8B - The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - January 31, 2005 JOI0 After years as a staple of Michigan hockey, 'The Chant' is now in danger of becoming a thing of the past By Jake Rosenwasser " Daily Sports Writer Page design by Daniel Bremmer 000 uring the Michigan hockey team's last two games this weekend, the University has started to enforce a ban on profanity at Yost Ice Arena. The athletic department recently changed its policy regarding profanity and, in particular, the profanity-laced C-YA cheer. Students who use profanity will now be ejected from Yost. Executive Associate Athletic Director Michael Stevenson sent an e-mail to student season-ticket holders on Wednesday explain the policy change. The change was made after a home weekend against Alaska-Fairbanks in which Stevenson said he saw no improvement in fans' behavior since talking with student season-ticket holders on Jan. 11 during an MSA-run meeting. The Department of Public Safety said it removed four students from Yost over the weekend for using vulgar language during Michigan's two-game series against North- ern Michigan. One student received a minor in possession of alcohol citation, DPS report- ed. Others were removed by the event staff without the aid of DPS. Stevenson pledged to continue the crack- down throughout the rest of the season, including this Friday, when arch-rival Michi- gan State comes to Yost. He has sched- uled another meeting An alter with student ticket holders this Thurs- day to continue the site III(, wdewi dialogue. In addition to the e-mail, the ath- letic department placed flyers on all the student seats for Friday's game. The flyers stated the same policy change as the -mail. Stevenson said he was changing the policy because of continuous com- plaints from Michi- gan fans. Over the last five years, the profan- "A Westeri ity at Yost has been discouraged by the athletic department, Michigan coach Iis r ad Red Berenson and (h111 " Michigan captains. At Yost, the B But offenders in the stands were rarely no aHeeted by IIh( ejected, if at all. have omde up1th1 Vulgarity has so. become the norm at Yost. Tradition- a1)bx we sty: ally when a player from the opposing team enters the pen- alty box, the Michi- Hot fe sudei gan student section' oed the lyrics berates him with the C-YA cheer, which consists of a string of 11 words, most of them expletives. In sync with a fury of hand motions, most of the students in attendance shout out, "Chump, dick, wuss, douche bag, asshole, prick, cheater, bitch, whore, slut, cocksucker." It has become part of the student section tradition to add an expletive onto the cheer each year, and this year was no different. After a few home games, the word "cock- sucker" was added. Before Friday's game, Stevenson and Yost management instructed the event staff on how to handle the new policy. "We're supposed to give them one warn- ing for vulgarity," event staff worker Gary Korpal said before Friday's game. "The next time they do it, they're going to be removed by security." But Korpal said that the event staff was instructed to look out for certain vulgar words. "They're more worried about c-sucker than anything else," Korpal said. "They're gung ho on that. They don't want to hear that word at all. They said that's what they want to focus on now." University sports management prof. David Shand said that the athletic department is well within its rights to kick spectators out for any behavior that it feels is inappropriate. "Yost is owned and operated by the Uni- versity, and they set the rules," Shand said. "There are limitations on First Amendment rights. There are a number of behaviors that you cannot engage in at Yost. You cannot go to a game naked, and you cannot smoke pot there. This isn't any different. They have the right to create any environment they want to create. They want to create the best environ- ment that suits the most people." To add to the athletic department's case even further, in the small type at the bot- tom of every student ticket, a message reads: "Management reserves the right to refuse admission or to eject any person whose con- duct Management deems disorderly, obnox- ious, or unbecoming." On Friday, the first Northern Michigan penalty came in the sec- ond period. Event staff worker Bill Hill, stationed amongst the stu- dents, watched as they engaged in the traditional cheer. After the cheer, Hill picked out R.C. senior Dan Mullkoff --one of the more animated and stri- dent fans in the section - and told him, "You've been warned one time, the next time you will be escorted out by the cops." At the end of the second period, an official called Northern Michi- gan defenseman John Miller for hooking, and the cheer started up again. This time Mullkoff did the hand motions, but kept his mouth shut throughout. "I felt like it wasn't worth it," Mullkoff said. "As cool as being a martyr would have been." And while Mullkoff managed to stay, engineering freshman Matthew Rodriguez was removed from Yost in the third period. Rodriguez said he was warned earlier in the game by the event staff for participating in the C-YA cheer but was removed for being vocal in other ways. "I was yelling at (Northern Michigan goal- ie Tuomas) Tarkki," Rodriguez said. "The worst thing I think I said was, 'Your mother doesn't love you.' I never used profanity because I was warned about profanity, and I understood the warning, and I understood the e-mail sent by the athletic department." Rodriguez said that he was initially warned for the C-YA cheer. He said that he recited the whole cheer, except for the "cocksucker" at the end. "I acted responsibly," Rodriguez said. "I'm JASON COOPER/Daily The athletic department has started to hold the Michigan students to "higher standards." 