Behavior degrades University reputation

Purdue Women's Basketball lost the National Championship. We lost it in the last five seconds.

But Purdue really lost it not in St. Louis, but in West Lafayette. Kristy Curry and the team accepted the loss with dignity and grace befitting a team that could have very well won the game were it not for two free throws in the last five seconds of the game.

Purdue University students, though, did not carry themselves like a gracious second place. We carried ourselves like arsonists and vandals, tearing down street signs and starting Dumpster fires wherever we trod.

The sad thing is that it was expected. It's even sadder that this sort of thing has become the norm for Purdue University, win or lose. The general climate of the fiery celebration implied that even if we had won, there'd have been students out in force with lighters and lighter fluid. It's become an annual tradition, one that students see as their own chance at sport.

With Purdue in flames, and by our own hands, we didn't deserve a championship. Notre Dame won and there wasn't a question of this sort of behavior from them.

This is the third year in a row for Purdue, though. Two years ago, as one student put it "that was the real riot." Last year, after a defeat in the Men's Basketball NCAA tournament, students set fires and crowded into the streets until they had to be sedated with teargas. And this year, fires were being set and put out until early this morning.

No matter our performance on the court, men or women, champions, Elite Eight, or final round, our performance on campus is one of drunken rampage.

Although it may keep our police and fire department at a high readiness level, it says that we aren't ready to have another championship.

Unless it's a championship for the most damage done to our own campus by our own students.

That's not an award to be proud of, but it's one we earned.

Editorial Board: Keith Thomas, Tom McHenry, Melissa Davis, and Laura Pelner.

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