GT Student Engagement

Raise athletic fees. Perhaps if they have more invested in the product they'll show up.

Right phd?
 
beej67 said:
Revoke empty block seating immediately 5 minutes before kickoff, and open it up free to any student with an ID at the gate.
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I've often wondered why the GTAA can't have something like this. At kickoff, if there are any empty seats, the GTAA should allow any student with a current buzzcard to walk up and get in.
 
05GTCorndog said:
Raise athletic fees. Perhaps if they have more invested in the product they'll show up.

Right phd?
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I have a better idea. Charge $0 if a graduate student goes to all the games and $100 if they don't go to any and graduate the scale between them.
 
GT1992 said:
I have a better idea. Charge $0 if a graduate student goes to all the games and $100 if they don't go to any and graduate the scale between them.
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and make it for $1000 for the alumni that doesn't attend
 
cyptomcat said:
and make it for $1000 for the alumni that doesn't attend
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That's going to be difficult to enforce. You could do $1000 for employees of Georgia Tech and just withhold their paycheck. That way DRad could keep picking on poor little phd.
 
Yeah, the more I think about it, Auburn's thing is the winner.

1) Let any student in with an ID, first come first served, no tickets required except for date passes and frat block seating.

2) Open frat block seating for general admission folks a half hour before kickoff.
 
GT1992 said:
I have a better idea. Charge $0 if a graduate student goes to all the games and $100 if they don't go to any and graduate the scale between them.
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Haha, nice.

Or better yet -

Close the financial aid office and only give out checks at football games.
 
I think the issue is that compared to students at other schools, Tech students just don't like going to Tech and being involved at Tech as other schools. The people who I know that went to Auburn don't just love Auburn football, they love Auburn as a school and love the overall experience of Auburn. Same way with Clemson, uga, Alabama, etc. I just graduated, and that attitude and those feelings just don't exist at Tech. So you can come up with incentives and penalties all day, but I really don't think it'll help much. In my experience, people who want to go to the football games are going to the football games.
 
ninegt said:
FYI- At Auburn, they have block seating for fraternities (requires wristband or something to enter) and the remaining student seats are 1st come 1st served when the gates open. The catch is that the fraternity block seats become fair game for everyone once it's within 30 minutes of kickoff. I love that system.
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Sounds pretty ---- good. Keep the Swarm though.
 
nate said:
I think the issue is that compared to students at other schools, Tech students just don't like going to Tech and being involved at Tech as other schools. The people who I know that went to Auburn don't just love Auburn football, they love Auburn as a school and love the overall experience of Auburn. Same way with Clemson, uga, Alabama, etc. I just graduated, and that attitude and those feelings just don't exist at Tech. So you can come up with incentives and penalties all day, but I really don't think it'll help much. In my experience, people who want to go to the football games are going to the football games.
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This might be the best point on the thread. You can want to be Auburn all day long, but there might be more freshmen at Auburn who have lived and died with that team since birth than there are kids at all of Tech who give a crap about the team. You can't just say "let's do what Auburn does!" and expect the same results. The institute, in every single facet, is a 180 from all SEC schools with the exception of maybe Vandy.


Penalize the fraternities all you want. As if they need more of a reason to show up late or not at all.
 
I have had a few ideas for a while so read this!

There have been some great ideas so far, and this post will touch on some of them and maybe offer improvements.

1. We must hire more people to search/scan students at the football games. Period. The lines are ridiculous and on a bad day the wait can be 45 minutes plus. If you want to be sure you will be in your seat on time you have to get to the stadium an hour before kickoff. THIS IS A HUGE REASON WHY THE STUDENT SECTION IS EMPTY AT KICKOFF. Increasing the staff devoted to scanning students by a factor of 2 would be sufficient.

2. Now that it is even possible for students to fill up the stadium on time there needs to be an incentive. It was mentioned that Auburn makes block seating up for grabs 30 mins before kickoff. I think that is the direction we should be going. UNC has a similar system for basketball games, but its not just priority seating that they give away, you can lose your spot if you are late. Here is what I propose:

15 minutes before kickoff all remaining student tickets become first come-first served. This includes block seating and "student season tickets" that students paid for. Yes students who paid can lose their spot in the stadium if they are late. Deal with it. This will give students that did not know if they could make the game until late confidence that they will have a seat if they just walk up to the stadium. Obviously it also gives students an incentive to show up early.

