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FAU on a reality show?

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Re: FAU on a reality show?

FAU on a reality show?

SeminOWL2006 said

FAU becomes a choice of last resort for two reasons

  1. South Florida kids want to get away from home for college
  2. The University has lower admissions standards (real or perceived) than other State Universities

That's part of it.

Here are some personal anecdotes which I've probably shared before: At work, a 16-year-old girl said she wasn't applying to FAU because she "wants to go to a college with dorms." I corrected her. One of my advisors who works for FAU has a daughter with great grades and during graduation, they were telling other students and their parents that she was coming to FAU and the other people were looking at them like they had contracted cancer. "Awww, I'm so sorry…"

High school students will say that FAU is not their first choice because
  1. No football stadium
  2. No Greek Housing
  3. Very few people live on-campus (2500 at FAU vs 6700 at UCF, for instance)
  4. Negative reputation of Boca as a snotty town for rich people (and not a college town)
  5. FAU is fourth tier and most of the departments are not currently ranked (the highest rank, the #6 for the CPA, was in a report I think from 1999)… this is why the 4.0''s and the 1400 SATs don't come here

Once they come here, they don't stay here because
  1. Parties are few and far between
  2. Staff (Housing, Registrar, Financial Aid, etc) are either rude or confusing (they say you have to do one thing and then change their story the next time you go there)
  3. Gameday experiences at Lockhart are underwhelming (for instance, if they grew up attending games at UF)
  4. Clubs are inconsistent; some clubs like National Society of Collegiate Scholars, Golden Key, etc are well-organized but others will not put in budget proposals (so they'll be unfunded the next year), flake out on meetings or flat out be too boring to keep people interested; at a recent Sorority Preview, two of my girl friends visited and were a little saddened that only one of the sororities knew their Three Points
  5. The constant criticism, from other university students and the newspapers, about the reputation of FAU
  6. Campus events, even when they sound like a big deal, do not attract many people… I think the sold-out step shows (3500 people) and the Fall Family Fest (~5000 people) are the biggest attractions, while things like Carnivowls only get a couple hundred people over a couple hours; you show up and it's like, "Henna Tattoo, keychain maker, massage machine…" you're in and out in five or ten minutes
  7. "Campus is dead on the weekends"
etc

Now, we can argue against these – and I have over and over – but at the end of the day, if FAU doesn't "feel right" to them, they don't stay.

Some of the current students have been working really hard to change all of this. And people in Administration – Brian Kientz, Eric Hawkes, Brogan – genuinely want to improve campus life here.

The good news is that four of the five reasons why people don't come here can be changed in the next ten years (2017 plan) although we'll be third tier rather than 1st tier as Brogan hopes (1st tier isn't happening in ten years because of the significant time and money you need to get there… but it could happen in 30-50 years). AS far as the second list… I mean, the freshmen keep talking about partying. The Administration needs to crack down on Staff and overemphasize Customer Service. Gameday will change with the OCS, etc
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Re: FAU on a reality show?

The one thing I agree with is # 7. Campus is DEAD on weekends. Has always been that way. We have the bookstore open until what 6pm on Weekdays? If you're an alumni and say you work in Ft. Lauderdale or West Palm there's no way you're getting to campus by 6pm and if you do you have no time to look around and see what you want to buy. So you figure OK I can go on the weekend, the problem is they're not open on the weekends, which still baffles me. How do you have a bookstore that's closed on weekends?

Then if you're a student and you are debating living on campus you gotta weigh your options.The Bookstore is closed on weekends so if you want to kill time and buy some cool FAU gear you can't. If you are tired of eating the food at the caf and don't have a car and want to get burger king or pizza hut you can't do that either because that's closed too. It may as well be a ghost town because there are no activities scheduled and nothing to do.

They always say they don't want this to be a commuter school but what do you expect when you don't have any activities on campus on weekends, and nothing is open for those students who live on campus? May as well go home and find something else to do because there's never anything to do if you live in the dorms and you're not going to miss anything by going home.

