The Pride of Oklahoma is dead.

[Boomer.....]

An Open Letter to President Boren,
from the student membership of The Pride of Oklahoma

President Boren,

We are tired of being ignored!

This year, there are strict repercussions for speaking out about the condition of The Pride. In order to be in the band, we had to sign a document stating that we would not say anything negative about the organization or its leadership, or else we will be kicked out immediately. We’ve been forced to lie through our teeth about what’s happening out of fear. Our student voices are being quelled with threats – and this is perhaps the most dangerous part of all.

You are a good politician, President Boren. You know how to play the game to subdue the students, trivialize the publicity, champion the incompetent director, blame the right people, and spin the favor in your direction. We are not stupid. You’ve done some great things for the University of Oklahoma, but now you are effectively eliminating the people who care the most about the band, the football team, and the spirit of Oklahoma. With respect to governing the student body, it’s unjust and it’s turning an incredible student-fueled program into a dictatorship. Think about what would happen if you decided to listen and engage with us now. We would once again be proud to be a member of The Pride of Oklahoma and part of this prestigious institution. There would be very few people who would be upset with your decision to hire a more competent, qualified director of whom we all could approve. Most importantly, your conscience would be at peace with the knowledge that you listened to the students and you ultimately put the organization and the university first at the expense of a few self-centered opinions.

While we agree with the Alumni sentiments about the Pride’s direction, we don’t necessarily agree with the way they went about presenting it. We are absolutely not being influenced by Alumni; our sentiments are our own. We vehemently disagree with the direction the Pride is headed because we fear it will continue to create an environment
of mediocrity and complacency.

Many of us resolved to be in Pride again solely because of football. We have accepted that things will not change and have decided to stay in The Pride for the trips and camaraderie. This is completely unacceptable to us for a number of reasons. First, students should want to be in The Pride of Oklahoma, to be involved in something great not because they want to go on free trips. Second, many students in The Pride are required to participate due to their field of study and they aren’t getting the quality of education a student expects from The University of Oklahoma. We just want to learn and we are tired of our time being squandered by ineffective leadership and poor instruction.

All of this is just so frustrating and beyond infuriating that people would just stand by and watch a great organization with nationally recognized traditions be destroyed from the inside out. Those who have spoken out have been assumed to be in the minority. There are parties who are resistant to change because they are simply comfortable with the status quo. Change for the sake of change gets us nowhere. If an unqualified director had been brought in at any other university and the quality of the organization deteriorated drastically, immediate action would have been taken to correct the direction of the organization. A similar situation happened in the 1990’s to our football team with Howard Schnellenberger. He was fired after his only season with the team after a less than stellar performance.

We are tired of being embarrassed. We are tired of mediocrity. We are tired of poor leadership. But most of all, we are tired of being ignored.

Sincerely,
The Pride of Oklahoma Students

The Pride of Oklahoma Student Quotes

“I dreamed of being in The Pride of Oklahoma all of my life, but being embarrassed about being in The Pride was not in my dream.”

“Some of my friends chuckle when I mention that I’m in The Pride because they all know how much of a joke it has become.”

“We’re not the ‘Pride’ of Oklahoma, we’re the ‘Bane’ of Oklahoma.”

“Before Dr. Stolarik came, I proudly wore my Pride jacket everywhere and told friends and family that I was a member of the Pride of Oklahoma. Now I am ashamed to be recognized as a part of this organization.”

“Morale is at an all time low because no one believes our situation can be improved because our President is ignoring us.”

“I’d rather do my high school marching shows again, as opposed to what we have been performing as a university band.”

“We are embarrassed because we know we can be great, but are doing boring and dull shows that even high schools wouldn’t perform.”

“The current level of education is not consistent with a tradition of excellence.”

“We want to entertain the fans, but Dr. Stolarik doesn’t think we’re capable.”

“Because we have stolen so many things from Wisconsin, I feel like I’m in the little brother band that wasn’t even good enough to be the Wisconsin band.”

“Dr. Stolarik promised originality and excitement in our shows, but all we’ve gotten are copies of the Wisconsin band performances and lots of standing around.”

“At the University of Oklahoma, student academic integrity is very important, but what about professor academic integrity? Our shows are like exams in other classes and he’s copied for most of them.”

“The Pride director refused to teach us how to use drill writing software in our marching band techniques class and then openly admitted that he didn’t know how to use it.”

