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The University where I teach hosted a tournament this weekend--40k on Saturday (3rd place for me! ) and Fantasy on Sunday. The University gaming club put the event together and it had 31 40k players and about 20 Fantasy players, with additional sessions for RPGs and card games. The entry fee was $15 inclusive to play in all the events. All of the revenue goes into the gaming club's university regulated account. So the question is, why don't more universities host tournaments? The gaming clubs typically get all the space they need free of charge and there is often a way to swing budget dorm accommodation.

Good question!

Most universities are eager to make productive use of their facilities during weekends and holidays.

Perhaps university wargame club members prefer to go somewhere else to play on their days off, since they get regular gaming during normal term time.

I've been to a couple at universities as well. Main thing is that there needs to be a gaming club on campus to get the free use of facilities, etc. And campus population is fairly transient, so it can be difficult for a club to stay alive.

Like Don said, you need a solid gaming club to host an event. Clubs shake up a lot as people graduate. Outside people don't have the access to the facilities that university sponsored clubs do, so you can't just rent the areas.

There are additional problems at times as well. A club at a local university had to bail on it's tournament when the university told them morning of that there was no one to move the tables from storage unit to the hall, mix up in staff or something. They had a hall but no tables. They also didn't have the university sponsored truck to come get tabletops and scenery from me. Ended up holding the tournament at my shop instead. Depending on the university and club, coordination of events can be sketchy.

Wow, mikhaila; those people are supposed to coordinate higher education for thousands and they cannot even provide promised tourney support? lol
Sadly what mik describes is certainly not isolated. Had similar shenanigins at a uni club I gamed with a bit.

The problem arises in that a lot of times the clubs aren't that organized, and when working with a university, especially getting rooms and support, they need to be very on top of things, double check with the people in charge, etc.

In this case it was something like "we asked for a truck, a staff person has to drive it, to come get your stuff, and even though they said ok a month ago, he's busy today". I never did get a lot of the full story, just picked up the pieces and ran the tournament.

At another university, a large club ran a science fiction convention, mostly aimed at the students with little outside advertising it turns out. I was conned into setting up in the 'dealers halll', which had a book dealer and a t-shirt dealer. T-shirt guy left day one when we realized only about 50 people were attending. Spring break made it easy to get the buildings, but of course the students are also gone. They neglected to mention that to the dealers. The book guy and I traded some stuff. I sold 100 bucks in games, and considered it a wasted weekend.

I was also asked to brink in the SCA group I was part of for fighting, fencing, and dancing demonstrations. We brought in 30 more people for that. The next year, we were told we had to pay an entrance fee, to attend the convention where they wanted demo's run. No one from the SCA group showed, no merchants showed, and it died a pitiful death. Conventions run by a rotating committee of students with little time to work on things are sort of doomed at the start.

I've been in touch with a few universities about renting space, and one military academy. Always runs the same way. Enthusiasm, delay, less enthusiasm, more delay, and then you just never get to talk to the person in charge of anything, and it's the next year and you're starting over with new people.

Gaming clubs attract people that want to game, not necessarily organize games, or do any work.)

The University of Toledo used to run a large annual tournament. I think it helps with continuity if there are graduate students around who are involved in the gaming club. They can fester in their degree program for a decade or so.

I think what Mikhaila describes is pretty common. One problem with uni conventions is that it tends to be done just because it was done the year before, not nessicarily because the people doing it have any real enthusiasm. Still, it can result in some good events, if you have even two or three interested people who have their gak together.

grizgrin wrote:Wow, mikhaila; those people are supposed to coordinate higher education for thousands

BWAHAHAHAHA! University staff are among the most incompetent and corrupt people I've ever met. The only thing they are ever good at is passing you off to someone else so that you are no longer their problem. Even the dean at my college wasn't capable of doing anything else. Sad reality ain't it?

I attempted to get 40k started at mine, but was passed off by the president of the gaming club repeatedly. Yes of course we'll put it in the newsletter. *newsletter comes out* umm, mr president? Not my fault! _____ was supposed to take care of it!

