Marilyn Mejia
Staff Writer
In college movies whenever the school team hits the field so do thousands of fans in face paint and school-related attire. At the University of La Verne the school spirit is not nearly that high, at least according to several students surveyed recently.
In an unscientific poll of 50, students were asked to rate school spirit here a scale from 1 to 10.
None of the students responded with a 10 and 12 students put school spirit at a six.
The average score these students gave ULV spirit was 5.4.
“It’s a little low because the sports don’t advertise their games enough,” Roxanne Garcia, senior business administration major, said.
“People have more spirit when there’s winning teams,” Danielle Burgess, sophomore biology major, said.
“The school has a reputation of losing, once they start winning some games you’ll see more faces at the games,” added Courtney Williams, a business graduate student.
“I think that there are definitely a lot of people who are spirited and those people tend to be involved but then there are just as many who just come to their classes and are not spirited,” said Ava Jahanvash, a sophomore political science major.
Some students responding to the poll said the school is divided in two with half of students being very spirited and involved while the other half just does not care.
Jahanvash said that ULV is a commuter school and therefore it is harder to get people involved but that the school does make an effort.
“I think that the school does a lot to try and involve everybody, like ASULV and CAB do a lot of student outreach,” she said.
The consensus on the level of school spirit seemed to be that it was really low, and those who did say we had spirit conceded that a small number of students were responsible for the bulk of it.
“In the past school environments that I’ve been in the level of support was extremely high, and here it seems no one really cares.” Williams said.
The spirit here – or lack thereof – is on the radar of campus organizations, such as the spirit squad and the Campus Activities Board, which are trying to promote events – and school spirit – with the goal of a more engaged student body, as soon as possible.
Marilyn Mejia can be reached at marilyn.mejia@laverne.edu.