“As a Music Ed. Major, It is unlikely that I will find a job because I do not know how to use the software that is necessary to teach marching band.”

“I didn’t come to OU to be in The Pride, do toe taps and dance.”

“I had the choice between going to The Ohio State University and OU for college. Ultimately, I chose OU because of The Pride. Looking back, I deeply regret my decision to come to OU.”

This ad was created entirely by students in The Pride of Oklahoma and paid for by alumni that care.

.

[badger]

Like many other alums (have been saying on the facebook alum group), I got a call yesterday from the OU call center. You know, the one that employs students to ask alumni for money.

After the ice breaker questions on what I've been doing since I graduated and how I'm using my degree, I finally mentioned band casually, because as my fellow alumni were saying repeatedly, you are going to get a call eventually about Pride donations!

So I talked to my band student and said that while I love the students and don't hold anything against the students for what has been going on with the new administration/leadership changes during the past few years, I would not be donating at this time.

Because this is the student's job, he asked several different ways for money after this, and I promise I was very polite, but didn't change my answer. Here's the selling points (the computer in front of him probably told him to say) he gave:
- Can you donate just maybe $365?
- 80,000 pieces of drill and 100 gallons of water per season. Can you donate $100?
- New instruments often, including new trombones 3 years ago. Can you just give $50?

I really wish that the students would start a gofundme or something so that we could donate towards their beer money, their textbooks and such without worrying about the money going toward more bad band decisions instead. I heard from husband NP who was at the OU-Texas game that the band mostly played toward the Texas side of the stadium at halftime. Derrrrrrrrrp??????

[badger]

There is a full page ad in today's Oklahoman, Norman Transcript and Tulsa World from members of the Pride telling Boren they are tired of being ignored and that leadership must change. Funded by alumni.

Boom goes the dynamite.

Wow, I just checked my paper after you said that. Page A8 in the Tulsa World. Full page ads aren't cheap. Well done, alums and students. Well done.

[Sooner Schemer]

Heupel to Band Director!

[oudanny]

I too received my annual band funding solicitation call. I politely declined stating that I would not support financially under the current director. My student caller asked if it would make a difference if I were told the money went to student scholarships. I again said no and statede I would nit give until Stolarik is gone.
Regarding the open letter - well done band students.

[badger]

I really hope the students are paid by the hour and not on commission, or I'd feel guilty for talking so long without any donation. Back when I was at school friends who did the alum calls were paid by the hour, so hopefully that's still the case.

The alumni facebook page is going more berserk than usual this morning, lol. I mean, there's been chatter in the past, but the ads and the WWLS segment and all really got the passionate alums fired up!

I am not a passionate alum. If people ask I'm not afraid to tell the, but my band jacket's bowl patches were made into a shadowbox years ago and I haven't worn it in like a decade

[yermom]

ouch.

[ouwasp]

President Boren and other powers-that-be just try to weather the storm during a crisis. Pretend the crisis doesn't exist for the most part. The full-page ad will be impossible to ignore... but what if TPTB just simply don't say anything, which is what I expect.

What if the band simply laid their instruments on the ground during pregame, tossed their hats off, and walked away?

But that won't happen either.

[OklaPony]

It absolutely breaks my heart to watch what's going on with The Pride right now. I can only hope for better days in the near future.

Live On, University.

[Salt City Sooner]

Wow. If I may go all Toby Keith on here for just a sec, it sounds like the fits gonna hit the shan.

[soonerstan56]

If Boren was at the saxeT game and does not see the problem he never will.

Stan

[BB37]

Saw the ad in Friday's DOK. I don't see how Boren & the current (mis)director can ignore it. The Pride has shriveled to the point they're almost inaudible when on the field.

[Judge Smails]

A little background info on the director:


http://www.wisconsingazette.com/musi...d-forward.html


This month Dr. Justin Stolarik will conduct what may be the best-known musical group in the state. When he does, he’ll be wearing a white tuxedo with red sequins on his vest, tie and sneakers.

“What I’m wearing is definitely, stereotypically gay,” he laughs. “Except that my colleague wears sequins from head to toe! I just have accents.”

Stolarik is assistant director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison marching band, and the upcoming event is the Varsity Band Concert, led by the flamboyant (and straight) Mike Leckrone, director of bands. The Madison concert, an annual spectacle with pyrotechnics and multimedia displays, is subsequently broadcast statewide by Wisconsin Public Television.

