I don’t know what they currently offer for internships or how they select candidates. But some food for thought—

1. Many universities have academic majors in marketing, sports management, journalism, media production, graphics design, etc. that they have an internal supply of potential interns with departmental and alumni support and guidance. These are not programs Davis offers so you’re looking for a student with outside/hobby expertise. I suppose the argument as to why we don’t offer these types of majors is that they aren’t “researchy” enough, although one might be fair to question why you can major in bassoon performance but not marketing.

2. Perhaps I am a fogey now, but my company hires several thousand college interns a year and I probably get about 50 per semester that report to me, so I’m not blind to this generation. What I’ve noticed over the past few years is my interns require more step by step instruction. The Covid generation knows facts but struggles more than the previous group to apply them to real situations and generate critically thought out solutions. It may not be their fault, but the reality is interns deliver less than they once did.

3. You use a CD case? For CDs still?

Well, they need to make their marketing researchy. I think if you have interns with a simple enough task-collect information from other students about why they're not interested in the UCD sports teams and add their own insights-they should be able to handle it with no problems.

If they rely on old fogies too much they're just going to wind up with more expensive and emptier facilities, due to the fogies moving away or dying. They need to develop generations of future old fogies.

One key reason they need more student engagement is that UCD will want them on board when there's a vote to increase student fees to fund initiatives. The F.A.C.E. initiative (which helped to fund the current) football stadium) passed back in the good old days, maybe not today.

And there should be no problem finding interview sources for research. I recall almost never hearing anyone talk about UCD sports in my classes or seeing any dormmates at games (maybe baseball a couple of times, but never basketball). If that was representative of how it is today (to minimize projecting my experiences), the internship would be pretty easy.

I used myself (fogies matter too for customer service matters) as a case study for why someone might not want to go to an event, and of course I chose baseball, which I stopped attending over a year ago, despite the baseball-themed username. I did this as an example of the types of information an intern could learn

I came up with these reasons, in no particular order

1. Team is not very good, based primarily on wins and losses. Good means you win more than you lose. If you care about the games you come to see them win.

2. Depending on who's working, the announcer is typically either very bored-sounding or energetic but not paying attention to details, like when players are subbed out.

3. The seating is uncomfortable during day games and the lack of handrails.

4. The home fans are either completely disengaged or they're very selectively engaged, so it's like a road game. It sucks all the energy out of the place. I bet even field hockey has better fans.

5. A forever rotating staff that's good at being polite but not good at recognizing repeat visitors or engaging them (due in no small part to the rotating staff). A "welcome back" or "haven't seen you in awhile" wouldn't kill them.

6. Fans who have no concept of personal space, despite there being plenty of available space for everyone.

In my extensive experience this is how I would list the percentages of spectators at each game from greatest to least.

1. Family of UCD players

2. Visiting fans (possibly #1 depending on the visiting team)
Those two account for at least 2/3 of the crowd combined

3. Student-athletes from other sports who come in groups and yak to each other all game about anything but the game. They cheer sometimes, but it comes in the form of heckling or just trying to be cute.

4. Baseball "pros"-guys who spend the game name-dropping all the significant players they've ever coached and all the regionally-relevant baseball people they know.

5. Students who come there to study/tan because it's quiet.

6. Actual fans watching the game who have no official connection or interest beyond enjoying the game. Between 1 and 5 people per game.

Upon making this list it's no wonder the students don't show up to bring energy. If not for the foul balls it would be an ok place to take a nap. I made it to give somes examples mainly of what negative feedback student interns could get from their peers.

Yes, I have two CD cases. One large one holds the bulk of my DVD collection, but there's enough room for my CD's, so they go in there too. It allowed me to get rid a bunch of individual cases because I won't ever be able to sell them. The 6-CD Aggie Pack case is for keeping a few out I will listen to frequently or take on a car trip.

Why have CD's and DVD's ? They allow me to play content as many times as I want without having to deal with internet connections or paying for streaming services. My collection is pretty modest-I won't be on A&E's Hoarders. I'm trying to unplug from the internet more anyway.