Dear Editor:

I know that the subject of campus apathy and lack of support of campus wide activities has been beaten to death, but I cannot be silent any longer. Last Tuesday evening I was walking through the parking lot at about 7:30 and noticed that it was about full. I thought this was kind of odd and wondered what was going on. When I got home, I looked at my handy-dandy WPI Winter Sports calendar (if you don't have one, stop by the Athletics Office in Alumni Gym) and saw that not only was there a women's basketball at 6:00 but also a men's at 8:00. While not being a big basketball fan (Go Redskins!!), I decided to take an hour and a half (amazing that that is all it takes- such a short amount of time) of rest from studying and go cheer on the men's team. Not wanting to look like a TOTAL WPI geek and sit by myself, I called up a few of my friends to see if they wanted to come along. While having lots of work to do just like everyone else, two decided to come. As we walked through the door of what we thought to be Harrington Auditorium, we were suddenly whisked down Rt. 122 to Anna Maria's gym-home of the Amcats. We didn't feel anything-just whhhooooosssshhh!!!! and we were there. Every time that Jeff (Cayer), Jim (Naughton) or Mike (Shannon) made a bucket, a scattering of clapping and cheering was heard. Even when Jim had a breakaway and dunked, the noise didn't get above a meow. My neighbor's cat makes more noise. "That's strange" I said, "weren't we just on the quad??" We didn't think anything more of it until we noticed that WPI was wearing their white home uniforms and the WPI cheerleaders were on the other side of the court!!! (for those who don't know, the cheerleaders stand on the other side of the court facing the benches) We were in Kansas Toto!!! While it was disappointing that they didn't win that night (lost in the waning seconds), it was even more disappointing that Anna Maria had twice as many fans as we did and actually supported their team-at an away game, no less. I give credit to the cheerleaders who are out there every game and to those 10-15 Fiji brothers who also come to every game to root for their fellow brothers on the team. If Fiji hadn't been there, there would have been even less noise and no one to heckle ref.'s or opposing players. That's half the fun.

Gone are the glory days of the fan section with the Moose horns, whizzers and other assorted noise makers of a couple of years ago. Gone is the Pep Band-at least they made noise. If anyone would like to start up a new fan section, let me know.

What is the point of having a home game when the opposing fans are louder than your own? Where are the rest of the fraternities at?? We had more than just one last time I checked. The rest of the campus?? Does the team have to go undefeated and win the playoffs in order to gain support? Should they have too? NO!!!!! I'm not saying that you have to go to every game or event scheduled for the rest of your "career" here. Take time out once or twice to take advantage of what is offered. It may not be The Final Four with Kansas playing Kentucky for the championship, but it is OUR school with OUR friends playing to win. Just a little venting of frustration.

Wendell Jones
Class of '97