Saving seats in the student section

[AUJarhead 70]

Sorry but I'll take NOT joining a frat to study and actually do what we at Auburn ought to be doing, rather than joining an organization that boasts average GPA's that are often well south of a 3.0. Are Greeks the only ones that go to other sporting events?

Way to blanket statement! Nice job!

[jaredm2012 0]

Sorry but I'll take NOT joining a frat to study and actually do what we at Auburn ought to be doing, rather than joining an organization that boasts average GPA's that are often well south of a 3.0. Are Greeks the only ones that go to other sporting events?

Way to blanket statement! Nice job!

Yes, because making blanket statements that only organizations/Greeks deserve (or for that matter, earn) reserved seating are perfectly acceptable

[AUJarhead 70]

Yes, because making blanket statements that only organizations deserve (or for that matter, earn) reserved seating are perfectly acceptable

Two in one day! Shouldn't you be doing more studying instead of internet surfing? Got to keep that GPA up after all.

[jaredm2012 0]

My GPA is "up," thank you very much.

[au2004ece 30]

The student section should be first come, first served, for the entire section. If the frats want to sit together, they should all get there together at the same time.

[jaredm2012 0]

The student section should be first come, first served, for the entire section. If the frats want to sit together, they should all get there together at the same time.

Bingo.

Also, my statement makes a lot more sense when one looks at this:

Fall 2008 Greek Grade Report

Three fraternities on that list average over a 3.0.

[BamaGrad03 146]

Greek blocked seating is one of my biggest pet peeves. And it only feeds into the sense of entitlement these organizations are accustomed to.

At Bama, the greek sections that are reserved are ALWAYS the ones that are the last to fill up or sometimes never fill up (for smaller games). And they ALWAYS AlWAYS ALWAYS leave at halftime.

When I was a student, I camped out for Basketball tickets. And at basketball, gymnastics, and baseball, the overwhelming majority of student fans were non-greek.

Sure they do other stuff like community service, and float stuff. But don't act like community service isn't a charter requirement. And that half the people doing it aren't touting it on their resume. And the float/parade stuff? Please. That's the biggest party/hookup/fun (to the greeks) thing you guys do all year. You absolutely would do that stuff irrespective of seating preference at games.

So to take it a step further and try and "save" rows of other seats outside of your entitlement zone is an affront to all the GDI's who are your fellow students whom you so despise and look down on. If you can't see why people would take offense, then it pretty much defines our problem with it.

[nimsjus 0]

There is no greek section, which is what about half the people on here are referring to it as. There is a block seating section for students in organizations that participate in the spirit point system. The system is mutually beneficial for Auburn and the organizations who participate. Auburn would not have much student involvement in pep rallys, on campus spirit events, and community service projects without putting out some kind of carrot to get students more involved. The students get the benefit of getting better seats in return. I dont see what the major issue is. Some schools have a greek section. That I think is unfair because greek life isnt for everyone. Auburns system is open to any and all organizations. There is nothing unfair. Everyone has the opportunity to participate in the system. Why is it so hard to participate in an on campus organization in order to have the opportunity at a personal benefit? What harm comes to Auburn students by encouraging them to get involved in a campus organization (of any type) and then particiapte in a few events in order to get a preferred football ticket? I just cant see the logic where this is something so sinister and unfair when everyone can participate and it encourages positive personal development? For the record I was in a fraternity that put a priority on winning spirit points very year. I spent more time Homecoming week building a float than anyone is even allowed to stand outside the stadium in a season to get first dibs at the student gate, not to mention hours of community service, pep rallys, athletic events, campus involvement events etc. Honors college, a non-greek groupo of extremely motivated hard working students, earned the spot right below us. It is not going away because it is such a huge part of getting students involved on campus and Auburn sees that as extremely important when it comes to campus life, student retention, and student development.

