University of Virginia Library

Athenaeum Anathema

Rapier's Fame Still Flickers

Here's that editorial lambasting Rapier's Olympic Torch run
which we mentioned in last week's Monday Edition. It appeared
in the Daily Athenaeum, student newspaper of West Virginia
University. We reprint it for your enlightenment. -ed.

Students at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville are
claiming to have pulled a fast one on Olympic officials.

The students are saying they were able to bribe someone to
sneak out the real Olympic flame and replace it with a fake and
the claim is that the actual Olympic flame is now at the school.

The future plans of the group include searching out student
volunteers to participate in a grand relay to run the official
torch back to the Mexican Embassy in Washington, D. C.

When one of the students in the group responsible for this
alleged act was asked why this had been done in the first place,
he is reported to have said, "We just wanted to see if we could
do it."

Students in colleges and universities have certainly been
accused of doing strange things before. Some have been funny
and some have been acts for which the students involved were
strongly criticized.

Examples of such student actions include everything from
marathon dances and stuffing people into phone booths to
taking over a building or a demonstration that turns into a riot.

When a student group is doing something out of a matter of
principle, it is very easy to see their point and to defend their
actions or at least the reasons the action was brought about.

If the people who are part of a university community have a
grievance [sic] or a protest there are many who will rise to
defend their right to express their protest and their right to
make this a public issue even if the issue is not agreed upon.

But when students attempt such a stunt such [sic] as this,
just to see if they can carry it out, people begin to question the
character of university students and the general character and
atmosphere of college.

If billions are being pumped into education each year by
state, federal, local and private funds, then one would certainly
hope there is more going on a university campus than the
students in Virginia would lead people to believe.

If they had to search so hard for something to do in their
spare time, it was obvious that they had nothing better to do
and this is the total antithesis[1] [sic] of what a university should
be doing.

A university should be an intellectual and academic institution
with an atmosphere of learning. It is both discouraging
and disgusting to realize that students are resorting to this
instead of to the other things with which they might fill their
time while in college.

This could be all one big hoax in an attempt to gain
publicity. If it is, it is a pretty poor excuse for a joke and the
university rather bad public relations coverage.

The name of the University of Virginia and the students may
be in the public eye but instead of in a favorable light, the
institution and its students are coming across in a most
incompetent and immature manner.

The thought that the future lawyers, teachers, businessmen
and technical professionals had only such entertainment to fill
their spare time while in school is not a very pleasant one to
those who will be dealing with these students in the future.