Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
Skip navigation

PBP: FAU an "often-called commuter school"

Add topic

Post

I guess this was supposed to be a positive article, but at the Post there's always an opportunity to take a jab at FAU!

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2008/01/14/0114FAU.html

But on the Boca Raton campus Monday, it was clear students were proud that their often-called "commuter" school was involved and were eager to learn more about the political process.

This is a clear example of opinion (often-called? by who?) being injected directly into what is supposed to be a factual article.

Call FAU a commuter school as a fact or leave the slight out completely. "Often-called" has no place in a news article. If you believe FAU is a commuter school please say it definitively.

BTW, out of about 3.6 million results for FAU/Florida Atlantic University on Google only 636 refer to FAU as a "commuter school" and only 31 as a "commuter university". Does this count as "often-called"? A search for UF and "commuter school" returns 845 results (more often-called than FAU). UCF +"commuter school" produces 964 results.

I would like to know what was meant by the commentary in the article. Was it relevant? The sentence seems to suggest that it is an anomaly for students to be proud of their school if their school is a commuter school. This is absurd. Perhaps it was meant to mean that students are not proud of FAU. Anonymous "administrators" (who??) were said to be "concerned about student interest". However, no quote or attribution is given for this statement.

It should never be a surprise (or newsworthy) that students at FAU (or nearly any University) are "proud" of what's going on at their school. This is the underlying tone of the article.

Finally, what is the link between the debates and student interest? *Very* few students will get to attend the debates. For most students it will be the same as watching on TV. Because Florida moved her primaries early the Democrats are giving the state no delegates and the Republicans only half. Indeed, odds are that the Democrats will not debate here at all (I would not be surprised to somehow see this blamed on FAU when it's announced). The success of the debates has very, very little to do with student involvement.

Either FAU students are apathetic (which has nothing to do with how they get to campus) and you are able to stand by this claim (not something as nebulous as "often-cited") or they are like normal students at most other Universities and should be expected to show pride when their institution steps into the spotlight. I hope that future coverage will highlight the actual impact of the debates on FAU, not preconceptions.
Back to the top

Post

Re: PBP: FAU an "often-called commuter school"

Back to the top

Post

Re: PBP: FAU an "often-called commuter school"

PBP: FAU an "often-called commuter school"

Lm77 said

I guess this was supposed to be a positive article, but at the Post there's always an opportunity to take a jab at FAU!

It's funny because I almost wrote about this in the UCF thread but thought better of it.

As I stated a long time ago, there is no functional definition of a commuter school. The distinction is subjective, with arbitrary qualifiers. The various lines of thought on what is or isn't a commuter school:

1) A commuter school is a school with no student housing. FAU has student housing.

2) A commuter school is a school where the majority of students are commuters. Nearly all schools in Florida fall to this… FAU is 9/10ths commuters (~2,600 residential students for ~26,000 enrollment), UCF is 6/7th commuters (enrollment of 49,000 - housing for 7,000 = 42,000), UF is about 82% commuter (enrollment of 49,000 - housing for 8500 = 40,500 students), etc. I believe one Florida university, the name of which escapes me now, is 67% residential students. New College? I remember reading that somewhere but I can't find the link now.

3) A commuter school is a school with less than 5,000 residential students. Talk about a number you pulled out of your ass. Why 5,000? Why not 4,000? How about 7,500? You can move the goal posts to wherever you want. That's why this doesn't hold any weight.

4) A commuter school is a school where people just come for class and then go home. Seriously… like anybody has measured that. But I think this is what Miller was getting at in her article… saying, here you have FAU where supposedly no one cares and suddenly people are getting involved in the Presidential Debate Week events. Well, duh. Maybe Ms.Miller can write an article about all the FAU shirts, hats, stickers, etc she sees on campus now. Or the "Let's Go Owls" banners on Lee Street and in the Student Union. Or all the people who pack Duffy's when they show a football game there. But she won't.

5. A commuter school is a school that has primarily local students attending mostly because of geographical convenience. Statistically-speaking, this one is true and it is the argument that holds the most weight. Unfortunately the BOT holds this to be somewhat of a point of pride, boasting that we offer services on multiple campuses stretched across a coastline that has 3 million inhabitants blah blah blah. However, the BOT met a while back to try to consolidate resources and make some sense of Catanese's idea to have a shotgun, Burger King-style approach to education. If they're truly committed to making this a traditional environment, they need to go further for students than planting brochures in high schools between Boynton and Coral Springs. They need to be actively recruiting in Orlando, Tampa, Ocala, Tally, etc.

On that note, more than half of my friends at FAU are from the West Coast, 90% of the people I helped move in before Fall semester started were from out of state and so on. We're getting there.

When it comes down to it, "commuter school" is just a designation for a place you don't want to respect.
Back to the top

Post

Re: PBP: FAU an "often-called commuter school"

Please send your complaints to the newspapers' city editors, editors and publishers. That is the only way to get these derogatory phrases (which are regurgitated again and again from the "morgue" files) killed for good.
Back to the top

Post

Re: PBP: FAU an "often-called commuter school"

Is this the next paper to concentrate our efforts on....I remember a few years ago when we were frustrated with the Sun-Sentinel and Mr. Hutton??
Back to the top

Post

Re: PBP: FAU an "often-called commuter school"

mh2os said

Is this the next paper to concentrate our efforts on….I remember a few years ago when we were frustrated with the Sun-Sentinel and Mr. Hutton??

What did Ted Hutton say back then?
Back to the top

Post

Re: PBP: FAU an "often-called commuter school"

owlcountry said

mh2os said

Is this the next paper to concentrate our efforts on….I remember a few years ago when we were frustrated with the Sun-Sentinel and Mr. Hutton??

What did Ted Hutton say back then?

e.g.

Owl's Nest

It's far better now!
Back to the top

Post

Re: PBP: FAU an "often-called commuter school"

Its funny that HS said this back then…so wise.

"You'll always be ahead of your fan base until you go to a major bowl and win, then it explodes."

Florida Atlantic University Owls
2007 Sun Belt Football Champions 2007 New Orleans Bowl Champions 2008 Motor City Bowl Champions 2011 Sun Belt Basketball Champions No Bowls without Owls
Back to the top

Post

Re: PBP: FAU an "often-called commuter school"

AGAIN!

Ask them about the debate's effects on FAU known traditionally as a commuter university with little school spirit and the answers were nearly all the same.

FAU has no school spirit??? What does that have to do with an article on the debates?

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/south/content/south/epaper/2008/01/25/s1b_WATCH_0125.html?cxntlid=inform

It's time to write the editor.
Back to the top

Post

Re: PBP: FAU an "often-called commuter school"

With all due respect, I agree with all of the points you are making. But we can't hide from our past - we were a commuter school. We are moving towards a more traditional campus. Brogan said it in his speeches while I was a student: FAU is moving away from being a commuter school and becoming a more traditional campus.


I'm a proud lifetime member of the FAU National Alumni Association. Are you a member? Join now at www.faualumni.org.
Tradition in the Making, One Alum at a Time…
Back to the top
Control functions: