[g1313]

The length of our closure guarantees that something close to 100 percent of our undergrads depart for Thanksgiving week. And with no food service on campus, a lot of them aren't likely to come back on Friday night for a Saturday game.

Stanford trying not to schedule Big Game that weekend is basically an attempt to preserve Big Game as an undergraduate experience. (Revenue-wise, it doesn't matter, because the students don't pay for tickets anyway, so all Stanford is losing is some coke-and-hot-dog money.) I think that's a good idea. I don't really understand why we have to shut down for the entire week of Thanksgiving -- surely there are less-inconvenient ways to save money -- but that decision clearly isn't within the purview of the AD.

When I was an undergrad, campus was only closed for Thu-Fri, it looks like this only changed in 2005. http://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/janua...12605.html. This article portrays the motivation as academic calendar related rather than any facilities or cost reasons.

Don't forget that for students, there are activities all throughout "Big Game Week", so even if students would change their behavior and come back on Friday night, you would still lose out on most of the pre-game stuff.

[g1313]

The length of our closure guarantees that something close to 100 percent of our undergrads depart for Thanksgiving week. And with no food service on campus, a lot of them aren't likely to come back on Friday night for a Saturday game.

Stanford trying not to schedule Big Game that weekend is basically an attempt to preserve Big Game as an undergraduate experience. (Revenue-wise, it doesn't matter, because the students don't pay for tickets anyway, so all Stanford is losing is some coke-and-hot-dog money.) I think that's a good idea. I don't really understand why we have to shut down for the entire week of Thanksgiving -- surely there are less-inconvenient ways to save money -- but that decision clearly isn't within the purview of the AD.

When I was an undergrad, campus was only closed for Thu-Fri, it looks like this only changed in 2005. http://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/janua...12605.html. This article portrays the motivation as academic calendar related rather than any facilities or cost reasons.

Don't forget that for students, there are activities all throughout "Big Game Week", so even if students would change their behavior and come back on Friday night, you would still lose out on most of the pre-game stuff.