Hear the Roar!

Tonight the Board of Governor's Student Experience Committee had its annual meeting with a demographic of the Dalhousie student population. The meeting was with student athletes from varsity teams. Approximately 30 athletes showed up, and if it wasn't for having a cap on the number of athletes requested for the meeting I am sure we could have had many many many more!

The focus of the meeting with around the experience that Dalhousie varsity athletes have at Dalhousie and what traditions they feel are in place.

It was quickly discovered that each team has their own traditions that they have (team bonding events, etc) and there are some occasions throughout the year where the athletes come together but they didn't feel that there was an overarching event that pulls all Dalhousie students together.

Many other universities were compared to Dalhousie in the meeting for the way they do Homecomings and have students cheering on athletes at games. But it seemed unanimous that Dalhousie was lacking that something and we need to have it for our students.

Having a homecoming event was an idea that was proposed several times. It could incorporate several teams over a weekend and it could bring back alumni like at other schools.

It was also suggested that having after-game events would be a great way for students and community members to show their support for the teams - and now here is my plug for the upcoming game on Friday night - as part of the DSU's annual Winter Carnival we are encouraging students to attend this Friday night's men's hockey game at 7pm. There will be tiger burgers on special at the Grawood before the game (5pm) and the after party will be in the Grawood.

We also heard a lot about needing more funding to help the teams with things like traveling and to also put funding towards more and better athletic facilities.

And the piece that seemed to be the athlete's plea was that they want students and the general community to know about their upcoming games, to cheer them on, and to know about their successes!

The committee will be putting together all the notes that were taken from the meeting and presenting them to the Board of Governors ideally at the next meeting