JORDAN MCLEMORE
Columnist
Picture this: You get dressed for a night out, get in the car, drive around looking for anything that’s happening and you end up back in your room, watching Netflix for the fifth night in a row. Does this happen to anyone else? This is a college town and if it’s not Halloween or Homecoming, the lack of options is, frankly, frustrating. There’s a huge portion of our student body going home every weekend. Is this because they actually want to go home, or is it because of the lack of anything to do here on the weekends? If there were more options, night life and activities, wouldn’t it just make more sense to stay here and create those college memories everyone’s always talking about, but you have yet to make?
Alva is the same size as various college towns around the state; yet driving through town, you would never guess it’s a college town until you actually hit campus. On the other hand, driving through Durant, home of Southeastern Oklahoma State University, one of the first things you see is a sign touting the university. Weatherford, home of our rivals, has many more restaurants and a larger night life to participate in.
If Alva were to create more things to cater to the college students that make up this town, it would only have a positive outcome. More activities would mean more job opportunities for students. It would also create more revenue for the town. When there are more options for students, they are more willing to go out and spend money. Many of the things in Alva are here because of the large student population.
Some things that would be worth adding to Alva are:
A late night café. Yes, we have Eva’s, and I myself go there many times a week. We need someplace other than the library to study and work on projects. This would be beneficial to have close to campus and have open later at night when students are getting off work and need caffeine and a new atmosphere to work on projects.
Outdoor activities. If we had more options of things to do outside, we wouldn’t sit inside all day and waste the beautiful weather that we’re given on a random January day. Hatfield Park is a great option with hiking/walking trails. If we had a disc golf course, or even mini golf, more students would want to go out and soak up sunshine!
More restaurant options. The lack of selection in this town is always disappointing for someone who loves to eat, such as myself! Open air/patio eating would also be a great option to consider.
Volunteer opportunities. This is a great idea to help the town and for students to become involved. Alva has almost no options to volunteer. At OSU, there are many dorms that have a competition to see which one can log the most volunteer hours in a semester. This is easily something that could be implemented at NWOSU.
A hookah bar. These are becoming more and more popular around Oklahoma. Many towns have at least one of these and have food and a DJ. Many students go to loosen up and have fun on a night out.
Another nightclub. The Nite Lite is a great option to go have fun at, but there should be a country nightclub, with country hits. The other one should showcase current hits. This would create some competition between the two clubs to make them both better and make more people want to go out and spend money at them both.
I’m not writing any of this because I want Alva to change completely; I just believe that there are some improvements that could be made to make it better.