Student Senate “Can’t wait to see everyone on theBoulevard this Saturday! Go Mustangs!” Ed Board read theseexclamations in the officer reports section of the order ofbusiness memo handed out to senators at Tuesday’s StudentSenate meeting. Organization involvement in Mustang football wasanother explicitly listed point.

Now Ed Board recognizes that Mustang football is important.School spirit is one of those things that bond us together as SMUstudents, faculty and alumni. However statements such as”can’t wait to see everyone on the Boulevard thisSaturday!” doesn’t belong on the Student Senateminutes, at least not by itself.

The officer reports from the meeting a year ago today fail toprovide any academic encouragement, but they certainly don’thave any of the boisterous football propaganda such as thatevidenced in yesterday’s meeting.

As detailed on the front page of today’s DailyCampus, three of the four officers referenced the importance ofathletic attendance. Director Arlene Manthey said it was”very important to get students in the seats.” And itis. Students should don their Harvard Crimson and Yale blue thisweekend in defiance of Texas Tech’s invading Red Raiders.

But Ed Board believes that academics should be everyone’sfirst priority while they are a student at SMU, and as such, if thesenate was going to make a note of this weekend’s footballgame, they should also make a note to the effect of “hopeeveryone does well in classes this week!”

Admittedly, the likelihood of any member of the student senatedoing poorly in class is rather low. However, the senate is anacademic institution, and was started as a means for students tohave more control over what their college experience would be. Theyshould continue in this academic tradition and concern themselvesprimarily with helping students better relate to their campus. Whynot discuss tips for recruiting members to currently member-lesscommittees? Why not spend an equal amount of time discussing how tobest get the senators’ constituents more involved or discussstudent life?

Ed Board would also like to urge everyone to attend thisweekend’s game. Attendance numbers certainly need toincrease, or else we might lose another Olympic caliber teamsimilar to our loss of men’s track last spring. However, inthe words of Dean Jasper Neal, Ed Board would also like to urgestudents to “Go to class!” and study hard.