Busy season for campus recreation

It's the busy season for campus recreation. Currently, there are three sports leagues going on with many mini-tournaments coming up. www.fau.edu/campusrec has details on sign up.

The five-on-five indoor soccer league was changed to a five-on-five outdoor modified soccer league this season. The renovation of The Burrow forced the changed. With this modifieid soccer league, more goals are being scored because there is no goalie. The soccer season is currently in round two of the playoffs.

The sand volleyball league has less participants than expected. Four fraternities and four mixed men's and women's teams are in their second week of regular season play and will begin the playoffs next week. The teams play on the sand volleyball court at the housing BBQ pits. This draws more attention to the program and to the activities they host.

Finally, the softball league just started and is by far the most looked forwarded to league of the school year. Even those students that aren't athletically inclined can go out on the diamond and screw around. There are about 10 teams signed up for intramural softball.

Mini-tournaments coming up include a seven-on-seven, one day, flag football tournament, a dodge ball tournament is scheduled for Thursday and an ultimate frisbee tournament is coming up in a week.

Other events on campus this week is a freshman graduation program sponsored by The Board. This is something that has never happened. It is aimed to help retain freshman and encourage them to finish the semester strong.

Coyote Jack's will host the Jewish Student Union's date auction on Tuesday night. Yours truly will be auctioned off. I don't expect any high bidders for a date with me - it's just mini-golf and Moe's.

Baseball and softball both have home games this week as well. Check www.fausports.com for information on game time and schedules.

On a personal note: this is the last blog I will be writing as a student at FAU. Hopefully I will continue to contribute as an alum. In my opinion, this would give an interesting perspective of how the university looks to recent alum who don't live in the area anymore.

Thanks for the memories FAU.

What the campaign SHOULD have been about on campus

Congratulations to Tony Texeira and Abe Cohen for winning the student government election this week.

Also - congratulations to Sigma Phi Epsilon for winning Greek Week for the fraternities for the fifth straight year and congratulations to Theta Phi Alpha for winning Greek Week for the sororities.

Now that the election is over...

Tony and Abe: Members of the two biggest fraternities on campus. That means they will have support at their events (their brothers and their friends in the Greek community). However, it also means that they might not be 100 percent dedicated to their job in student government. I think Abe is a born leader and is really good at taking an event or an idea and running with it. Tony is good at sticking to his guns and facing adversity.

Jared and Rocky: Jared's fraternity won comeback organization of the year and finished third in Greek Week. Rocky dropped his fraternity letters about two or three years ago - about the same time he got heavily involved in SG. I think Jared is truly dedicated to improving this university and supporting the ideas of students. He was involved with the student spirit groups this year and help to create the Crazy Cooney's and the Rowdy Rex's. Rocky...well, he has been involved with the "regime" for the last few years. Ya know, the "regime" that bought $200,000 worth of couches for the UC, raised their own pay 25 percent and took a nice "leadership trip" to Key West for over $10,000.

Here's one thing that the candidates forgot: free stuff and spirit.

Candidates were right to say they would support Greek Housing, the fitness center, etc. If you didn't support those things, you would be committing political suicide. What they forgot to advocate was for free stuff. T-shirts, food, etc. That's what students care about. Generally, they don't care about what you did last year. Generally, they are concerned about the future of the university and new buildings going up. They want t-shirts. They want free food. They want more money for their clubs.

What someones campaign platform should have been was: You pay $10 in A & S fees per credit hour. We'll make sure you get that money back. We'll give you free food events once a week in the Breezeway. We'll give you cups that you can go to the cafeteria in the Breezeway and have refills on for only 50 cents instead of paying almost $2.00 for a large soda everyday. We'll give you a Starbucks mug to refill your coffee everyday for a reduced price. We'll give you t-shirts that you can wear around the university to receive discounts at the cafeteria and bookstore.

That's what students want. They want something NOW. Most students won't want to support new buildings that they won't even see construction begin on, let alone open before they transfer or graduate. They want things NOW.

Greek Week

FAU's annual Greek Week is taking place this week. Fraternities and sororities participate in different events including athletics, acting and talent. The organization with the most points at the end of the week is declared the winner. Delta Phi Epsilon sorority and Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity each have created a New York Yankees-like dynasty, each winning the past four years in a row.

This year's theme was countries. Every organization had to pick a country and base the weeks events they participate in around that country.

