Please note - the following is written not for me but for music students and teachers/professors everywhere who have no voice with which to reach a broader audience.  Teachers, Professors, and students from all over the country who must keep quiet or fear negative impacts on their careers. Students who have no voice or platform to be heard from. This is for higher educaton which is being compromised for a few more dollars.  Really - I have no desire to participate in Athletic Pep Band under the Athletic umbrella even if they adjusted their rules - so what do I have to gain? Nothing. I realize UL Athletic Administrators  probably won't reverse their course and give the band back to the School of Music.  The point of bringing up the rule which makes it logistically impossible to participate was only to show that as easily as Athletics waved it's magic wand and took a for-credit course away from an accredited degree program and decided to hand it over to someone not eligible to teach college for college credit, it could do the same for me if they really wanted me to participate, which they don't.  And that is fine.  I am not ungrateful for the wonderful things that have come my way. I am also not afraid of those who would try to intimidate me or buy my silence.  All glory goes to God.  Thanks to the many thousands who read my story and support my efforts to do what is right.    Here is the story of an Athletic Department Administration that won't   work with those who aren't agreeable to being muzzled/strong-armed. PEP BAND - from college credit course to graduate school dropout.  Is this what higher education is all about?        First of all, I would like to thank President Ramsey for the grants given me and my brothers to attend the University of Louisville.  While the Kentucky Department for the Blind paid my tuition and books the first two years I was at UL,  President Ramsey has given grants to cover my tuition, room and board and books for the rest of my career at UL and has given the same gift to my two younger brothers if they choose to attend UL.   This was in connection with the Extreme Home MakeOver Home our family was blessed to receive.   Obviously, this is a tremendous worry off of my parents’ shoulders and a real blessing for us all.    Secondly, I'd like to thank the UL Athletic Department for flying the marching band to Miami for the Orange Bowl.  What a treat!  It was nice that our band could accompany the team to the Orange Bowl the way most if not all marching bands do during football bowl season.   But that's as far as this Athletic Department Administration ever welcomed me.  Quite the contrary, they appear to think of me as an adversary to their program, not an aset.  I say Administration because I want to state right off the bat that I fully support our Athletic teams, the coaches, and especially the players - many of whom are my classmates and my friends.  I wish you all nothing but the best.        The new Athletic Pep Band, formed after my freshman year, I understand was created for two reasons - to make extra dollars for UL, already a top 5 money making Athletic Department in the nation, and to find a way to silence my dad and me about the mistreatment this Athletic Department has leveled on the School of Music, it's professors, and it's students during my time here and possibly before.  Rules in place for this 'new' band make my participation impossible.  When my dad approached the Athletic Department about a way I could participate within these rules, he was informed that since this band was under the Athletic umbrella, its members would abide by the same rules as its athletes do. "There would be no exceptions".  This is where my participation becomes impossible.  Keep in mind; I would not be on any athletic scholarship like athletes are - only trying to support my classmates in their athletic endeavors.  I want all the men’s and women’s basketball players and volleyball players to know that I really miss coming to your games and supporting your efforts.  It is not my choice, but a heavy handed Athletic Department Administration that can't work with the music professors (whom my dad was told were "idiots and yahoos" in a closed door meeting he had with Athletics) for everyone's best interest, especially the students. My relationship began to turn south with Athletic Administration shortly after the Pittsburgh game in 2006. An away game at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, I really looked forward to sitting with my band mates at this pro football stadium and cheering on our CARDS!  To my surprise when we got there, the band seats had been sold to fans (good for them, I know).  However, this forced our marching band into the top level of Heinz Field where the band could not be heard and I could not sit with my friends.  It was inaccessible to wheelchair users. My dad and I were told repeatedly by numerous Pittsburgh fans that we were the only band that had visited Heinz Field and not sat where all other visiting bands sit - a section that was accessible to me in my wheelchair and where I could have played our fight songs with my fellow band members.  On the plus side, UL's Athletic Department made a world of more money (cha-ching) and who cares about where the marching band sits anyway, right?  By the way,  Athletics was able to send their new pep band to the Pittsburgh football game this year (2008) and they sat in the field level seats they sold out from under the marching band.  I guess it's only a matter of time before they replace the marching band, as well.  The process is already happening. At the same time this atrocity took place, my dad and I were slogging through a marching band field on the industrial end of campus week after week.  A field that held water, was the home to numerous geese/ducks, and was a mosquito breeding haven.  This, by the way, was the marching bands 5th field in 11 years.  Like an abused, unloved child, the band was relegated to whatever was left on campus.   Meanwhile, my younger brother, Jesse, a football player at Louisville Male High School, was able to come over with his entire football team week after week and practice on the beautiful, well-lit, properly draining, incredibly groomed athletic fields while dad and I tried to trudge through every marching band rehearsal in the mud and the slop we were provided.  