OPINION & EDITORIAL
Gameday behavior sours UW image
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by Letters to the Editor
Friday, October 26, 2007
As a proud alumnus of the University of Wisconsin, I bleed cardinal and white. I love our university and have worked tirelessly to make it even better, both financially and through my time and talent.
As much as I love this place, on football Saturdays, in and outside of Camp Randall Stadium, there is a part of life here that needs to change.
During many football games, Chancellor John Wiley, other alums and I, host potential supporters of the university, often asking them to generously donate to student financial aid programs. I cannot tell you how difficult it is to talk about our wonderful students and secure this support over the roar of the student section’s most infamous chant.
Please have a great homecoming weekend and enjoy the game against Indiana, but welcome visitors and opposing fans with a smile and a wave — not harassment or intimidation. And when it comes time to chant, let us all try something different, which does not include vile expletives.
I know that UW students are some of the brightest in our state and country. Help us help you by representing our university with class and character.
Jere Fluno
UW Class of 1963
Retired Vice Chairman of W.W. Grainger, Inc.
Current Director of the University of Wisconsin Foundation
Anonymous (October 26, 2007 @ 3:57am):
The fundamental premise is wrong. Unfourtunatley, we're not all the *brightest* in the state. Most of those kids left for Michigan or Harvard.
Anonymous (October 26, 2007 @ 6:18am):
Nicely put,
I think that we'd all like to see a little change.
Anonymous (October 26, 2007 @ 7:13am):
Jere, don't most people bleed cardinal? Just checking.
Anonymous (October 26, 2007 @ 8:30am):
Well put. I for one am embarrassed at the time by chants like that and others telling a good team how bad they are. I witnessed this over the weekend at a Badger event and was almost glad when the other team, ranked higher one, because of the bad behavior.
Anonymous (October 26, 2007 @ 8:33am):
How well has this finger wagging tactic worked for the chancellor? For Barry Alverez? Pleave it up! If these donors are so fragile that you can't set realistic expectations then it makes me wonder what else you people are willing to do or change just to get more donations. Stop acting like our students are in a Catholic high school with donors. UW students work hard and play hard; it's nothing new. That said, it *is* very lame and idiotic for Badger fans (it's hardly just students) to do the asshole chant to anyone and everyone walking down the street from another school. It's one thing to do it to some idiot in the middle of the student section but it's just crass to be screaming asshole, asshole at families and elderly people just because they happen to be fans of the opposing team. Grow up!
Anonymous (October 26, 2007 @ 9:36am):
Wisconsin sports showing respect? In your dreams!
Anonymous (October 26, 2007 @ 10:32am):
word.
Anonymous (October 26, 2007 @ 10:36am):
Toss in a vote for banning "first and 10 Wisconsin" and you got my support.
Anonymous (October 26, 2007 @ 10:41am):
"Vile expletives?" This is laughably irrelevent. Game day is for enjoying the game, not taking money from oversensitive alumni. If you want to improve the image of our "class and character," worry about fans coming in severely smashed, not a little profanity.
Anonymous (October 26, 2007 @ 11:32am):
ahh yes because as soon as alums hear f-you, eat-s, they put their checkbooks away..thats how fickle they are..REALLY??!?!
Anonymous (October 26, 2007 @ 11:34am):
we'd probably get more donations if we had a functioning defense, than if you tried to silence the student section.
Anonymous (October 26, 2007 @ 11:46am):
You even wonder if you would still have people to try and weasel money away from once all that makes Madison special is wrestled away by prudes like you?
Anonymous (October 26, 2007 @ 11:56am):
No wonder Wisconsin sports fans get a lot of crap from elsewhere. If you cheddarheads can't take, don't dish it out!
Anonymous (October 26, 2007 @ 12:38pm):
Well said!
I can tolerate "asshole," but the f-u eat shit thing needs to go.
Oh, also, by the way student section: if you haven't figured out why the band doesn't play Swingtown or The Hey Song anymore, it's because of your foul mouths. Get a clue. Stop asking for it until you clean up your act.
I'm also in agreement with the First and Ten Wisconsin cheer. Lame. We aren't Minnesota, we celebrate touchdowns not first downs.