This year's competitions include:
Football (Sigma Phi Epsilon and Alpha Tau Omega play Friday for the fraternity championship and Alpha Xi Delta and Delta Phi Epsilon play for sorority championship)
Basketball (Alpha Xi Delta won for the sororities and Pi Kappa Alpha won for the fraternities)
Volleyball (Tuesday is competition day)
Track and field (Tuesday is competition day)
Skits (Monday was competition day - results not released)
Lip Sync and Talent (Wednesday is competition day).

There are also small competitions like penny wars and sportsmanship that are taken into account at the end of the week.

At most schools, this "Greek Week" is a joke and is described as a competition to see who performs better while intoxicated. At FAU, Greek Week is life. Some organizations spend thousands of dollars for costumes, personal trainers, dance lessons, etc. We have now Greek Housing or a Greek Center at FAU, so that's why Greeks take this week so seriously.

Maybe Greeks would have a place to call their own on campus if they started supporting more campus events.

P.S. - Not only am I in a fraternity - I'm the president of the Inter-Fraternity Council and a member of the executive board for Greek Week. Yes, I criticized the Greeks for being lazy. Hell, only five of the seven fraternities played sports and only three did skit night.

Will the stadium prove worthy?

Former college football coach Lee Corso was on campus this weekend and was featured as the key note speaker in this weekends fourth annual Owl Auction. The auction raises money for the FAU athletic department.

Corso talked about having a football stadium built on campus. With reports being published about a temporary stadium being placed on campus, Corso's speech couldn't have come at a better time.

Here are my thoughts:
Having a temporary stadium will be positive for the FAU football team. Our current home, Lockhart Stadium, is probably one of the worst (if not the worst) home football fields in college football. But remember - it suits FAU well. It has more seats than we have fans, it is within our campus area (Broward campuses of course) and has enough parking for our tailgaters.

Building an "erector-set" stadium on campus will cost nearly $600,000. DO IT! It's worth every penny. The excuse of "it's to far of a drive for students to get to Lockhart" can be confirmed. I think more students will come out to the game knowing it's on campus.

After all, with the increased presence of ATF and undercover cops at Lockhart, students can now find a place on campus to drink. I'M NOT PROMOTING underage drinking - but let's be serious, we all know it goes on. At least now they can walk home instead of drinking and driving.

In addition, we will get a taste of what kind of fan-following we will have when we have a real stadium on campus.

Here's the trick: the new FAU Track and Field facility is lined for an intramural field - 80 yards long. But if you look closely at the track, you can fit a 100-yard field on that facility. Someone just has to pay to re-line it. And there is already a parking lot nearby and an owl logo at the 50-yard line.

Bathrooms, locker rooms and press boxes would be the hard part. Like at FIU, there are temporary press boxes. But at FIU, they have facilities for locker rooms and bathrooms. I don't know where FAU would put temporary facilities of this kind.

My support is not only for the stadium but for the temporary stadium being put on campus IMMEDIATELY.

Go Owls.

The Best $10 Ever Spent

It's spring break. Barely anyone is on campus. The majority (if not everyone) who are staying on campus during this 10-day break are staying for three reasons:
1) Work
2) Athletic competition
3) They are going on vacation with friends/family

With the FAU men's basketball team coming off of a huge first-round conference tournament victory over FIU, the momentum going into spring break for the team was huge. But, because of the break, that momentum and spirit around campus would soon die out.

But for 15 students on Sunday night, the spirit didn't die out. We huddled in the Indian River Tower Resident Hall Multi-Purpose Room, where the air conditioning wasn't working, and watched the FAU men's basketball team lose to Western Kentucky.

I purchased the game for $10 from sunbeltsports.org. We watched our boys compete live. It was amazing. We found a resident that had a projector and hooked it up to a laptop and had an instant game-watch party.

Although we lost, those 15 students kept the momentum from last game going strong.

THIS IS WHAT CAMPUS LIFE IS LIKE. This is what campus life should be like.

The caf - Then and Now

The meal plan. It's probably the most complained about thing on this campus besides parking. But students that have been here since 2002 and 2003 aren't complaining about the new services the Center Marketplace offers. They are complaining about why they didn't have these current services when they were freshman.

The sandwich bar. In 2002, we had a small sandwich bar - very small. This year's sandwich bar is a completely separate kiosk filled with hot and cold sandwiches, subs and wraps.

The center grill. There was no center grill in 2002. Yes, that means no omelets in the morning, no taco bar for lunch and no stir-fry for dinner. We had pizza, chicken patties and burgers for lunch and dinner just like the freshman of today do. We also had soda, but it was located where the salad bar is. Yes, that means we had no salad bar.

We had the delicious ice cream and the Belgium waffles as well. The chocolate chip cookies, though, are a lot softer now than they were in 2002.