[nimsjus 0]

I don't think we're ready to expand the stadium yet, but I think that with the increase in size of the student body, the student section should be expanded. I would be interested in seeing data comparing the size of the student section in other SEC stadiums compared to ours. Yes the alumni pay more money, as they should, but the students are the ones who are bringing most of the noise!

Auburn had the highest number of student seats per enrollment when I was at Auburn a (graduated in 2009).That may have changes with Alabama adding some student seating in their new addition, but they are also increasing enrollment rapidly so I kind of doubt it would change anything. I would love to see the student section expanded. However with Auburn already offering more seats per enrollment than most SEC schools and the fact that those seats are a huge net loss to AU (especially if they are included in a multi-million dollar endzone expansion), I just dont see it happening.

[MJDub 106]

Here's a perfect illustration of everything that is wrong with this supposedly "open" system:

After CGC's pep rally speech last week (like I'm talking as soon as he finished with "War Eagle") there was about 300 frat people who sprinted over to some table where they could go claim their "spirit points." That seems pretty obvious to me that while they may have been there to actually hear him give a pep speech, all they were really there for was to sprint to that spirit points table so they could get their precious points, people in the way be damned, and at the same time make it near impossible for anyone else to even claim spirit points by simply blocking the tables with sheer numbers. So to say that it's a fair system, when entire frats turn out to some event for the sole purpose of overcrowding everyone else out from even trying to claim spirit points, is completely naive. Blocked seating has no place in the Auburn Family, and it only perpetuates the horrible sense of entitlement in parts of the student body that makes me feel like I'm on the other side of the state.

[AUdmd07 2]

The student section should be first come, first served, for the entire section. If the frats want to sit together, they should all get there together at the same time.

Bingo.

Also, my statement makes a lot more sense when one looks at this:

Fall 2008 Greek Grade Report

Three fraternities on that list average over a 3.0.

Good to see ATO (my former frat) is one of those 3!

I have sat on both sides of this fence, literally, as I didn't join a fraternity until my sophomore year at Auburn.

To get the "preferential" treatment, you have to do a bunch of B.S. like show up to a women's soccer event for at least an hour. That is an hour you could be studying, partying, working out, whatever you would otherwise be doing. Since these organizations actually show up to these events and no GDI in their right mind would do this I say yes it's fair to reward block seating at football games to participating organizations.

Also, one reason for block seating is that these organizations are large enough that it would be difficult to save seats for that many people. It allows the major organizations on campus to sit together at football games. Again, if your organization doesn't do squat, you don't get the block seating. When I would go with some of my friends that were not in fraternities, there were never more than 5-7 of us and there was rarely a problem saving a seat. Block seating is designed to accomodate and reward medium to large organizations that have been active on campus.

[Texan4Auburn 1,626]

The student section should be first come, first served, for the entire section. If the frats want to sit together, they should all get there together at the same time.

Bingo.

Also, my statement makes a lot more sense when one looks at this:

Fall 2008 Greek Grade Report

Three fraternities on that list average over a 3.0.

Good to see ATO (my former frat) is one of those 3!

I have sat on both sides of this fence, literally, as I didn't join a fraternity until my sophomore year at Auburn.

To get the "preferential" treatment, you have to do a bunch of B.S. like show up to a women's soccer event for at least an hour. That is an hour you could be studying, partying, working out, whatever you would otherwise be doing. Since these organizations actually show up to these events and no GDI in their right mind would do this I say yes it's fair to reward block seating at football games to participating organizations.

Also, one reason for block seating is that these organizations are large enough that it would be difficult to save seats for that many people. It allows the major organizations on campus to sit together at football games. Again, if your organization doesn't do squat, you don't get the block seating. When I would go with some of my friends that were not in fraternities, there were never more than 5-7 of us and there was rarely a problem saving a seat. Block seating is designed to accomodate and reward medium to large organizations that have been active on campus.

Seems those of us that did both sides of the fence as you say think the same. Bunch of stupid stuff noone else would do to get them. When not involved no issues with seating.