My two favorite teams are FAU, and who ever is beating FIU!
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Re: FAU on a reality show?

Our biggest selling points?

Academic scholarships
Smaller student population
Close to the beach
Close to home (for many)
Big name research coming in

Chime in…

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
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Re: FAU on a reality show?

Has there ever been a "Kegger" @ FAU?  :D
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Re: FAU on a reality show?

The said

Has there ever been a "Kegger" @ FAU?  :D

On campus.. not when I was there but I went to my fair share down by the airport

My two favorite teams are FAU, and who ever is beating FIU!
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Re: FAU on a reality show?

Well, i just hope the social life is better than the Community College I'm at.  Which shouldn't be hard being that there is none.
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Re: FAU on a reality show?

But FAU does offer close location to West Palm Beach, Ft. Lauderdale, and Miami (Even though I hate the whole "Clubbin" scene).
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Re: FAU on a reality show?

The said

But FAU does offer close location to West Palm Beach, Ft. Lauderdale, and Miami (Even though I hate the whole "Clubbin" scene).

There's plenty of stuff to do here other than Ft. Lauderdale or WPB. You got Wishing Well (Federal & Palmetto), Holloway's (no not Natalie lol) Duffy's Sports bar (St. Andrews) , I believe they are putting in a Blue Martini in at the mall, Schellenberger's Original Steak House (glades & tpke), Draft House (Palmetto and powerline).

So there's a lot of stuff to do other than FtL and WPB. Especially in the past couple of years more things are opening up around here giving you more of an option if you don't feel like going downtown

My two favorite teams are FAU, and who ever is beating FIU!
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Re: FAU on a reality show?

Yeah, it should def help being that i'm 21.  Could you imagine if FAU had a big on campus social life though?  People would be flocking to get in.  The location alone would be a big selling point.  Maybe the school should think about holding some type of beach party? Being that it's only a few miles away.  Although the way you guys talk i'm sure Boca would not hear of it…. :D
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Re: FAU on a reality show?

Jab979 said

The one thing I agree with is # 7. Campus is DEAD on weekends. Has always been that way…

…Then if you're a student and you are debating living on campus you gotta weigh your options… It may as well be a ghost town because there are no activities scheduled and nothing to do.

They always say they don't want this to be a commuter school but what do you expect when you don't have any activities on campus on weekends…? May as well go home and find something else to do because there's never anything to do if you live in the dorms and you're not going to miss anything by going home.

Last semester, Dr.Brown (of Student Affairs) created the Weekend Programming Committee to address this very issue of providing things to do for the residential students on the weekend. The Committee consists of several people from RSA (Housing), Greek Life, SGA, Program Board and staff of the Student Union. Being new with little student involvement and a nearly non-existent budget, the main product this year was "Games Night" every Friday night in the Student Union from 7-9 pm. There were contests in Billiards, Texas Hold'Em and Smash Brothers; prizes were varied but usually included things like iPod shuffles, movies, pool stick, etc. Average attendance was 20-30 people and usually the same people every time with the same winners.

The Committee is hoping to draw more people in the Fall and expand the offerings. Some things that will be considered include an Amazing Race-type of event, a cake decorating contest (like what the Disney chefs do on the Food Network), a Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? game, etc.

Going to even look into ideas such as
- students making and then playing our own miniature golf courses (in the Grand Palm Room)
- making a "sweded" film with the Film Club
- competing in a 'Crazy Hair and Beard competition' (see World Beard and Moustache Championships™ - The Official Site)… November is National Beard Month
- a card event in the Live Oak Pavillion with different rooms for "learn different card games" (for beginners), "learn to count cards", "learn card tricks" and the last room will probably for straight up poker games

and some other cool stuff (including an idea I think may get us into the newspaper) that I don't want to talk about just yet in case there are some UCF/FIU people that try to do it first. Point is, weekend campus life in the Fall should offer something to do. Whether students decide to attend remains to be seen.
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