Introduction The Recommendation Report on Downtown Akron students sheds light on the possible reasons for the declining attendance of the daytime students in downtown area events. The organizers are disappointed and discouraged to see the lower attendance over the last several years, and it points to the loss of community involvement. The declining attendance has been spreading, and it is essential to know the basic factors that prevent daytime students from attending downtown events. There has been a lot of discussion concerning student attendance at downtown events. Those students do show up, but come late and leave early.
Scope or limitations The methodology used to get to the reasons behind the lower attendance at lunchtime events involved asking certain questions to these students that might influence their decisions for attending or not attending lunchtime events. 14 downtown students were asked those questions which were- a) where do you eat often, b) do you think that the UA area have a lot of place with students discount and c) would you find all of what you are looking for in Downtown Akron or UA area. A survey monkey was used to do the survey and the data saved on the responses. The limitations of this study are that too few questions and very few students were involved in the study to make a report and to come to eh conclusions. There could be more questions asked in the survey about their interests and what changes would they like to see in UA area. The survey should have covered higher number of students to get to some concrete pointers to the issue.Body -The raw data result based on the questions are as follows:
The responses to the question- where do you eat often are shown in Fig 1. As can be seen from the chart, the students eating at other places are the maximum and those eating at Downtown Akron are the least, from the blue bars varying in height. What is not very clear from the figure is that what do series 2 and series 3 mean, as they are shown carrying orange and gray color squares? Perhaps they are meant for further surveys and results.
The above chart (fig. 2) refers to the second question of - do you think that the UA areas have a lot of place with student’s discount, and as one can see from the blue bars, the majority of the students think that UA doesn’t have many places with student’s discount. This could be one of the major reason for the students leaving the DA area and go at other places offering discounts. A very small percentage of the students feel that the UA area has plenty of options offering discounts.
Conclusion UA will flourish only there are more events and with higher participation by the students. The times have changed and so have the students and their expectations. Changing the nature of events and their timings can help boost the attendances. The events should be varied and cover different kinds of culture, music, art, street dances. Providing more discounts and organizing varied events is sure to keep the students interested. One should remember that this is an era of internet and the generation of today gets bored easily because of their shorter attention spans. Thus, introducing those changes once is not going to be enough. There is a need to make extra and continual efforts to keep the students interested in UA area and its events. As their population is higher than downtown employees, the efforts will be more fruitful if they target the UA students. Keeping those students interested with varied events and more discounts is sure to raise their attendance in the downtown area. Surveys should be held every few months to gauge the changing mood and behavior of the students so as to adapt the strategies accordingly. The motive behind is to keep them interested in attending downtown area events. The students should be involved in the surveys, and the questionnaire prepared based on what they are looking for in those events in DA. The idea is to keep in track of what is happening and feel the pulse of the student body.
There should be more questions involved in the surveys such as –
Which event did you like the most?What kinds of discounts do you expect?Would you like to be a part of the event?What do you think of the gate fee at the events?How about creating cashless campus and events?
The survey should cover at least hundred students to know the real situation.
