cats when I was in College at UL. It was the non Greek student population at UL when I was in college. Greeks were bigger at ULM than at UL in the early 2000s from my experience. The general UL student population was way bigger than the Greeks.
Don’t let the Greeks dictate this ____. Support the team.
Speaking from experience at both colleges. Since when do the Greeks speak for the whole student population? Student population is way bigger than the Greeks. Don’t boycott ever. That’s some stupid ____.

The Greeks make up 90% of the tailgate and 80% of the people in the stands. The others are the very silent, absent, no show, majority.

[Big Poppa]

The chapters may be banned from having events if that is actually the case but their members can still attend. They are still students. And Greek sanction against a chapter can’t impact that. We need them there.

Part of that band is they are not allowed to set up at the student tailgate or get together at their houses. That’s how you bring them together for game attendance. They ain’t coming if they can’t tailgate.

[JMV JustMyView]

1. We have to stop self imposing a tether to the Baldwin era. It’s not fair to our current student athletes and fanbase to look at “bowl eligibility” seasons and say, “wow. We would have killed for this 20+ years ago” and act like that’s good enough. It’s not. The standard has been raised since then. We have people donating to RCAF, and they are being told those donations are an investment. Bowl eligibility was something to be excited about in 2005. It’s 2023. In your words, let’s change and adapt. Let’s recognize our new standard and let that be our metric of success.
2. “Support your university.” I do. I buy season tickets. I give what I can to RCAF. However, this is NOT the pitch we should be making to the community. That implies this is a charity and people should attend/give out of the goodness of their hearts and because it’s the “right” thing to do. While we may have a few thousand left who do for that reason, it is no way to grow our BUSINESS. I’ll say it again: this is a business. Not a charity. Let’s act like it. Which brings me to point 3.
3. Let’s run this thing like a business. You want to tell 18-21 year olds to change and adapt to the times? How about decision makers at this university? We are still using setups and pricing models for tailgating that were enacted in the Hud era. We are still acting like there is demand for the entire Cajun Field parking lot to be an RCAF lot despite the RCAF steadily scraping by at 2,000 members. If you run a business and you have 6 of your 30 tables seated and a customer complains that their dish is undercooked, do you scold them and tell them they are the reason your restaurant is empty? Why are we hellbent on turning away the few people left with an interest? Great student crowd to start last season and we corralled them in 2 sections and lined the sections with security like a pen. Closing game against Georgia Southern I took a pic of a security guard standing immediately behind the couple students we had on the rail just waiting to jump them for saying the wrong thing. What BUSINESS operates this way? None. It’s embarrassing.

I’m not saying one way or the other if students should boycott. If they think it’s in their best interest, so be it. This university is not acting in the best interest of what little it has left in terms of athletic support. I’ll most likely never stop, but it’s exhausting to keep propping this thing up because “it’s the right thing to do” when the people who are actually in charge wanna cut the legs out anyway.

Great post Zeppelin. What is crazy is they are still at the 2000 member level 15-20 years later. Just think how much lower the number who be if some season ticket holders weren't force to donate to rcaf.

[KajunKrazy]

Great post Zeppelin. What is crazy is they are still at the 2000 member level 15-20 years later. Just think how much lower the number who be if some season ticket holders weren't force to donate to rcaf.

That is not unique to here. Every school in America that has a foundation has a fee attached to the purchase of season tickets. Which is how most of the money is generated.

[JMV JustMyView]

That is not unique to here. Every school in America that has a foundation has a fee attached to the purchase of season tickets. Which is how most of the money is generated.

My point is the RCAF foundation has been stagnant. They have never grown the foundation.

[Million$Mullet]

stagnerant

That’s a new one.