In the April 27 issue of The Polytechnic, Andrew Tibbetts was complaining about the lack of participation in the few events that are present on this campus, yet he says that the Go Be Red Campaign will not be able to achieve its stated goal of increasing school spirit and involvement. If a group of students is participating in an event, they will be able to encourage their other friends to come out and watch them.

If you figure 50 teams, each of 5 people, there will be 250 participants. Even if each individual can convince only one or two friends to watch, that creates 250-500 more spectators. During sporting events, even if only half of the participants go to watch any given game, this provides 125 fans for a team that is usually happy to garner an attendance greater than a couple dozen people.

Free food events do get people to come, but the sole purpose of those is the food. Most students come with a group of their friends to eat a non-Commons meal, and leave shortly after they are done. There is very little interaction between students who do not already know each other, which will not in any manner help foster school spirit or participation.

Similarly, such events are sporadic, whereas Go Be Red will create continued involvement, as it runs for eighteen weeks straight. There is no way to force the apathetic and non-active students to get involved on campus, which is why Go Be Red is designed to encourage the semi-active students to become more active.

The initiative is not designed to be a one-year event; instead next year will be the inaugural year of a program that will hopefully become as much a part of this campus’ traditions as Freakout! or GM Week are, and especially as they were in their prime. A successful first year will increase student interest and participation in subsequent years, and will hopefully carry over the spirit and participation to all aspects of life at RPI, including to those events for which attendance will not earn the student an award. If you think that something needs to be done to increase school spirit and participation, then I urge you go out and recruit a group of students to help you plan such events that will achieve this goal.

However, the Go Be Red Committee has already beaten you to it. I challenge you and any other student who says that there isn’t enough to do on campus and that we have no school spirit to get involved, and make Go Be Red a success. Through this initiative, there will be activities for students to partake in. It’s up to the students who say there isn’t anything to do to participate in them. Get involved, join a team, help out with the committee (email kimh5@rpi.edu; we’ll be working all summer long), attend the events, and make this program a success. Our means of achieving the same goals are different, but does it really matter how increased school spirit and participation comes about, so long as it does?

Katie Mahoney