Bad conduct

I must say that, for the most part, I do agree with Jeff Nelson’s response to the actions of the Colonials fans at last Saturday’s game against Richmond. Although taunting the other team more than supporting your own is something that will never go away, I do feel ashamed about our – and I will include myself in this – conduct toward the Richmond fans. They were not arrogant fans and, I felt, were very gracious guests. It’s a shame we were not better hosts.

In addition to that, I feel “bullshit” is chanted far too often in the games. It loses its effect when a questionable block is called foul four minutes into a 14-10 game. However, what I feel Mr. Nelson failed to address is the simple fact that big games bring out more people. Namely, people who may not necessarily be basketball/Colonial fans, but are there because everyone else is. GW often does not have that “big game” feel that other schools have every Saturday since September. Tailgating is a pretty foreign concept here.

–Adam Jones, sophomore

Bad Choice

All I can say is that we gave you a chance and you said no. So please don’t complain now that you got what you asked for. Oh, and remember one more thing: money doesn’t grow on trees.

Last week, GW students voted down a measure to increase funding for the Student Association. Had it passed, the SA would have essentially doubled its budget, the money allocated to student groups would have grown substantially and certain student services would have theoretically improved or increased.

You see, I don’t have a major problem with the funding increase failing. If people don’t like the increase, it fails. That is how a vote works. That is why it was on the ballot – to give students the opportunity to decide the issue.

What I have a problem with is the fact that the same people who complained last year that their organization didn’t get the funding it wanted, complained that we have to pay too much for tickets to shows and concerts on this campus and complained that we don’t do enough to foster community are the same people who voted down this increase. And those same people had the chance to do something about their complaints but didn’t. To me, it is like people are just talking out of both sides of their mouths.

Sad to say, but next year, these will be the same people who will complain when their student group doesn’t receive an increase in their SA allocation. And it serves them right.

So all I ask is that next year – when your group doesn’t get the funding it wants or you are mad that it costs so much to see a concert on campus – you remember why that is. It failed.

We made the call. Even if we supported the idea, we didn’t tell our friends to vote for it. We didn’t campaign on the issue. We didn’t sell the idea. Nope. We didn’t raise the student fee. In short, we got what we wanted.

And in a month, when you don’t get that increase for your student group or are mad at having to pay so much for some event, just don’t complain about it. We all got what we wanted.

–Eric Koester, Law School senator