Wednesday, January 8, 1997Give the UCLA band a break
In response to Kathryn Manlove’s Jan. 7 article regarding the
UCLA marching band, I would like to clarify a few issues. I was a
member of the band for the past five years, and there was never any
sexism regarding the support of the women’s basketball team. The
truth is, on Dec. 7, after the men’s basketball team played Kansas,
the UCLA band had a performance in Orange County that they had to
be at, a high school band competition where they were the
exhibition band.
The band that remained at the women’s basketball game was
comprised of ex-band members and alumni, including myself, who were
willing to donate their time to support the women’s basketball
team. The UCLA band attends all home men’s and women’s basketball
games, even during winter break, and a few volleyball games as
well. They give enormous support to the women’s basketball team;
often they are the loudest fans in the arena.
So please Kathryn, give the band a break. They would have been
at that game if they could have. I’m sure they wanted to. And
please, get your facts straight before you jump all over the band
in the paper. Maybe you should be directing your anger to the rest
of the students and the men’s student ticket holders who left after
the Kansas game. And to all the rest of the student body: please
show your support this Friday night as the women’s team plays host
to Stanford at Pauley Pavilion.
One more point I have to make: why does everyone insist on
running out of the basketball games after the final buzzer? Will
you beat traffic by that much? Please, show some respect for your
school and stand for the alma mater, maybe even try to learn the
words. After the games, the only people left standing are usually
the band, the Rally Committee and a few diehards like myself. The
alma mater should be respected, please stand after the game. Thank
you.
Cindy Yonemori
Sixth Year
Chemical Engineering