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Re: BTBIR III

BTBIR III

To sort of get back on topic, I don't think that this year's  BTB will be as good as last years. For some reason, the fans just don't seem to be there, mainly the students. Maybe attendance is down because all the games have been on the weekends and alot of students go home then. I know last year we had a few more games during the week and that had to help attendance. I just have a feeling that it won't be anything like last year. I HOPE I'm wrong, and I hope that there is more information and advertising than just the red flyers in the dorms. And as far as color goes…One of our school songs is called "Fight for the Red AND Blue"…that should settle the argument…but I know it won't, just some food for thought
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Re: BTBIR III

owlcountry said

If you're thinking people will just come down for the food and leave without ever actually going to the game… well, I am thinking that too.

I actually think it should be in the Burrow parking lot as a mini-tailgate of sorts but I'll see what I can do.

yep, you read my mind…

insist on having it there…

afterall, thats why they built it they way they did…so it would be much more fan firendly for events like this! :)

it works!  did it time and time again…

well, also had the kegs out front…that didnt hurt either - lol…but cant do that anymore…
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Re: BTBIR III

FAUfasho said

One of our school songs is called "Fight for the Red AND Blue"…that should settle the argument…

and illustrate dysfunctionality and identity crisis at its prime! lol!

i think its funny at this point…its like a snail draggin a 100lb weight up hill in the summer time on greased asphault…
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Re: BTBIR III

FAUfasho said

To sort of get back on topic, I don't think that this year's  BTB will be as good as last years. For some reason, the fans just don't seem to be there, mainly the students. Maybe attendance is down because all the games have been on the weekends and alot of students go home then. I know last year we had a few more games during the week and that had to help attendance.

You know, we keep coming up with various reasons for attendance based on scheduling… "Oh, it was during the week and people had classes and tests" or "Oh, it was on a weekend and more people had to work or had left campus." I mean, there's definitely some validity to these arguments but the more we put them out there, the more it seems like an excuse.

Personally, I think it's that FAU admits kids who never really had much motivation for anything (they often have low GPA's and weren't involved in clubs/sports/school spirit in high school) and because people don't come in here thinking that FAU is a sports school. The prOWLers tried to curb that a bit over the summer orientations and say to people, "Look, on gamedays you go… that's what you do here" but again, it's hard to fight the apathy. So far, we've been trying to fight the apathy by stepping up our enthusiasm and being more forceful about out advice to go to the games. That has had moderate success but it's all that we, as fans or students or club presidents, whatever it may be, CAN do.

Admissions is on the other end, where it counts. They maintain they're doing the best with what they've got. I don't think they're trying hard enough. I know of several people at FAU from the West Coast of Florida who had never heard of FAU because FAU didn't visit there during College Day. We didn't even send over brochures. My friends found FAU on the internet, otherwise they would have never known this place existed.

Come on.

Another example of how FAU isn't doing everything they could: a recent Student Satisfaction Survey polled over a thousand FAU students about their experience and there was a section for campus life thoughts. I wrote about a page and a half of comments on very specific (and realistic) things they could do to improve student life here. When that data was collected and presented as a Powerpoint to administration, none of the actual comments were relayed to the BOT… only that (and I quote) "some students expressed concern about student life issues."

What is the BOT supposed to do with that? It's infuriating. There were MANY pages with useless graphs like comparing how many people had responded to the survey on each campus over the years.

So what? What about what needs to be fixed? You know?

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Re: BTBIR III

owlcountry said

I know of several people at FAU from the West Coast of Florida who had never heard of FAU because FAU didn't visit there during College Day. We didn't even send over brochures. My friends found FAU on the internet, otherwise they would have never known this place existed.

Ok.  So did you not have guidance counselors at your school?  I grew up in Vermont and FAU was at a college fair up there.  I am sure they pick and choose where to go and they have a strategic plan on where they go and when.

I grew up maybe two hours from 3 major universities - University of Vermont, University of New Hampshire and McGill (Montreal).  Do you know how many of those schools sent me brochures? ZERO.


I am all about criticizing FAU's athletic approach when it doesn't work, but I totally disagree with you here.  I think FAU has done a tremendous job cultivating students.  If you look across the board how many students from different countries do we have? How about states?

Call a spade a spade.


In fact, as an alumni I am really offended you said this:

"Personally, I think it's that FAU admits kids who never really had much motivation for anything (they often have low GPA's and weren't involved in clubs/sports/school spirit in high school) and because people don't come in here thinking that FAU is a sports school."

I have two friends, one is a frequent poster on here, that are both going to be doctors that went to FAU. I have another friend that is a lawyer. Don't we have an astronaut alumnus?

