I am currently enrolled in Auburn University's College of Agriculture. As a Senior, I am working to finish up a bachelor's in Agricultural Science with a minor in Poultry Science. Like many students, I purchase student tickets to our home football games. While the price students pay for these tickets is cheaper than regular seats within Jordan-Hare, the trade-off for student section pricing, however, is an often "standing room only" atmosphere. In order to ensure you get a seat, you must arrive at the student gates of Jordan-Hare at least two hours prior to kick-off, wait in lines in scalding heat, and sit in the stadium under a blazing sun or bitter cold until kick-off. It is the price we pay as struggling college students to afford to watch our own school, the one at which we spend thousands of dollars to attend. The extremely packed student section at high-profile games is largely due to the over-selling of student section tickets. Not one student who pays for student section tickets (excluding Panhellenic students) is guaranteed a seat. Again, it is a price we pay for student tickets, and as a Senior, I have come to terms with this fact.

Last Saturday, September 28, 2019, I along with two fellow Auburn University Seniors, attended the Mississippi State game. I was excited to see Auburn play, so we stood in the student gate lines 30 minutes before the gates opened. We fought through the crowds of students searching for a seat and found an available bleacher row at the top of section 25, at the end toward the right-hand aisle where a police officer was stationed. We sat in the ninety-plus degree weather, sweated, joked, and chatted for two hours watching as the aisles became full of students who would not be afforded a seat. Soon, the aisle behind our seats filled with more displaced students. Nothing was out of the ordinary for a high-profile game such as this. It was a sea of students; no available seats could be found within the entire student section. Students stood against the guard rail that divides the Panhellenic section from the regular student seating as they always did, and because of this, students seated in the front of the regular student section could not see. So, as with every Auburn game, the front-row students climbed onto their seats and stood on their bleacher sending a wave of students onto their respective bleachers.

We were oblivious to the wave of the movement headed our way as anticipation for the eagle flight was building among the entire stadium. A woman, in regular seats behind the student section began to yell at the displaced students behind us. She demanded they move because she couldn't see the field without standing up. They pleaded with the woman explaining that there was nowhere else for them to go, but she became irate and demanded the police officer standing behind us move the students. Reluctantly, and with great sympathy for our situation, the police officer asked them to please move. There really was nowhere for these students to go, and the ones who couldn't find a place to squeeze into the already cramped stands left. Even though they had paid for tickets just as she had, they were not afforded a view. Other football fans in the regular seating caught the tried to tell the police officer it was alright, that they stood for the game regardless, and the students could stay were silenced by the single woman who screamed until her request was granted.

The wave of students moving backward reached us and as we went to stand up on our set of bleachers, we saw the words "no standing" written on our bleacher in mailbox stickers. I was hesitant to stand on them, but the police officer shrugged as I looked at him, and I climbed up with hundreds of other students hoping to catch a glimpse of the eagle. The woman behind us began yelling again for us to move and the police officer told her there was nowhere else for us to go. I told her we couldn't see if we got down and she threatened to "go get the sheriff". We continued standing as she stormed off while the national anthem played, and soon after a man in a broad hat, I'm assuming the sheriff, appeared with the woman. I turned to him and said, "Sir, everyone has moved backwards, and we can't see without standing here." Before I could get all the words out of my mouth, he turned to me and yelled, "It's written right there on your seat, if you have a problem with it, you can give me your ID." I was shocked, and to be quite honest, scared.

He told the police officer to move all the students off the back bleacher. The police officer tried to reason with the man, but the sheriff was having no part in it, and soon we were forced to step down. Our view became nonexistent. I could not see the field, aside from a small gap that sometimes appeared with a glimpse of the thirty-yard line or maybe the forty, I couldn't see the numbers. We couldn't move into the aisle because displaced students filled the stairs. The woman stoodbehind us after the sheriff left. She stood after she demanded the students be moved so she could see the game while she was seated. She got to see Auburn make their first touchdown, while we saw the backs of fellow students. She got to see our classmates play while we stared at hair and beads of sweat on students' backs. She could see the jumbotron, but I could not. She could see every play, every sack, every pass. I could see nothing.

She stood for as long as we were there, her head reaching well above where the students behind us had stood. She laughed when we had to step down as she jeered, "rules are rules". What sort of Auburn fan would deny another a view? After failed attempts at finding a view, we ended up leaving the game before the first quarter ended. There was nowhere else to stand, and we still wanted to watch Auburn win. So, we went home, and watched it on television. A mile away from our beloved campus, unable to cheer with our fellow students and scream Bodda Getta until we were hoarse. I don't know what can or should be done about this. I don't know what the right answer is, but I do know that the students of Auburn University were treated with no respect by the sheriff, the woman in the stands, and the student ticketing service. While many students broke rules that day in order to find a seat, whether they were standing on bleachers, in aisles, on walkways, or in corridors, we were the only ones denied a view.

So, after we sweated for two and a half hours, we left empty-handed. She had a seat she with a view. When she got thirsty, she knew she would have a seat to return to when she left to grab concessions. I paid for a ticket too, same as her. Why is my right to a view worth less than hers?