Stolarik is openly gay. Besides the marching band (called the Varsity Band when not at football games), UW-Madison has five concert wind ensembles. He conducts one of the three university bands and takes over at the Varsity Band Concert when Leckrone is off the stage – or over it; Stolarik’s boss, who’s led the marching band since 1969, loves to be suspended on wires to perform aerial stunts.

Stolarik grew up in Long Island and Orlando. He didn’t realize he was gay until college. “When I came out to my sister, she said, ‘Well, when did you know?’ And I said, ‘Kind of recently.’ And she said, ‘Well, your brother and I should have told you when you were in high school.’ ”

In 2008, Stolarik received a doctorate in musical arts from the University of Texas at Austin. He spent a year as assistant director of bands at Henderson State University in Arizona before joining UW-Madison in the fall of 2009.

In Madison, his sexual orientation never comes up with colleagues. “Living in different parts of the country, for instance Texas or Arkansas, people would ask, ‘Oh, do you have a wife?’ Whereas people on this campus are more inclined to ask, “Are you married or do you have a partner?’ That was a big surprise.”

“I do feel like they know,” he says of his students. “I don’t discuss it with them because, straight or gay, my personal life is not their business.”

While it’s statistically certain that some of his students are not straight, they never ask him about it.

“I did get that at Henderson State, at the smaller school,” he recalls. “I kind of chalk that up to its being in a more rural area, where students don’t have a lot of outlets, so they would approach me with questions about themselves.”

Whether working with the 300-strong marching band or his university band, “I think the rewards in the end are the same,” he says: “Seeing the students getting excited about something they’ve accomplished after going through the whole rehearsal process.”

Another reward for Stolarik is in programming dissonant, “ear-stretching” music by composers that undergraduates might not be familiar with, such as Philip Glass.

“I always tell them, ‘I’m not asking you to like it, and I’d prefer you not to make a judgment on any of the music today, but make a judgment after we perform it,” he says. “And if you still don’t like it, that’s totally cool. But don’t judge it until then, because your opinions may change and may evolve.”

[Judge Smails]

A post from LAST YEAR. Doesn't sound like things have gotten any better.

http://www.soonerguys.com/?p=7410


Tuba section boycotts practice in protest of Pride director.

Imagine a dozen giant elephants wearing kilts and guzzling from beer steins, all the while singing a gaelic song consisting entirely of two notes pronounced repetitively.

“Oom pah, oom pah, oom pah”. And then repeat for 24 more measures of music.

Then imagine this same troop of normally affable musicians of the animal kingdom all pissed off and stampeding.

mikesblogThat’s the Pride of Oklahoma tuba section this week. They boycotted band practice on Monday in protest of Director Justin Stolarik’s unpopular changes to the band.

This is a big deal. The fact the tuba section brought this attention to themselves is a big deal. Usually this group goes about their business without regard to any recognition or notice from the rest of the world.

The tubas normally only get a passing glance while engaged in their pre-game rituals, including one in which the uniformed musicians create an arm-in-arm circle and weave back and fro in a motion that resembles some sort of drunken dance in an Irish pub. And they’re OK with that.

Hey, if you’ve ever been in a marching band – high school or college – you know my description of tuba players is spot on.

Tuba players do not have the type A personalities of trumpeteers. They don’t have the manual dexterity of clarinet players. Or, the tonal tricks of the trombone players.



The tubas normally only get a passing glance while engaged in their pre-game rituals, including one in which the uniformed musicians create an arm-in-arm circle and weave back and fro in a motion that resembles some sort of drunken dance in an Irish pub. And they’re OK with that.
But tuba players are the bedrock, the foundation, the core of a band. They’re solid guys and gals who normally go about their business like Snow White’s seven dwarfs. Whistle while they work fellas. Dependable. The Scotties to the Captain Kirks. They are a likeable bunch.

So, when I read (and saw on the TV news) that the Pride tuba section was leading what some might call insurrection among the ranks of the Pride of Oklahoma – an organization I was privileged to be a part of back when Barry Switzer was hangin’ half a hundred on Iowa State – well, I took pause.

OU President David Boren, himself a former high school saxaphone player (which in our musical animal kingdom is something akin to a Lemur monkey), continues to have a public relations disaster on his hands. And, he had a hand in creating it. He hired Stolarik despite his not being among any names recommended by the OU search committee commissioned to find a replacement for departing Pride Director Brian Britt.

