From: jgladu@bcm.tmc.edu (grungy (John F. Gladu))
Newsgroups: rec.arts.marching.misc
Subject: Re: Band autonomy (was Re: UC songs)
Followup-To: rec.arts.marching.misc
Date: 18 Dec 1992 14:33:37 GMT
Organization: Systems Support Center, BCM
Distribution: usa
NNTP-Posting-Host: j.ssctr.bcm.tmc.edu

In article <1992Dec17.192714.21123@leland.Stanford.EDU>,
stanford@leland.Stanford.EDU (Scott Stanford) wrote:
> 
> In article <hey, big brother> gemerson@ugly.ucs.indiana.edu (Gennis Emerson) writes:
> 
> >I really miss playing in the band. This is making me homesick, and I can't
> >even go play with the Aggie Band at a basketball game when I'm home this
> >winter because of that damn administration saying alumni can't perform with
> >the band anymore. I wonder if they're going to let us march on Picnic Day? 
> 
> WHAT?  Since when do you let the administration say who can be in your
> band?  Tell them to go FUCK themselves.  Bands should be able to say
> who is allowed in or not (ESPECIALLY all you student-run bands out
> there).  GIVE UP NO GROUND!  Give the athletic department a simple
> message:  WE determine who is in the Band and how we're run.  If YOU
> don't like it, then fine, you WON'T have a band at your games.  If
> your students/press likes your band (and who COULDN'T like the UCDavis
> Aggie Band?) then you will win.
> 
> Scott "this country sucks - get me a Wiedeman's" Stan4d

In a parallel to all of this is the news that the Texas Southern University
Ocean of Soul Marching Band was officially *disbanded* on Dec 17 after a
big stink over a shoplifting spree by (I will NOT and CAN not point at
anyone in particular - I just don't know) who were travelling with the band
(it may have been *anyone* within the band's entourage - students,
non-students - who knows...).  This is the banner headline in this
morning's Houston Post (the liberal rag in town).  I don't have it sitting
in front of me, but the gist was that the Chancellor just waved his magic
wand and said *Thou Hast Sullied the Name of Our Institution and Verily
Thou Shalt Be No More*.  I'm paraphrasing heavily - he implied that there
will no longer be a group going by the name "Ocean of Soul".  Maybe they
can band together again later under a different name.  The local newsies
are also trying mighty hard to make something of the 12 "non-student"
travelling with the band.
Personally, I think this sucks.  I certainly don't condone the actions of
the idiotic few, but I CANNOT agree with cancelling the band program
because of them.  GRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr (denotes helpless rage and
frustration...)

It also scares me.  While the LSJUMB survived the administrations attempts
at control, I don't know if that can happen anywhere else, Rice included
(this is a reality check, Scott).  {I don't know much more than wispy
rumors of what happened at Stanford;fill me in, please?}  The MOB came
close to getting hammered a couple of times.  But the situation is
different at Rice.  Game attendance is (or was) so bad anyway, that the
lack of the band might have only affected the attendance by the number of
bodies in the band.  The students would probably whine a lot, but our
administration has a history of ignoring it.

The attention in the media about outsiders (non
university-has-some-kind-of- hook-into-them people) is what troubles me
personally.  I'm a true outsider in the MOB.  I never went to Rice. (I
tried, but I never got in, but that's another story...)  There are also
quite a few "old farts" who are still in the band.  The university has no
control over us/them.  This makes the administration nervous.  They know
we're here.  They've tried to squeeze ME out before, and I have to say
THANKS KEN and BERT (band directors) for sticking up for me as someone
worthwhile.  The current TSU stink will only remind the Rice administration
of our presence and could make things ugly for us.

>Bands should be able to say who is allowed in or not...

I agree 100%, but:

The administration provides the MOB's budget.
The administration provides the MOB's director with a faculty position.
The administration provides the MOB with a bandhall.
The administration provides the MOB with football games to play at.

What the administration provides, the administration can take away.

That is the simple truth at most of the schools in America.

The LSJUMB was damned lucky to survive, but I'm VERY glad that you did. :)

I'm keeping my fingers and toes crossed on this one...
bcnu - grungy (John Gladu) Rice U. MOBster
Systems Support Center -- Baylor College of Medicine
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Newsgroups: rec.arts.marching.misc