THE IUP Football Thread

[IUPNation]

Pretty sure that’s an expellable offense on this board. Complaining about the bands is okay, but general talk about marching bands and performances is prohibited other than on the D2footballbands.com site. :)

All I can say is the current director has a long way to go to restore the IUP Marching Band to the elite level they were under Doc.

[EyeoftheHawk]

Just wait until I turn it into marching band performances!

Pretty sure that’s an expellable offense on this board. Complaining about the bands is okay, but general talk about marching bands and performances is prohibited other than on the D2footballbands.com site. :)

[EyeoftheHawk]

You know IUP is 4-3 and out of it when the discussion on Oct. 20 is about dining hall food.

Exactly what I was thinking.

[TheBigCat2192]

I understand precisely where you are coming from with this. For such a long time, attracting students to higher education destinations was an arms race. I think many of the "pushes" or "initiatives" for what these universities focus on tend to be go in waves and have a lot of consistency across all campus. Simply looking at the western PA trifecta of IUP, Cal, and SRU is a prime example. My sister chose Cal after she graduated high school in 2007 because they had recently completed an update of their dorms. They were the first of the 3 to perform massive updates to the residence halls, and that was extremely attractive to her. The two final schools for her were IUP and Cal. IUP was just starting their residence hall project. Cal had already completed. 4 years later, I chose IUP. Not because of residence halls, but for the purposes of this conversation, IUP had renovated or built new dorms on campus that were actually an upgrade over what Cal offered. It was a clear example of two universities in close proximity, recruiting the same population, trying to outdo one another.

Parallel that with IUP's KCAC and Cal's Convocation Center. It wasn't until IUP had broke ground on the KCAC that Angelo Armenti at Cal decided that he wanted a shiny toy like that too. That's been discussed at length on this message board from multiple focal points, but again... Just an arms race and keeping up with each other to show "we have as much or more to offer than the other school you are looking at."

Slippery Rock was the first of the three to start undergoing massive changes to dining options amongst the three. I recall that from when I was in high school looking at schools. I was at IUP from 2011-2015, and it wasn't until the 2nd half of my tenure there did they start implementing and planning for a long-term plan how they were going to be changing dining.

I've been on campus at many D1 schools in the south before for a variety of reasons. At most of those places, the dorms are crap. Food is pretty standard, but they all try to compete amongst each other by building the largest and coolest fitness or student activities center. I live in Columbus, Ohio. It's the same thing there.

The unfortunate conversation for many schools is that they pumped so much money into all of these projects to attract students, but enrollment is plummeting at all of them.

I was at BU for the same period as you were an IUP student. When I was a freshman my residence hall underwent a major renovation where they redecorated a lot of the place and added these large “common rooms” in the middle of each floor with multiple couches/tables/chairs and a big TV. They were pitched as places where people would study all day but in the end their primary uses were poorly-attended community events, watching football on Saturdays and Sundays, and hanging out when your roommate had an evening caller over. Not that they never saw any use for studying but many preferred to do so in their dorms or at the library; despite all the money thrown into fixing the poor old Elwell Hall up they were often empty.

We also underwent a lot of changes to dining with the addition of a Steak Shack or Steak and Shake (can’t remember which) and a campus food cart/truck, and I think a second coffee location next to our library (we already had a Starbucks in the commons next to a Subway). We almost got a Chil-Fil-A but the homosexuals protested against it. Somehow BU got one shortly after I left which makes me feel a bit cheated.

[IUPNation]

You know IUP is 4-3 and out of it when the discussion on Oct. 20 is about dining hall food.

Just wait until I turn it into marching band performances!

