Lack of support for Cornell sports teams

A Cornell student who did crew for three years laments the fact that her fellow students don't support most of the sports teams.
"At many other schools, athletes get great benefits: lots of gear, early access to class signups, even separate dining halls. That’s not the case at Cornell. Being a student-athlete here earns no special privileges; the gear is usually old and reused, and the Ivy League doesn’t provide any kind of scholarships for athletics. More often than not, being an athlete is an academic hindrance. We have to navigate exams and assignments around race schedules, coordinating with our professors and coaches in an effort to survive the semester."

dbilmes
A Cornell student who did crew for three years laments the fact that her fellow students don't support most of the sports teams.
"At many other schools, athletes get great benefits: lots of gear, early access to class signups, even separate dining halls. That’s not the case at Cornell. Being a student-athlete here earns no special privileges; the gear is usually old and reused, and the Ivy League doesn’t provide any kind of scholarships for athletics. More often than not, being an athlete is an academic hindrance. We have to navigate exams and assignments around race schedules, coordinating with our professors and coaches in an effort to survive the semester."

Don't know much about the "gear" issue, but everything else is how I'd have it.

It sounds like she is complaining about the financial support for Ivy athletics not the fan support. As a student, I didn't even know where crew races took place. As an alum and Ithaca resident, I enjoyed heading to the Inlet to cheer along with the kids' parents and siblings....

dag14
It sounds like she is complaining about the financial support for Ivy athletics not the fan support. As a student, I didn't even know where crew races took place. As an alum and Ithaca resident, I enjoyed heading to the Inlet to cheer along with the kids' parents and siblings....

Perhaps I picked the wrong paragraph from the article to put with my initial post. She's complaining about the lack of attendance by fellow students at most athletic contests, as well as the fact that she perceived a bias toward many of the Cornell student/athletes by their fellow students during the pandemic, as she claims they were unfairly blamed for spreading COVID. I would suggest reading her opinion column before jumping to any conclusions.

dbilmes
A Cornell student who did crew for three years laments the fact that her fellow students don't support most of the sports teams.
"At many other schools, athletes get great benefits: lots of gear, early access to class signups, even separate dining halls. That’s not the case at Cornell. Being a student-athlete here earns no special privileges; the gear is usually old and reused, and the Ivy League doesn’t provide any kind of scholarships for athletics. More often than not, being an athlete is an academic hindrance. We have to navigate exams and assignments around race schedules, coordinating with our professors and coaches in an effort to survive the semester."

FFS. And they say hippies whine.

dbilmes

dag14
It sounds like she is complaining about the financial support for Ivy athletics not the fan support. As a student, I didn't even know where crew races took place. As an alum and Ithaca resident, I enjoyed heading to the Inlet to cheer along with the kids' parents and siblings....

Perhaps I picked the wrong paragraph from the article to put with my initial post. She's complaining about the lack of attendance by fellow students at most athletic contests, as well as the fact that she perceived a bias toward many of the Cornell student/athletes by their fellow students during the pandemic, as she claims they were unfairly blamed for spreading COVID. I would suggest reading her opinion column before jumping to any conclusions.

I was wondering about that — do students not go to wrestling? Because otherwise the attendance is pretty solid, right? (I probably went to a couple of wrestling duals as a student and really enjoyed them.)

dag14
It sounds like she is complaining about the financial support for Ivy athletics not the fan support. As a student, I didn't even know where crew races took place. As an alum and Ithaca resident, I enjoyed heading to the Inlet to cheer along with the kids' parents and siblings....

I got to ride in the coaches’ boat once, and seeing a race from that perspective was really fun.

Weder

I was wondering about that — do students not go to wrestling? Because otherwise the attendance is pretty solid, right? (I probably went to a couple of wrestling duals as a student and really enjoyed them.)

more townies than students tbh but i think that's true in the big 10 too.

Sometimes universities provide incentives to students to attend athletic events. At UNC, students who go to volleyball games, gymnastics meets, women's athletic events, crew races, etc. collect "points" that give them priority for seating at basketball games. At least this was true 10-15 years ago when a friend was an undergrad there. A brilliant way to fill the seats at the less popular events.

dag14
Sometimes universities provide incentives to students to attend athletic events....

Pizza and free chewing gum at Colgate? We used to have free candy until the geniuses at Taylor Hall got involved.