Now I don't know how they do the spirit points these days, but pushing people out of the way at tables was not how it was handled at the time that I did it. If that what they are doing now then that needs to change. Points were done by wearing colors/letters and with signs and being vocal during the pep rally/event. Not by showing up and signing a piece of paper. There was always someone from the committee's to observe and judge.

Then like I said, truthfully order didn't really matter as organizations would claim the same blocks they had for the past 15 years plus.

And really lets pull the independent GPA average during football season and see what we get as a average there. The greek probably is about the same as the average student GPA.

[nimsjus 0]

Here's a perfect illustration of everything that is wrong with this supposedly "open" system:

After CGC's pep rally speech last week (like I'm talking as soon as he finished with "War Eagle") there was about 300 frat people who sprinted over to some table where they could go claim their "spirit points." That seems pretty obvious to me that while they may have been there to actually hear him give a pep speech, all they were really there for was to sprint to that spirit points table so they could get their precious points, people in the way be damned, and at the same time make it near impossible for anyone else to even claim spirit points by simply blocking the tables with sheer numbers. So to say that it's a fair system, when entire frats turn out to some event for the sole purpose of overcrowding everyone else out from even trying to claim spirit points, is completely naive. Blocked seating has no place in the Auburn Family, and it only perpetuates the horrible sense of entitlement in parts of the student body that makes me feel like I'm on the other side of the state.

It is a bit dramatic to say that the"frat" kids were there in a big group just to box out the regular kids and hog all the spirit points. Some of those people would have showed up regardless of the oppotunity to collect spirit points because most guys who go to Auburn go there because they are fans of the university (more specifically the football team). Adn opportunity to see the coach would have drawn a crowd either way. Each person had to wait in line at the spirit point table regardless of who they were affiliated with. You have to sign in/get your card scanned as proof that you were their. There is nothing unfair about haveing to wait in line at a table when everyone else had to do it to. It is not like they had a line for greeks and that they served first and then all the other students later. It is a pretty equal opportunity situation. THey also altered the spirit points my last couple of years to favor the smaller organizations. Initially it was setup where whichever group had the largest number of people at a function got the most points. We were a large fraternity so it was easy to for us to put up big spirit point numbers(therefore making it tough on smaller fraternities and student organizations). They changed it to be based off of the percentages of an organizations memebrship that attended an event. So Water Ski Club or small fraternities had a huge advantage. If all ten people in the waterski club showed up that was much more valuable than 60 out of the 120 members of our fraternity showing up to the same event. We really had to bust our hump in order to compete and continue to win spirit points. The setup actually favors the small groups (greek or not) over the large groups. So I fail to see how it is so completely unfair that everyone had to go through the same process to earn points. Especially as noted above that those points are tougher to get for larger groups.

[aumd03 2]

Geez, insulting a fraternity brings out blind loyalists worse than WarTiger when you complain officials.

My brother ranked #8 last year in athletic event attendence. Yes, they do keep track. He is not greek, but does he not deserve a reserved seat? What has someone else done that proves themselves better?

Its a great incentive but it also corrupts the intent of community service if it is only to guarantee better seats at a football game. Doing good things for a reward is called a job, not community service. There are organizations on campus that on a per capita basis do more community service in a year than fraternities would do in a decade. But they are made up of diverse members and don't require under threat of expulsion or physical, emotional or social harm, the blind loyalty and dedication.

This argument will never be solved. Those that aren't greek see in the injustice in it. Those that are greek enjoy the position and unfortunately the system is to engrained to change. Personally, I think the seats down lower suck anyways and its hard to see. I'd rather be on the end or up behind the band in the corner. And I didn't have to pay money to have someone be my friend either. Win-win situation.

[ValleyTiger 2,894]

Why don't they let the pledges sit with their orgs? The original complaint was about saving seats, and the pledges are typically the culprits. Like it or not block seating at Auburn is not going anywhere. But I wish they would downsize the number of blocked seats because it never fills up.

