The Tiger Pep Band will no longer take the stands at DePauw University sports events.
Last year, Athletic Director Stevie Baker-Watson asked the band to not play at any athletic events until they have a “bigger sound,” said David Ziemba, a pep band alumnus.
Since then, efforts to get the band back up and running have not prevailed.
“During the course of last football and basketball season, we tried to recruit more people to satisfy the requirement given to us and—because playing games is the only way we are able to actively recruit new members—we never found the membership,” Ziemba wrote in an email Saturday. “This problem [not being able to recruit without playing] was passed along to the athletic director, the dean of the School of Music and President Casey, but it did not change the decision to ‘ban the band."
The Tiger Pep Band had been in existence since 1995 when Jason Dibler, '97, and Christine Russell, '97, founded the band with the help of then-Director of Bands Craig Pare and money from the School of Music.
In 2001, Ziemba and Daniel Reck took over as directors. About that time, the band stopped receving funds from the School of Music, so Ziemba and Reck solicited donations from the Greencastle community and DePauw Student Government.
The band was a main event at football and basketball games, with help from pep band advisor Valarie Ziegler, who took the position in 2003.
The Tiger Pep Band was the only group on campus in which current students, alumni, faculty, staff and townspeople could all play together.
“If you play with the Tiger Pep Band, you can play with the Tiger Pep Band until the day you die,” Ziegler said. “It created an incredibly close and really invaluable community of people. It was wonderful for our students to make those kinds of contacts with alums.”
With help from Ziegler, the band was student-run and organized. On days of home football games, the students and other participants would be at the fields from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
“I think it would add another element of school spirit,” said sophomore Emily Bell. “We have a School of Music. Why wouldn’t we have a pep band?”
Pep band could be a way to bridge the gap between the School of Music and the College of Liberal Arts.
“For students not involved in the School of Music ensembles, it allowed them to continue to play music, cheer for their fellow students on the athletic field or court and—if they took on a leadership role—put into practice the liberal arts education they were being given by DPU,” Ziemba wrote.
Now that the pep band is no longer running, starting it back up again will be even harder. However, there is a group faculty that is trying to restart the band in whatever capacity they can, and the alumni want offer support and help however they can.
For students, alumni and staff alike that are interested in restarting the Tiger Pep Band, their Facebook page has more information.