WORZALA'S WEDNESDAY WORD 10-11-06

Today's Wednesday Word is "band" as in "Why is Chancellor Wiley trying to destroy the UW Marching Band?"

Chancellor Wiley has put the University of Wisconsin Marching Band under, in the band's words, "double secret probation" after recent complaints following the band's trip to Michigan with the football team earlier this fall. While neither Wiley nor his special assistant Casey Nagy would comment on what exactly the complaints were in regard to, the band has been informed they will be attending a workshop on behavioral standards. They have also been warned that if there are more violations, individuals, entire sections and even the band itself may be removed. Can you imagine a marching band without trumpets? Can you imagine a college football game without a marching band?

What are these violations? From what I've heard some of it stems from complaints by Michigan alumni who were seated behind the band at the football game. They felt the band did not conduct themselves in the manner that a college band should. To that I say B-o-o. H-o-o. I guess the University of Wisconsin won't be getting any donations this year from the University of Michigan alumni. They're a band! They're supposed to be rowdy, they're supposed to be fired up, and since they're the opposing team's band, no you're not supposed to like them.

Other complaints include allegations that neither hotels nor bus companies are willing to host or transport the band members due to their continual rowdy behavior. That, according to members of the band, is strictly not true. And any hotel that isn't willing to take in a couple of rowdy college guests on a football weekend should really get out of the hotel business.

This is all garbage if you ask me, and since you're here on my page and you're reading this blog, you obviously are asking me. The band is not a bad thing, the band is not a bad ambassador for the college, the band is a great institution that should be cherished and celebrated.

I was in the band my freshman year of college. I was not in the marching band, though I was required to try out for it in order to become part of the Varsity Band. However, most of the people in that band were then part of the Varsity Band, so I can speak from experience. These kids work hard. They work extremely hard. Try outs were three days of straight marching in the summer sun for about 6 hours a day, carrying around your instrument and playing music at the same time. And Wisconsin marching is not a simple shuffle step or walking. It's a toe-out knee-lift march that leaves your entire leg sore the next morning. Once you make tryouts you spend the rest of the fall semester practicing every day for that Saturday's game. Kiss your weekends good-bye until after the Bowl Season because when you're not playing a home game you're traveling to road college games, or up to Green Bay to play for the Packers game. Come the winter you don't get back any more free time just because football is done. Every weekend is college basketball, or hockey, or women's basketball, or women's hockey or volleyball, or traveling for shows. I remember ever Monday getting on a bus at 3 p.m. and not arriving back at campus until midnight. That's not counting the three hour rehearsal every Wednesday.

What do they do all this for? There's no scholarships, and there's no wealthy alumni kicking back to the woodwind section. They do it for one credit a semester. And in exchange they get a uniform that's too warm, a sweater that they have to provide their own black pants and white shirt for, and a silver plated instrument they have to return at the end of the year.

But band members are proud to be in the band. They are proud of it. I knew kids in my class that had come to Wisconsin specifically to be a part of the band. People who had learned new instruments so they would have a better shot of making it through try outs. I was in the band for one semester and it is one of the things I am most proud of during my college career.

These are good kids. They do volunteer work, they tutor, they form Bible study groups, they hang out together. Do they drink as Chancellor Wiley claims? Yes. I can vouch for that. They drink a lot. Quick, someone call the police, someone in college was drinking. Do they swear? A swear word might slip out now and again, they're human. Has Chancellor Wiley ever watched a football coach's mouth all game? Has he ever come to a game at Madison? This is a school where the student section yells "F*** You!" "Eat ****" back and forth at each other as Affectionate Terms. To be outraged that college students drink when they're not in uniform or accidentally let a swear word slip out is to subscribe to a Puritanical mindset that, quite frankly, is unrealistic in this day and age.

Lastly there's the allegation of hazing. I don't know anything about that, and I'm not saying that because my Trombone Brethren have sworn me to secrecy. I'm saying that because I never saw any hazing. My "initiation" into the band? I had to clean the buses after trips and I had to spend a night serving beer to people at a party. That was It. No nude dashes across the stadium, no Power Hours, not even any light cross dressing. I'm not saying there isn't any hazing, we all know how stupid the Tuba section is, but I am saying that I never saw any.

I think Chancellor Wiley is doing a bad thing in a big way. I think I'm not the only one who's going to be outraged if the band, or sections of the band, are removed from the college atmosphere. The Wisconsin Marching Band is the "Best Band In The Land" and they have earned that title through hard work and dedication. They are fine representatives of both the school and the state. I was proud to be part of the band, I am proud of the band today, and I hope to be able to say I am proud of the band in the future.

ON WISCONSIN.