0 0 going to take this to the athletic department Monday morning." Rodriguez left Yost with the event staff, but others were escorted out by police officers. Ste- venson said there were a few extra officers on hand to make sure everything ran smoothly. But fans' disenchantment wasn't limited to those stopped by the event staff and DPS. "If you're at a hockey arena and you pay for your seats, you should be able to express what you want to say," said one non-student season-ticket holder, Jamie Binkley. On Jan. 11, MSA facilitated a meeting between student season-ticket holders and members of the athletic department, led by Stevenson, to address the C-YA cheer issue. All 800 season-ticket holders were invited to the meeting, but only 20 showed up. Still, members from both sides left the meeting feeling positive about getting ideas out in the open about how to rem- edy the situation. The two sides discussed a student contest to create a new, more appropriate cheer with an accompanying T-shirt that would have the words on the back. They also discussed a student-run organization similar to Michigan basket- ball's Maize Raze that could communicate more closely with the athletic department. After the meeting, the two sides agreed to continue their talks. But after the ensuing weekend series against Alaska-Fairbanks at Yost, Stevenson changed Michigan's policy. "We had this positive meeting," Stevenson said. "We left it feeling good. I didn't think (the C-YA cheer) would go away overnight, but, over the Alaska-Fair- banks weekend, n the volume and the annuncia- The mother Of a tion of the words 1.1 who attended Fr went up and the concerned about the spirit of it went n(t to the point of up. It's unaccept- son ticket,,---yet. able. It was clear to me that a great majority of the Who brings her 10- students didn't MichaeL."But youC comply with what and yNJ don't want we asked themff s ' to do. And so it was a total oppo- site of the good feelings we had when we left the meeting with the students." Business senior Josh Gold- man was one of the season-ticket holders who attended the Jan. 11 meeting. He They didn't kick anybody out for doing the beginning of the cheer. The students learned, and the students know. "If you said 'cocksucker,' then they would point at you, and, if you did it again, they would throw you out. Nobody I was with wanted to be kicked out. One word isn't worth it. "I'm not upset about it, but I don't think that there has been any goodwill fostered between the athletic department and the stu- dents who went to the meeting." Some students guessed that the athletic department put the emphasis on the word "cocksucker" because it was at the end of the cheer and was the most audible of the crass words. When said in such a fury, many of the words in the beginning and middle of the chant can blend together. When asked, Stevenson insisted that he wanted the whole chant either erased or changed, not just the word, "cocksucker." "There are a number of words (that we want the students to stop saying)," Steven- son said. "But that's certainly one (of them). When I get 10 to 20 letters and phone calls after every single home weekend that parents can't bring their children here, then we need to get the chant changed. "You've got eight words that are unaccept- able. Some students call and say, 'How can you be working with us and then throw us out of the arena?' And I ask them, 'Is that some- thing you would say at the dinner table with your parents?' And no one has said 'Yes.' " But the students understood the mes- sage after the crackdown on Friday. Dur- ing Saturday's game, there were varying estimates about the volume of the cheer, *i ebut there was one stark change: most stopped screaming "cocksucker" at the end of it. mweeing her Sea- On one side of the student section, 0 sitting, it's hard some of the students screamed "bed-wet- L-ir old son John- ter" in its place. On the other side, some him to 11r, that of the students yelled, "We love you, Red." K t'n fe igt ry it,"I would (say) that lave 1) Say 'Wait a it was quieter tonight aying that., than it was last >d idea (1( piiss night," Stevenson it will tonle the said on Saturday. "I think the students g1g to be h rd, were conscious that we were trying to thle point (Where evaluate what was not comlingtnot going on." ish it furt her. t henAnother meeting between the season- )re in the nort ticket holders and the irectly o>>ositeathletic department e 0 0l ; I