My Platinum Devil events are held at my university.

True, though they are organised by you rather than the university wargames club.

My university has only 'really' (and by really I mean publicly advertised) having a gaming club for the past year, and the one that existed before that was merely a collection of people, and not a true organised club. From what I can tell, even at a mature and supposedly open-minded age of a
university student there is still fear of being socially chastised by others due to being considered a nerd, or geek, or whatever the local vernacular is.

Luco wrote:

grizgrin wrote:Wow, mikhaila; those people are supposed to coordinate higher education for thousands

BWAHAHAHAHA! University staff are among the most incompetent and corrupt people I've ever met. The only thing they are ever good at is passing you off to someone else so that you are no longer their problem. Even the dean at my college wasn't capable of doing anything else. Sad reality ain't it?

I attempted to get 40k started at mine, but was passed off by the president of the gaming club repeatedly. Yes of course we'll put it in the newsletter. *newsletter comes out* umm, mr president? Not my fault! _____ was supposed to take care of it!

Come on now, colleges are also excellent at taking our money.

Leigen_Zero wrote:My university has only 'really' (and by really I mean publicly advertised) having a gaming club for the past year, and the one that existed before that was merely a collection of people, and not a true organised club. From what I can tell, even at a mature and supposedly open-minded age of a
university student there is still fear of being socially chastised by others due to being considered a nerd, or geek, or whatever the local vernacular is.

Wow! Liverpool University had a pretty well run wargames and RPG club when I was there in the early 1980s.

The University where I teach

Yeah, and it sucks ass. UL is better.

The entry fee was $15 inclusive to play in all the events.

Liar. It was €15.

So the question is, why don't more universities host tournaments

It might be an organisational thing as mikhaila has already alluded to. Down here the Uni (UCC) has been staging a con successfully for the past 21 years. While the society hosting it is transient by nature its managed to have some half-decent people in charge of their affairs so its endured. I reckon its life was extended by a group of former students (not all of them though) that set up a wargaming club and they've got close ties to the college society so we help them run the event and bring in punters in return for beer and munchies.

It probably does help that the tables and terrain are shared amongst the club members so if we fall short the others can pull through with short notice. In return for taking care of the wargaming the club is given money to buy terrain and prizes and is allowed to keep the terrain afterward, so its win/win. Its very handy CV padding too to say that you've help to organise a big event: we're gunning for about 120 40k and Fantasy players this year. There should be a few hundred more for the uninteresting crap like RPGs and such and such.

If the Uni socs aren't up to scratch they might need some outside help to give them the kick up the arse they need to organise a decent event.

From what I can tell, even at a mature and supposedly open-minded age of a university student there is still fear of being socially chastised by others due to being considered a nerd, or geek, or whatever the local vernacular is.

If you organise the games night so that it doesn't clash with a Martial Arts class you give your nerds time to get buffed. People take the piss out of wargamers less often if half of them can break ribs with their knees. There's 2 of us doing Muay Thai , 2 doing Nin-Po, 2 do Karate, 1 does Boxing, 1 does Capoeira, 2 did Tae-Kwan-Do, 1 is doing BJJ, 1 doing Kendo and Aikido and 2 play rugby (its close enough).

The biggest obstacles are pretty much smack-on to what Mikhaila posted...effort, and paperwork.
My experience with attempting to form, found, and maintain any sort of "student group" is that it takes a lot of time, and a lot of red tape.
There's always a TON of enthusiasm when you start out and are talking about the great perks and events you'll have. You approach the ruling bodies, and they list out all the forms you have to fill out. One brave soul takes those one, and then you need a charter an bylaws and have to elect officers. This is typically where things die. A charter and bylaws require actual thought and effort. When you've got three papers due on Monday morning, writing up bylaws and other tedium falls by the wayside to making sure your paper for German 220 has the correct umlauts and such.
Should a club get established properly, you have to have responsible members to plan and preside over things. Storage of club matierals like terrain and tabletops ends up on one or two people. Heaven forbid those one or two people get hammered at a party the night before the event, pass out, drop their phone in the toilet, and are unreachable the next day!

