Chapter 9: Community Service
Cultural, Intellectual, Enrichment and Entertainment Opportunities


We estimate that approximately 10,000 students and visitors annually attend the programs we provide for cultural and intellectual enrichment and entertainment, up from an estimated 4,000 five years ago. Based on attendance, feedback from questionnaires distributed at some events, and anecdotal comments, we infer that local residents enjoy and support the programming that we provide. We do not receive requests for additional programming.

Cultural and Intellectual Events

Millersville offers the general public some 100 different cultural and intellectual events each year, including lectures, art exhibits, theatre and music performances. Most of these programs are targeted toward our students but open to the general public (see Chapter 5). Some programs, such as military band concerts, are specifically targeted toward external audiences. As noted in Chapter 5, traditional students would like to see more "big name" contemporary entertainment, but this is often difficult because of cost.

Sports

We estimate that some 25,000 people from our community annually take advantage of the opportunity to see competitive NCAA Division II teams in action. Our annual Community Appreciation Night football game attracts upwards of 6,000 people. While our most popular games are football and basketball, we continually publicize other teams as well.

The comfort and enjoyment of visitors to our home games is hampered to a certain degree by our facilities. Our football stadium presently has permanent seating on only one side of the field, and Pucillo Gymnasium has sometimes filled to capacity for championship basketball playoff games. The new capital facilities master plan (see Chapter 11) has plans to improve our athletic facilities.

Re:Visions

Each semester over 1000 area residents take one of our Re:Visions non-credit continuing education programs. We offer classes for professional development, personal enrichment, and fitness and recreation.

Elderhostel

Millersville offers four Elderhostel programs each year to a total of 160 people. Elderhostel programs attract people from all over the country; in a typical program less than 15% of the participants are from Pennsylvania. Millersville's programs have consistently earned extremely high ratings from participants.