The Cavalier Daily
Serving the University Community Since 1890

The will of students

Tim Thornton (“Credible coverage,” 4/6/2009) discussed The Cavalier Daily’s failure to cover the Virginia Pep Band since 2006. Thorton explained this failure, in part, by the fact that “there just wasn’t much happening,” and the story was not “fodder for scintillating news copy.”

I’m surprised that Thornton deigns the University administration’s failure to discuss any kind of reasonable solution with the Pep Band unexciting and unworthy of news coverage. The Student Council made the will of the students clear in 2004 when it passed a resolution calling for a two-band system and the return of the Pep Band to olympic sports at which the Marching Band does not play. The administration responded by completely ignoring that request, to the detriment of the ideals of student self-governance that it claims
to support.

When the administration refuses to yield to the will of the students with no reasonable explanation, this is a huge story. The Cavalier Daily, as a voice of the students, should have reacted to this willful and harsh rejection of student self-governance by giving the Pep Band’s story the coverage it deserved and continuing to cover this story in the future.

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