Nov 16, 2014 2 min read

As a recent graduate of California University of Pennsylvania, I must say I am extremely disappointed to see all of these terrible things happening surrounding my university. However, the Nov. 7 editorial, “Cal U. should drop football program,” is completely outlandish and doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of what it would truly mean to the campus and student body if the university did away with the football program.

The main thing I would like to point out is cutting the football program doesn’t just affect the football team and its fans. What about the cheerleaders and the marching band? Sure, these organizations perform at events other than football games, but football games are by far the biggest. Cutting the football program would mean essentially cutting the marching band and cheerleading teams. Have any members of these groups been seen in the news recently? Not to my knowledge.

The article went on to say ” a very small number of (exclusively) male students, most of whom get a poor education …” How could you not see that not only the football players would be affected in such an action?

Musicians tend to do better in school than students who are not musicians. Having a marching band program was one of my top requirements when I was selecting a college. No football means no marching band.

A better suggestion is the university impose a stricter team-selection process, banning players who have criminal records, demanding higher minimum grade point averages, and raising the bar for what students must achieve in order to receive sports scholarships, rather than punishing two other organizations that had nothing to do with the incidents leading to this.

Lindsey Longstreth

Waynesburg