86bear wrote:
First of all, UCA is in a residential part of town. Many of those residents have lived in their homes for several years and bought them knowing they had a university for their neighbor. They understood there would be football games, various band concerts and students probably walking through their yards at some point. They did not understand that loud cannon noises would be booming during the games scaring animals and small children. Second of all, I think the onus is on UCA to be a good neighbor and respect its location. Thirdly, not everyone attends games. Some people don't care about football and others listen to the game on the radio. Finally, UCA has just gone through a very rough period in her history. The less we do to upset people, the better off UCA will be, especially in terms of fundraising.
Ocho, this sort of gets at the point I was(n't) making in my earlier post. UCA is in a more residential part of town, and as such there are more people nearby who will be annoyed by any little (or big) thing that happens at the campus. Conway is
not a college town, and there are many residents who have a "I-could-do-without-it" attitude when it comes to UCA, even though the entire economy of the place practically revolves around it (money brought back from LR may be the exception).
People originally came to Conway to live in a nice, quiet, homogeneous suburb of LR. Now Conway is becoming a vibrant town w/ a more collegiate, youth-oriented atmosphere, a little more artistic & liberal, a little more cosmopolitan, a little less suburban. This doesn't sit well with everyone, maybe not even with the majority. UCA is, for these folks, a physical manifestation of the unwelcome changes in Conway. There's no "brand loyalty" involved like with other certain schools....
People in Conway don't like/embrace/tolerate change or growth much, in my experience living there for about 6 years. So we're not just trying to win over students to UCA, we're trying to win over residents of Conway, which is much harder. As much as some may think it doesn't matter, it indeed does matter that the town backs the university. There are multiple examples where this is the case.
This is the type of problem that erupts when UCA starts breaking out of the box it has been put in by so many for so long.