Anonymous (October 26, 2007 @ 12:53pm):
It's not just a "little profanity." Since my freshman year, I've thought the "eat sh*t -- f*ck you" chant is one of the most unnecessary things about our game days here. I love the Badgers and I've traveled to see them at other stadiums and the other fans have just as much fun as with do WITHOUT the curses. Even down at Illinois, they incorporate the entire stadium with the spelling of "I-L-L...I-N-I." Granted, yes, "Wisconsin Badgers" is a little longer than "Illini" but I think we could still find ways to include everyone--even families and our older alumni--in our festive game day spirit.
ON WISCONSIN.
Anonymous (October 26, 2007 @ 1:31pm):
We used those chants in the early 1990's because the team was terrible and so just invented rivalries in the stands instead. No longer the case. If anything, time to come up with something new.
Disagree with first poster - I turned down MIT to come to UW. Had more fun AND ended up at a prominant grad school with those "Michigan or Harvard" people anyway.
Anonymous (October 26, 2007 @ 2:08pm):
I was kind of funny 20-25 years ago, when the commercials were actually part of pop culture. Today, the cheer is completely irrelevant. When you have to explain to people what the cheer means, and why it's performed, it's time for something new. It jumped the shark 15 years ago.
Students perfoming said cheer appear to everyone as immature; like a group of 10 year olds in a schoolyard, swearing and then looking around to see if anyone in authority saw or heard them.
This is the UW. How about something new and clever, befitting the intelligence of this school. Enough of the tired old gabage.
Anonymous (October 26, 2007 @ 2:12pm):
Oh please, for the love of God, don't suggest we start doing spelling chants. There is nothing that sounds stupider.
And I'm sorry, I know Dr. Fluno is beloved at UW, but once you put the adjective "vile" in front of the noun "expletives", you showed how weak the argument is. It offends some with weak stomachs. But as Eric Cartman once said, "What's the big fucking deal? It doesn't hurt anybody. Fuck fuckity fuck fuck fuck."
Anonymous (October 26, 2007 @ 2:37pm):
Shouldn't these donors be taken to, I dont know, say our world class research facilities instead? I worked in a UW lab for 4 years, and I don't think we ever taunted anyone in another lab - it's a more representative aspect of the school that thier money actually should go to. I love games as much as the next badger alumni, but I agree that some of the more colorful english in existance shouldnt frighten away donors. We have the state's poor funding of the UW system for that.
Anonymous (October 26, 2007 @ 4:40pm):
I'll make a deal with you here Jere, I'll support you, if you'll ask those poor freshman from the UW Foundation to stop calling me. I promise I'll be in touch when I'm ready to donate. And it won't be every three months, fyi.
Anonymous (October 26, 2007 @ 6:18pm):
I like the Fuck You, Eat Shit chant. It makes the old people uncomfortable and the young children curious... like porn.
Anonymous (October 26, 2007 @ 7:58pm):
The chants are all part of the crassification of the USA. I would hope that U-W students might rise above the tide of moral and cultural mediocrity that so characterizes Ameican public culture. The question is this: Can U-W students be a cause of something better, something distinctive, or are they content to be just another symptom of the present age? Put more abstractly, are any of them reading their Kierkegaard?
Anonymous (October 27, 2007 @ 7:55am):
I second Mr. Anonymous!
Anonymous (October 26, 2007 @ 4:40pm):
I'll make a deal with you here Jere, I'll support you, if you'll ask those poor freshman from the UW Foundation to stop calling me. I promise I'll be in touch when I'm ready to donate. And it won't be every three months, fyi.
Anonymous (October 27, 2007 @ 3:58pm):
Let's see, potential donors walk into Camp Randall and they see a scoreboard surrounded by giant ads. We score and the kicking net goes up with another ad sewn to it. They do a silly t-shirt give-away (when they show Bucky spinning the wheel on the scoreboard) and those shirts are covered with ads. The Jump Around cam has a "brought to you by" sponsor. Even the Fifth Quarter is now "presented by American Family". Yeah, showing off how we whore out the UW in every possible manner leaves such a nice impression with potential donors. And you're worried about some swearing???
Anonymous (October 27, 2007 @ 5:22pm):
I read Kierkegaard. So there!
Anonymous (October 28, 2007 @ 1:09pm):
If we start spelling shit out I'm burning my diploma. Ill-ini. Oh-io. La-me.
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