September 17, 2006
Stanford band banned

If it's football season, it must mean that the Stanford band is in trouble again.


Stanford officials placed the always controversial and provocative group on "indefinite provisional status'' Thursday for its members' apparent involvement in campus vandalism. That means no christening the home turf on Saturday. No performing at any athletic events, at least through September. No travel for a year. No alcohol.

No kidding.

[I]n July, campus officials say, some members trashed the band's former campus trailer, causing an estimated $30,000 to $50,000 in damages. A campus investigation determined the vandals used a sledgehammer to destroy walls, windows and equipment.

"It was wrong. Most of them know it was wrong. And we're willing to accept our punishment for the role we played,'' said band president and trombone player Adam Cohen, who estimates that 10 of the band's 150-odd members are being investigated in the incident.

The band will be required to make full restitution for the damages, university officials said. Criminal charges have not been ruled out, said Jay Boyarsky, a supervising deputy district attorney for Santa Clara County.


My understanding is that the band had raised funds to build a new bandhall, which is why some of them decided to (ceremoniously or otherwise) destroy the old one. I can understand the motivation for that - after my sophomore year at Trinity, the old Student Union center was scheduled to be torn down and rebuilt, and just about every student organization that had an office in the doomed building did something like that at the end of the year.

Unfortunately for the Stanford band, their old headquarters was not supposed to be torn down. It was supposed to be repurposed for something else. As such, the destruction wasn't incidental. Oops.

For what it's worth, I think the yearlong ban on top of restitution and potential criminal charges for the 1/15th of the band that actually did the destroying is a little harsh. I suppose it would be hard to argue that this is a first offense for them, however. Link via the Rice fan forum, with additional info from the omniscient Grungy.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on September 17, 2006 to Other sports | TrackBack
Comments

As a former band member (not at Stanford) and a former Bay Area resident, I have a bit of a soft spot for the Stanford Band. They remember that it's OK to have fun with music and performances. That's great.

But.

The trouble with the Stanford Band is that they've gone too far too many times.

Criminal charges are stupid if they're making restitution and being banned from athletic events.

Curiously enough, this comes the morning after we saw a low-tech version of the Stanford-Berkeley game where the band was on the field when Berkeley ran for an unexpected touchdown, flattening a band member in the process.

Posted by: Sue on September 18, 2006 6:30 AM

0-3, well the band wasn't there to help them against Navy, not that they stood a chance anyway. Thank the football gods that Oregon beat the Sooners. After the SEC openers, the PAC-10 needed the credibility.

Go Cal,

Adam

Posted by: Adam on September 18, 2006 5:45 PM

Ask yourself, what kind of a new trailer costs $50,000. Or better yet, google FEMA trailers and see what our govt. paid recently. And then ask yourself, what kind of damage could you do to a trailer that was probably 10 years old that would cost 30-50k to fix. And then ask, who 'owned' the trailer.

Posted by: Jerry on September 18, 2006 9:08 PM