EVERY August, thousands of new students step on Grounds and are quickly immersed in the jargon of the University. First year. Mr. Jefferson. Tradition. For those seeking allegiance and attachment to a new school and experience, the idea of tradition quickly will take hold and color their lives at the University. However, there is a difference between true tradition and those "traditions" that join the catalogue of rituals only a year or two before new students arrive in Charlottesville.
In the early 1990s, some students began chanting "Not gay" at football games after the line in the "Good Ol' Song," "We come from old Virginia, where all is bright and gay." After having united the University community for over a century, our fight song suddenly became a forum to isolate and exclude members of our community.
The faux tradition made many - both homosexual and heterosexual - feel so unwanted and unwelcome at games that they no longer attended sporting events. The University's reputation also was damaged because this exclusionary language was audible during nationally televised games. Additionally, the alumni association has received letters from alumni threatening to withdraw support.
In October 2000, a group of students formed an ad hoc committee through the Student Council to investigate student opinion on the chant and inform the student body and alumni about its negative effects. In gathering information from surveys and focus groups, the committee found that the vast majority of the students believed the chant to be a problem and an embarrassment to the school. It also was discovered that most people participating in the chant did not actually mean to be malicious. They were simply trying to aggravate the administration, attempting to liven up the song, or merely going along with the crowd. Given this information, the committee was driven to educate the community about the facts of the chant and hoped that, through discussion among peers, people would be capable of making an educated and informed decision about their participation in or abstention from the chant.
Throughout the 2001-2002 school year the chant was a point of discussion in many sectors of the University community. At Convocation, then-Student Council President Abby Fifer spoke out against the chant and its hurtful and exclusionary effects. At the first home football game against Richmond there was a marked decline in its strength. The chant had become such a topic of discussion around Grounds and was decreasing so rapidly that The Cavalier Daily reported the decline on their front page.
The second half of October had many on Grounds talking about a more in-your-face campaign started by the U.Va. chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. A series of fliers reading "Not Female," "Not Black," "Not Jewish," "Not Asian" and "Not Gay" were plastered around Grounds. The purpose was to show that chanting "Not gay" was analogous to attacks on other minority groups. The difference is that racial slurs are taboo today, whereas verbal attacks on homosexuality still are seemingly socially acceptable. While there was a stir of controversy around the ACLU and its sponsorship of the campaign, many students identified with the groups labeled.
The Student Council ad hoc committee continued to support its belief that peer discussion was the most effective way to reach students. The ACLU and the committee recognized the importance of the First Amendment right to free speech. The committee has said over and again that every person has the Constitutional right to express his or her thoughts and opinions. It is the position of the committee that the "Good Ol' Song" - an anthem of school spirit and unity - is not the proper forum to express a view that divides the community. In a very real sense the committee is promoting the First Amendment and free speech because it is education that enables people to make personal decisions about one's speech. Following the crowd without informed thought is not making a decision or exercising a freedom.
As we approach the 2002 football season, we must realize that the fate of this chant rests entirely in our hands. We have to ask ourselves if we want to be responsible for detracting from our victory on the field by continuing the divisive chant. We must educate ourselves on the origins and repercussions of the chant recalling that at stake is the University's reputation as an open-minded institution and, more immediately, our own sense of community. This football season we have the chance to release ourselves from a "tradition" that divides and excludes. We have the opportunity to restore a true tradition that unites tens of thousands at a time in common praise for the victory of our fellow Cavaliers.
(Cerissa Cafasso and Sarah Jobe are members of the "Good Ol' Song" Committee of Student Council.)
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