My parents have had season tickets to Spartan football games since I was in middle school. In those days, there were few things that impressed me more than the student section. I watched with growing admiration from our seats near the tunnel entrance as the students performed chants and cheers and provided inspiration and excitement even when the team was losing. I couldn’t wait to be a part of it. I never once thought that my membership in the once idolized student section would be a source of embarrassment.

This is my third year of purchasing student tickets to the football games, and I have never been more disappointed with the section. The profanity in the first down cheer has spread to almost every other cheer that the band can play. With each game, I am increasingly mortified by the complete lack of class and intelligence the student section now displays. From anywhere else in the stadium, the student section appears to be a group of people with profoundly limited vocabularies and absolutely no respect for the players, coaches and other fans in attendance. From inside the section itself, this view is confirmed; very few individuals have the decency to stop participating in the foulest parts of the chants.