2008 Woodie Awards
Uniting city and campus
By: GUEST COLUMNIST
Issue date: 4/10/08 Section: Forum
If you love the University and the city of Bowling Green, and you are content with your college experience, you can stop reading right now. But, if you feel like a part of the college experience is missing from your life, read on!
My hypothesis is that the University has such lackadaisical pride because of the lack of unifying events both on and off campus.
Many other Division I schools have sports teams that they can rely on to, more or less, provide a consistent source of school pride and unity.
Obviously we're not Ohio State or UNC. I'm suggesting the University needs a sports team that is both popular and consistently victorious.
Sorry, ladies, but this usually means men's teams - and don't yell at me for being sexist; the attendance records throughout the country speak for themselves.
Hockey would be a pretty good option. BGSU is already in one of the toughest hockey leagues, the CCHA, and has been getting consistently better over the past few years. Attendance has increased as well.
No offense to football and basketball, but it's awfully hard to make the national spotlight when you're in the MAC.
If hockey improves, it may serve as a unifier to University students, but until then, we cannot rely on sports to give us a common identity.
BGSU is chock-full of clubs and organizations, which is good, but each really only appeals to a select minority of students: the Latino Student Union, College Republicans, BG Undead.
The University needs things to do that unite the majority of students. Dashboard Confessional came to campus three years ago, but nothing as significant has been done since.
The festival that takes place at the beginning of each year is a good example of what the University is doing right, but it's not enough. BGSU could try to bring in more popular bands and/or comedians during the winter months, and maybe have a festival once in the fall and spring.
I'm sure many will say that there is "so much to do on the weekends if I just look around!"
My hypothesis is that the University has such lackadaisical pride because of the lack of unifying events both on and off campus.
Many other Division I schools have sports teams that they can rely on to, more or less, provide a consistent source of school pride and unity.
Obviously we're not Ohio State or UNC. I'm suggesting the University needs a sports team that is both popular and consistently victorious.
Sorry, ladies, but this usually means men's teams - and don't yell at me for being sexist; the attendance records throughout the country speak for themselves.
Hockey would be a pretty good option. BGSU is already in one of the toughest hockey leagues, the CCHA, and has been getting consistently better over the past few years. Attendance has increased as well.
No offense to football and basketball, but it's awfully hard to make the national spotlight when you're in the MAC.
If hockey improves, it may serve as a unifier to University students, but until then, we cannot rely on sports to give us a common identity.
BGSU is chock-full of clubs and organizations, which is good, but each really only appeals to a select minority of students: the Latino Student Union, College Republicans, BG Undead.
The University needs things to do that unite the majority of students. Dashboard Confessional came to campus three years ago, but nothing as significant has been done since.
The festival that takes place at the beginning of each year is a good example of what the University is doing right, but it's not enough. BGSU could try to bring in more popular bands and/or comedians during the winter months, and maybe have a festival once in the fall and spring.
I'm sure many will say that there is "so much to do on the weekends if I just look around!"
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Laura Fredericks
posted 4/10/08 @ 8:29 PM EST
After reading Brian Eggenberger's column titled Uniting City and Campus, I felt compelled to respond. Let me first point out that I am a BGSU graduate and now what you would consider a "townie," so I can see both sides of the coin. (Continued…)
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