The Marching Band has requested the remaining five rows of section 113 at Carter-Finley Stadium for football games and is pushing to formally introduce its request to the Student Senate at its first meeting Wednesday.

The net result of this move would ease crowding in the section and remove five rows of bleachers, comprising about 80 seats, from the general admission pool of tickets available to students.

The marching band’s request for more tickets is entirely reasonable and will have a minimal effect on student ticket availability.

According to Eddie Mack, senior in mechanical engineering and section leader for saxophones, the band desperately needs the space. Mack said the band was overcrowded to the point of sitting in the aisles and violating fire code in 2007. With the band growing by at least 40 members in 2008, the problems will only multiply.

Some members of the Campus Community Committee were concerned about granting the tickets. The main concern was the loss of student tickets, which had the effect of setting a precedent for guaranteeing tickets for certain students. Some of the solutions offered to addressing the marching band’s space needs included moving the band to a different section, limiting band recruitment or having the band use only a certain number of members to play at a given game.

These solutions create more problems than they solve. Changing sections creates a logistical problem, as finding a new section for the band that does not interfere with existing tickets is extremely difficult. The other solutions unnecessarily complicate the marching band’s job – limiting recruitment will only hurt it, and forcing the band to rotate members at games will make practicing halftime performances inconsistent at best.

The simplest solution is to give the marching band the remaining seats in the section. At best, the loss of 80 seats from the student general admission ticket pool will take up no more than one percent of the seats available for students. The seats immediately behind the band are also some of the least desired seats – the large sousaphones severely obstruct the view of whatever unlucky fan sitting behind them.