[Fightingscot82]

Yup. Colleges are increasingly adding more amenities to compete for a declining student pool, and it all adds up. It coincides with how many colleges are viewing kids as revenue-producing clients rather than students. This is very true at the PASSHE schools with the shrinkage of state support over the years. When I attended Ship in the '60s, we had fewer great buildings (many of the classrooms and almost all the dorm rooms were not air conditioned, I was in a basic dorm with 399 other guys where we had eight corridors with 50 guys a corridor and shared the restrooms and showers on those corridors Meals were served family style and were nothing wonderful (I think they were spending about $10 a week to feed each of us, which wasn't much even then), and you ate what they served. There were no meal choices, fast food restaurants on campus, suite dorm living, student rec centers, and many of the things students expect on campus now. It likely wasn't as comfortable as the campus is today, but it sure was a lot cheaper to attend the school.

Bloom has ChickFilA, Qdoba, Dunkin, Starbucks, and Subway on campus. On campus. Not in town.

Most of the amenities at regional schools are done because their students are the most cost sensitive. The 2000s students were willing to borrow stupid amounts of money to finance the college experience they wanted. Then the recessions happened and repayment began and suddenly $40k for a career that doesn't even have starting salaries in the $40s gives you something to ponder. The only remaining arms race is in the flagships for newer and bigger research facilities and the southern FBS schools looking to attract big money kids. There are 15-20 colleges with indoor or outdoor lazy rivers. There's a small college in Florida with one of those surfing simulators. High Point in North Carolina has 5 tiers of room and board to cater to the rich. The highest tier pays for someone to decorate your room before move in, laundry service, room cleaning, turn down service, etc.

[Ship69]

But the kids don't do all you can eat anymore. Its noticeably lower quality or more basic than the fast casual grab & go stuff. Was on campus at SRU last night to see Rainn Wilson and the line to order at the Quaker Steak in their student center was easily 20 deep. We parked near their traditional dining hall and it was so dead that my wife didn't even notice it was a dining hall. Anecdotal but its pretty consistent with where I have spent time. As has been shared by others, students are their own worst enemies. They vote with their dollars and feet on nicer things that cost more money...but b*tch and moan about price. Parents aren't any better.

Yup. Colleges are increasingly adding more amenities to compete for a declining student pool, and it all adds up. It coincides with how many colleges are viewing kids as revenue-producing clients rather than students. This is very true at the PASSHE schools with the shrinkage of state support over the years. When I attended Ship in the '60s, we had fewer great buildings (many of the classrooms and almost all the dorm rooms were not air conditioned, I was in a basic dorm with 399 other guys where we had eight corridors with 50 guys a corridor and shared the restrooms and showers on those corridors Meals were served family style and were nothing wonderful (I think they were spending about $10 a week to feed each of us, which wasn't much even then), and you ate what they served. There were no meal choices, fast food restaurants on campus, suite dorm living, student rec centers, and many of the things students expect on campus now. It likely wasn't as comfortable as the campus is today, but it sure was a lot cheaper to attend the school.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Great healthy choices there! YIKES!

You know IUP is 4-3 and out of it when the discussion on Oct. 20 is about dining hall food.

[IUPalum]

But the kids don't do all you can eat anymore. Its noticeably lower quality or more basic than the fast casual grab & go stuff. Was on campus at SRU last night to see Rainn Wilson and the line to order at the Quaker Steak in their student center was easily 20 deep. We parked near their traditional dining hall and it was so dead that my wife didn't even notice it was a dining hall. Anecdotal but its pretty consistent with where I have spent time. As has been shared by others, students are their own worst enemies. They vote with their dollars and feet on nicer things that cost more money...but b*tch and moan about price. Parents aren't any better.

Great healthy choices there! YIKES!

[Fightingscot82]

If you can have as much as you can eat once you are in the door what is the difference. You go when it’s so busy, you scrape it in into the container below the table and put it in your backpack!!

:-)

But the kids don't do all you can eat anymore. Its noticeably lower quality or more basic than the fast casual grab & go stuff. Was on campus at SRU last night to see Rainn Wilson and the line to order at the Quaker Steak in their student center was easily 20 deep. We parked near their traditional dining hall and it was so dead that my wife didn't even notice it was a dining hall. Anecdotal but its pretty consistent with where I have spent time. As has been shared by others, students are their own worst enemies. They vote with their dollars and feet on nicer things that cost more money...but b*tch and moan about price. Parents aren't any better.