I could go on, but I'll stop here.  That is a completely ignorant comment.

Like things, love people.
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Re: BTBIR III

Fledgling said

owlcountry said

I know of several people at FAU from the West Coast of Florida who had never heard of FAU because FAU didn't visit there during College Day. We didn't even send over brochures. My friends found FAU on the internet, otherwise they would have never known this place existed.

Ok.  So did you not have guidance counselors at your school?  I grew up in Vermont and FAU was at a college fair up there.  I am sure they pick and choose where to go and they have a strategic plan on where they go and when.

I grew up maybe two hours from 3 major universities - University of Vermont, University of New Hampshire and McGill (Montreal).  Do you know how many of those schools sent me brochures? ZERO.


I am all about criticizing FAU's athletic approach when it doesn't work, but I totally disagree with you here.  I think FAU has done a tremendous job cultivating students.  If you look across the board how many students from different countries do we have? How about states?

Call a spade a spade.


In fact, as an alumni I am really offended you said this:

"Personally, I think it's that FAU admits kids who never really had much motivation for anything (they often have low GPA's and weren't involved in clubs/sports/school spirit in high school) and because people don't come in here thinking that FAU is a sports school."

I have two friends, one is a frequent poster on here, that are both going to be doctors that went to FAU. I have another friend that is a lawyer. Don't we have an astronaut alumnus?

I could go on, but I'll stop here.  That is a completely ignorant comment.

I have to agree with you on all points here fledge and not that country needs or wants my help but I think it was just some frustration showing through.

GO OWLS!
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Re: BTBIR III

dusky256fc said

Fledgling said

owlcountry said

I know of several people at FAU from the West Coast of Florida who had never heard of FAU because FAU didn't visit there during College Day. We didn't even send over brochures. My friends found FAU on the internet, otherwise they would have never known this place existed.

Ok.  So did you not have guidance counselors at your school?  I grew up in Vermont and FAU was at a college fair up there.  I am sure they pick and choose where to go and they have a strategic plan on where they go and when.

I grew up maybe two hours from 3 major universities - University of Vermont, University of New Hampshire and McGill (Montreal).  Do you know how many of those schools sent me brochures? ZERO.


I am all about criticizing FAU's athletic approach when it doesn't work, but I totally disagree with you here.  I think FAU has done a tremendous job cultivating students.  If you look across the board how many students from different countries do we have? How about states?

Call a spade a spade.


In fact, as an alumni I am really offended you said this:

"Personally, I think it's that FAU admits kids who never really had much motivation for anything (they often have low GPA's and weren't involved in clubs/sports/school spirit in high school) and because people don't come in here thinking that FAU is a sports school."

I have two friends, one is a frequent poster on here, that are both going to be doctors that went to FAU. I have another friend that is a lawyer. Don't we have an astronaut alumnus?

I could go on, but I'll stop here.  That is a completely ignorant comment.

I have to agree with you on all points here fledge and not that country needs or wants my help but I think it was just some frustration showing through.

It was some frustration shining through but I stand by what I said.

Sure, I had guidance counselors. So do, I imagine, the people on the west coast of Florida that I'm referring to. The question is why so many of these people say they had never heard of FAU until they found it on the Internet instead of being told by those guidance counselors? Are there so many people who attend FAU from this area – and designate that they come here due to location – because FAU spends most of its recruitment money on local high schools instead of high schools on the west coast or in the Panhandle?

Yes, we get people from out of the country and out of the state. "First-Time-In-College enrollment includes students from 35 states and 54 countries." But it's not a large number of actual students. Of 2,423 FTIC students in Fall 2007, 234 were Non-Florida. Twenty were non-US.

I'm sure it's a budget issue but I feel like one aspect of moving away from a "commuter school" reputation is getting a larger portion of the incoming freshman class from farther away than places like Coral Springs. I don't know if you guys know but residential students at FAU right now are complaining because so many people who live there go home on the weekends. I'm on a Committee about this very thing.

You have people from places like Fort Lauderdale living in HPT and on one hand that's good because that's more residential students – which I want – but at the same time it's robbing the people who stay of a better experience. I'm concerned for those that stay, you see?

Regarding my assertion that "FAU admits kids who never really had much motivation for anything (they often have low GPA's and weren't involved in clubs/sports/school spirit in high school) and because people don't come in here thinking that FAU is a sports school." well, I didn't say all kids never had much motivation, just a lot of them. Sure, FAU spits out alumni who become doctors (I'm on that track myself), laywers, dentists, CEO's, etc… and that's for a lot of reasons (finding diamonds in the rough/ smart, motivated people who are geographically-bound/people who hit their swing in college, etc)… but we also admit a lot more people who end up failing out, who have college GPA's less than 2.0, who don't get involved in clubs and/or sports. We're constantly talking about this on this messageboard: "why aren't people attending the games?" In BOT meetings, they're asking: "Why aren't more people passing their classes and graduating?" In SG Program Board meetings, they're asking: "Why aren't people coming out to our events? Why are we putting on thousand dollar Carnivowls and on a campus with 2500 residential students and 19,000 total students, only 4-500 people show up?"

