"I’ve lived here my entire life and I don’t hear about things going on downtown until the day of (the event), when I’ve already made plans," she said. "There really isn’t a lot for college students to do there.”

Many of her friends who also attend Central Michigan University don’t venture to the downtown district unless it’s to find one of the many bars in the area.

“I know a lot of people that go down there at night to go to the bars, but not a lot of people who go during the day, to the shops and places like that,” Kozlowski said.

With restaurants, shops and grocery stores located both on CMU’s campus and on Mission Street, few significant efforts have been made to get college students to explore the eight blocks to the downtown district.

“There are a lot of shops downtown that are more expensive," Kozlowski said. "We all know that college students are poor, so a lot of people can’t afford to shop down there."

It is not uncommon for downtown districts of college towns to battle for students’ free time and dollars. Yet some cities like Grand Rapids and Ann Arbor have downtowns with stores and restaurants that attract university students.

Michelle Sponseller, the city’s director of downtown development, said her department doesn’t have the budget to advertise toward any certain group, college students included.

“I don’t have a separate budget to market specifically to college students. When I’m doing marketing for an event I think about what will have the widest audience that would be interested in that event,” Sponseller said.

Sponseller said the department only has money to spend on marketing events, instead of any specific downtown businesses or locations, limiting the number of different groups that can be specifically marketed.

Last month’s Christmas celebration is an example, she said. The event, which hosted musicians, Christmas carolers and other attractions downtown on Dec. 5 and 6., was given a marketing budget of $2,000. Half of that budget was spent on fliers distributed to businesses.

"However, by the time we were done with the paper we had [spent] $1,000. (That) is not a lot for a marketing budget,” Sponseller said.

“In a perfect world, we would have the money to market different things not only to students but to a much wider audience, but unfortunately budgets are very tight and we just don’t have that ability," Sponseller said.

Written by Sponseller, a summery of plans to improve downtown within the next five years offers multiple ideas meant to increase foot traffic downtown. A $10,000 study planned for this year will determine where additional lights should be included downtown.

The lighting changes are scheduled for implementation in 2017 and 2019 with a price tag of $200,000.

Sponseller did mention one aspect of the downtown section she said college students flock to.

"From Thursday to Saturday after 9 p.m., Mount Pleasant has an active nightlife," she said.

The Bird Bar & Grill is widely considered to be a large component of that nightlife. Ben and Stacy Breidenstein, general managers of the downtown staple, acknowledge CMU students are a large part of that success.

“There are a lot of specialty shops [downtown] that aren’t directed at college students,” Stacy said.

Detroit senior Jessica Shampine, enjoys vodka-waters with friends Bay City senior Megan McCarthy and Detroit senior Ricky Hohn at the Bird on Thursday night. Shampine said she also doesn’t believe some downtown businesses appreciate university students.

“When I go into some of the stores here I don’t feel very welcome,” Shampine said. “People in the stores will sometimes look at me [as if to say,] ‘What are you doing here?’”

All three students said though they often go to The Bird and occasionally go to some of the other shops, they agree that there are other more attractive options.

“There’s no need for us to (shop downtown) when you can get things cheaper at other places in town,” Hohn said.

McCarthy said she understands the barrier between the downtown area and the college students.

“I can get what problem the city is dealing with," McCarthy said. "It's an uphill battle because the majority of the student population doesn’t live here for parts of the year."