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Mr. J. Redwine Patterson, you said SMU has lost its spirit. Myquestion to you is whether you think we have lost our spirit orhave we lost our enthusiasm.

Over the course of the last five years, I have had thefirst-hand opportunity to watch and learn about the SMU communityas a whole.

I have been a witness to the show of true commitment to thecommunity and to things beyond the walls of SMU.

Like you, others have begun to doubt that there is a vibrantspirit living here at SMU. I will say loudly and clearly that theSpirit of SMU is very much alive and continues to drive ourfaculty, our staff, and our students to go above and beyond mostuniversities in showing its true spirit. “Helping andgiving” to others is the true spirit of SMU.

That is more profound than you might think in that over 70percent of our students themselves receive help to attend SMU andyet they give.

I do not agree with your comments concerning Dr. Caswell. He isone of SMU’s greatest supporters and to say other wise showshow little you know of him. You may know a small portion of hisresume, but that is not the man.

With a bit of research, you would know of his creation of theSpirit and Traditions committee.

A group of dedicated individuals taking deliberate steps towardrevitalizing the very “spirit” of which you speak.Offices across the entire SMU campus have cooperated on a number of”spirit” issues.

You now hear “Varsity” on our phones, all areencouraged to wear Red and Blue on Friday, and you see the Spiritand Traditions Guide that is given to every first year student andto others who express a desire for a copy. Do you have a copy?

If you had taken the time to understand his article you wouldhave seen it was a simple expression of one of his favorite timeshere. His knowledge and appreciation of the time-honored traditionsof this university are second to none.

You should have been inspired to appreciate the thought of thefirst day you came to SMU. I suppose that would have been the fallof 1944 or 1945, just as WWII was winding down.

That was a time of cheering and spirit. The “boys arecoming home.” The world at that time was looking to a newday.

Times have changed and that new day has arrived here in 2003. Itis exemplified by our communities’ appreciation of a new daythat offers us the opportunity to offer our humble services to helpothers.

We go to elementary schools to help tutor young students inreading.

We organize clothing and food drives.

We collect stuffed animals so that a kid with cancer can have atoy while in the hospital.

We travel the world to help others when we could be in Cancun onour spring break.

We celebrate the glories of lights and then return to a darkenedhall to have a Christmas party for kids that would have nothing butfor that night.

We color and hide eggs and give out candy to those who dress upand walk our halls.

We take a hammer and a paintbrush to build a home for a familythat we do not know. We bust a finger when driving a nail, and weglob on the paint, making the professional cringe. Yet, when youstand back from all that hard work, it looks just as good. The tearin the grateful eye of the person who now has a home tells you thatit is maybe perfect, if only to them.

Some would say that because we do not fill a stadium and havecheerleaders directing the voices of many or the sound of a roaringcrowd that we have no spirit. I hope that we can come to anunderstanding that true spirit is not measured by the amount ofnoise coming from stadium. I do wish we did a better job of showingour enthusiastic support for this school’s public events. Iwould agree that the art of the pep rally may have been lost alongthe way, and we all need to do a better job of expressing ourenthusiasm for our school at the football games.

You offer no solutions to these issues. So I will offer a few.One great way of doing that is with the “red sea” ofshirts packed into Ford Stadium with cheers led from the field andechoed from both sides of the stands. We do need to wear red andblue on Fridays. We all need to wear the new red gameday T-shirt toshow that we carry the spirit that Mr. J Redwine Patterson speaksof for all the things for which SMU stands tall and proud.

We do need to cheer for and echo the chants at a game becausethey are much more than a simple expressions of support, they arethe notes to the song that will sing in your heart long after youleave this hallowed place.

SMU is a place were we are proud, were we give back, were theflame in all our hearts drives our giving spirit … and it liveson.

I suggest some may need to open their eyes and broaden theirscope of what they see as “school spirit.” There can beno debate that cheers from the stands are more easily attained whenyou win. I would hope that everyone, including Coach Bennett, wouldagree with that.

I hope that the coach does know that those who carry the truespirit of SMU will always be in the stands cheering on the Mustangsin support of him, the team, all of the athletics department, allof Student Affairs, all academic departments and all of SMU.