The Voice

Living in a college town should have its perks: cheap pizza, discounts, and give aways alike. But in case you haven’t noticed, there are not many perks living in this college town.

There is so little community support around GC&SU sometimes it’s easy to forget how much money students pour into the town.

Minus the “Welcome GC&SU Students” signs that look like they were provided to the businesses by the university, there are no displays of school colors or our mascot.

In Athens, bulldogs are displayed everywhere. The entire community supports and encourages the student body. Why can’t we encourage the same support in Milledgeville?

Restaurants and businesses around GC&SU don’t offer much to college students, either. It is surprising that so few places offer any incentive for students to spend money. Discounts are few and far between and motivation for student participation is nearly none.

Discounts, freebees, and group deals are the things students will take advantage of. Why isn’t there a student night at every delivery restaraunt in town? Why is the Blockbuster in town so short on foreign and indepndent art films?

Maybe when the Bobcat Card system expands into the community we’ll see an effort on behalf of local businesses to cater to a fairly wealthy student population. Nationwide, the 16 million of us spend over $100 billion annually.

We provide jobs to the surrounding community and when we’ve graduated, we become leaders not only in Milledgeville, but in the state and throughout the country. Shouldn’t business owners in the area reach out to us for support?

Students in a university acquire skills useful in a number of businesses and many of those students are begging for experience.

Sure, there are partnerships between the university and
area schools and the local hospital, but for every student that is allowed an opportunity to gain experience, there are a number who are just trying to get their feet in the door.

It is our job as the college community to push for what we want. We are the target audience whether local businesses want to believe that or not. We create so much revenue for the businesses in Milledgeville, is it too much to ask to get a little back?

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 17 2004. Filed under Our Voice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry