Letter from Abby Passaro: December 7,2011

Recently the senior editor, Ashley Beck, published an article titled “All for one, and one for Mount Union Football”. This article is irresponsibly written and completely ignorant.  To begin, the grammar and use of linguistics is all wrong. An article so poorly written should never have been published. Next, you have every right as an individual to speak your mind, but you did so in an offensive way. Not only are you being offensive to the football players, but you are offending all those involved in athletics. Your statistics are completely wrong. To say there is only 25% athletics at this school is a major understatement. The athletic population is well over half the student population. It also exceeds that number when taking in to consideration the equipment managers, film crews, statisticians, student coaches, and especially all the athletic training students.

It may “bother you” that you are not recognized for your grades and your efforts that you put forth. However, it is rare that individuals are often recognized separately. You may feel you have done a part in this world and on this campus, but so has everyone that is a part of this football team and athletic population. They put more effort in to their daily lives then you ever will. They work hard, they practice, and they succeed not only as a football team, but they have academic lives as well. These athletes work hard academically on top of everything that they have to do. They have outstanding grades, because if they do not, they are punished for it. You, however, would not know this because you clearly have no sense of what they accomplish on a daily basis to get as far as they do. To say that they can skip class without punishment is ridiculous. There are always consequences for one’s actions and the athlete’s on this campus know that and they follow the same rules that apply to everyone else. To have you punish them for their efforts is unbearably rude. They bring a sense of family to this school. If you wish to not be a part of their enjoyment, then you have not right as a student to say anything about the team at all.

Also, you continue to call the other students on Mount Union’s campus “ordinary”. If all they are is “ordinary” then they don’t deserve to stand up for anything. Only the extraordinary deserve the best, because it is the extraordinary that make a difference. You, on the other hand, are not proving yourself extraordinary in any way with your comments and I would be insulted to call myself ordinary.

As far as finals go, if the football team makes it to the Stagg Bowl, they were instructed to take their finals before Tuesday December 13^th. They have managed to do this in the past with no issues. You, unfortunately, are complaining because you now have one less day of finals. Clearly you, Miss. Beck, need to learn to manage your time better because all of the athletes are managing their time just fine.

Respectfully,

Abby Passaro

Football Athletic Training Student

Mount Union Raider Fan!

Letter from Kelsey Ivancic: December 7,2011

I am writing in response to the article the senior editor of the Dynamo wrote about the Mount Union football team.  I found Ms. Beck’s opinion about the Mount Union football team was poorly written, inappropriate, and downright insulting to the family of Purple Raiders. Ms. Beck was correct in the fact that Mount Union is primarily a college that revolves around athletics.  The facts of the matter are that Mount Union starts off every academic year with well over 1,600 student athletes enrolled, and taking into account statisticians, film crew, equipment managers, student coaches, and athletic training students, well over 50% of the campus community are somehow involved in athletics.  With this in mind, there is good reason why Mount Union is all about the sports.  In all honesty, Ms. Beck fails to realize that if it was not for athletics, Mount Union would not be what it is today.  It is because of the sports at Mount Union that people hear our name and want to apply here.  It is because out athletic teams contain plenty of talent and win that alumni and others donate funds to the school that are used to rebuild the MAAC as well as other non-athletic venues such as Cope.  It is also because our sport teams have winning records that lacrosse is being added as a varsity sport next year, contributing to the overall student population and the name of Mount Union Purple Raiders.  I don’t see other departments on campus contributing to the influx of students and the prestige of the name of the University of Mount Union.  It is clear that the University of Mount Union is what it is today because of our wonderfully talented athletes.

Perhaps the most insulting aspect of Ms. Beck’s article is that she believes the athletes are treated superiorly to other students without consequences.  If Ms. Beck were to open her eyes, she would see that the student athletes work harder compared to students who are not involved in athletics.  Here is how a normal day looks for a football player: wake up early to lift and watch film, classes all day, treatments if they are injured, practice for about 3 hours, film sessions after practice, club meetings, and finally around 9 p.m. homework.  This is not just a normal day for a football player, but also for any other student athlete and others involved in athletics.  This is a busy life, one of which most students cannot handle.  As an athletic training student, I have seen firsthand how much effort the athletes put into their sports and into their academics.  I believe I have forgotten to mention that the majority of the student athletes maintain a GPA of 3.0 or higher; I would like to see Ms. Beck uphold those academic standards while also balancing sports, leadership roles, and a social life.

Ms. Beck’s biggest complaint is that final have been moved because Stagg Bowl has been moved up a day.  I don’t think Ms. Beck should complain considering she has an entire week to take her finals.  On the other hand, the athletes and athletic training students must works twice as hard to complete all finals within a two day period.  I would like to challenge Ms. Beck to do that and see how she fairs.  It was presumptuous of Ms. Beck to say that moving of exams would not be done for any other sport, but this in entirely false.  The same would have been done for any other team.  In fact, one could say that exams were moved to accommodate what Ms. Beck called “ordinary students” so that they may watch the game.  Ms. Beck needs to look at the real facts and think again before she goes bashing the Purple Raiders because if it wasn’t for the sports, there would be no Mount Union.

Very Respectfully,

Kelsey Ivancic, Athletic Training Student and Proud Purple Raider Fan