Nothing gets under my skin like driving down Louisville Avenue and seeing a “#WEARELATECH, Your Town Your Team, Buy your tickets now!” billboard. Things don’t get much better on Highway 165 in the direction of Sterlington. There’s another “#WEARELATECH, Your Town Your Team, Buy your tickets now!” billboard. Get on I-20 and take a trip across the river to our twin-city. Guess what. There’s another “#WEARELATECH, Your Town Your Team, Buy your tickets now!” billboard.
What gives them the audacity to come into our backyard and promote their brand?
Should we form an angry mob complete with pitchforks and torches and drive over to Ruston to let them feel our wrath? No. Though that could be fun.
The answer is simple. It comes down to a lack of action on ULM’s part.
The collective opinion from our student body is that Monroe isn’t a college town. It just isn’t. Yet.
How can this feel like a college town when it constantly bombarded with the colors and logos of other in-state universities. The first step to making Monroe a college town needs to be the removal of the aforementioned billboards. Do whatever it takes. Call the advertising companies and outbid the competitors. Work out a deal with the city of Monroe to fight the advertisement of other universities. ULM means too much to the city for them to just stand by.
Monroe is a city made of primarily middle-class to lower middle-class families that have more important things to worry about than some Tuesday night basketball game against Arkansas State.
Someone could go on foot to homes in the surrounding campus neighborhoods and speak with people about the university. Maybe an exchange can be made. ULM gets to put a sign in their yard and in return they get free tickets to some athletic events. It would work like a free fro-yo sample at Orange Leaf. Prizes could be offered. Things like hats, t-shirts and koozies would be a hit. People love free stuff. Something as simple as seeing maroon and gold around town will make this place more inviting for students.
This isn’t a rant, but merely a vent of frustration from the ULM student body and supporters alike. This is our town and our team. It’s time we claim it and send the Bulldogs back to Ruston, tail between legs.
