It's college, not basketball camp

It was disheartening and embarrassing to see the 6 p.m. news Sunday. The entire state of Indiana, not to mention the nation, saw thousands of IU students threatening Kent Harvey with "Wanted: Dead" signs and screaming angrily at media crews. These people represented to the world the whole of IU that night, and that representation was one of ignorance and hatred.\nMr. Knight has had a very successful career here at IU, but he also pushed an LSU fan into a garbage can in 1981 and fired a blank at a reporter in 1982. He throws chairs, wipes himself in front of players and, overall, behaves as if he were above the law. As if being the most winning college in basketball coach dismisses him from having to act like a decent human being, as if being the legendary Bob Knight excuses him from acting with the same civility that everyone else must exercise everyday. We have heard that Mr. Knight has donated significant amounts of money to charities and to IU, but this does not excuse him from the behavior he has exhibited over the three decades that he has been a coach here. \nThe quotes from students that appeared in the IDS Monday made a lot of references to a loss of identity at IU. This school is not a year-round basketball camp, it is a university! We came here to get an education, not because Mr. Knight coached here. I think it's sad that so many people equate IU with Mr. Knight. There is much more to this institution than basketball. \nAnd poor Kent Harvey. He just wanted to say hello to a famous basketball coach. Now he's receiving death threats and has been vilified by this campus. Ridiculous. He didn't bring Mr. Knight down; Mr. Knight brought this upon himself.\nWe're proud of Myles Brand for what he has done. The "zero-tolerance policy" he enacted in May gave him no choice in the matter. Regardless of this, firing Mr. Knight was arguably an act of bravery and it is too bad that he'll only be remembered for angering a bunch of hard-core basketball fans who have deified Bob Knight.