Football Tickets: Free at Last

It isn't often that we use our space on this page for praise. Staff editorials that rail against injustice or call for sweeping reform are much more common. But today we do have something positive to talk about. Last week, the University announced that admission to this year's Harvard-Dartmouth game would be free for Harvard students.

Well, what can we say? The University's decision is a policy that will benefit students and therefore deserves our praise. The decision is a wise one because it may help save Harvard from the shame of having only nine student spectators at the Harvard-Dartmouth game. (This was the number of students who purchased Harvard-Dartmouth tickets in advance of the deadline.)

Admittedly, we do not know how many students will take advantage of this offer, But we do urge students to attend the game. Our cheering section will look pretty pathetic if we can't even muster a measly 10 football fans.

In response to this generous act, do we have any call for justice or reform? Of course we do. We first have a call for justice. We hope that the nine courageous souls who actually paid for their Dartmouth tickets will be reimbursed. Why should they be penalized simply because, overflowing with school spirit, they bought their tickets early?

And we also have a call for reform. This paltry number of tickets sold for the Dartmouth game indicates that school spirit has reached a new low. Harvard should do more to bolster it. Perhaps the University should think about extending this policy of free tickets to all future Harvard-Dartmouth and Harvard-Yale games...