Triton Tide’s newest spirit campaign, creatively named Triton Fridays, seeks to bedazzle the campus in blue and gold by bribing undergrads with shiny toys. Every person decked out in school gear who stops by the group’s booth between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. will be entered into a raffle.
The only problem? Rallying for a Library Walk dress-code change won’t fill the stands. Rather than probing students to remember UCSD pride when they open their closets Friday morning, the campaign will likely make those with yellow wardrobes coincidental participants, ultimately giving away an iPod — what a unique and coveted prize — and a Wii to students still just as unlikely to attend a game.
Perhaps if Triton Tide is proving time and time again — anyone remember last year’s obscene-foam-finger debacle? — that it is unable to spend funds wisely, the cash-strapped A.S. Council should re-evaluate its commitment to funding the athletic pride brigade. Plus, thanks to the 2006-07 athletic fee referendum students hand over tons of money to sports teams, giving them full capacity to pay for their own advertising.
What Triton Tide just doesn’t seem to understand is that lame gimmicks are the last way to increase campus pride. But time after time the group seems to believe that if it wastes enough money on something stupid, the missing spark will ignite among undergrads, causing Tritons across campus to drop whatever they’re doing and rip off their jackets in perfect Clark Kent-fashion, revealing a sea of U-C-S-D body-painted man chests. If only.
But until the fiber of the universe splits, turning La Jolla’s sun-baked campus into the Metropolis of DC Comics, maybe Triton Tide should funnel its celebratory energy and its student-funded budget toward initiatives that may actually encourage game attendance. For instance, wouldn’t starting such a raffle for school-color-wearing game attendees make much more sense? That way students would be encouraged to dust off the cricket-infested bleachers and actually show some support for UCSD’s best and brawniest.