An entrepreneurial student could solve the crew attendance problem easily by setting up a big screen at the farmers market and stream live from a drone following the boats. They could cooperate with vendors at the farmers' market to sell tickets that offer discounts, or Boathouse Grill (if they are still there) or Cornell could run 'crew and brew' events from the docks but I realize none of this would likely happen.

As for school support for athletes maybe it's changed since I was rowing but they did allow us to call ahead to keep a dining hall open for practices running late and we were in fact able to schedule classes ahead of gen-pop though maybe that was college dependent and worked for A&S and not others.... so not rolling in hookers & blow but bad either. We even got cookies with our Short Stop Deli bus lunches!

Lame. So sorry your “gear” was from last season and busy students don’t care to watch crew or equestrian, while half the world starves. You’ll be fine

How many people watch crew other than close friends and Alums for almost a whole career of racing.

Its no different than many other college sports.. Im sure squash has a huge following. club hockey,

The womans hockey team when #1 still had a few hundred people showing up many games.

and Crew is the hardest sport to really watch if not on TV..

upprdeck
How many people watch crew other than close friends and Alums for almost a whole career of racing.

Its no different than many other college sports.. Im sure squash has a huge following. club hockey,

The womans hockey team when #1 still had a few hundred people showing up many games.

and Crew is the hardest sport to really watch if not on TV..

Back in the day, the viewing train that followed the race was packed. And men wore three-piece suits and bowlers or derbies or straw hats to baseball games. Today: What's a derby?

Al DeFlorio

upprdeck
How many people watch crew other than close friends and Alums for almost a whole career of racing.

Its no different than many other college sports.. Im sure squash has a huge following. club hockey,

The womans hockey team when #1 still had a few hundred people showing up many games.

and Crew is the hardest sport to really watch if not on TV..

Back in the day, the viewing train that followed the race was packed. And men wore three-piece suits and bowlers or derbies or straw hats to baseball games. Today: What's a derby?

Kindly...drop the vernacular.

Al DeFlorio

upprdeck
How many people watch crew other than close friends and Alums for almost a whole career of racing.

Its no different than many other college sports.. Im sure squash has a huge following. club hockey,

The womans hockey team when #1 still had a few hundred people showing up many games.

and Crew is the hardest sport to really watch if not on TV..

Back in the day, the viewing train that followed the race was packed. And men wore three-piece suits and bowlers or derbies or straw hats to baseball games. Today: What's a derby?

I would have attended this when I was in college!

Al DeFlorio
Back in the day, the viewing train that followed the race was packed.

Back in the day, betting on crew races was widespread; thus, trains and breathless newspaper accounts.

Scersk '97

Al DeFlorio
Back in the day, the viewing train that followed the race was packed.

Back in the day, betting on crew races was widespread; thus, trains and breathless newspaper accounts.

Now that sports gambling has become legal in so many states, and millions of people have gambling apps on their devices, perhaps this will spark a resurgence in betting on crew and the crowds will return.

dbilmes

Scersk '97

Al DeFlorio
Back in the day, the viewing train that followed the race was packed.

Back in the day, betting on crew races was widespread; thus, trains and breathless newspaper accounts.

Now that sports gambling has become legal in so many states, and millions of people have gambling apps on their devices, perhaps this will spark a resurgence in betting on crew and the crowds will return.

I'd bet against that, but I don't have the app.

Al DeFlorio
Back in the day, the viewing train that followed the race was packed. And men wore three-piece suits and bowlers or derbies or straw hats to baseball games. Today: What's a derby?

Back in the day is now more like back in the century.

I didn't know a drone followed the shells. That's cool. Makes sense. Maybe put a GoPro on the jockey, too. Sorry, cox.

Can women be the coxwains of the men's shells? That'd offset a couple more guys on the men's football roster. As I believe it is with football trainers.

billhoward
Can women be the coxwains of the men's shells?

Many are.

Al DeFlorio

Back in the day, the viewing train that followed the race was packed . . .

of course back in the day there were only about 2-3 sports to watch and no tv video games.. people turned out huge for bike races as well.

upprdeck
How many people watch crew other than close friends and Alums for almost a whole career of racing.

Its no different than many other college sports.. Im sure squash has a huge following. club hockey,

The womans hockey team when #1 still had a few hundred people showing up many games.

and Crew is the hardest sport to really watch if not on TV..

Back when I was visiting Cambridge as a graduate student, some of us went to London for the Boat Race. Four hours of standing around in a huge crowd for two 40-second intervals when the boats went by. (The second-string boats from each school also had a race.)