Ask your average George Washington University student how much they care about our athletic teams, and the answer you get won't be surprising. Apathy towards school sports is a favorite pastime among most GW students. Look around. There are those in your dorms and your student orgs who could care less about the success and failure of the Colonials basketball team. There may even be those in your classes who feel the same. Instead of blaming the school for actually caring about our basketball team, we should take a good look in the mirror. It's our fault as the student body for the lack of school spirit, especially when it's free to go to sporting events. It's like the typical excuse for not voting. "One vote won't make a difference." Instead, it's "Why should I take time out my day to go to a basketball game." To each who thinks that way, it's nice to know it's all about you.If each of us took two hours out of our day, during a grand total of 15 days of home games over the entire year, then we might finally be able to say we have some resemblance of school spirit. But, realistically I do not expect your average, lazy GW student to want to do that. Nursing a hangover on Saturday is the more popular thing to do. However some will brave the conditions to cheer on our athletes. I commend the students who came to the game on Saturday, in the midst of Snowpocalypse 2010, and supported our Colonials against Duquesne. Even though the team lost, seeing more students than expected shows that there are those who do care.
I came to GW for the combination of the poltical experiences and the athletic experiences. And I know I'm not alone. Along those lines, I do not think the Administration tries to center "GW spirit" around basketball because it is the political speakers that get the attention. When was the last time the Washington Post ran a front page story on out basketball team? It's been awhile. Hilary Clinton and Robert Gates speaking grabs headlines, CNN coverage, along with new student interest in the school and most importantly, money.
If in rain or shine, winning streak or losing streak, GW students came out to support our athletes, then maybe the basketball team's fortunes will turn around. Home-court advantage is no good if alumni on Social Security outnumber students screaming their lungs out. We could become the next Cameron Crazies of Duke, or even just try to show the same support given by Georgetown's students to their men's basketball team. They will show up no matter how bad their teams are performing.
Demonizing the university for trying, saying that they are on a "crusade to force spirit down our throats" only shows great ignorance. Making excuses is easy, but none of us are busy enough to never go to a basketball game. Go to one, and maybe you will see that some of us care.
1 comment:
I don't think "spirit" should be some sort of chore that students need to work at to improve. The main point of my article is that GW is a unique place, and the administration just needs to stop putting so much resources into trying to generate pseudo-spirit. I don't see what was ignorant about my argument.
Being on the executive boards of the 2 largest student orgs on campus, I'm around GW administration and the SAC office a lot, and I can tell you they are obsessed with this new spirit initiative and have spent so much money and time trying to promote.
Also, I don't see the connection between attendance at games and the performance of the team...
Post a Comment