By Brian StieglitzColumnist

This past weekend, the men’s basketball team played two games to kick off its season. During the opening game, free t-shirts were given to the first 1,000 fans to enter the arena. What makes me wonder is how many t-shirts are left.

It seems that there is a concentrated group of students who regularly attend these games, but that group makes up only a tiny percentage of the number of students on campus. Does the low attendance at Hofstra’s sporting events lead to depreciation in the value of our school, or is it perhps a result of a depreciating value of our school?

Watching these games as a member of the pep band, part of Hofstra University Spirit Support, I feel that there should be many more fans packed into the bleachers to root for their fellow students. The team could use the support in its journey back up the ranks.

You don’t need to be a fan of the sport of basketball to be able to show enthusiasm for your school. Merely showing up to a game with a group of friends, having fun and cheering your peers on is enough to give the team the conviction to play harder.

High attendance at sporting events not only shows that Hofstra has a strong athletics program; it also shows that we have a strong sense of community. That spirit and devotion is what gets prospective students to attend Hofstra.

At other schools, athletic events are a huge deal on campus. Students go together in large groups, dress in their school colors, wear face paint and go all-out for the game. At our school, there is a lot less of this. Although game attendance may not seem to make a big difference, it really does affect our campus’s atmosphere as a whole.

Nevertheless, the number of students who go to basketball games doesn’t really epitomize what we call Hofstra Pride. It would be better for more students to show up to these games in order to add to our sense of school community, but the low attendance doesn’t encapsulate the entire University’s spirit.

The best way to contribute to Hofstra Pride is to get involved and to find a niche that you can call your own. Take what Hofstra gives you in opportunities, and give back in positivity. Every activity that we get involved in on campus strengthens our sense of pride and makes our University a more united place to be.