Wednesday, March 26, 2008

From the Davidson College President...

To all Davidson Students: Given the extraordinary nature of the success of the men's basketball team, Davidson's Trustees have graciously offered to pay the expenses of those students who are able to attend the game in Detroit on Friday night. We realize that for some students, academic and other obligations will preclude taking advantage of this offer. Please note that classes are NOT cancelled on Friday.

We all know that, at Davidson, academics come first. This offer is not intended to encourage students to miss classes. Students, please consider going to the game ONLY if this is, academically, the right decision for you. For those of you who cannot go to Detroit, the game will be shown on the large screen in the Alvarez College Union and there will be plenty of Davidson Wildcat spirit here on campus.

For those of you who are able to attend without detriment to your academics, please follow the instructions below:

If you want to attend the games in Detroit and do not yet have a ticket, you must email Traci Russ-Wilson at trruss@davidson.edu by 4:00 pm today.

The bus will leave at approximately 6 a.m. on Friday morning. It is approximately an 11 hour ride to Detroit. We will make hotel reservations for you ( 2 students per room). Tickets are for Sessions 1 and 2. If Davidson wins on Friday night, they will play again on Sunday afternoon (exact time not yet known). Win or lose, the bus will leave on Sunday afternoon after the Session 2 game ends. You will most likely arrive back in Davidson on Monday morning between 4 am and 6 am.

If you have already booked a package with the bus that leaves campus on Friday morning (bus, tickets, hotel), then your credit card will not be charged. If you have purchased a ticket and are handling transportation and lodging on your own, then you will be reimbursed for the face value of the ticket only. All of this will be handled next week.

We are so grateful that our Trustees, on their own initiative, have so generously offered this gift to Davidson students. For many reasons this week, including our Trustees' support and commitment to our students, it is a great day to be a Wildcat.

-- Tom Ross

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What an amazing College!! Taking the students to the Big Game; why that is even better than free laundry service. Of course, were the Trustees really sentimental, they would also pick up the tab for all of us alums from the Lefty era, as well. KAO '71.

Anonymous said...

It's not nearly as good as it sounds.

They said they could give free tickets, transportation, and lodging to everyone, but now they are saying that they can't meet the student demand (and they should have certainly expected FULL demand). Things are really up in the air right now as people are hoping that Davidson will keep it's word on this. A lot of people who were really excited are not pretty disappointed. Don't make promises you can't keep.

Here's the official word from the President's Office:

Dear Davidson Students,

Thank you for your enthusiastic response to the opportunity to attend the basketball games in Detroit. We will share with the Board of Trustees your excitement and gratitude for their generous offer.

We have been overwhelmed by the response. There will not be enough time before Friday morning to respond to each email. We are keeping track of the requests in the order they come in. If we have a ticket for you, we will email you directly on Thursday.

Please note - this is separate from the bus arranged by the SGA and the Athletic Department earlier this week.

We apologize, but we will not be able to take every student who wants to go to Detroit. We received this offer from the Trustees at noon today. On very short notice we have obtained four buses that can transport students to Detroit. We are working hard to obtain more buses so that more students can go.

Please remember to carefully consider your academic and other obligations before making the long trip to Detroit.

We thank you for your patience and understanding as we continue to work on this very large project in a very short amount of time.
--- The President's Office