They're all revolving around the same question in my mind. My proposal, and I'm sorry if it's personally insulting but maybe, just MAYBE, the majority of these people are apathetic. That's why they didn't do better in high school, that's why our incoming GPA/SAT is so low, that's why they don't pass classes and graduate on time, that's why they don't show up at Carnivowls and games.

They just don't care. And as long as FAU is willing to take in these people, instead of sifting through freshman applications by taking a closer look at extracurriculars and motivation in high school, we're going to be asking these questions over and over and beating our heads against the wall. It shouldn't be THIS hard to fill up a 5,000-seat basketball arena that's ON CAMPUS and has been for a long time to see a WINNING team when you have 26,000 current students and nearly 100,000 alumni. It shouldn't be this hard.

But apathetic people certainly would make it hard, don't you agree?
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Re: BTBIR III

I agree that people may be apathetic. Here's my .02, being that I am only a junior now, I still remember what it was like my senior of high school and I have a feeling that this is how it is at many other high schools in the area. High school students don't think highly of FAU. We aren't at the point where most of our students want to go to FAU, they settle for FAU, honestly I was one of these students. I didn't get in to FSU, UCF, but I got into FAU and I figured that I'd go here for a year or two, then transfer to a "real" university. But once I got involved with the band and found out FAU has alot to offer, I stayed. But I think that most high school students just look at FAU as a fall back school. I know alot of my friends from high school that when I said that I was going to FAU, they were like "FAU?! what a crappy place." I hate to say it, but I honestly think its going to take at least another 10 years for incoming freshman to be REALLY excited about FAU. Our football team is helping with this alot. But I think the truth is that people come here and don't expect it to be that exciting. Their mindset is "Oh, its just FAU, you should have been at the Gator game last week" or so on and so forth. FAU is in a sticky situation, to be cliche "beggers can't be choosers" and right now it seems that FAU is sort of playing the role of the begger. They want people enrolled and that means that students with lower GPA's and minimal extra curricular activity in high school are going to get in. We all know how frustrating it is to not be able to pack the Burrow, which I think we should be able to pack EVERY game, but its just not going to happen for awhile. The only thing we can keep doing is keep supporting our teams and just wait. Again, this is just my opinion.
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Re: BTBIR III

FAUfasho said

I agree that people may be apathetic. Here's my .02, being that I am only a junior now, I still remember what it was like my senior of high school and I have a feeling that this is how it is at many other high schools in the area. High school students don't think highly of FAU. We aren't at the point where most of our students want to go to FAU, they settle for FAU, honestly I was one of these students. I didn't get in to FSU, UCF, but I got into FAU and I figured that I'd go here for a year or two, then transfer to a "real" university. But once I got involved with the band and found out FAU has alot to offer, I stayed. But I think that most high school students just look at FAU as a fall back school. I know alot of my friends from high school that when I said that I was going to FAU, they were like "FAU?! what a crappy place." I hate to say it, but I honestly think its going to take at least another 10 years for incoming freshman to be REALLY excited about FAU. Our football team is helping with this alot. But I think the truth is that people come here and don't expect it to be that exciting. Their mindset is "Oh, its just FAU, you should have been at the Gator game last week" or so on and so forth. FAU is in a sticky situation, to be cliche "beggers can't be choosers" and right now it seems that FAU is sort of playing the role of the begger. They want people enrolled and that means that students with lower GPA's and minimal extra curricular activity in high school are going to get in. We all know how frustrating it is to not be able to pack the Burrow, which I think we should be able to pack EVERY game, but its just not going to happen for awhile. The only thing we can keep doing is keep supporting our teams and just wait. Again, this is just my opinion.

Excellent post. You are an asset to FAU.

Have you relayed any of this to friends in high school who are thinking of FAU – that you like it more than you thought, I mean?
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Re: BTBIR III

owlcountry said


Excellent post. You are an asset to FAU.

Have you relayed any of this to friends in high school who are thinking of FAU – that you like it more than you thought, I mean?

Every chance I get. I always talk to my friends about how I was one of those people that "settled" for FAU but now I love it and I go on about how if I went to any other school I wouldn't have been able to do alot of things I have done here.
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