Student involvement important to campus

Campus involvement is great for retention of students and makes new students feel that they belong at UCA. It is a very important part of student life. However, after a couple months on campus, most students tend to stop getting involved.
Football games at the beginning of the year are very well attended, while later games tend to  have less participants. Not only do the games have less students at them, but most students tend to sit down and talk during the games.
The way the events are scheduled may be part of the problem. When freshmen get settled in, many make more friends and get more involved in classes, meaning they will have less time to spend at UCA events.
Events are usually scheduled on a rotation of the same three days every week, meaning students with jobs or other commitments on those days will not be able to attend. UCA should schedule more events on days that do not usually have events, so more students could attend a larger variety of events.
Former President Meadors said attendence of big UCA events has increased heavily in the past few years. However, many of these events are not filled with students, but with people from around the community. This is because many of the events held at UCA are not aimed at students, but are aimed at older residents of Conway.
Most bands that play at UCA do not attract a substantial young crowd and were popular at least three decades ago. Many students will not consider attending a performance from a band they have not heard of or that their parents were even too young to enjoy when they were young.
Operas have not necessarily been known for attracting a young crowd, either. Most students who go to these events are either studying opera or are sitting through them for extra credit in a music class.
When a university doesn’t give students a reason to stay on campus, they won’t want to get involved.
If UCA gave more funding to campus activities, such as dorm activities, students might be more willing to stay on campus for four years. With a little more money, residential assistants could put on more activities without spending  money.
Various tournaments, such as ping pong and video games, are inexpensive and merely require setup and a small prize for a winner.
Some students don’t care about campus involvement, but most students want to be more interested in what goes on at UCA.
Of course, not all events are this way. Matt and Kim showed that students are willing to get involved if there is an event they are interested in. The large crowd was proof that current music draws people in.
Better advertising would be a great way to improve involvement. Facebook and Twitter are both great ways to inform students of events. Most students walk past billboards and signs without looking, but will spend hours on Facebook at a time. Some departments have Facebook pages, but do not update them frequently enough for anyone to care.
Some events, such as operas and classical musicians, simply will not draw large crowds at UCA. Most students would rather hang out with friends than listen to music they see as old and boring. However, the events that do have a chance of drawing large crowds can benefit from different scheduling, aiming events at younger crowds and better funding for on-campus activities.