As the Jumbo football team hit its downward spiral this past Saturday, the people in the stands and drunk tailgaters couldn't have cared less. Other than a handful of cheering fans with bullhorns and pom poms, the crowd was fairly indifferent as it witnessed yet another Tufts' Homecoming loss.
"Tufts has no school spirit. You go to any sort of event that's school sponsored and no one is there. No one is proud of their alma mater. How many people even know the school song? Its really embarrassing," sophomore Myra Cocolicchio said.
While sports fans at other schools will paint their faces with school colors and scream bloody murder for a touchdown, Jumbos - by and large - sit relatively still. Senior Alfred Cazeau noted that the game protocol is different at Tufts. At other schools, students come to watch the game, he said. Here, however, he said that people watch the game by default. "[People were] like 'I'm tired of drinking, let me go watch the game,'" Cazeau said.
He admitted that he, too, prefers the more social aspect of the game. "The only reason I went to Homecoming was to see alumni and tailgate," he said, revealing that he was only at the game for five minutes.
While many seniors are familiar with the sentiments of Cazeau's observations, some freshmen are not. Freshman Rebecca Anderson, who went to her first Tufts football game on Saturday, was struck by the number of fans.
"I was really impressed to see how many people were out there. It was more than I expected," she said.
She did, however, note the paucity of noise in the stands - a phenomenon she couldn't quite understand. "The crowd was pretty quiet [during] the game...and I couldn't figure out why."
The general lack of school spirit was evident at Thursday's pep rally, a poorly attended pre-game event intended to fire up students. "It's very sad that no one showed up to the pep rally. Two-thirds of the people at the pep rally were athletes. The rest were Senate people and random people who wanted free stuff," said Cocolicchio.
Cazeau did not attend the rally, but he spoke with one football player who was disappointed with the turnout and its implications in terms of fans. "[The player] was so pissed and I could see why. When you're playing a sport and you're not getting paid, you're doing it for the love of the game. Knowing that the school support is behind you helps a lot," he explained.
Junior Eric Lindsey said that there are very few things that get students up and moving. A post-rally party wasn't even enough. "There was a party [after the pep rally], but everyone took off," he said.
While Tufts students were less than enthused, Williams jubilantly cheered its Purple Cows to victory on the opposite side of the field. This frustrated some.
"Our crowd was absolutely silent. Then, you went across to the Williams side and they had planned cheers, people were actually animated, cheering the team, and calling out the players' names," Cocolicchio said.
"Now that's school spirit," Cazeau added, who used to play lacrosse for Tufts.
"What's the possibility of Tufts being at Williams and showing up with a crowd that huge?" he asked, adding that certain schools bus students to away games.
"If we're away, you're lucky to see a teammate's parent show up. The Williams crowd was so packed you would think it was their homecoming," Cazeau said.
Though Williams sports a seemingly impressive display of spirit, Tufts students are aware that their cheering is a result of Williams' greater emphasis on sports. "[Williams] has to do a lot of recruiting and they have a lot of good athletes. Their teams win a lot and they advance in tournaments. They have their reputation for having good teams. It's more of a tradition thing with them," Lindsey said.
Despite the realization that schools like Williams foster more spirit, Tufts' student frustration persists - especially when they reflect on personal experiences. Some note a discrepancy in high school and college school spirit. "When it came to our rivals, people were all decked out in our school colors, ready to cheer and support any team or any thing that's going on," Cocolicchio said.
Anderson also enjoyed greater spirit at her high school, even without the hallmark sports team. "My high school didn't even have a football team, but we had a lot of school spirit for the other teams," she said.
Despite the lack of spirit, students don't foresee a change in the dispirited student body.
"I don't think people like Tufts enough at this point to want to cheer for our school. We don't have the pride that we should have for whatever reason. People aren't happy with the social life, or it wasn't their first choice and they don't want to be here," Cocolicchio said, noting that some major changes must be made before this problem is rectified.
"[The administration is] going to have to make the quality of life on campus better so people will be happy with the school; so they want to be part of the Tufts community," Cocolicchio said.
Cazeau agreed that Tufts just doesn't seem to push spirit on its students. "You keep talking about things and they claim changes are being made - in reality you never see the changes," he said.
Cazeau jokingly traces his thoughts on Tufts "spirit" during his tenure here. "My first two years, I thought things could only get better. By senior year, I have come to the realization that I'm only here for an education," he said. "There's this thing called campus life and Tufts does not have it."
If changes did roll around, however, students seem to think that things would look up on the Hill. "The more pride, the higher the morale. [The school will] get more money from us in the future, when we're alumni," Cocolicchio pointed out.
