‘Crisis’ averted. Friday morning update –
“After much consideration and work by student leaders, specifically Jay Dawkins, an agreement was reached with Dr. Tom Stafford. The agreement was reached that all 2,847 tickets will be allotted to Campout.”
The following was our original entry on the topic as of Thursday night:
For the years that we have been running this blog (and Statefans.com before it) we have had a community where our readers have been so appreciative that they have asked “What can we do to support you guys? Won’t you take up some donations or something?”
We never have (although we have recently gotten with the times and added some Google ads).
If you are one of those that would like to give back a little and never have had the opportunity — we have something for you.
Tonight I received the following email from a friend who asked me to forward it to others..
===========================
SO WHAT’S GOING ON?
N.C. State is about to break all records for Campout on Friday with well over 3,000+ campers, as reported in Technician on Thursday:
Jay Dawkins, Chairman of the Student Senate Campus Community Committee, worked with University Athletics to make sure every single person who camped out for the entire night Friday-Saturday would be guaranteed a ticket to the event…
********************
…but then shortly before 5:00pm on Thursday, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Tom Stafford announced that the Campus Community Committee’s decision to make people *actually* camp out to get tickets was unfair to students who did not — and he ordered that all tickets be awarded by lottery, with a set amount of tickets for students who camped out and a set amount of tickets for students who don’t.
In an email response to his decision, Student Body President Bobby Mills supported this plan, saying “Dr. Stafford, I totally agree with you… I warned the committee about this decision [to make students camp out].”
********************
If your odds of getting a ticket for camping out are decided at random, and the odds of getting a ticket if you *don’t* camp out are decided at random, there’s essentially no incentive to camp out.
In other words, this was an intentional sabotage of the Campout tradition.
********************
At 3:00pm on Friday afternoon, students who are outraged by the Vice Chancellor’s and Student Body President’s decision to sabotage Campout will be gathering out front of Holladay Hall for a rally to demand that the tickets get restored so that every single ticket to the UNC basketball game goes to students who actually camp out at Campout!
—————————————————————-
So, I fired off the following with my forward but had problems with my email server and decided to post it here on SFN. SInce I didn’t get it out to the masses, perhaps you can just send your friends in and around Raleigh this link. My comments were as follows:
I know that you think that you are too old for this stuff…and I know that you initially will disregard my forwarded email as really insignificant stuff…
…but, I am forwarding you this quick email to call your attention to the continued crackdown on the student experience at our alma mater. Do yourself a favor and peruse the forwarded email and the link to the Technician article to give yourself an education at just how #($#&-up the “Fun Police” have become at NC State.
You may or may not know that campouts on campus for tickets have been extinct for years. So, it was particularly encouraging to learn that the student body recognized the value of the experience and the obvious tenent that one who actually has to sacrifice for something will value the ticket significantly more than someone who makes no investment and receives something at random. (Have you been wondered why the student section doesn’t compare with when you were in school?) Of course, in the screwed up wisdom of college campuses in 2008’s America, it is considered “fair” to give things to people who don’t want to prioritize, invest, sacrifice or work for them over the people who are willing to earn the right. If only my professors would have been so “fair”.
NC State continues its rapid DE-evolution into a commuter school with very little social experience or campus life as evidenced by the continued destruction of the traditions that have historically bound generations of alumni from different time periods. We’ve already been guilty of absence as Tom Stafford has almost single-handedly destroyed NC State’s greek system which now sits at about half of the population as it did 15 years ago. And, don’t forget about the tailgating restrictions that Stafford (and crew) swept over alll alums a couple of years ago. Many wonder if Stafford and his institutionalized “fun and fair police” will stop until no student wants to live on campus and until no beer is consumed in any private or public establishment in West Raleigh.
Perhaps it is time for the key constituency of young, successful alumni and donors to start to making our voices heard for the ‘leaders’ that don’t grasp the long term value of providing a wonderful collegiate experience to students while they are on campus?
If you live in Raleigh and have a few minutes before the weekend arrives on a random Friday afternoon tomorrow, you may want to consider stopping by this event at 3pm tomorrow. Seriously…what would it hurt to invest a few minutes into something that I think/hope means something to you? The more bodies present…even if they are just milling around…will carry a big impact. (If you REALLY want to make them mad then show up drinking beer and wearing greek letters!)
I have included friends who don’t live in Raleigh on this email to encourage you to consider forwarding this to some of your friends who may be in the Triangle.
Thank you for your time.
Post-Script:
For a little more reference I am adding a couple of old blog entries that include some great comments from readers that are relevant to this that some of you may enjoy.
2/1/06 – Campout draws a small crowd
1/30/07 – Technician to Stafford: Improve or Retire
11/16/06 – Thank you, Clemson
2/21/07 – ‘Raleigh Time’