The caf closed at 7 p.m. on weekdays back in 2002. Now it closes at 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday. We had no televisions. But, we could eat outside just like students today can. But current plans call for a renovation of the outside area to allow for more food to be cooked outside and an overhang to eat under. Just in the cafeteria alone there has been a lot of growth. Now, the cafeteria isn't only bigger and better, the food isn't as much as a laxative as it was five years ago.

FAU is tradition-less

Coming off of last week's attempt to fill the FAU Burrow (the basketball arena for those of you who have never been to a basketball game, which is probably 25,000 of the 27,000 students) with over 3,000 fans for the men's basketball game fell short by nearly 1,400. Bury the Burrow IN RED was an attempt to get every fan in attendance to wear red - creating an uncomfortable feeling for visiting Florida International. Plus, it would have looked really cool on television to have the entire crowd wearing red.

Trying to achieve this goal, student government and athletics handed out red t-shirts for fans to wear. Not everyone wore them. The good news - we still won.

But on a much larger scale, I did some research on some other schools (a lot of them that we have played or will be playing in the near future) and their traditions. Let's compare:

Florida Gators v. FAU:
In 1991, Head Football Coach Steve Spurrier talked at a press conference about the season his team just finished. He talked about how teams should be scared to come into the stadium where the Gators play. He called it "The Swamp." The name stuck.

In 2001 and 2002, FAU played home games at Pro Player Stadium (home of the NFL team Miami Dolphins). IN 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006, FAU played their home games at Lockhart Stadium (home of Broward County High School games) with a few games being played back at Pro Player to help increase attendance (which it never did). In 2007 - well, we don't know where FAU is playing next year.

Florida State Seminoles v. FAU:
The now-famous Seminole Tomahawk chop that fans do at games started in 1984 when fans that sat behind the band started doing it. By next season, the entire stadium was doing it. The chop also jumped sports over to major league baseball and appeared at Atlanta Brave games. When the "massacre" song comes on that is played by the Seminole band, 80,000 people in the football stadium and millions watching on television do the same hand motion in unison. It's chilling to say the least.

In 2002, I tried to start the Owl Fingers, which are creatively made by putting your thumb and your index finger together - thus leaving your middle, ring and pinkie finger sticking straight up. If you do that on both hands at the same time, you have Owl Fingers.

The fingers died as soon as they started. They resurfaced this football and basketball season and has slowly caught on. Now about 5,000 people at the football games and 900 at basketball games do them when they are told to.

Clemson Tigers and South Carolina Gamecocks v. FAU
The Clemson football team rubs a Howard's Rock on their way into the stadium before a game. The team's entrance has been called the most exciting 25 seconds in football. It started when that same rock was brought to Clemson from Death Valley, California before a big game.

Clemson's cross state rival South Carolina has the most exciting entrance overall. In 2001, to the song "2001-A Space Odyssey," the team entered the field to what was the most exciting entrance the school had ever seen. They haven't looked back. The entrance is now one of the only entrances that is shown on national television.

Last year, FAU purchased a giant FAU inflatable helmet. Note: this year, it didn't inflate for the FIU game. This year, Owsley the Owl ran out to the song "2001-A Space Odyssey." One time the song didn't come on at all.

Stoney Brook v. FAU:
Here's an academic tradition. Stoney Brook does not have any classes in session on Wednesday's between 12 noon and 2 p.m. These hours are called "Campus Life Hours." Students (residents and commuters) are encouraged to participate in pep rallies, free food events, lectures, guest speakers, club events and other things that encourage involvement in school.

FAU has the Breezeway where clubs pass out stuff that most people ignore. There's also Reading Day, where there is no class for an entire day. But that day is reserved for studying for finals, which start the very next day. Oh yeah - by the way - Reading Day was cancelled this semester so that we can have an extra day of graduation ceremonies.

Virgina Tech Hokies v. FAU:
The Hokies got their nickname after a 1896 student body vote to change the fight song. The song was titled "Hokie," thus changing the mascot name.

In 2003, FAU cut it's 86 (or so) Owl logos down to one, it's five school colors down to three and there was some student input. And our Owl mascot name has changed quite often. In 2002, it was the FAU Owl and Owlvin. Fans called him Hootie. It was then changed to Owsley. And we have had four different looking mascots in the past five years.

FAU does have tradition though. There is Homecoming that has happened since forever. Oh yeah - that tradition was changed too. It was changed from the spring semester to the fall semester in 2000 to accommodate the football team, not the men's and women's basketball teams like it had in years past.