What if they're busy and cant attend or say an emergency comes up? These ideas are futile. There will always be a student section. They are the live blood of the school. I graduated last year, if i recall for those who didn't own season tickets, if they didn't scan their code they lost priority in obtaining future games. Even with this practice in place, people walked in, scanned and turned around to the bars or to tailgate. We wont see something change until the team is good. There is always a nice turn out for a big name opponent.
Why is there a student section?
- Thread starter KingHigh
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What if they're busy and cant attend or say an emergency comes up? These ideas are futile. There will always be a student section. They are the live blood of the school. I graduated last year, if i recall for those who didn't own season tickets, if they didn't scan their code they lost priority in obtaining future games. Even with this practice in place, people walked in, scanned and turned around to the bars or to tailgate. We wont see something change until the team is good. There is always a nice turn out for a big name opponent.
I'm not saying underage drinking doesn't go on in the Alley. That's just ignorant, but I have a friend who I actually had no idea went to the football games, let alone to the Alley. And he loved it but he doesn't drink at all. Apparently he goes with a group and they had a great time despite not drinking. It's not just about a spot for students to drink.
There's been no show policies for years if you claim a ticket and it isn't scanned. You have no idea what the heck you are talking about.
And you're bitching on a message board about the one section of the stadium that has consistently shown any spirit and excitement for the last decade, because you're pissed they don't show up to your liking against patsy teams and admittedly trolling while doing so. Yet, you're allegedly an adult.
There is a demand, which is to re-open an area which allowed for a cohesive student tail gate experience, and at the same time allowed it to be policed for any erroneous actions by the few students who can't control themselves. You said back in your day you would have chained yourselves to the doors of the CASC. How in any way is that reasonable or successful? All it does is hinder people who don't want to be involved and serves to be off-turning to those who might have supported the protest in a less brazen manner. Plus social media is now the fastest way to raise awareness about any issue. So an online petition may not seem like much, but it's something and it doesn't interfere with the day-to-day lives of others not involved.
2 or 3 no shows and you can't claim a ticket the rest of the year, something like that
A bunch of kids chaining themselves to the Student Center in the mid-80s resulted in Rutgers realigning its entire investment portfolio to exclude all companies doing business in South Africa. Also, Jesse Jackson came to town. But that was just an unfortunate side effect.
Nobody cares about online petitions. Change.org has diluted the concept sufficient to drive it into irrelevance.
Something to this effect. It was very easy to bypass. For about 15 minutes walk from where youre tailgating. Scan.... walk out. Seen it happen A LOT.
What worked then and was acceptable by the standards of the time will have an entirely different response today. Besides in the grand scale that is a much larger issue they were protesting. Our own fanbase is condemning the Alley as a cesspool, so people will look at the protest the way some on these boards do. "Just a bunch of dumb college kids who want an area to drink underage". The media headlines would be hilarious and entirely negative if we were to use the same approach as the 80s. I'm not discounting that method because it obviously worked. Rather saying that for this issue that type of protest will not work.
True enough, but this is a tailgating dispute. I doubt people are going to put the effort into this that they would for a real issue. A petition is the equivalent of us emailing about the game being moved to Yankee Stadium, a way to make it known that you're not happy.
It's fine, and really pretty much in line with the seriousness of the issue.
I'm just trying to get the kids to stand up for themselves. Signing an online petition pledging to not attend the game (but fully intending to go anyway) gets nothing accomplished.
This is it exactly. A petition gains attention, shows the displeasure of the student fanbase, and lets the people who forced this know that there will be kickback. But it's not a major life altering event where a true public protest would be received well.
I understand that, but I want to continue to support the team because it's not their fault that someone in the administration made a dumb choice. Also I love college football. So it's hard to stay away. There is probably a better way than an online petition, but not as severe as chaining people to doors. But it hasn't been suggested yet.
No, it doesn't. You've said that you're going to the game anyway. The obvious conclusion to be drawn is that a significant number of petition signatories will be going to the game anyway. You've accomplished nothing.
You need a better plan.
I think eliminating the student section or asking them to pay (which would have the same effect as eliminating the student section) is throwing out the baby with the bathwater. The goal is to get the student section filled up for every game, even lame OOC games, with students who raise the energy level in the stadium. So let's address that goal.
