Student Attendance/University Support

[Ro]

I'm not saying that it would have made a huge difference, but the University scheduled a mandatory 4 hour lecture for all Freshman this past Saturday afternoon. I imagine (or would like to believe) that at least a few hundred Freshmen would have attended the game, or at the very least be seen in the Harbin courtyard. Does this strike anyone else as being odd? Chalk one up for the administration to foster school spirit and support of the football program by keeping 25% of the available student body away from the game...not to mention to do it in the beginning of the season when the weather was amazing and getting a crowd to an outdoor event should be no problem. In general, the campus seemed empty.

[TrueHoyaBlue]

This has been an issue for at least the last three years. I think it's a tricky one because the academic event has to be scheduled on a Saturday, (so as not to conflict with classes, which run from 8:50 AM to 10:00 PM on any given weekday, or with Sundays, in a bow to the university's Catholic and Jesuit heritage).

Without looking at the calendar, it seems like this seminar is held on the Saturday after Labor Day every year, and that for the past few years, there's been a home game scheduled on the same day. One problem with moving the academic event, if that was an option, is that SAC Fair, where students (mostly freshmen) pick clubs and activities to join for the year, is held the following Saturday, and would likely fall into that slot. SAC draws a huge percentage of the freshmen class, and both are sort of extensions of New Student Orientation, so pushing them back might be tough.

Since the football schedules are set years in advance, there is certainly an opportunity to look at this issue for future years. I just think that at the moment, Coach Benson may not have approached the deans when they are planning the event, and I would doubt that the deans naturally think about football when planning the seminar.

Actually, with three of the first four games away next year, that could provide a great opportunity to try to come up with a workable solution. Overall, though, I think the limited number of Saturdays in September makes this a perennially difficult (though certainly not impossible) issue.

Attacking it from another angle, one other possibility would be to move the seminar to 10 or 11 AM, and to move the game back to 2 or 3 PM. That might prove to be a far less disruptive and workable solution.

Just my thoughts...

[59Hoya]

unfortunately the lack of support exists in oyher areas as well. I recently received a mailing from the GU Club of Northern New Jersey prromoting attendance at a horse race in Far Hills on October 23rd. I pointed out in an e-mail to them that it was the same time as the only football game we play in northern NJ this year (Monmouth) In response I was told that the event is their signature gathering and the inference was that athletic events are very much secondary. Pretty sad I'd say .

[Pat McLain]

I'll be at the Monmouth game, eating a horse sandwich. That'll be my signature event.

The team is really close to turning the corner and being a perennial contender in the conference. With consistent wins, the completion of the MSF, and some common-sense marketing, the program will be sitting pretty: enough students will come to the games and contribute to a great atmosphere. But no matter what happens, there will be a considerable portion of the GU community who won't notice. These are the people who have, at best, a superficial knowledge of football and an unrealistic expectation that any worthwhile football program should be on a par with USC. They are like people who attended Penn when it won Ivy championships on sweet Franklin Field and said things like "oh, our football team sucked." And I could care less if people like this ever go to a GU FB game. They can get their degrees and spend the rest of their lives networking at horse races. They cannot, however, have a bite of my sandwich.

Knock 'em back.

[CAHoya07]

Guest-Pat said:

I'll be at the Monmouth game, eating a horse sandwich. That'll be my signature event.

The team is really close to turning the corner and being a perennial contender in the conference. With consistent wins, the completion of the MSF, and some common-sense marketing, the program will be sitting pretty: enough students will come to the games and contribute to a great atmosphere. But no matter what happens, there will be a considerable portion of the GU community who won't notice. These are the people who have, at best, a superficial knowledge of football and an unrealistic expectation that any worthwhile football program should be on a par with USC. They are like people who attended Penn when it won Ivy championships on sweet Franklin Field and said things like "oh, our football team sucked." And I could care less if people like this ever go to a GU FB game. They can get their degrees and spend the rest of their lives networking at horse races. They cannot, however, have a bite of my sandwich.

Knock 'em back.

Haha, you tell 'em!

As a D-I AA football team, it will never be a great environment comparable to our basketball games, but that doesn't mean we can't have good support behind the team comparable to successful, say, Ivy league football programs. MSF is a must for that to happen, though. Plus they need to get better, and slowly but surely, they seem to be doing that.

[CAHoya07]

And secondly (sorry for not putting this in my last post, I forgot), there are always gonna be people at any school that just aren't interested in sports in general, and won't care about any of our sports teams. As Pat said, that's fine. We'll just do our part to show up ourselves and get more people who are at least lukewarmly interested to get out there and cheer.