[AU! 0]

Why don't they let the pledges sit with their orgs? The original complaint was about saving seats, and the pledges are typically the culprits.

In my experience, a fraternity is given enough seats to cover each member. That does not include dates. What typically happens is that when guys bring their dates, that pushes other guys out. Anyone that doesn't get a wristband for the section has to sit general admission.

[nimsjus 0]

Geez, insulting a fraternity brings out blind loyalists worse than WarTiger when you complain officials.

My brother ranked #8 last year in athletic event attendence. Yes, they do keep track. He is not greek, but does he not deserve a reserved seat? What has someone else done that proves themselves better?

Its a great incentive but it also corrupts the intent of community service if it is only to guarantee better seats at a football game. Doing good things for a reward is called a job, not community service. There are organizations on campus that on a per capita basis do more community service in a year than fraternities would do in a decade. But they are made up of diverse members and don't require under threat of expulsion or physical, emotional or social harm, the blind loyalty and dedication.

This argument will never be solved. Those that aren't greek see in the injustice in it. Those that are greek enjoy the position and unfortunately the system is to engrained to change. Personally, I think the seats down lower suck anyways and its hard to see. I'd rather be on the end or up behind the band in the corner. And I didn't have to pay money to have someone be my friend either. Win-win situation.

No blind loyalism here. Sorry I did it both ways. Four years in a frternity and the last three of pharmacy school i played it like an independent and sat with pharmacy friends. They always tried to save seats for the group and i told them I thought that was lame in the general admission section. I tried to get them to sign up the pharmacy professional organizations for spirit points if they wanted some reserved seats and they chose not to because they did not want to do the work to get the seats. Noone in a frternity pays for friends...Food(10-15 meals a week)/Rent/No cover to go out/better football seats are all things covered as part of the dues and it was far cheaper than covering all of that with fraternity dues than it was to pay for them otherwise.

[AU! 0]

You know, I might actually listen to one of the opposing arguments if they stop blaming fraternities and add blame to SGA and ROTC.

[jaredm2012 0]

Well I guess it is hard to blame ROTC for anything because they are a part of our armed forces, even though they haven't served. As for SGA, at least they get elected. At any rate, I honestly don't think anyone ought to have reserved seats: frats, SGA, small clubs, whatever. As someone else pointed out, the frats just stick out more, due to the size of them. I don't feel like anyone deserves it more than anyone else. At least, the people that wait outside in line for hours deserve it much more.

[AUwingsfan 1]

I can't believe anyone would try to save a whole row of seats...if I'm in the stadium that early my buddies better be getting there within 15 minutes...otherwise I'd just say someone took the seats...no need for me to be the bad guy when my friends are the ones failing in their duty to show up and support the team at a decent time!!

I used to be bothered when people would go into the stadium with me hours before the game, only to walk off and socialize and leave me to save the seats...that's one thing I don't miss about the student section....

[MJDub 106]

Being in ROTC I can tell you that the only seats that could even really be considered the "ROTC section" are the front couple of rows in the end zone section, and only that's because it's the easiest place to get to after doing flags on the field. I usually don't sit down there because I like to be higher up for the view, but there's obviously no wristbands, etc. required to get down there, and I've never seen a problem with non-ROTC people sitting there if they want to. We don't mind either; we want loud people as close to the field as possible, so long as they're cheering for

[jaredm2012 0]

I found this interesting:

Season ticket sales

Bama hasn't sold many more season tickets than we have, which means they must sell a lot of single game tickets. Also, their season tickets cost less than ours (smaller required donation). I'm not saying we need to copy Bama or anything like that, just that I think if we adjusted the way we sell tickets we could have higher average attendance. We sell out single game tickets for the bigger games pretty quickly (LSU, UGA) and can even manage to sell out other games when opposing schools return their unused tickets. I think this year we could post 5 sellouts (Clemson, S Car, Ark, LSU, UGA), which out of 8 games isn't bad.