RU has a lot of students and should be able to easily fill the student section for all games. I think we need to take a fresh look at what we're doing to fill the section today and start making adjustments. Clearly what we're doing isn't working well at the moment. So we should focus on fixing that.
The school cannot condone breaking the law (despite it being a stupid law). So a university sponsored student free-for-all tailgate for underage students is a non-starter. But there are other ways to publicize the games to the students and encourage more participation. As Ash has said, we need to change the culture. Which won't happen overnight, so I think the approach to filling the student section should be medium to long term as opposed to some gimmicky quick fix.
Probably the first thing I'd do is reach out across the university (all campuses) to the students themselves and get them heavily involved in finding ways to raise interest in attending games.
Second thing I'd do is hire whoever ran the marketing campaign for Jagermeister to help us craft a message that resonates with students. Because anybody that could convince students across American that something that tastes like nail polish remover is the the best party drink ever can easily convince students to attend games in droves, even if it means getting up early.
IMO, it's a goal worth investing even more money because students form a segment of the future fan-base and are therefore worth cultivating.
RU has a lot of students and should be able to easily fill the student section for all games. I think we need to take a fresh look at what we're doing to fill the section today and start making adjustments. Clearly what we're doing isn't working well at the moment. So we should focus on fixing that.
The school cannot condone breaking the law (despite it being a stupid law). So a university sponsored student free-for-all tailgate for underage students is a non-starter. But there are other ways to publicize the games to the students and encourage more participation. As Ash has said, we need to change the culture. Which won't happen overnight, so I think the approach to filling the student section should be medium to long term as opposed to some gimmicky quick fix.
Probably the first thing I'd do is reach out across the university (all campuses) to the students themselves and get them heavily involved in finding ways to raise interest in attending games.
Second thing I'd do is hire whoever ran the marketing campaign for Jagermeister to help us craft a message that resonates with students. Because anybody that could convince students across American that something that tastes like nail polish remover is the the best party drink ever can easily convince students to attend games in droves, even if it means getting up early.
IMO, it's a goal worth investing even more money because students form a segment of the future fan-base and are therefore worth cultivating.
I saw this in my twitter feed:
@AdamHache: There is a thread 'why is there a student section' on the Rutgers message boards. We've reached a new level of stupidity people
@AdamHache: There is a thread 'why is there a student section' on the Rutgers message boards. We've reached a new level of stupidity people
OMG WHY WASN'T THE STADIUM PACKED FOR A NOON GAME AGAINST HOWARD OR NEW MEXICO FOR OUR ILLUSTRIOUS TEAM WITH A HORRENDOUS QB WHO NEVER GETS BENCHED!!
JFC. It's not that hard to figure out. Lay off the students - give them a reason to come and a reasonable start time and they'll show up.
You act as if college students are going to tuck themselves in at 11 PM to get to the tailgate early.
JFC. It's not that hard to figure out. Lay off the students - give them a reason to come and a reasonable start time and they'll show up.
You act as if college students are going to tuck themselves in at 11 PM to get to the tailgate early.
Alternatively, we could just offer free hookers and blow to any student that shows up before the kick and stays until the game is over. Pretty sure that would do it.
In my day, if they threw us out of the Blue Lot we'd have 20-30 tents camped out in the front row the night before and let the press witness police throwing students off a college campus to let rich people park.
Make the Blue Lot the Rutgers version of Tiananmen square.
Given that noon starts are out of our control and likely to continue, I think any outreach to students should factor out the tailgate aspect entirely. Let them sleep till 11:00. I would focus on finding in-game and post-game lures.
you should get 10,000 students to chain yourselves to the student section.
There are rich people in the blue lot? I thought we were all in yellow?
You are an adult too, although you are the sort of adult who is cursing and taking unnecessary shots at me due to a simple difference of opinion.
To tell you the truth, a big part of the reason why it's fun for alumni to come back for games is to see the student-created atmosphere. I like to think our continuous support of the program helps make possible enhancements to the experience for everyone, chiefly the students. Enhancements we've never got to enjoy as students, yet we went to the games without a sanctioned tailgate party. It does disappoint me a lot when I see it inferred the Rutgers football team is little more to the students than an accessory to party. And then to learn there is a petition to boycott a B1G game because they can't have a sanctioned party on campus...It's slightly disheartening.
