Reinstate Jon Waters!

John Waters, film director

Jon Waters -- no, not that one . . . that's John Waters.

Jon Waters, OSU Band Director

This one.  Jon Waters, former Director of The Ohio State University Marching Band.

After a couple complaints, Jon Waters was recently fired for allowing a "sexualized environment" to exist within The Best Damn Band In The Land.  This environment included lewd nicknames, marching in underwear, and other stupid hazing rituals which are unfortunately so common to the college experience.  There was a report of a sexual assault within the band's ranks as well.

Waters had been Director of TBDBITL for a brief two years.  He's an OSU grad, a former band member, and was a long-time assistant to the previous Director, the sainted Dr. Jon Woods.

Waters gained a large measure of fame last year when TBDBITL began performing intricately choreographed halftime routines never seen anywhere before.  Videos of the performances went viral on network, cable and the web.  The one shown here, the Michael Jackson tribute, has had over 10 million YouTube views.  Another routine, "Hollywood Hits" featuring Superman coming out of a phone booth to leap a tall building, has drawn almost 16 million viewers.  The value to the university of such positive PR should not be underestimated.      


All the silly hazing crap did not originate with Jon Waters.  It had been going on literally for decades, and it was there when Waters marched, but changing such hidebound traditions can be like turning around the Titanic -- it takes awhile.  Doesn't make it acceptable, just hard to shake.  Somehow, the idea persists in certain groups that a meaningful bond can be achieved when people stand around together in their BVDs.  

Waters was not given much of a chance to change anything.  Just two weeks after OSU issued its report on the band, he was canned.  It was just four days into the term of the new OSU President, Dr. Michael Drake, and was pretty much his first order of business.  You can see the legal department's fingerprints all over the decision.  "No Penn State going on here!  We're firing people right now!"  And today, OSU announced that two "interim" band directors would take over.

I'm an OSU alum, although I try not to be a fanatic about it.  Even so, this episode is embarrassing.  The band's "traditions" look silly, and the administration looks reactionary in turning Jon Waters into a scapegoat for a problem not of his making.

After this shit-storm of bad publicity, the "culture" of the TBDBITL could be (will be) changed pretty much overnight.  So wouldn't it be cool if the university neutralized their over-reaction by giving Jon Waters his job back?

Won't happen, but it should.