Boren did this to appease Max Weitzenhoffer – the T. Boone Pickens of the university fine art department. Weitzenhoffer has given truck loads of money and gifted a world class art collection to OU such that Boren can advertise that Oklahoma is not merely a football school. Weitzenhoffer even got a job out of the deal – a seat on the OU Board of Regents.

For whatever reason, Weitzenhoffer wanted changes in the Pride. He wanted Stolarik to be hired to make them. Well, Stolarik has done that and along the way he has become the most despised man on campus since then acting OU President David Swank fired Barry Switzer in 1988.

Oh, by the way, the OU regents meet today in Tulsa.

So if you see a bunch of guys with giant brass instruments slung over their shoulders and hitchhiking the Turner Turnpike today, you know where they are going.

A big complaint from the Pride students is that Stolarik is not teaching the band what to do. They say their performances in the first three Sooner football games fell short of the Pride’s traditional standards.

This is true.


This is like Howard Schnellenberger messing with Sooner traditions…. How dumb is that?.
As much as I don’t want current Pride members to think I’m ragging on them, I must honestly say the band’s performances haven’t been so good. The first one wasn’t good at all. The sound was weak. Alignment and step had some glitches. But, they’re getting better. The halftime of the Tulsa game was not bad. I liked the Phantom of the Opera theme, OK. I tried to ignore the kids who were out of line and out of step. I tried to not look at the 40 or so members who didn’t march in the pre-game show because Stolarik doesn’t want to march freshmen.

All this began when Stolarik messed with the traditional pre-game show. The run-on from the tunnels was messed with. The fanfare was dropped entirely (only to be re-instated when Pride section leaders met with Boren in the president’s office and complained). The Pride PA announcer omitted the “Priiiiiide of Oklahoma” in game one because Stolarik didn’t put it in the script. How dumb is that?

This is like Howard Schnellenberger messing with Sooner traditions.

We might remember that the Boren who dismissed Schnellenberger is the same Boren who is at the center of this controversy.

Well, maybe. It’s not looking like Boren gets it this time. Heck, he helped create this problem by thumbing his nose at the School of Music in order to hire Weitzenhoffer’s boy, Stolarik.

restorethepride
Stolarik opponents have taken to social media to protest changes in the Pride.

An email obtained by the OU student newspaper shows Boren described opposition to Stolarik as being a “small organized campaign”.

Well, true enough, if he was talking about the tuba section – which is about a dozen kids.

He should have called it an “organized campaign of highly talented lower brass players.”

But the complainers also include a lot more folks than that. It includes a large group of Pride alumni. I know, because I belong to the Facebook group that has gone private over this matter in order to shield current Pride students from the vitriol spouting about the program. Even non-band nerds are complaining about the Pride on football message boards. The majority think this Wisconsin transplant has offended the traditions of the program. It is like turning the Sooner Schooner into a motorized golf cart with horses painted on the side.

The opposition forces have gotten a little out of hand. Last Saturday the alums were wanting football fans to stand in silence when the Pride performed –an orchestrated protest advertised in advance by instructions written in chalk on campus sidewalks.

Well, that didn’t happen. It wasn’t a good idea anyway, because what Sooner fan worth anything stands in silence to Boomer Sooner? C’mon people. It’s like a DNA thing that when Boomer starts the sympathetic nervous system of fans kicks in to cause uncontrollable standing and clapping.

Besides, these students deserve better. Regardless of how you feel about Stolarik, his idiotic changes, or Boren bending over to some money bags regent, these kids (tuba players included) deserve our support. They are doing the best job they can in trying times. You may think it’s easy, but learning a marching routine and memorizing music all in a week’s time – in the late afternoon heat of August and September – is a bitch. You don’t even have much opportunity to spy on the twirler in her short shorts to ease the practice.

Likewise, boycotting isn’t the answer. That just increases the chances the boycotting Pride member turns the wrong way on the 40-yard-line during halftime (which, I can say never happened to me – but I still have nightmares about the possibility some 35 years later).

So, what’s Boren to do with this public relations nightmare? How does the university Save the Pride? (another plea chalked on campus sidewalks).

“Coach” Gene Thrailkill hasn’t been the director of the Pride since he retired in 2001. His successor, Brian Britt, was one of his students. The traditions, which include the pre-game show (yeah the same pre-game show that started every home game for three national championships for the Sooners, folks), are in large part Thrailkill creations. Britt carried them on.