The entertainment value of the Rutgers football program in 2016 is, by orders of magnitude, greater than when just about all of us were in school. Especially for students. I wish I could understand the nonchalance, but I suppose if football were important to the students in general, they probably would have gone to some other school in the first place.
You're a moderator who admitted to starting this thread as an exercise in trolling, then proceeded to be condescending in the extreme to the students who engaged in discussion. I'm not taking shots at you because of your opinion on the student section. I'm taking shots because you said you made up your opinion of the student section, then used that fake opinion to speak down to others.
Tongue in cheek is not the equivalent to trolling. If it was too difficult to decipher, my opinion is the students should show up without so many preconditions attached and they are way out of line to organize a boycott. And perhaps there could be some adverse impacts to them should they boycott their fellow students.
There are rich people in the blue lot? I thought we were all in yellow?
Rich people in the blue lot? The whole reason we are in this "mess" is because of the CHEAP people in blue lot who didn't donate enough to go to yellow or scarlet and complained about students.
Is
We've averaged in the 8k/game range for students, almost every year, since the expansion. There are maybe 20/25 student sections nationally which have done better over the same period of time. Yes, there have been some bad showings due to atrocious weather (Wisc) or play (Nebraska) the last couple years, and this season has been sub-par for a slew of reasons - legit or otherw - but this comment is so far off base it's shocking. The premise of the entire thread, as well, IMHO.
That being said I agree wholeheartedly that the students are in the wrong should they "protest,l and hurt their fellow classes doing so, come Saturday.
We've averaged in the 8k/game range for students, almost every year, since the expansion. There are maybe 20/25 student sections nationally which have done better over the same period of time. Yes, there have been some bad showings due to atrocious weather (Wisc) or play (Nebraska) the last couple years, and this season has been sub-par for a slew of reasons - legit or otherw - but this comment is so far off base it's shocking. The premise of the entire thread, as well, IMHO.
That being said I agree wholeheartedly that the students are in the wrong should they "protest,l and hurt their fellow classes doing so, come Saturday.
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How about opening up the empty seats to others in the stadium after the 1st Quarter. No-shows lose their seats for the game.
I'm not doubting you - and I certainly believe the idea of getting rid of the student section is idiotic - but do you have the data for student attendance? I'd be curious to see that.
Why do the old people on here feel so entitled to their perfect game day experiences?
They need their safe-space from our millennial microaggressions [roll]That's why there is a student section. So we can be separate and not offend them. I understand now!
I don't know if this is true in any way, but just a theory...Perhaps the students left after half time during a close game because they wanted to go back to the awesome party back at the Alley. If that were the case, then the Alley actually does not help that much.
Silly question, my friend. Why do young people on here feel entitled to a perfect game day experience? As long as everyone, young or old, is considerate of the people around them, then everyone can have a great game day experience.
I think the drinking age should be 16 (or eliminated entirely). I think the students should have their own awesome tailgate/pre-game area where they can crank up the sound and get totally crazy and be left alone by the over-zealous police/sheriff patrols.
But I also understand, and the students should as well, that Rutgers was simply unprepared for the sheer numbers of students that showed up for the New Mexico tailgate. That kind of crowd requires more planning, by the school, to be done safely for the kids.
I think RU needs to find a way to secure the student tailgate w/out an overly strong LEO presence (which means paying some security and giving that security some good training on how to keep things safe without escalation). The security needs to quietly weed out the problem-children and trouble-makers among the students and ban them individually, without banning the kids that are having a good time without getting out of control.
If the students work cooperatively with the administration, it'll get done. Although the school will never be able to condone anything illegal, so underage kids are going to have to do their drinking elsewhere or be very discreet - just a fact of life as it has always been.
I don't know. What if someone that loves RU football but has kids and has an early soccer game, leave right after that game for the stadium so they can catch most of the last three quarters? Would kind of suck to take away their seats, no?
Who will be the person to start this same thread on the Basketball Board in November after the North Texas and Hartford games?
I've given up worrying a long time ago about student attendance at games.
I've given up worrying a long time ago about student attendance at games.
You could simply ask why do we have seats for BBall. Hopefully it will change soon.
I wonder if they filled the other sections of the stadium the same way they fill the student section if you would still be asking the question.