Letter to the Editor: Athletic events should be free to all students

I appreciate Mr. McGraw’s comments regarding student tickets to sporting events.  

After transferring from a university where all sporting events were totally free for all students, I was surprised at how incredibly expensive student tickets at Ole Miss were. 

For my part, and I know this sounds blasphemous here in the South, I’m not that into football. 

In fact, I’m not that into sports in general. 

However, I love going to games for the experience of community and camaraderie they facilitate. 

Before I transferred here, I went to every home football game, every home basketball game and every home hockey game I could. 

It was a great social opportunity, provided a lot of much needed catharsis, and best of all: it was free. 

It didn’t matter how the game went; the teams weren’t that great and more often than not, got obliterated by the visiting team, but whether we won or we lost, we were in it together. 

We were all the same. 

It didn’t matter whether we were rich or poor, Greek or geek, black, white, brown, or purple.

We were one community spending time together. 

If we mourned or if we celebrated, we did so together.

That’s the real beauty of allowing students to attend events for free. 

It unifies the student body and creates a real sense of community in which socio-economic status doesn’t matter, race doesn’t matter - nothing matters. 

As long as you are in the stands, cheering on your team, you are part of the community. 

In order to truly be one of America’s Great Public Universities, Ole Miss needs to serve the public in such a way that everybody who wants to be part of the community can be, regardless of how much money is in his (or his parents’) bank account.

Sincerely,

Tanna Rose K. Sherrill

Junior 

Double-Major, Religious Studies and History