Commentary

Chemistry prof boosts attendance, encourages student participation

Chemistry professor Simon Bott’s impact on getting the student body to come to UH events extends to students outside of his classroom with Cougar Cards. At nearly all UH events, attendees can pick up different trading cards and then redeem them for prizes.  | Joshua Siegel/The Daily Cougar

Chemistry professor Simon Bott’s impact on getting the student body to come to UH events extends to students outside of his classroom with Cougar Cards. At nearly all UH events, attendees can pick up different trading cards and then redeem them for prizes. | Joshua Siegel/The Daily Cougar

UH football fans may have to squeeze in closer together this coming season at Robertson Stadium.

The Cougars are finding success with programs from the athletics department like Seat Em’ Up Coogs, but also because of professors like Dr. Simon Bott.

“Seat Em’ up Coogs is a drive by the UH athletics department to sell season tickets for football,” Bott said. “Obviously one would want attendance to all events on campus sold out, but football is the most visible part of the university.”

Bott, who has been a chemistry professor at the University since 1997, is a football enthusiast and attends every home game. But he also sees the games as the best vehicle to promote a sense of community on campus and bring the University together.

“Outside of football games, the only thing on campus where you can get more than a couple of thousand students is the Cat’s Back or Frontier Fiesta,” Bott said. “It brings together the alums and some of the faculty, though not nearly enough. It’s a big community thing. It’s a good focal point.

“I have a lot of enthusiasm for UH. It’s a diamond in the rough. Dr. Khator has done a good job of pulling that rough away. It’s such an amazing university and so few people realize. So what I would try to do is more than anything is get students involved in the University so they realize that it’s not just a large junior college – there’s so much going on here.”

Bott encourages attendance at sports games and other events on campus by offering his students extra credit if a certain percentage of the class attends.

“I don’t care whether the students go to football games, concerts, plays, or tiddlywinks clubs,” Bott said. “Athletics are a lot easier to push than other things. If a student just comes here and goes to class and doesn’t do anything else, then they’re doing themselves a disservice.

“I know I’ve encouraged some students to go to things who would never have gone otherwise. That has gotten a few of them into being more involved. I do think there’s a few more people wearing red because of me.”

Seat Em Up for success

In addition to Bott’s success getting students in the stands, the athletics department has experienced great success with its Seat Em Up Coogs program that helped UH grow its season ticket sales by 80 percent in the program’s first year.

For the 2009 season, the Cougars only sold approximately 6,300 season tickets. The Seat Em’ Up program was intended to spread Cougar football to a larger number of football fans in the greater Houston area and get alumni back to Robertson.

While most Conference USA schools experienced dips in their season ticket numbers in previous seasons, UH saw a spike to over 11,000 season-ticket holders in the program’s first year.

8 Comments

  • As a uh alum I only wish that I lived closer to campus to take advantage of all the incredible events and resources the university has to offer. I live in san antonio and i still return to campus for 3-4 games each year. My first game at uh as a student was against ucla and we ate-em up in 1977 with danny davis at quarteback and alois blackwell at fullback.

  • I love UH football. I hope every game fill sup this year and that carries over into other sports, like volleyball, basketball, and baseball.
    Eat 'em up!
    n/

  • i love the school so much. go coogs.
    let's all go to UH football games because the school says this is how you show your love in this kinds of relationship. personally i think we should be trying professors and administrators for their crimes against education in front of a packed stadium of sober students eating unprocessed foods sold for reasonable prices.
    go coogs!

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