As an international student, I saw several new issues at Virginia Tech when I was enrolled in this university since 2014. One of these issues is football game.
After very short period, I understood that football game has a lot of advocates in the US universities. I know that the young students need some entertainment and fun, but I have some concerns about this type of activities a little. I want to investigate the effect of football game in the universities in this article.
Football teams and games have some advantages. First, they create an active environment for the students and may be safe fun for youths. Second, the competitions between universities can be an appropriate method for the connections and communications between the students from different universities. Third, I saw that the graduated people from Virginia Tech come to watch the game from different cities. It may be a good chance for them to meet themselves sometimes and maintain their connections. Fourth, the football games can be a good financial resource for the universities.
However, I believe that football games cause some limitations for the universities and students, particularly non-local and international students. As an international student, I did not know the rules in the football game. So, it was not fun for me to watch football games. I was seeing several students that they were going to the stadium to watch the game lively. But I did not go there in last two years. I preferred to go to the gym to exercise. But, all sport fields were closed during the competition and I could not find any alternative for my entertainment. Another issue is that the parking lots will be allocated to the participants who want to watch the game. As a graduate student I need to work in the weekends sometimes. But, I could not park my car close to our department.
In conclusion, I think that the university should consider some alternatives for other students who do not like watching the football games.
I agree. It is a structural issue. How can we structure the Virginia Tech community to give social opportunities to students who do not subscribe to American conventions of what is fun. Also, with parking it does create an environment where the football participators get priority over the entire campus and everyone else just has to make due.
I think the entire country (US) has a weird obsession with varsity sports, football, basketball, and hockey in particular. Now I am not saying that sports are a bad thing but when it starts getting priority over other important matters such as lives of other people or research/teaching at the university, it rings an alarm in my mind. Also, I was talking to my colleagues about how it says so much about the society that the highest paid person at VT is (or should I say was now that Beamer has retired?) the football coach, and not the president or a department head or a dean or a senior researcher.