Your View: 'Frat Guys' Ruin Football Game for a Grad Student

Editor, The Auburn Plainsman

AU played a great game Saturday and I would guess most fans thought it was one of the best game-watching experiences in a while.

There was, however, a notable group of students that did their best to ruin the experience for those around them. I am talking about "Frat Guys In Large Groups."

I don't claim to be a GDI, and I assume that the Greek community adds vibrance and positive activity to The Auburn Experience that no other organization does.

I also assume that a large number of people in fraternities are fun and considerate as individuals.

That said, repeat evidence at AU football games makes me question both of these opinions.

More than any other segment of the crowd, frat guys appear to make up the obnoxiously vocal, occasionally violent, and openly inconsiderate part of the student section.

I misjudged arrival time for the season opener and ended up having to sit near a large group of frat guys behind the goal posts. Aside from the hassle of belligerently drunk brothers constantly cursing at our own team and the surrounding home team crowd through whiskey hate goggles, there was a also a quick pushing match that came from them that resulted in several people falling to the next bleacher down and my girlfriend catching a flying elbow in her back from a large dude.

I was frustrated but not surprised. The subtle unease of belligerence and a lingering possibility of minor violence seem to be the price paid for showing up too late to not sit further away from a frat.

I know a lot of non-Greek students share this opinion and it's unfortunate that a sizable minority of the student body (frat guys) carry that stigma; it dirties the reputation of the decent members and is the reason that phrases like "frat douchebag" are so liberally and oftentimes ignorantly applied.

Auburn prides itself on being a family; if so, a number of frat guys seem like the cousin who shows up drunk to Thanksgiving and tries to fight Grandpa. Let's leave the violence and aggression on the field where they're wearing pads next time and focus on cheering for our team.

Clinton Patterson

graduate student, computer engineering