I do think that if Auburn expanded JHS in the next few years and maybe reduced ticket prices slightly, we could mostly fill up the stadium and expand the student section. Though we haven't posted as many sellouts as other big schools, we've had a good bit since 2004 (21 I think) and that should get better as the team (and the economy) gets better. We sold out Clemson this year, and Bama and West Virginia last year. Kentucky was very close to being sold out, Miss State was close, and Ole Miss probably would have been if it hadn't been in a morning with bad weather. I do think that we will soon see an expansion at JHS, at least closing in one of the endzones with an upper deck. I would love to see that happen just because we definitely need some more student seating, even if only a couple thousand more seats.

[BZ770 2]

Even when I was in a fraternity it was still a hassle in the student sections. Yes the pledges would go and save seats but there was never enough room for all the Fraternities to fit in their alotted sections so what did they do, try and steal other Fraternity's rows. This was always a problem, that led to lots of fights and drinks being poured on people. As far as the other goes, no you shouldn't try and save seats maybe you could save 1 or 2 seats but a whole row, bad idea. Look forward to when you graduate and you'll never have to sit in that section again.

[AUdmd07 2]

I found this interesting:

Season ticket sales

Bama hasn't sold many more season tickets than we have, which means they must sell a lot of single game tickets. Also, their season tickets cost less than ours (smaller required donation). I'm not saying we need to copy Bama or anything like that, just that I think if we adjusted the way we sell tickets we could have higher average attendance. We sell out single game tickets for the bigger games pretty quickly (LSU, UGA) and can even manage to sell out other games when opposing schools return their unused tickets. I think this year we could post 5 sellouts (Clemson, S Car, Ark, LSU, UGA), which out of 8 games isn't bad.

I do think that if Auburn expanded JHS in the next few years and maybe reduced ticket prices slightly, we could mostly fill up the stadium and expand the student section. Though we haven't posted as many sellouts as other big schools, we've had a good bit since 2004 (21 I think) and that should get better as the team (and the economy) gets better. We sold out Clemson this year, and Bama and West Virginia last year. Kentucky was very close to being sold out, Miss State was close, and Ole Miss probably would have been if it hadn't been in a morning with bad weather. I do think that we will soon see an expansion at JHS, at least closing in one of the endzones with an upper deck. I would love to see that happen just because we definitely need some more student seating, even if only a couple thousand more seats.

I was at the Kentucky game last year and it wasn't anywhere close to being sold out... empty corners of both upper decks. Maybe they reported close to a sellout but there couldn't have been more than 84K in the stadium.

[AUdmd07 2]

Geez, insulting a fraternity brings out blind loyalists worse than WarTiger when you complain officials.

My brother ranked #8 last year in athletic event attendence. Yes, they do keep track. He is not greek, but does he not deserve a reserved seat? What has someone else done that proves themselves better?

Its a great incentive but it also corrupts the intent of community service if it is only to guarantee better seats at a football game. Doing good things for a reward is called a job, not community service. There are organizations on campus that on a per capita basis do more community service in a year than fraternities would do in a decade. But they are made up of diverse members and don't require under threat of expulsion or physical, emotional or social harm, the blind loyalty and dedication.

This argument will never be solved. Those that aren't greek see in the injustice in it. Those that are greek enjoy the position and unfortunately the system is to engrained to change. Personally, I think the seats down lower suck anyways and its hard to see. I'd rather be on the end or up behind the band in the corner. And I didn't have to pay money to have someone be my friend either. Win-win situation.

The fact of the matter is that the community service is getting done one way or the other. How many pre-meds, pre-health, pre-whatever do community service just to fluff their application? How many people do community service just to feel better about themselves and could care less about the people they are helping? How many people are sentenced to community service as part of some sort of punishment for breaking a law?

The answer is a lot of people do community service for other reasons than the common good of man. However, in the process people still benefit by the "volunteers'" activities, regardless of their motives.