All of the school spirit discussions are very old. Now that Richmond has an on-campus stadium, has football attendance increased? Does the school or the Greek system offer much in community building events? DS is looking for a small school with big spirit, which doesn’t have to mean football attendance, but does include a “We are Richmond!” sorty of vibe. Thanks!
I think what made munch UR experience so special at Richmond was that it embodied so many different aspects of college experiences. Most importantly the academics and academic opportunities are wonderful. UR is ranked #23 best liberal arts college by US news and #61 overall college (liberal arts and national university) by Wall Street. The campus is also gorgeous, the social life is great, and there is pride in our sports university and athletics as well. Richmond has a perennially ranked FCS football program. Top 20 lacrosse and competes in a very strong basketball conference in the A10. Basketball is the most heavily attended sporting event. However, the local community and students have gotten behind lacrosse too. With football, it is attended and tailgating has become a bigger presence on campus. Typically students may not stay the entire game, but overall school pride in sports and in general is definitely a thing. People wear UR apparel all the time around campus. There are not many schools who can say that they have a strong athletic presence in many sports with strong academics. So there’s a lot to be proud about
Here’s an article about tailgating this year: http://www.thecollegianur.com/article/2017/09/revamped-student-tailgate-aims-to-increase-football-game-attendance
Our D is currently a junior at UR. We live very far from the campus, but I try to visit her there once a year. I have always seen lots of students wearing UR apparel during my visits. The homework load for most students is there is heavy as is to be expected for a highly selective college with strong academics, but our D does attend UR home football and men’s basketball games from time to time.
You can watch UR sports online, sometimes for free. Visit http://richmondspiders.com/ for information on when home games are and how they are televised (broadcast TV or steamed online). UR home football games are usually streamed online on a $5.95 pay-per-view basis on their “Spider TV” service. Sometimes their home football and men’s basketball games are broadcast on the ESPNU cable TV channel nationwide. It’s not the same as being there, but you can get a sense for yourself of how full the game venues are on game days and how many students are there watching the games.