At the college I went to, student clubs had to go through a whole extra level of red tape to hold events for non-students. The school's insurance policies cover students all the time, but additional measures had to be taken when including the general public in events held inside school buildings and property. More red tape, more work to be done, etc.

You need several generations of invested undergrads to carry the load. As soon as you have a single year of apathy, things go down the tubes. :(

Neconilis wrote:

Luco wrote:

grizgrin wrote:Wow, mikhaila; those people are supposed to coordinate higher education for thousands

BWAHAHAHAHA! University staff are among the most incompetent and corrupt people I've ever met. The only thing they are ever good at is passing you off to someone else so that you are no longer their problem. Even the dean at my college wasn't capable of doing anything else. Sad reality ain't it?

I attempted to get 40k started at mine, but was passed off by the president of the gaming club repeatedly. Yes of course we'll put it in the newsletter. *newsletter comes out* umm, mr president? Not my fault! _____ was supposed to take care of it!

Come on now, colleges are also excellent at taking our money.

Touche

Luco wrote:

grizgrin wrote:Wow, mikhaila; those people are supposed to coordinate higher education for thousands

BWAHAHAHAHA! University staff are among the most incompetent and corrupt people I've ever met. The only thing they are ever good at is passing you off to someone else so that you are no longer their problem. Even the dean at my college wasn't capable of doing anything else. Sad reality ain't it?

I attempted to get 40k started at mine, but was passed off by the president of the gaming club repeatedly. Yes of course we'll put it in the newsletter. *newsletter comes out* umm, mr president? Not my fault! _____ was supposed to take care of it!

I can, in my case, wholeheartedly and honestly disagree with you here, the staff I have communicated with during my degree could have not helped more if they tried, and some have literally bent over backwards in order to aid students who needed the help.

Kilkrazy wrote:

Leigen_Zero wrote:My university has only 'really' (and by really I mean publicly advertised) having a gaming club for the past year, and the one that existed before that was merely a collection of people, and not a true organised club. From what I can tell, even at a mature and supposedly open-minded age of a
university student there is still fear of being socially chastised by others due to being considered a nerd, or geek, or whatever the local vernacular is.

Wow! Liverpool University had a pretty well run wargames and RPG club when I was there in the early 1980s.

I'm down in South Wales, we're a lot less civilised down here!

Leigen_Zero wrote:I can, in my case, wholeheartedly and honestly disagree with you here, the staff I have communicated with during my degree could have not helped more if they tried, and some have literally bent over backwards in order to aid students who needed the help.

Exactly what situation occured where they needed to literally bend over backwards to help a student? It seems to me that you'd be better off bending forwards if you're trying to lift something, and other than that there is no need to literally bend.

The consensus seems to be that most students are shiftless lay abouts.

Leigen_Zero wrote:

Luco wrote:

grizgrin wrote:Wow, mikhaila; those people are supposed to coordinate higher education for thousands

BWAHAHAHAHA! University staff are among the most incompetent and corrupt people I've ever met. The only thing they are ever good at is passing you off to someone else so that you are no longer their problem. Even the dean at my college wasn't capable of doing anything else. Sad reality ain't it?

I attempted to get 40k started at mine, but was passed off by the president of the gaming club repeatedly. Yes of course we'll put it in the newsletter. *newsletter comes out* umm, mr president? Not my fault! _____ was supposed to take care of it!

I can, in my case, wholeheartedly and honestly disagree with you here, the staff I have communicated with during my degree could have not helped more if they tried, and some have literally bent over backwards in order to aid students who needed the help.

Precisely where is this paradise you speak of?

Heh, we were having this discussion a few weeks ago, but it was more along the lines of Universities should have tournament teams ala the Sports Departments that played against other Universities.

@Luco, that sounds like a problem with your specific school. LSU was great for getting things done and not passing the buck. My wife would never have graduated if the Dean of her program had passed the buck like that, he helped her do so many class swaps(IE, letting her use a certain class instead of what was labeled as the required course) when they either didn't offer it that semester or it got canceled from not enough regristrations.