Is University Park a College Town?
So, I was asked by someone from out of the area if I feel like I live in a college town being so close to SMU. Never thought about it. So I started focusing on the issue and determined that I rarely notice signs of SMU life. Strange? Here are the exceptions:
- Weekends, early morning at Chick-Fil-A on Hillcrest. They are munching off a hangover and we’re grabbing a bite on the way to a sporting event.
- Starbucks. They are studying in a corner and always pay with gift cards.
- An occasional out of state license plate with a sorrority sticker in the drive-thru bank line.
My final answer is no. The worlds rarely collide. So where do the college kids go anyway?
12 Comments to “Is University Park a College Town?”
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SMU is not a real college in the way one thinks of their own college experience if they went elsewhere. Two of my best friends went to SMU and were in a good fraternity, but their idea of college parties/bars was nowhere near what ours was at UT. The one thing that SMU was ahead of the game at was cocaine and pills. My favorite line to ever come out of a good girl friend visiting a UT frat party from SMU was this: “You don’t put painkillers in the frat punch? Our guys do, and it’s way better because you get drunker and it’s fewer calories!” I swear this happened.
The truth is that SMU kids go to the same bars that 20 and 30 somethings go to who’ve returned to Dallas, post college. There’s no separation, which is kind of sad because I loved college, but I don’t think I’d like to go to the same bars I went to in college now that I’ve graduated.
“Where do the college kids go anyway?” Across Central to the bars on Yale and Dyer.
But with W’s library/think-thing coming to that side of campus, I predict those hang-outs are an endangered species. SMU’s already bought, um, “vast tracts of land” east of the freeway.
You have to have a smaller town for it to feel like a college town. The smaller the population of the town, the more the university will dominate, and the more it feels like a college town. DFW and UP has so much going on, that you don’t notice SMU unless you live within 3 blocks of it.
bc,
Both my husband and I went to SMU and had quite different SMU experiences (his probably wilder than mine). I find it terribly sad that the review of the SMU experience you shared is based on the comment from your friend and ideas of college parties/bars. If that is what defines a college experience, then I am grateful that my SMU experience was not a real college experience. Had you spoken to others that were involved in other areas of campus activities that did not involve only drinking, you might have gotten a different impression. While I am certain there is (and was) plenty of drug use at SMU, there are also many other wonderful traditions, an incredible fine arts community, a wonderful community service outreach by many student organizations, political organizations, student government, incredible student programming, excellent educational experiences and many diverse campus activities. And, yes, both of us were in “good” Greek houses, lived in our respective houses and attended many frat parties. I don’t recall ever seeing “frat punch”, and I certainly would have known better than to drink it anyway. Merritt, you can also see SMU students in the grocery stores, babysitting many of the Park Cities children in the summer, Burger House, working at many of the stores in Snider Plaza, church on Sundays, speeding down Hillcrest, and then traffic court on Wednesday nights. Go Ponies!
“The one thing that SMU was ahead of the game at [over UT] was cocaine and pills.” Times have changed. The UT of the late 70s that I remember had every other campus I knew of beat in the drug department - pot and cocaine in plentiful supply and used fairly openly.
@ Ostrea - Cocaine must have been a lot cheaper then.
@SMU alums - I’m sure there are plenty of great students who volunteer their time at the homeless shelter at every school. My point was to highlight the college party scene as that’s probably where you’d notice the “worlds colliding” as Merritt posed the question. I’m not saying all SMU kids are party animals doing drugs, and I hope you’re not convinced that they’re all at church on Sundays and working retail jobs to earn some spending money. I think the SMU party element is generally confined to Uptown and the bars on Yale and Dyer as mentioned above by Topham, which is unfortunate in my book because there’s no break between college town and Dallas. I loved the college town experience, and I’m sure many Aggies would agree when it comes to College Station and Red Raiders would feel the same about Lubbock. I think kids at SMU have the disadvantage of being thrown into the mix with the 25-35 crowd to compare themselves to when they are only 18-22. I’m ranting now…I’ll stop.
All MP wanted to know was where do the students hang out…
While it is true SMU is not like a Norman or any other place where when school is in session it overruns the town, you can still see SMU students in the Park Cities. I agree with SMU alums. I know several friends who have SMU babysitters, I see girls in thier letters at West Village shopping and ones doing a grocery run at Central Market. They are out there, granted mostly running around when I am at work, and out playing when I am sleeping.
I was answering the question in the headline and the one at the end of the post. No UP is not a college town (and it’s unfortunate SMU students don’t have one) and Uptown/Yale/Dyer, respectively.
It’s a shame, but the SMU I picture is the one I knew as a Dallasite in the 60s, 70s and 80s, when sports drew the campus together until the Sherwood Blounts and other alumnae wrecked things. I am afraid that the Dallas view of SMU is lots of money, snobbery, and very little community involvement. I realize this is probably not very accurate, but it is a perspective that the SMU leadership needs to deal with if they ever want the populace to respect them again.
Sherwood was only the fall guy — remember our governor who came out unscathed? I still wince when SMU takes money from him.
I’m a UP resident who is also a professor at SMU. I have to admit that I barely even see the students on campus except when there’s a class they must attend, and when I do see them, they’re always on a cellphone. The strongest signs of life always seem to be in the frat & sorority houses east of campus, and at the SMU gym. Other than that, I’m not entirely sure where they hang out.
barley house, black friar, idle rich…on thurs and fridays. frats usually rent out bars or have parties at their frat house. saturdays most do their own thing and hang out at their apartment complex where theres a pool. sundays…anywhere theres a mimosa.