One of my favorite moments from any LSU football game takes place three hours before kickoff. Across from Mike the Tiger’s cage lies the student entrance to Tiger Stadium. A large sign proclaims to any uniformed person, “Through this gate passes the All-American Golden Band from Tigerland.” Directly under the sign without fail are hundreds of students jammed hard against the gate whooping it up in anticipation of the night’s gridiron match. Under the bemused looks of security guards, they slather each other in purple and gold paint and lead any frightened passerbys in a rousing round of “Geaux Tigers” chants. Toss the Georgia bulldog into that pile, and it would be dead in two seconds. These are the true fans, the ones who cheerfully wait for hours on game day for the opportunity to rush up the ramp into the stadium and sit in the best seats available. Except not really. Instead the best seats available are taken by another group of students. These can wait until just minutes prior to kickoff, saunter through the gate and sit in their seats. Here much further down the 50-yard line they watch the same game as every other student, only under much better circumstances. These students sit in group seating. Group seats are in the student section and reserved for students participating in organizations on campus. The seats are individually numbered, not first-come-first-served like the rest of the student section. According to the LSU ticket office, six sections in the student section are reserved for group seating. These are sections 104, 105, 106, 222 and 223. Section 221 is reserved for the band. The location of these seats can be seen by visiting lsusports.net and viewing the seating chart for Tiger Stadium. Without exception these sections are the farthest toward the 50-yard line of any in the student section. Section 104, in fact, is directly on the 35-yard line, and its seats extend all the way down to the row closest to the field. Michelle Lowery, assitant director of Union Programs, said 31 different organizations have group seating this fall. Twenty five of these are Greek organizations. The rest are divided among religious groups like the Baptist Collegiate Ministry, Refuge and Christ the King and academic groups like MBA students and the veterinary school. At this point permit me to make a disclaimer. I am not part of any Greek organization. I am not involved in BCM, Refuge, Christ the King or any other church on campus. I am not in the MBA program or the veterinary school. I am not part of any group on this campus except this paper – and The Daily Reveille does not have group seats. Nor do I have any personal problem with these organizations. I believe the Greek system is, as a whole, a good body of groups. It is appropriate for some students and not for others. The decision to participate is made by each individual. The same goes for religious and scholastic organizations. Many of these groups conduct charity events and community service activities, and I applaud these efforts. At the same time membership in one of these or any other group on campus should not entitle anyone to better tickets in Tiger Stadium than any other student. It is true that students in group seating pay more for their tickets than students in general seating. According to the LSU Athletic Ticket Office, students in general seating paid $103 for tickets to eight home games this season. Students in group seating paid $151. Which makes one wonder how many students would shell out $48 or $6 per game for the opportunity to move from the nosebleed section under the scoreboard to seats on the first row of the 35-yard line. Judging by the number of students packed at the gate hours before a game, a good number would likely pony up the cash. Group seating does nothing but divide students on this campus into Greeks and non-Greeks, religious and non-religious. Those who have the best seats should not have them simply because of the group they belong to. They should have them because they waited hours in line and dedicated their entire day to Saturday night in Death Valley. At a time when the University is preaching diversity more than ever, the one place on campus where the student body should be united remains separated into the “haves” and “have nots.” This policy needs to go the way of “Whites Only” drinking fountains and blacks standing at the back of the bus. Make the student section truly for all students.
—–Contact Elliot Brown at [email protected]