3. If the student section becomes sold out after 15 minutes before kickoff then direct all remaining students outside to a special line where they distribute all unsold tickets to any student that wants one. Again, this will allow a ticket for almost any student that wants one so no one will stay home because they think they wont have a ticket.

4. GTPhD will probably blow a gasket over this one. Give a monetary incentive to attend games and be on time. For every athletic event a student attends refund $10 of their athletic fees for up to 8 events per semester. For every football game a student is scanned in before kickoff refund $5. This probably would involve increasing the athletic fees and also results in the people who actually use the fee paying less than those who don't. Deal with it. Just make it cheaper to go to games than stay home.

5. Get the students involved! At freshmen convocation have a huge segment to encourage the kids to go to games and give a taste of the tradition and atmosphere. Give them a huge packet and make it a big deal. Make it a requirement of all GT1000 (freshmen seminar) classes to require students to attend at least 5 athletic events for credit. Or make it bonus points. The idea is they have to do it for credit but then when they see what it is all about they get hooked. Also we should have a program that gets the faculty to encourage football attendance for their students. Bonus credit again would be good.

6. Slightly unrelated, but every time a ticket is donated to a charity or armed forces we should send them a cheapo gold GT t-shirt to go along with it. Whether we do this by donations or whatever it needs to happen. That way when we play in the independence bowl and half the people in the stands have free tickets donated by GT fans they will actually be wearing gold and will make it look like we have support and might attract new fans. Make it an option to pay more to include a t-shirt with the donation.
 
MtownJacket said:
I have had a few ideas for a while so read this!

There have been some great ideas so far, and this post will touch on some of them and maybe offer improvements.
Click to expand...

Good summary of the ideas that have been discussed thus far, but also some good tweaks that could be implemented. Again, thanks for the input.
 
nate said:
I think the issue is that compared to students at other schools, Tech students just don't like going to Tech and being involved at Tech as other schools. The people who I know that went to Auburn don't just love Auburn football, they love Auburn as a school and love the overall experience of Auburn. Same way with Clemson, uga, Alabama, etc. I just graduated, and that attitude and those feelings just don't exist at Tech. So you can come up with incentives and penalties all day, but I really don't think it'll help much. In my experience, people who want to go to the football games are going to the football games.
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I can definitely understand this point, but how can we change that once a student gets to Tech?
 
Ish said:
I would eliminate block seating immediately, for starters. Don't want to get into a frat vs. non-frat thing, but if you want the main student section (north endzone) to look good, make it first come, first serve.
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totally agreed. Do first come first serve, everyone has to get their own tickets, no more block BS. The frats will complain, but this will force them to get in earlier too.

Then tell the GTAA to allow date passes like we used to. This will guarantee more attendance. We used to pay a minimal fee for the date pass, so charge like $40 bucks for a season of date passes....this gives your buzzcard two swipes a game vs one.

Its simple. You do these two things and it will fill up.
 
4. GTPhD will probably blow a gasket over this one. Give a monetary incentive to attend games and be on time. For every athletic event a student attends refund $10 of their athletic fees for up to 8 events per semester. For every football game a student is scanned in before kickoff refund $5. This probably would involve increasing the athletic fees and also results in the people who actually use the fee paying less than those who don't. Deal with it. Just make it cheaper to go to games than stay home.
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Monetary incentives like this do not work - any executive will tell you that. In fact, it would result in a backlash. You need a four sided approach based on role modelling, understanding, capability, and reinforcement to accomplish change.

Also, this sort of change program is exactly what executives are paid to accomplish. Not being able to design a program or effectively implement it in 5 years is a severe problem in leadership.
 
gtphd said:
Only 6% of the undergraduate student body is international. Are all of the other 94% showing up?
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don't forget tech let's in a bunch of people from up north. In terms of football and other important southern things, a kid from NY or NJ is about like an asian or a mexican or nigerian.
 
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