BOL Round Table

I have lived in Athens 22 years now. It has changed a bunch. The most noticeable thing is the traffic. Some of the downtown development doesn't bother me. (i.e. the Five Guys took the place of a dump of a chinese restraunt that had been there for years). All development in downtown Athens is HEAVILY regulated by the development authority and historic preservation committe to make sure that any new construction or alteration of existing structures at least fits astetically.

UA was 17K when I was there and socially, it seemed like when you went out to the strip, everybody sort of knew everbody. It may have been that way at the libraries too, but I wouldn't know : ) With 35K it seems that part would be lost.

I'm hopeful that one day the combination of larger enrollment plus a current generation of educators reaching the culmination of their tenure means I can one day return home to teach and give back to my alma mater.

I'll preface this by saying it was obviously a big football game, but: I came back to town for the A&M game this year (I just graduated in August). I was in town for a ton of big games turing my tenure, including the "Game of the Century" in 2011. Now, I don't know if it was because of there being more students or that A&M travels well or what, but we tried to go out on the Strip Friday night and you couldn't get in anywhere. The Red Shed had a line all the way to Egan's and around the corner. Even Egan's had a line about 30 feet long. The Houndstooth was packed shoulder-to-shoulder with at least 100 people doing so OUTSIDE the front gate. We headed downtown instead and tried CopperTop; you could get in, but the ENTIRE bar was shoulder-to-shoulder, not just the back band area like usual. Even Wilhagan's and the Pub were at capacity, something I've never seen before.

It made me think of going to Penn State a couple years ago. Their campus is HUGE and they have, what, like 60,000 students or something crazy? BUT, there "Strip" area wasn't much bigger than hours; thus, EVERY SINGLE BAR had a line after the game. Part of what Tuscaloosa needs is to grow with the University, too. With more students there needs to be more things to do. Or else things will get overcrowded.

Honestly, I graduated in 2008 and there are large, residential parts of campus down near the river that I didn't even know existed. The new Shelby quad area is totally new. Campus Drive doesn't go from the strip to new fraternity row anymore. Students can't drive around the quad. It is a drastically different place than it was 10 years ago.

Most of that is good, but some of it feels like it has taken a little bit away.

It's coming, and there's nothing you or I can do to stop it. If you could see the student housing going up, and what's in the works you wouldn't believe it. Every developer in the city is tied up in student/game day housing......

Not to mention the land the UA is buying up. We do a ton of it's construction fence, and let's just say they're expanding....

We'll be at 40k students in 5-8 years I'm thinking.....

Have we thought about how many of these students are strictly online? I think a good number have been distant learning students.