On Jan. 26-27, the Student Government of the University of Dallas arranged free pizza and the chance to compete and win Cap Bar credit. These actions were done to encourage students to attend and support their student athletes as they faced conference opponents.
Luke Posegate, senior politics major, serves as president of SG. Under his campaign’s slogan ‘UD on Offense,’ Posegate, the executive council and the senate focus on uniting part of UD’s culture together.
“We want to ensure that being a university, we are united,” Posegate said. “That includes the different academic departments, campus ministry, student life and athletics as well.”
In order to achieve this unification, SG has to address the distance that student-athletes have from the rest of the student-life community. Posegate is very understanding of the student-athletes’ responsibilities and dynamics with their own team.
Student-athletes attend class and do comps like any other student here at UD, but they are also conditioning in the morning, practicing in the evenings and traveling for weekend games. It’s a different world. Although student-athletes may get left out of social aspects of student life, they will always have their teammates to relate to. This strong bond causes some degree of “exclusiveness” between the student-athlete bubble from the student-life community.
“You can see there may be a natural divide [between student-athletes and the rest of the community] caused because of that, and not out of animosity, but just due to the fact that they’re spending a lot of time with their team, which is great,” Posegate stated. “But we realized that there’s a lot that can be done to bridge this gap, and we wanted to take up that mantle as Student Government.”
Posegate and SG made it a priority to unite student-athletes and regular students together. Their strategy is to bring the student-life community to athletes through food and events with the help of a certain dean.
“It was actually [Dr. Roper’s] idea to do the half-court shot contest, and he donated the Cap Bar gift cards and the pizza that was served at those games,” Posegate said. “We’re really appreciative of his commitment to helping support student-athletes from the dean’s office as well.”
“I think it’s exciting to see that they’re trying to bring more students to watch our games,” Bri Simmons, head coach of the women’s basketball team, shared. “From the students’ standpoint, it’s good for them to just be involved with our athletics and I think it’s great for our student-athletes to see that the campus and the student body is willing to give them some more support.”
This pizza and Cap Bar competition was successful, but, at the same time, needs improvement. There is room to get even more creative with food options and entertainment, especially for women’s games.
“It is nice to see that there’s engagement happening,” Kathleen “Kat” Santos shared. “But I feel like the men already had their engagement, and it’s just sad to see that it’s not really taken an effect on women’s basketball. I feel like it’s such a popular thing going on.”
SG’s efforts were appreciated in the men’s games, but they weren’t as effective in the women’s games afterwards. Many audience members left little by little by the end of their match. Women’s basketball and, in general, women’s sports are not as appreciated as they should be. In my opinion, as the Sports Editor, what makes women’s sports worth the watch is that every little thing matters. The pacing of the match is like a slow burn where precision, timing and positioning make or break the scores.
As a way of encouraging fans to come and stay for the second match or women’s games, I recommend providing a different food choice or dessert. It’s a small change but it might make a difference.
As basketball season closes, SG is now preparing and committing to supporting outdoor sports such as baseball and softball by grilling burgers and hot dogs as well as providing free drinks. I’m hopeful and excited for the outcome and the future planning of SG’s events, especially in being more creative to continue bringing in a larger audience.