The whole mess makes me sad, culminating with the September 3 announcement that the university was disbanding the Band-uh, and blackballing the Band-uh Alumni. I am heartened by the backpedaling by the administration, and the prospect of the Band-uh performing tomorrow at the Montana game.
I am old enough to recall the inclusion of women into the band, and the controversy that entailed. At the time I thought this was an obviously necessary reform, as society was gradually realizing in nearly all areas of life segregated by gender. (I really can't remember I was in high school at the time, or if it occurred after I enrolled in '74. I clearly remember women in the band when I was a student.)
I have not reviewed the public information regarding this current situation, but I readily concede the likely necessity to make some changes in Band-uh structure, administration and even Band-uh culture (to the extent that such culture can be engineered from authorities above, but there is a lot of that going on these days, at colleges/universities, and in the rest of society these days). The decisions to form committees, appoint new layers of administration, codify values into behavioral codes, and rebranding is pretty much the way university regimes as well as bureaucracies throughout our society typically behave. Shouldn't expect anything but, I suppose.
I happened to notice an article on deadspin the other day, about Columbia University eliminating their band as their football program has emerged from decades of being non-competitive in the Ivy.
Columbia University Wipes Out Its Delightfully Chaotic Marching Band For Bullcrap Reasons
Deadspin even has a category for articles tagged
The War on Marching Bands . (I rarely read Deadspin, until Ray Ratto joined them a couple of months ago).
So that is some interesting context. College administrators really don't like not being in control (or indulging in the delusion of control).
I am hopeful for a satisfactory resolution. Make some changes to discourage/prevent abusive behavior keep the soul and spirit of the Band-uh tradition and history intact going forward, rescind this asinine banning of the Band-uh Alumni Association, should be doable. Fingers crossed.
edit: fix a link