WVU should better promote events open to community

What is there to do in Morgantown on a weeknight?

For individuals of a certain age or inclination, there are bars and clubs aplenty. Restaurants, too, we suppose. There may be the occasional sporting event, if teams are playing at home and tickets are available. Shows and concerts at the Creative Arts Center are always fun, but they are few and far between, not to mention expensive.

But WVU occasionally offers fantastic events open to the public. Which is great — if you know they’re happening.

For example, the David C. Hardesty Jr., Festival of Ideas will bring three speakers to visit campus this spring. Lilly Ledbetter, author of “Grace and Grit: My Fight for Equal Pay and Fairness at Goodyear and Beyond,” kicked off the festival last night. W. Kamau Bell, host of the docu-series “United Shades of America,” will pay the Lyell B. Clay Theatre a visit on March 25. And the Festival of Ideas will conclude April 14 with Piper Kerman, the author of the memoir-turned-hit-Netflix-original-series, “Orange is the New Black.”

These events are free and open to the community. All you need to do is reserve your ticket in advance, which you can do through the Eventbrite website.

Having world-renowned speakers, writers, musicians, athletes, etc., visiting your city is one of the greatest advantages of living in a university town.

We’d just like for WVU to actually market and promote these events.

Speaker series like the Festival of Ideas are an opportunity to engage the public and remind Morgantown that WVU serves the community as well as its students.

But if the university never publicizes the event — especially free events, which would open attendance to a larger population — the result is a virtually empty theater whose few filled seats are largely occupied by students forced to be there for class credit.

What’s the point of inviting guest speakers, flying them out here and putting them up in a hotel, only to have them lecture to a vacant room?

Morgantown is filled with people ready to learn and be engaged.

And with adults looking for something to do on a weeknight that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg or necessarily involve alcohol, opening these events to the public — and making sure the public knows about them — is a sure-fire way to fill those empty seats.

To the university: Promote your events. Especially the ones open the public. Please.

To our readers: We know it’s tough to get out on a weeknight. You’ve just gotten home from work; you’re tired and you still need to make dinner. But as much as we complain about the inconveniences of a university town, this is one of the upsides: Access to some of the most brilliant minds in the world without having to drive to Charleston or Pittsburgh or farther. So take advantage of these opportunities whenever you can.