Hundreds of recent graduates and all current Pride members never played for Coach Thrailkill. Some might not even know exactly what he looks like. But, Coach is the Obi Wan Kenobi of the marching band at OU. His right-hand man, the arranger of much of the music written for the Pride in the last four decades, Roland Barrett, is the Yoda. (Barrett is still on the OU School of Music faculty and is writing halftime shows for other colleges, but Stolarik has not asked him to contribute at all to the Pride’s shows this year. Stolarik has instead copied shows from his past employer, the University of Wisconsin. Note, the tuba section improvised an On Wisconsin rendition on their post-game march out of the stadium late Saturday night – perhaps a precursor of the rebellion mounted this week.)

Thrailkill and Barrett mark a mystical force that permeates the Pride program whether Stolarik or Boren like it or not.

The changes to the band program – including changing football game traditions — have caused a disturbance in the force.

So, the only thing Boren can do now to prevent a ripple effect is meet with Coach and encourage him to call off the tuba section before the trombones join them, then the trumpets and then, oh God, the percussion section starts moonlighting at UCO or something.

Boren can propose that Stolarik dedicate an entire halftime to the accomplishments of former Pride Director Gene Thrailkill. He can ask Barrett to write the music.

It’s called kissing the ring. It’s like Bob Stoops recognizing Barry Switzer as the “king” when Stoops was hired in 1999.


Seriously, if there is a lesson to be learned from all this, it is don’t mess with traditions that people think are important. The fact they are important to 19 and 20 year olds who weren’t around when Coach directed the Pride or when Barry coached the Sooners, is, frankly, pretty awesome.


Then in the Pride practice – while the football team has a bye and an away game – restore the pre-game in toto. And get Stolarik some help, whether he wants it or not. Right now he is obviously in over his head.

This better happen soon, because the OU-Texas game is just around the corner and if the Longhorn band senses any division among the Pride, then halftime at the Cotton Bowl is over. The Texas football team may suck this year, but their band has that “I’ve been workin’ on the railroad” song finely tuned and they are loaded for bear.

Seriously, if there is a lesson to be learned from all this, it is don’t mess with traditions that people think are important. The fact they are important to 19 and 20 year olds who weren’t around when Coach directed the Pride or when Barry coached the Sooners, is, frankly, pretty awesome.

Another thing, David Boren’s political clout has taken a huge hit over this. Surely he knows these current Pride members are the future doctors and lawyers and politicians that fund the program and much more of the university. Some day one of their bank accounts might even rival that of a fat cat regent.

If he doesn’t know that, then it is time for Boren to leave the president’s office and go sit in retirement on one of Molly’s benches somewhere near that awful big breasted sculpture next to the Max Weitzenhoffer School of Musical Theatre.

Perhaps he can be serenaded by the “oom pah” of the tubas on their way to practice. Or where ever they decide to sway in a circle and toss a few brews.

[yermom]

well, that revelation above certainly won't help his reputation

UT? really?

i really just don't get the whole thing about the search committee and why he got pushed through the way he did

[Eielson]

The band may have died, but this tribute thread will live on forever!

[Statalyzer]

The band complied, and played "Boomer Sooner" non-stop roughly 300 times."

Why is this noteworthy?

[TheHumanAlphabet]

the band only marches 12 tubas, it has been 16 forever...

[badger]

the band only marches 12 tubas, it has been 16 forever...

Yeah, I was telling my parents that total membership was actually up to 320 by the time I left in 2005. They had about 350 auditioners that year so the previous director said he went to the athletic department and asked if they could expand membership a bit to have a few less disappointed people at the end of auditions... and there were at least 20 tubas that year, if not more

The full page ads in the oklahoma papers and letters to the editors in the texas papers certainly had their intended effect --- a LOT of media as far as TV, radio and print goes. Here's an example.

Will anything change after this?

Boren issued a statement Friday through the university’s public affairs office.

“I’ve long had a policy of not responding to anonymous personal attacks,” he wrote in an email response. “It’s a shame that people would waste their money on such ads instead of supporting scholarships for our students.”

I always thought President Boren loved his OU students and the band more than this statement suggests.

[Sooner Schemer]

I always thought President Boren loved his OU students and the band more than this statement suggests.

Is male-male harassment covered under Title IX?