Letters

Letters to the editorWho cares about the pros?

Editor:Why is the Don Antonio’s Sports Box section of the sports
page always

overflowing with statistics on professional sports leagues, with
so little

attention paid to college sports standings and rankings?

The NFL, for example, only plays on weekends and Mondays, and
thus, we

see the same statistics every day – boring. And while many
people get more

and more disenchanted by the excesses of professional sports,
our college

sports go neglected.

When was the last time I saw the national rankings of
women’s

volleyball? Those change every week and are essential, given the
high

quality team at UCLA.

When was the last time playoff brackets were shown for the
tournaments

for which men’s and women’s soccer qualified? Maybe the Sports
Box is

simply a paid advertisement by that eatery whose name it bears;
however,

excluding college sports standings is inexcusable for The Bruin,
and

professional statistics are simply BORING.

Patrick Burns

Graduate student

GeographyDie hard fans get the shaft

Editor:This is in response to Kimberly Babb’s letter ("Stand up,
sit down …,"

Nov. 20) regarding the poor spirited student section in the last
two home

exhibition basketball games. Perhaps what she didn’t realize is
that UCLA

has successfully eliminated the "real" student section.

If she looked closely, she would have noticed that where there
was once

a spirited student section (mid-court bleachers), there are now
alumni who

apparently paid big bucks to have reserved seats there. If she
looked even

closer, she would have noticed that the student section has been
pushed

over to where the band used to be, and the band is in the upper
blue

mid-court seats.

Now, don’t get me wrong, it is not Babb’s fault the student
section is

not as spirited as last year, but more likely UCLA or the
Central Ticket

Office, or whoever is responsible for the whole ticket
distribution and

seating this year. Not only has the student section been moved
in lieu of

wealthy alumni, but all the die-hard fans I know were unable to
get season

tickets this year.

Why, you ask? Because tickets were distributed on a lottery
system that

didn’t take into account the four years prior, where the diehard
fans went

to each and every game and slept out, even though UCLA’s
basketball team

wasn’t No. 1. All the system took into account was one’s ability
to pay for

both football and basketball season tickets, and of course, a
touch of luck

that one’s card would be picked.

Babb writes a short test to see if one belongs in the student
section. A

better test would be as follows:

1) Do you remember when you could approach the CTO window and
simply ask

for season tickets and have a choice between full season and
half season

(Plan A and Plan B)?

2) Do you remember when there were no line, no lottery and no
alumni

sitting in the student seats?

3) Do you remember sleeping out the night before the game with
not only

a midterm the next day, but shivering to death because it was so
cold and

rainy that you thought Noah and his animals would come floating
by?

If you can’t answer yes to these three questions, then I have
some

friends who would be willing to take some tickets off your
hands.

Finally, even though Babb has just become an alumna (’95), she
shouldn’t

be appalled by the students, but by her fellow alumni who have
successfully

stolen seats from students just because they have more
money.Eric Chien

Fifth year

Microbiology/molecular genetics

Electrical engineering

Editing error

Editor:In response to Wednesday, Nov. 22’s column, "Stirring the
alphabet

soup," I, Jenny Hsieh, as the author, would like to make
some

clarifications as to errors I saw in the final printed
version.

The words "It is wonderful to see distinct niches being provided
for

every conceivable type of Chinese person out there (otherwise,
everyone

could join any `Chinese’ clubs even if they were not Chinese)."
were

printed in place of what I had originally intended. It should
have read:

"It is wonderful to see distinct niches being provided for
every

conceivable type of persons, Chinese or otherwise, out there.
(Everyone

could join any `Chinese’ club even if they were not Chinese)." I
believe in

open access to student programs. I would be offended, too, if
someone

excluded me from their ethnic organization because I didn’t have
their skin

color.

The second part I wanted to clarify has to do with the words
"everyone,

that is, except `eggs’ – Caucasians who fit in the Asian scene
… pardon

the expression, I know I am being hypocritical by labeling." I
found it

questionable that I label when I advocate an end to labeling.
Therefore, I

changed that paragraph on my final submission to read "with the
exception

of those who are not of Chinese ancestry, then, of course, they
would bear

the unfortunate label of being an `egg’ … white on the
outside, and

yellow on the inside." Yet, due to an editing error, the final
version of

my words were not printed.

I take the misrepresentation of my ideas very seriously,
especially on a

topic as sensitive and as controversial as this one. This is my
attempt to

clarify on my behalf that the words that were printed were not
necessarily

reflective of my ideas.Jenny Hsieh

Daily Bruin

Columnist