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Editorial: Fostering campus spirit for athletic teams

The recent successes of the men’s basketball team have generated significant excitement on campus. The team's victories over Penn and Yale in the inaugural Ivy League Tournament led to a NCAA tournament bid as the No. 12 seed, and the team was on a 19-game winning streak going into the tournament. The team has experienced tremendous support from students over the past several weeks through a variety of social outlets, such as high game attendance and Princeton filters on Facebook profile pictures to support the team on the road to the NCAA tournament. There was also high demand for tickets to the recent first-round Ivy League Tournament game versus Penn, even though it was an away game taking place during the weekend before midterms. The Board commends both the recent performance of all of the University’s athletic teams and students’ commitment to spectatorship. We encourage students to continue this strong support for all of the University’s athletic teams and encourage the University to expand policies facilitating this support.

Currently the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students and Princeton Athletics provide student transportation to select away games, such as the Ivy League tournament game against Penn. The Board commends this effort and encourages the University to continue offering transportation for nearby high-profile games. Additionally, the Board recommends that ODUS and Princeton Athletics consider expanding the number of nearby games to which they offer transportation. This way, students will have more opportunities to support their teams. ODUS also organized a viewing party with pizza in Frist Campus Center to watch the NCAA tournament game versus Notre Dame. The Board encourages ODUS to continue holding events like this for other major-league and championship away games for all sports so that students can support their fellow Princetonians even when traveling to the game is not feasible.

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The Board also commends the work that the Undergraduate Student Government currently does to foster a spirited atmosphere for our athletic teams, and the Board encourages it to expand this work. For example, USG could include all upcoming games for the week in its weekly emails, as opposed to only mentioning select games. This simple addition would help increase campus awareness of various sporting events and potentially increase attendance at traditionally less-attended athletic events.

Similarly, the Board recommends that the University install a prominently displayed sign in Frist listing each team’s season games or competitions and highlighting the dates of home games. This would be consistent with Frist's current role as a hub for the campus community, by giving students necessary information to support their fellow Princetonians. Having this information displayed as a calendar that is put up at the beginning of each sports season would be beneficial because it would give even the busiest of students the advanced notice necessary to plan game attendance into their schedules.

Campus support for our athletic teams, particularly men’s basketball, has been very strong, and the Board hopes students continue to support their fellow Princetonians, on both men’s and women’s teams, in their athletic endeavors. The Board also supports the University’s current role in facilitating student support of these events and urges it to continue developing these efforts so that the University can continue to be a spirited atmosphere for all of our athletic teams.

The Editorial Board is an independent body and decides its opinions separately from the regular staff and editors of The Daily Princetonian. The Board answers only to its Co-Chairs, the Opinion Editor, and the Editor-in-Chief. It can be reached at editorialboard@dailyprincetonian.com.

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