How is it that a high school football team gets to use UL's nicest facilities over and over again and UL's own marching band is forced to endure such horrible conditions?  Does that seem right?   My dad and I tried many times over to contact Athletic Administrators about our concerns over the Pittsburgh debacle as well as how UL's own band could be treated worse than a visiting high school football team. Our requests were never acknowledge, other than one friendly letter from President Ramsey explaining there were communication problems between Athletics and the School of Music that were being addressed.   About this same time, many people were writing me and the University of Louisville about donating money to UL because of my participation in the Marching Band.  Finally, after no one from Athletics’ was willing to address our concerns about Pittsburgh and UL's marching band field, we told a would-be donor in an e-mail that they should be sure and ear-mark the money for the Marching Band since getting any money from Athletic Administration for the Marching Band was like pulling teeth.  My dad copied Athletics on his response to this would-be donor. What do you think happened next? All of a sudden, Athletic Administrators couldn't talk to my dad soon enough about the "tone" of his e-mail.   Boy - what you have to do to get a response from someone, huh?   So my dad went to a meeting with two high level Athletic Administrators.  One of these people yelled at my dad so much that three times my dad asked this person to please calm down and stop raising her voice. Dad describes it as the way Michael Vick would talk to a losing dog after a fight.  The other individual spent his time with dad pounding his little finger on his desk and threatening my father that should this sort of thing ever occur again, dad would be banned from all UL Athletic events.  That's one of the reasons I'm writing this letter.  I don't want my dad banned from ball games - he likes them a lot.  I don't want to be banned either but realize this may be the result. If so, it's been a pleasure being part of the marching band these past three years.  I owe all the success I'm enjoying to Dr. Greg Byrne for seeing me as a trumpet player first! I think at this time is when the decision was finalized to create a new athletic pep band.  The rules in place would prohibit my participation (they knew this) and UL Athletic Administrators would not have to worry about me talking to the media or to would be donors about where to send their gifts if I wasn't in the spotlight.  One administrator actually put in writing that it would be best if I not join the new band. This is the same man who not only threatened to remove my dad from Athletic events during their meeting but we also were able to determine that he also put this threat in writing to someone else.     At the meeting where Athletics "invited" current pep band members to be in the new band, many ugly things were said by the Athletic Administrative representatives on hand.  By the way, 96% of pep band members from my freshman class did not join this new band - and you know how much college students like to go to basketball/volleyball games.  We were told as a collective group the following - - The Marketing Department now considers the band "inventory".  Inventory was then described as something that has not yet been sold. The plan was to have the band included in Athletic marketing contracts to play jingles not only at ballgames but at ground breaking ceremonies and whatever else the marketing department cooked up. -  Although my freshman year band played almost 50 events, including all men’s and women’s home basketball games, women’s home volleyball games and tournaments for both sports, Athletics wanted their band to play 80 to 100 events.  This obviously is not good for students who are trying to attend classes as well. This was something I think music professors fought to control.  I guess this was one of the reasons Athletics referred to tenured professors at the School of Music as "idiots and yahoos".   -  The new band would include high school students, community members, alumni and college students. I don't know about you - but my parents don't send me to college to hang out with adults from around the community and travel out of town to tournament games with them. -   Athletic administrators that evening told pep band members that they could all be replaced that night. Nice touch.   The new pep band director, maybe a fine musician, I don't know,  I've been told left UL on academic probation - never completing his graduate level class work, thus he is unable to teach this course for college credit as it had been taught for years by tenured professors at the School of Music.  I have to ask you; What sort of precedent are we setting in higher education when Athletics can take an accredited course taught as part of a bachelor level degree program and run it as a non credit course without anyone objecting?  Would they take a course from the School of Nursing or the School of Law or Speed School and do this? Certainly not.  So why is it ok to do this to the School of Music?   So, for all those who ask why you don't see me at basketball and volleyball games anymore, this is the reason. It's not my choice.  It's the way Athletics’ wants it.  I certainly miss attending these games and supporting my teams/classmates in their athletic endeavors. TO  MY  CURRENT  BANDMATES -   I  UNDERSTAND  COMPLETELY  YOUR  ENTHUSIASM FOR UL  SPORTS.   IT  PAINS  ME  NOT  TO  PARTICIPATE  BUT  I  IMPLORE  YOU  NOT  TO PARTICIPATE  IN  THIS  ROGUE  ATHLETIC  BAND -  A  BAND  WITH  RULES  THAT  KEEP ME FROM  PARTICIPATING  EVEN  IF  I  WANTED  TO -  WHICH  I  DON'T.  A BAND THAT IS COMPOSED OF MANY PEOPLE WHO DON'T EVEN ATTEND UofL! WHAT A FARCE.  A BAND DESCRIBED BY ONE EPSN ANALYST AS A GERIATRIC BAND.       Again, to UL athletes and coaches, my dad and I love you guys and what you do.  This in no way detracts from our enthusiasm to see you represent the University of Louisville and to do all you can to win!  We wish you nothing but the best.   I just wish for once Athletic Administration wouldn't put dollars ahead of student needs and the School of Music could once again run the pep band that Dr. Byrne worked so hard on the last 10+ years to create. If you are so inclined, please write the University of Louisville about this Athletic Department's attack on higher education.  Together,  we can make a difference. God bless - Patrick Henry Hughes.