On Saturday Oct. 22, I attended Penn State University’s annual White Out game at Beaver Stadium.
The White Out tradition started back in 2004, and it has been the most highly anticipated Penn State football game each year ever since. It is an iconic Penn State tradition that truly exemplifies how much school spirit there is at the university.
Most students love the energy and hype surrounding the White Out, and have some of their best memories from college at these games.
Unfortunately, there are many students that feel the exact opposite.
Last year, I was one of the students that had a less than ideal White Out experience. I had gotten split up from my friends and lost my seat in the student section while trying to find them. I was near tears due to frustration and stress and decided it was best for me to leave the game.
It still took me around 20 minutes to just get out of the student section due to overcrowding, which just worsened my anxiety at the time. Eventually, with a lot of maneuvering and weaving through other students, I made it out of the game. Even though leaving was the best decision for me at the time, I was extremely disappointed my first White Out experience ended so poorly when I had been looking forward to it so much.
As this year’s White Out game was coming up, I knew if I wanted to have a better experience, I had to plan better. So me and my group of friends made sure to stick together and we headed inside the stadium two hours before kick off in order to ensure we all got spots in the student section.
Even after arriving that early, when we tried to enter the student section we were faced with a blockade of hundreds of other students trying to do the same thing. In attempting to get through, my friends and I were squeezed between so many other people that it actually became hard to breathe.
Thankfully, because we had gotten there so early, there was plenty of room for us to sit together in the student section. Be even so, around 75% of it had already been filled.
Because I stayed in my spot the whole time, I had a much less anxiety-inducing experience than last year. But when I talked to my friends and observed some other students around me, I knew my previous experience was not the anomaly I had thought it was.
When I looked to my right at the steps separating two sections, I saw a girl who was seemingly having a panic attack, squished between a mass of people with no option of leaving as any potential exit was blocked with more people.
And when some of my friends had left to either go find our other friends, go get food or go to the bathroom, it took them around 30 to 45 minutes to make it back due to the crowds.
Another acquaintance of mine had a friend who fell over and was stepped on by people trying to get through, so much so that she had to visit a doctor the next day for bruised ribs. And, my acquaintance’s friend group had so much other drama due to the stress of the game that many of them were not on good terms the next day.
Even though my White Out was fairly successful, I believe something has to change in order to stop these situations that range from strenuous to down-right dangerous from continuing to happen.
When recapping the day with my friends, we noticed how cruel some students were being to others. Many students were shoving and cursing at others due to everyone worrying so much about getting a spot in the student section.
But, when we thought about it, why are we as students fighting each other, not only to get seats that we paid for, but fighting to be a part of our own school’s football game in the first place?
With this in mind, the issue at hand isn’t the need for better security or crowd control techniques, but that all Penn State students should be able to comfortably be a part of the student section at their university’s football game.
Penn State students fight tooth and nail over the summer in order to pay over 200 dollars for student season tickets. It is very competitive and many people who try do not end up getting tickets.
Much of Beaver Stadium seats are reserved for people who buy non-student tickets, which is where much of the school’s ticket revenue comes from.
If Penn State really cared about their student’s experience more than money, they would reserve a larger section for the students so every student who wanted to be at the football games, could be. This would also make it so popular games like White Out aren’t so overcrowded with students who couldn’t get tickets trying to sneak in.
This would also assure that students would get the seats that they paid for (which should be ensured anyway).
Penn State realized the chaos that ensued at the White Out and tried to amend this by adding new crowd control regulations for the next home game. However, they’re missing the point that all students should be able to experience football games without stress.
The White Out can be an amazing experience for some, and an awful experience for others. Something needs to change in order for Beaver Stadium to be the safe and fun place for students that it is meant to be.