Column: Student Section Manifesto

This is the last straw.

Students, meet IU Athletics.

IU Athletics, meet the students.

Now, let’s get together and finally make a damn good student section.

My impatience with these parties boiled over Tuesday as a group of students camping outside Assembly Hall for the best general admission seats to Saturday’s game against Kentucky were told they had to take down their tents by the IU Police Department. This came after IU Athletics officers and IU Coach Tom Crean endorsed the campers via Twitter.

So, just to get this straight: IU Athletics advocated something that was against its own university’s law.

To be fair, students camped out overnight last year for the Purdue game in Bloomington without problem, so that precedent was already set. The difference this year? A group of protesters in Peoples Park that I do not want to name.

If IU allows the Assembly Hall campers to set up tents on campus property, what’s stopping those in Peoples Park — a public property — from setting up shop in the Arboretum? A double standard would be set that the University would have a hard time defending. In addition, the campus policy prohibiting tents to be set up overnight already stands.

Why last year’s Assembly Hall campers were legal and this year’s are not is a question that remains unanswered.

So, I understand why “Camp Crean,” as they call themselves, cannot set up tents. What I don’t understand is why IU Athletics and IUPD have conflicting agendas. As parts of the same body, they should communicate.

“Took 2 calls yesterday from students asking about rules for camping outside of Assembly Hall 4 the UK game,” tweeted Assistant Director of Media Relations for IU Athletics Kyle Kuhlman prior to Camp Crean setting up. “Camping rules about the same as football tailgate. Pretty simply: use common sense, don’t doing anything stupid & you’ll be good to go.”

I guess setting up a tent for camping goes against common sense. I bet that group of fans freezing their butts off outside Assembly Hall would have appreciated a call to IUPD from the Athletic Department to make sure everybody was on the same page.

The fiasco is the latest installment in a lack of collaboration between the students and IU Athletics, a complicated relationship that extends inside Assembly Hall.

Assembly Hall has the largest student section in the Big Ten. It’s loud, it provides the team a boost and it likes to complain about the seating policy.

It has a point.

The arrival of Athletics Director Fred Glass in 2009 brought much-needed reform to the student section seating system, the most notable of which was the implementation of general admission seating in the first 25 rows of the East Side student sections under the balcony (K,L and M).

However, this season, the howls of dissatisfaction with the student section again arose with each home game, and for good reason.

Among non-students and alumni: the students weren’t getting to games early, let alone on time.
And from the students: they were again divided among three tiers of Assembly Hall and with terrible seats in the balcony.

My solution:
1) This season, allow students with assigned seats outside of GA to move into those seats after 15 minutes of real time from when the game starts. If those lucky fans that got general admissions seats in the main level are not in them after 15 minutes, give them to students that deserve them.

2) Have students seated in either assigned seats behind the South basket or in the current main level seating on the East Side. However, instead of having just the first 25 rows as general admission, make the whole section GA. Dedicated and loud students will get there first, get there early and be ready to go. With this ticketing system, everybody still gets the same amount of opportunities to sit behind the basket.

3) Make the Crimson Guard mean something. I had so much hope for this registered student organization not affiliated with IU Athletics. It could have been a liaison between students and administrators. It could have been a driving force that organizes student section efforts, including a campout for GA seats leading up to the Kentucky game. But so far, I’ve seen nothing.

The Crimson Guard’s website’s front page advertises a takeover of the Big Ten Tournament ... from last season. It still posts information sheets about cheers and conduct at home games, but until I hear some results, like innovative cheers, this organization’s effort is all for naught. Somebody look up the Izzone at Michigan State, Orange Krush at Illinois or even Krzyzewskiville at Duke and take notes.

IU is one of the most basketball-crazed colleges in the country. It deserves a student section that holds up its end of the deal with an athletic department that does the same.

Until that happens, the same squabbles will ensue every season prior to conference play.