In any case, while the lack of academic credit is no excuse, Harvard students are known for taking their extracurriculars seriously, and people in the band should be able to do the same thing.

For a contrast, look at Harvard’s cheerleaders. They may not be the best in the world, but they have their routines down before the morning of the game, they all come to (at the very least) every home football game, and it’s clear that they’re at the game to entertain the fans—not themselves. They don’t get academic credit either, but at least it looks like they take what they do seriously.

I’m not sure who the band thinks they’re entertaining—all I know is I’m not being entertained.

Sure, I gotta give the band a lot of credit for taking 75 people on the 16-hour trip to Cornell last weekend. That’s a huge commitment. But if they’re just going to produce an unintelligible, sloppy show once they get there, what’s the point?

But I have confidence that band members are smart enough and talented enough to make their performances an enjoyable experience. I know nothing about music and even less about marching, but here are some suggestions to get them started anyway.

First and foremost, home football games are the centerpiece of any marching band. Attendance should be mandatory. Having a 50 percent participation rate at home games is simply inexcusable. It means that there’s no continuity in the band, no one knows who will show up on any given game day and, sure enough, the routines look awful.

Also, get someone up there on the PA system we can actually understand. The PA announcer during the games is crystal clear, there’s no reason one of the 100 of you can’t be at least intelligible

And let’s see the band participate in the games more often. A couple of lines from one of the Harvard fight songs after a big play, maybe? We have some pretty good fight songs, let’s hear them more often.

Most importantly, it’s about time the band take things just as seriously as everyone else out there on the field. Several members already do, maybe even most of them do, but it sure doesn’t look like it.

There’s enough musical talent at this school to make our band great. With just a little effort from our band, fans will be enjoying the halftime show at Harvard, not laughing at it.