Owing the community an apology

To the Cheerleaders and the UB community,

On Friday, some of you may have picked up The Spectrum and read a column titled 'Dear Athletics.' Those who didn't see the print version may have heard about the piece from friends and read it online. Others may have read a letter to the editor that ran in Monday's edition, criticizing the opinion while expressing the inaccuracy of the published comments.
Since coming to Buffalo in 2007, I've been frustrated with the athletics program. Though I knew I wasn't attending a big name sports school, I thought we'd have more spirit than I experienced. Last Saturday, I was home watching the men's basketball game against Kent State, and realized many flaws with our athletics program, which I decided to critique in an opinion article.
But who am I to talk? After all, I was sitting at home.
Sure, at least I was watching the game, but I was a bus ride away from Alumni Arena and didn't make the trip to support my school. At the time, I thought an opinion piece could possibly effect some change – and maybe it could have. Instead, I completely ruined that possibility by inappropriately attacking the cheerleaders.
I was disappointed with our student body's lack of support for athletics, and I took a cheap shot at the one group of people who exhibit more school spirit than anyone else here at UB. It was foolish, it was inaccurate, it was mean and I am extremely sorry for my comments.
Though I never realized how strong my words could be, I saw their power following the aftermath of Friday's publication. I owe the community an apology for my terrible choice of words, but more importantly, I beg for the cheerleaders' forgiveness.
None of you, the cheerleaders, have ever done anything wrong to me and for me to publish a column that took an unwarranted and inaccurate jab at you was entirely wrong. For that, I am extremely sorry and I hope that you can accept my apology.
Though I made a huge mistake, I have learned a few things from my error.
First of all, there is support for UB Athletics. The cheerleaders work extremely hard every game to try to get the students more involved, the pep band learns new songs to rally the crowd, the Dazzlers practice countless routines to keep the fans entertained, and True Blue stands behind their athletics no matter what.
Secondly, the Athletics Department tries extremely hard to get the student population involved, but this is by no means an easy task. I assure the entire staff that I never intended to debase your efforts and I respect the hard work that you all put in day in and day out. In truth, I was more disappointed with the students – myself included – for not attending every sporting event.
Lastly, I realized that The Spectrum can bring about change. Though my cruel comments overshadowed my article's purpose, my words were heard across campus, and that means that the student body does read what we write.
I promise that I didn't write the article for shock value and I wasn't trying to get my name spread around campus. I wrote the piece because I genuinely care about our school spirit and think we would all have a lot more fun at UB if we went crazy for our Bulls every time they took the field, stepped on the court, dove into the pool, or raced around the track.
Yes, I regret my inaccurate and hurtful slander, and I would take it back if it were that simple. But there are no 're-dos' in life. I wrote the article and I take full responsibility. The best I can do now is apologize to those who I have hurt and learn from my mistake. Once again, I am extremely sorry for offending those that I did and I assure you all I won't make the same mistake twice.

Sincerely,

Andrew Wiktor
Senior Sports Editor
The Spectrum