As you may have noticed, our paper has recently featured a few conflicting opinions on the “student friendliness” of Durant.
Both writers made some very valid points. As Mr. Slawson pointed out, Durant has a fairly wide variety of potential activities for college students.
However, thoughts like those of Ms. Creasman not only exist, but are fairly common. Personally, I initially believed that Durant held little of interest.
How can the verdict of boring exist when there is, apparently, plenty to do here? I believe the answer is surprisingly simple: lack of publicity.
Even working here in the newspaper with the contacts I have, I find myself frequently having to chase down information on events. While this is part of my job and I’m not complaining, it would make sense for those places wishing to draw in students to appeal to student publications. This rarely occurs.
It would also make sense for these places to implement advertising strategies aimed at students; a business card that says “10 percent off with SE ID” in the window is great, but we aren’t going to notice that from the road. Heads up to graduating Ad/PR students…
I remember when I discovered Pizza Hut’s discount implementation; there wasn’t even a sign at the time. I just happened to pay with my SE debit card, which I had done before, and the cashier asked if I could show her my ID for the discount. Ten percent may not be much, but to a poor college student, it’s huge and should definitely be advertised.
Furthermore, I have eaten more pizza since discovering that student discount.
The volunteer opportunities are not as well-publicized as they could be either. There is potential for a very strong collaboration between various non-profit organizations and Southeastern, and, with the exception of a few classes, this potential does not appear to be recognized.
Bored college students can get a lot of work done, and this would lead to these organizations being helped and to a very strong public image for Southeastern. It would be nice to see more cooperation between the two.
Finally, clear the chickens off the runway, I’ll be the bad guy (bonus points if you get reference), but I would like to spend some of my free time not sifting through bags of clothes or canned food. Volunteering is fantastic and an incredibly rewarding venture, but a little fun is nice as well.
Assuming I don’t wish to go bowling, the only thing left to do that really seems collegiate is gorging myself on donuts and free wifi (Don’t get me wrong, Dandy’s is beyond awesome).
It is true that students can find things to do in Durant if they are willing to really look, but in this scenario, the students are the customers, and if I’m not mistaken the customers are generally sought by the businesses.
The problem is not the lack of student friendly activities, but the lack of student friendly advertising. Durant has the potential to be an amazing college town; it only lacks the communication between student and business necessary to make it feel like one.
-Brandi Bunch, managing editor