University of Virginia Library

Neglect For Students

On Monday night the Cavalier basketball
squad will face its toughest foe of the season
when it takes on South Carolina in University
Hall. The prospects of watching the best
Virginia basketball team in years take on the
nation's number two ranked team should
draw a huge crowd. Unfortunately, many
students may be turned away from University
Hall because of lack of seats.

The U-Hall ticket office reminds us that
there are only 4,200 seats allotted to
students, and when the student sections are
filled "further student entry will be
prohibited." This situation raises the question
of just who has priority to admission at
University events. The seemingly obvious
answer to this question is that students should
have priority. After all, the basketball team is
composed of students. Furthermore, every
student at the University is required to pay
$20 each year to the athletic department, plus
$15 each year to amortize the debt on
University Hall. By these figures, on the basis
of the debt payment alone, each student seat
in University Hall at every basketball game
costs $3 whether or not it is used.

Now, when the students of this University,
who have been paying for the empty seats for
years, want to use them, many students will
not have that opportunity. After the student
sections are filled, no more students will be
admitted. The nearly 4,000 other seats in
U-Hall will be used by alumni, townspeople,
and other "paying" customers.

Through the bleak years in Virginia
basketball history, the alumni and
townspeople supported the team when the
students did not. It is unfortunate that not
everyone who wants to see the Virginia-South
Carolina game will be able to. But if some
spectators have to be turned away, it should
be the non-students. Any other alternative
will merely be another chapter in the
continuing story of the University's neglect
for its students.

For those lucky enough to get in U-Hall
for the game, we urge them to exhibit the
sportsmanlike conduct often so lacking
among the players and students of other ACC
schools. Both Coach Gibson and the Athletic
Advisory Committee have urged that
spectators refrain from "rowdyism" and
"accord our quests the kind treatment that
you would like to see our Cavaliers receive
when they are playing away."

When playing a team like South Carolina,
both players' and spectators' tempers may be
strained. With John Roche, Tom Riker, and
Frank McGuire the Gamecocks feature the
quickest fists, knees, elbows, and mouths in
the league. After their poor showing of
manners at Chapel Hill it seems that the riot
that broke out in the Maryland game was not
an isolated incident of poor sportsmanship.

The Virginia team has already had one
player ejected from a game for fighting. Let's
hope that it doesn't happen again, and that
the spectators don't encourage it.