By Aaron O'Connell
Last semester, a piece of the intramural fabric was stripped from its community, leaving the intramural champions without a trophy, its victors devoid of the coveted championship t-shirt.
For everyone who hasn't been keeping up with the intramural t-shirt debacle, it goes like this: Up until this year, intramural champions in their respective sports were awarded with a T-shirt to serve as their trophy.
Recreational Services usually supplied the shirt after an allocation from ASUP of about $2,500. At the beginning of last semester, ASUP significantly cut this allocation, and Rec. Services was unable to foot the bill.
Some were disappointed or upset, and still other, brave citizens wrote awesome and impassioned columns, which gently admonished ASUP for their decision.
Thankfully, due to the tireless efforts of such students (actually ASUP just realized how important the shirts were), ASUP did not allow the injustice to last. For in the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
Clearly this quote was on the minds of all the ASUP senators as they cast their vote to fund the shirts for this semester, and also to reimburse last semesters' champions with their prize.
Sophomore Class Senator Chloe Ruffin said that the shirts were cut the previous semester due to budget concerns. As much as ASUP wanted to pay for the shirts, it was a budget concern. Popular demand, however, has brought them back.
"After hearing as many complaints and comments as we did, we made sure to put funding the shirts as a top priority."
Tuesday evening, Jan. 26th, the shirts were revealed, music was played, cookies were enjoyed and most importantly, the champions received their spoils.
"I'm really glad we got T-shirts. We were told when we won that we weren't gonna get T-shirts, so I'm pumped," freshman Chris Roberts said. "You know we were kickin' grass and we kicked some ass. This is an awesome shirt."
At this point, Roberts' excitement at being given the shirt was so great that he attempted to display the memento to the reporters' voice recorder, until he realized that it was, well, just a microphone.
"All the upperclassmen were like, 'yeah you win intramural sports and you get a cool T-shirt,' and they (Rec Services) were like, 'yeah, we didn't get the funding' but ASUP went out on a limb for us and I really appreciate it," Roberts said.
The shirts, for many students, were never the endgame for playing intramural sports. Many students play simply for exercise or for fun. But the shirts were tradition, and provided a bonus and a reminder. They simultaneously remind the wearer that they owned at intramurals, and could even have the effect of diminishing other students' confidence. Really, it's win-win.
"It was a really big disappointment just because everyone plays intramurals to win and if you don't get anything at the end but a picture taken of you it's just a little bit of a letdown," sophomore Erica Jornlin said.
Really the props here go to ASUP for correcting their indiscretion.
Sure, if they had just allocated the money in the first place, none of this would have happened.
Hopefully we can chalk this one up to a simple mistake, the students are happy and grateful that the shirts were reinstated.
"It's a nice surprise, I mean a lot of us were pretty down because we thought we weren't gonna get the shirts," junior Jose Mondragon-Gomez said. "It's better late than never, you know?"
Really though, good work ASUP.
Aaron O'Connell is the Sports Editor of The Beacon.
He can be contacted at
oconnell11@up.edu
