Where is Pomona College’s school spirit? It’s definitely not in my hall. A couple of my friends came back from the football game this weekend and shared the current score. Everyone groaned and made some comment to the effect of "this is Pomona, we don’t care." So what if some of our teams aren’t good this year? Some of them are good, and all of them deserve at least our psychological attention, even if we’re too busy to support our athletes with our physical presence.

It amazes me the commitment that must go into playing a varsity sport here at Pomona. Practice every day, early mornings, drills, staying in shape, and, worst of all, forsaking time that could be spent a million other ways. I don’t have enough time for everything; even without all-consuming extracurricular activities.

The same is true of many other positions at this school, but it seems that athletes put in so much time and get so little support from their fellow classmates. Now, I’m as busy as anyone else, but I find time at least once every couple weeks to cheer on our teams.

Plenty of other schools offer just as many, if not more, opportunities than Pomona, and their students manage to turn out for important athletic events. It’s Pomona’s school spirit that’s missing. So here I am, trying to find it, for the good of our community.

The first place I went looking for school spirit was the library. Not because I had any notion that that’s where our school spirit was hiding, but because I had a huge econ research project to work on. In between researching European unemployment rates, I looked around, scouting out for any sign of Pomona students’ home team pride. Everyone was being completely silent, engaged in research and studying. Go figure. And I didn’t even find much about European unemployment rates.

Having not yet formulated a distinct plan for when and where I would be most likely to find flag-waving, chirping Sagehens, I decided I was hungry and went to dinner at Frary. Although students did seem very enthusiastic about getting food, they seemed less than enthusiastic about Pomona.

In fact, most of those who did mention Pomona were complaining about the food, or, rather, the lines, as Frank was closed that night, and the administration had decided that it was a good idea to try to pack all of its student body into one dining hall in the course of an hour and a half.

Realizing I needed to formulate a more concrete plan in my search for school spirit, I returned to my hall. My sponsees were engaged in a lively game of pillow-ball, running up and down the hall and occasionally into each other. I thought about asking them for their input on school spirit, but had to run into my room to avoid getting run over.

I sat down at my desk and thought about why Pomona students are so apathetic when it comes to our school sports teams. At first I thought maybe it’s because we’re a Division III school, where students are more focused on academics and the goings-on in their own lives. But then I thought of my friends back east. Most of them go to Division III schools as well, and students at their schools turn out for more sporting events than do people here.

Maybe, I thought, it’s our laid-back California attitude. Whereas back east, people are highly competitive and very proud of their school’s standing, here, perhaps, we really couldn’t care less about which school’s students can run faster, jump higher, and cheer more loudly. But that should be countered by the fact that, at Pomona, it’s actually a pleasant experience to sit outside on a sunny weekend afternoon and watch a football game. Whereas for my friends at Colby, it’s about twenty degrees in the sun this time of year.

Maybe it’s the fact that we don’t have cheerleaders, and that our mascot rarely shows up at sporting events. As far as cheerleaders go, I really have no desire to watch people dance around telling me exactly how I can get excited for the home team. Perhaps if we had one of those really awesome cheerleading teams they show on ESPN where they flip each other over and all sorts of exciting stuff, a cheerleading squad would be a welcome addition, but as far as the traditional short-skirted-high-voiced cheerleader types go, I can take it or leave it, but I’d much rather leave it. I know how to cheer on my own.

But, if our mascot can’t make it to anything besides Homecoming, then how should I find the time? Donning the blue, orange and white feathers of Cecil is both an honor and a responsibility, and I would like to see it treated as such. School spirit is not just something that should be brought out twice a year. Most students I know love Pomona, and I’d like to see them show it.