Campus community should rally around dedicated student-athletes

Dear Editor:

First of all, I would like to make it clear that UNC Asheville is committed to excellence in sports.

We battle for championships every year and do more with less money than any other school in our conference. I wish more students would take pride in what their fellow students work so hard to accomplish. The student-athletes at our school represent some of the brightest and most diverse students on campus.

As far as Lassi Hurskainen is concerned, he is a nice guy, a good student and a very talented athlete. We are proud to have him as part of our university.

The Big South Conference has recognized Hurskainen as one of the premier men’s soccer players in the league, selecting him Player of the Week for the entire conference several times. I would encourage Ben F., the “concerned senior,” to lace up some cleats and stand in front of our goal posts to see how he fares in front of highly trained NCAA Division-I Big South athletes.

The Blue Banner has continued to feature articles which dismiss our athletics department, and now the paper has stooped to a new low. I am appalled that our student newspaper would print an unprovoked personal attack on an upstanding member of the student body. Do we really want our paper to serve as a platform for the degradation of the students it is supposed to represent and inform?

The Blue Banner has yet to print an article which fairly presents the general student body sentiment toward athletics. During the basketball season, games at the Justice Center are packed with fans, some of whom show up an hour early to sit in the front row. Surely, not all of the students in attendance to those events view athletics as a useless part of our university. I am not a reporter, but isn’t it common knowledge that journalists are supposed to collect all the facts before making a statement?

I challenge members of the student body, especially those uninterested in athletics, to attend a home sporting event. I guarantee they will see high-class, high-caliber student-athletes representing them.

I also challenge members of the student body, especially those uninterested in art, to view the artwork featured in Ramsey Library. I guarantee that they will see high -quality, high-caliber work done by their fellow students.

There are a multitude of communal opportunities available for students on this campus, all of which add to the cultural richness of our university. In their mission statement, the Nike Corporation states that “If you have a body, you are an athlete.” The tagline for Artskc.org is that “Art is for everyone.”

I hope the students on this campus will respond to Ben F.’s verbal assault on Hurskainen as an attack on a classmate and a friend. If we could all set aside minor differences in our interests, we will be able to appreciate each other’s accomplishments as students of the same university.

-Jenna Dover, junior and President of the Student

Athletic Advisory Committee

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