[iupgroundhog]

If you can have as much as you can eat once you are in the door what is the difference. You go when it’s so busy, you scrape it in into the container below the table and put it in your backpack!!

:-)

I hope Dan Greenstein and the BOG are devouring all this information.

[IUPNation]

I don't know what it was like when you were there, but they had people watching the doors on the way out to prevent that lol.

If you can have as much as you can eat once you are in the door what is the difference. You go when it’s so busy, you scrape it in into the container below the table and put it in your backpack!!

:-)

[IUP24]

My point wasn’t that they should get rid of all you can eat dining. Merely that campus dining options are probably more than are necessary at one school. I also didn’t mean that they should tear down the climbing wall either as that would probably be more expensive than maintaining; my point is that it was one of those “student life” amenities that was built to try and entice students during the rec center’s renovation that we could have done without in the first place. During my time at BU it got very little use outside of demonstrations put on by rec center staff and occasional indoor sessions by the outdoor life club when weather conditions made their outdoor activities impractical/dangerous.

I understand precisely where you are coming from with this. For such a long time, attracting students to higher education destinations was an arms race. I think many of the "pushes" or "initiatives" for what these universities focus on tend to be go in waves and have a lot of consistency across all campus. Simply looking at the western PA trifecta of IUP, Cal, and SRU is a prime example. My sister chose Cal after she graduated high school in 2007 because they had recently completed an update of their dorms. They were the first of the 3 to perform massive updates to the residence halls, and that was extremely attractive to her. The two final schools for her were IUP and Cal. IUP was just starting their residence hall project. Cal had already completed. 4 years later, I chose IUP. Not because of residence halls, but for the purposes of this conversation, IUP had renovated or built new dorms on campus that were actually an upgrade over what Cal offered. It was a clear example of two universities in close proximity, recruiting the same population, trying to outdo one another.

Parallel that with IUP's KCAC and Cal's Convocation Center. It wasn't until IUP had broke ground on the KCAC that Angelo Armenti at Cal decided that he wanted a shiny toy like that too. That's been discussed at length on this message board from multiple focal points, but again... Just an arms race and keeping up with each other to show "we have as much or more to offer than the other school you are looking at."

Slippery Rock was the first of the three to start undergoing massive changes to dining options amongst the three. I recall that from when I was in high school looking at schools. I was at IUP from 2011-2015, and it wasn't until the 2nd half of my tenure there did they start implementing and planning for a long-term plan how they were going to be changing dining.

I've been on campus at many D1 schools in the south before for a variety of reasons. At most of those places, the dorms are crap. Food is pretty standard, but they all try to compete amongst each other by building the largest and coolest fitness or student activities center. I live in Columbus, Ohio. It's the same thing there.

The unfortunate conversation for many schools is that they pumped so much money into all of these projects to attract students, but enrollment is plummeting at all of them.

[IUP24]

The kids are dumb!! They should want the all you can eat option. You take a container in with you and you have extra food for later.

I don't know what it was like when you were there, but they had people watching the doors on the way out to prevent that lol.

[Ship69]

Recall a few years back Altoona joined the WPIAL. Talk about an outlier. They had very little success, cited the travel and bailed out. Perhaps nobody there thought of the travel in advance. Or, they were used to winning and didn't like getting pounded on the norm.

Local to Indiana, West Shamokin joined the WPIAL but also didn't last long. They've since rejoined the Heritage.

IHS is going to lose its closest rival next year. Kiski Area is going to get bumped back up to 5A.

Altoona hasn't had much success for quite a while. They were regularlly pounded in the Mid-Penn Conference, went out to the WPIAL and got pounded, and now are back to mediocre in the top Mid-Penn Division. The Mid-Penn's top division is about as weak as I've seen it in years, but Altoona still isn't doing much. They don't seem to have the horses any more. I'm old enough to remember when Altoona vs. Johnstown was a big game in Pennsylvania.