Letters to the Editor

Beef Studs acted rudely, unprofessionally Saturday

The Bulls had a great victory on Saturday. However, some fans left with bitter spirits.

It started when one student sitting next to the Beef Studs was feeling ill. He sat down with his head in his hands. That’s when a number of the Beef Studs started heckling the student, shouting repeatedly in his ears, “You’re not allowed to sit down if you’re in the front row.” They continued to shout, push other students into the young man and instigate other Beef Studs to do the same.

After a while, enough was enough. A friend sitting next to the young man spoke up and said, “OK, that’s enough. Go back to your seats and leave him alone.” Then the Beef Studs got even more out of control. They started yelling back and forth with yet another USF student. More people got involved, and several threats came from the Beef Studs. One member told a student that if he said one more word he was going to punch him in the mouth.

After a while things started to settle down, and two of the students apologized to the Beef Studs. This should have resolved everything, but the Beef Studs continued to instigate fights, shout and heckle surrounding USF students.

After watching this go on for long enough, I was so disgusted with the Beef Studs’ behavior that I called Alec Smith, the head of the Beef Studs, over.

I said to Alec, “Please take me out of Beef Studs. I don’t like what’s going on today, and I don’t want to be a part of it.”

Alec responded by cursing at me and putting his hands in my face. I told him that, being part of a student organization, he should have been the bigger man and not let the situation escalate the way it did. His only response was, “I’ll never let it go.”

After all is said and done, I feel that the Beef Studs should not be funded by USF. They did not promote school spirit Saturday. Instead, they promoted alcohol and fighting among students. The Beef Studs started as a group of students to promote school spirit and unite the fan base, not to divide students because they feel they are more hardcore fans than others. The current group has proved to be nothing more than a bunch of attention-hungry punks trying to get on TV.

Heather Kozabo is a freshman majoring in biomedical sciences.