By Holly Tormey, senior

After the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference commissioner, Scott Crawford, sent out an e-mail to all the KCAC schools enforcing new rules for game day etiquette, Falcon fans started protesting.

Myself included.

The commissioner’s main points in the e-mail were that all noise makers are prohibited from KCAC games and that all fans must be off the floor in front of the bleachers during game time.

Friends University Super Fans showed up at the game that followed implementation of the rules in mime costumes. They climbed all the way to the top of the student section bleachers to watch the game from there.

The Super Fans didn’t make a sound during the whole game and exchanged air high-fives and silent claps to let the gymnasium know how they felt about the new rules.

Super Fan Christian Trotter thinks the new rules treat the college-age fans like high schoolers.

I agree.

The Friends Athletic Department supports the rules 100 percent. Joe Zimmerman, athletic director, believes the rules will help increase the safety of everyone attending games.

I understand the concern to keep all sporting events safe and that Friends prides itself on being a Champions of Character institution, but how will the University build character when it has rules of spirit for fans?

This isn’t the first time the athletic department has put rules into play for Friends sporting events. Back in 2006 the athletic department banned students from going shirtless to the football games.

The Super Fans then got a low blow when Zimmerman told them that the word “friends,” which was written on the fans’ bare chests, was no longer accepted. The last high school game I went to, the student section was led by boys without shirts wearing paint on their chests.

At Friends and any other school, putting these restrictions on fans seems to be a lack of school spirit.

Not many students attend the basketball games, and the ones who do come out to support their school and their friends have restrictions that limit their school spirit.

Zimmerman says that he enjoys the fans’ spirit and does not want to suppress that, but he wants to be attentive to the safety of all who attend these games.

But the policy is doing just that -- suppressing the school spirit.

There is no harm in having fans stand in the front of the student section on the floor supporting their team. If there is a fan who does demonstrate an “unsafe” behavior, then the athletic department should address that on an individual basis, but to assume that all fans standing close to the game are unsafe is not justified.