A carry over from another blog of mine

Most folks outside of Auburn won't care about this outside of it being a good example of a horrid smear campaign. This was originally posted on another blog I started just for this topic.

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From The AU Majorettes are Safe: The Idiocy Continues:

The committee updated their website. Of course, their newest statement is full of holes, so I'll quote and correct it here:

Thank you for your responses to our website. In an overwhelming flood of emails, over 1800 of you voiced your dismay over the elimination of the AU majorettes and asked for the program to be reinstated. These responses illustrated to us how deeply you felt about Auburn tradition and not wanting our band to look like the majority of schools who had no majorettes. Your emails were distributed to President Ed Richardson, Athletic Director, Jay Jacobs, and to the Board of Trustees.

I sincerely hope that anyone who actually sent a truthful and intelligent response mailed it directly to Richardson and Jacobs, as I can't help but doubt that any dissenting comments are screened. I also question the number of responses.

Dr Johnnie Vinson, Director of Bands, retired in December and Dr. Rick Good (Marching Band Director who created the Tiger Eyes) was promoted to this position.

According to the AU Bands website, Dr. Vinson's retirement is set for the end of the 2006-2007 academic year, not December 2006. Read it here. Though they did get the part about Dr. Good moving up correct, but I wouldn't go so far as to say he "created" the Tiger Eyes.

The Music Department has been in the process of choosing a new Marching Band Director during the past 6 weeks, but has not named a successor as of this date (Feb 22). Auditions for majorette line (twirlers), flag line and dance line were scheduled for Saturday, February 24. Dr Good had announced that he was decreasing the number of majorettes chosen for the line this year. As of last week, only 9 of the 10 returning majorettes had submitted an application to audition .A total of 21 girls had made application (a decrease from previous years).

Again, I question their numbers. To the best of my knowledge, the information they are quoting is not publicly released, so either they've gotten a hold of information they have no business nosing into or they made it up.

Knowing that the Auburn Majorette program was in jeopardy of becoming non existent, we requested that auditions be postponed until the new AUMB director was named and that he be the one to oversee the selection process. It has been our hope that the new Director be a person who respects Auburn tradition and would consider the voice of the Auburn Alumni and fans.

We are happy to report that Dr Richardson honored our request and instructed Dr. Good to postpone the ‘twirler portion” of the auxiliary tryouts until April 14 in courtesy to whoever the new Marching Band Director may be. Please do not give up this fight. Continue to urge others to send in emails and we will make certain that they are forwarded to those in authority.

I haven't been watching things very closely lately, so I can't confirm that the date was changed. However, I seriously doubt they got Ed Richardson to do anything. And as for postponing the twirler tryouts specifically, I point you to the AU Bands website which states that "Auditions are all held on the same day", and lists that date as April 14. Here's the link.

Now, it's been a while since I looked at the committees farce of a website, but I poked around a little bit, and the first thing I noticed as the links to SEC majorettes. The links to UF, UGA, UT, and UK work, but the links to Auburn and Alabama simply pull up a picture a former majorette from each. Obviously, they wouldn't want to actually link to the Auburn Tiger Eyes website, as that would be linking their site to something with truth of the matter. But I can that either the Crimsonettes don't currently have a website or don't want to be linked to the committee, despite statements made by "former Crimsonettes" in support of the farce committee.

Overall, this is just more of the same crap from a committee that still refuses to show itself. That fact alone shows a lot of cowardice and unwillingness to face any accountability for their actions.

And I have to tear into their "Official Disclaimer":

This electronic document is intended for public viewing and is solely for personal reference. It should neither be considered an authoritative source nor an official publication of Auburn University. Information on this website contains information compiled from various band members and has been verified to the best of our ability.
(emphasis added)

Every time I have posted like this, it has taken me no more than 20 minutes of research on the web to show their fallacies and inaccuracies. I can only conclude that they are unwilling or unable to truly back up anything they say.

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Read here for more background information.

-the Progressive Conservative

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