The Cleverest Band in the World (tm) needs your help! On September 25th, three days before the first home game of the season, Columbia Athletics told the Band that they were being defunded and banned from playing at athletic events due to a bureaucratic error from the spring. The university has even threatened any students who support the school by playing at athletic events with "Dean's Discipline." (We're not sure what that is, but it sounds eerily like double-secret probation.) This is part of a larger pattern of disdain on the part of the university, which you can read about here in the New York Times. The Columbia University Band Alumni Association hopes to replenish the Band's $25,000 budget through this fundraiser. Your support is not just monetary (and contributions are deductible to the full extent permitted by law)--it shows Columbia how much people care about the Band! www.savetheband.org