Our Voice
Noon. Milledgeville.
There’s no one around. A lone man strolls across an empty, verdant green lawn. The usual sounds of people passing by on their way to get dinner, or throwing footballs across the lawn are absent, replaced by an eerie stillness.
Compared to its usual hustle and bustle, the city is empty.
What sounds like the basic plot for a B-rated horror movie is actually a startling reflection of Milledgeville -particularly the GCSU campus – over the recent Labor Day break. The campus was barren, the residence halls and apartments quiet, and the parking lots almost empty. There are no official numbers for the amount of the student populace that left town during that time, but a safe bet would probably be around 50 percent or more.
GCSU prides itself on its community and small school setting that encourages students to get involved with the campus. On the school website under the GCSU Mission Statement there is a list of expectations of students, one of which is that students “be meaningfully engaged in and involved in the campus community.”
From that standpoint, it’s none-too-reassuring to see half the population leave town at the first decent opportunity. It’s hard to be involved in the GCSU/Milledgeville community from your home in Gwinnett County. Or wherever you call home.
Then again, what went on in Milledgeville this weekend? Did the Campus Activities Board host an event on Saturday night to draw interest? Did any of the other student organizations have an important function this weekend? Had intramural flag football started yet?
For those of you keeping score, all the answers are “no.”
So if there is no community life to get involved with, why should we stay on campus over a nice, long weekend?
Let’s not forget the town of Milledgeville itself. Was there anything of unusual interest downtown over the break? Any concerts? Drink specials? Or did they simply close early on several nights?
“No,” “no” and “yes,” in that order.
So, if there is no community life to get involved with, why should we go downtown over a nice, long weekend?
But as students, what are we doing to facilitate this lack of activity? Many students, particularly freshmen, leave on weekends to go home, or to Athens. If it’s determined that many students will leave town on this nice, long weekend, why should the businesses exert extra energy into hosting events?
Thus, no events and no students, which leads to fewer events in the future. A fine example of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
But the events that do occur on weekends often tend to work. The city Sweetwater Festival attracts hundreds of student visitors each year. GCSU homecoming draws a large crowd to its parade, game and crowing ceremony. GCSU Idol has sold out since it began in 2005.
Events of interest cost money and time, and no business in the community would host an event if they believed they would lose money on it. Whoever is hosting the event has to know enough students will attend to make it worth their while. And to guarantee that, they have to know students won’t be leaving for parts unknown.
Let’s meet in the middle, shall we?
Send responses to
colonnadeletters@gcsu.edu
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Sep 6 2007. Filed under Opinion, 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
