Letter to the editor:

While I do not officially represent the views of the Ohio State University Marching Band or the TBDBITL Alumni Club, I believe I can speak for a very large and unified group of  former band members and their families, friends and supporters that feel that officials from the Ohio State University have acted harshly, unfairly and without just cause in terminating its director, Jonathan Waters.

Many of us personally know Jon Waters, and many of us happen to have been former band members who have spent time under Jon’s leadership as assistant and head director. We want to state loud and clear that, while we do recognize that there are some very legitimate concerns in the university report — and those concerns can and should be rectified — we feel that the accounts of a relatively small sample size of membership included in the university’s investigation in no way accurately reflects the overall culture of the marching band and that, ultimately, the report was deeply flawed.

In addition, we feel that the report did not give proper credit to specific efforts that many of us personally witnessed Jon Waters making to ensure that legitimate concerns were addressed and that the band program continued to represent our great university in a proper and positive manner.

Going forward, we feel that, contrary to the university’s findings and recommendations, if given the proper support and tools from the school and its administration, Mr. Waters is undoubtedly the best person to continue to lead the band and to continue to work on improving any legitimate issues it may have.

We will no longer remain silent, and we sincerely hope that the university is willing to listen to our concerns about their report and subsequent actions, and that our calls for Jon Waters to be reinstated do not fall on deaf ears.

Patrick Branson
Bachelor of Arts, Ohio State University 2008
OSU Marching Band member, 2002-06
[email protected]