Last year, on Nov. 24, I received an email from Daniel J Farris, the Director of Athletic Bands at Northwestern University. In an email blasted to the entire NU Marching Band, he released the details of a potential development he believed we would find exciting: a stipend for every person in NUMB.

At first glance, the announcement is a positive one. It means students who spend eight hours a week at practice — not including extra gigs and gameday prep — could be compensated for the sacrifices they make to be a part of NUMB. And, according to McCormick senior Trisha Casper, the sacrifices can be tremendous.

“This year, I had to quit Formula Racing — an intercollegiate engineering design competition where student teams design, build and race formula-style cars — because it conflicted too much with NUMB,” Casper said. “It’s one of my biggest regrets because relevant experience is really important, and sometimes it feels like I had to choose between band and something that would have helped my career.”

NUMB doesn’t just conflict with extracurriculars, though. The classes you’re allowed to take, the networking opportunities you can attend, the amount of sleep you get — all of that is determined by NUMB. If there’s a game at 11:00 a.m. on a Saturday, we have to be ready to get on the bus at 6:00 am. And since attendance at practice is graded, you have to reschedule classes and discussion sections so you don’t miss practice. Showing up on time isn’t just an expectation, it’s a requirement, and that sometimes means upending the rest of your life.

For example, McCormick senior Jessica Lee once had to miss half of an important dinner with experts in the field of civil engineering because she couldn’t skip band practice. 

“Basically, my entire commitment to NUMB is a sacrifice of my degree and my career,” Lee said. “And it’s not just about internships. Getting another job instead of doing NUMB means I would be making another $150 a week minimum.”

Also, being in NUMB comes with its own expenses. While NU provides the instruments and pays for most repairs, we still have to pay for shoes, lyres, flip folders, spats, gloves and hats out of pocket. On top of that, as a saxophone player, I have to pay for the reeds I need to play my instrument. A box of ten reeds costs $30, and throughout the season, these expenses add up.

If every person in NUMB is given a stipend, members wouldn’t have to worry so much about not being able to find jobs that are flexible enough to fit our schedule. Members who live off-campus would have more money to put towards rent. Members wouldn’t have to feel guilty for cutting their work-study hours to make time for marching band practice. Paying the costs of being in marching band would be easier.

Still, while there are many reasons why members of NUMB should be provided with stipends, that doesn’t mean the current plan is the best way to go about it. As of right now, if the stipends were made a reality, they would be financed by the NU Bands Push On Fund, which was created in 2014 by NUMB alumni to provide supplemental funding to the band.

But why are alumni responsible for providing members of NUMB a chance for compensation and greater financial security when NU recently spent $480 million to renovate Ryan Field and accelerate research in numerous fields from global health and neuroscience to economics and business? And it’s been established that the University ended the past fiscal year with more than $16 billion in net assets.

I suppose the answer is simple. The only people who care about our struggles are the people who went through exactly what we’re going through now. The administration doesn’t pay attention to us because we don’t bring in enough money. Yet, when they need a shiny performance to serenade donors at a fancy dinner or entertain students at a pep rally, they are more than happy to trot us out.

And those appearances aren’t risk-free. At football games, when students weren’t trying to cut their way through our section of the stands, they were dropping empty bottles of alcohol behind the flute section. Not to mention, many of those students weren’t even masked. 

I’m in NUMB because I love to play my instrument, but why should I — or anyone — put myself in danger when I’m not even being properly compensated for my efforts in the first place? 

At a university that has raked in as much revenue amid a pandemic as NU has, it should not be up to Farris and NUMB alumni to fight for us to get compensated. The administration and the athletic department need to provide every member of NUMB with a stipend equal to the amount we’d make if we spent those hours working. It is high time we are shown the respect we deserve for the sacrifices we make and the spirit we provide for NU football.

Emilio Cabral is a Weinberg sophomore. He can be contacted at [email protected]. If you would like to respond publicly to this op-ed, send a Letter to the Editor to [email protected]. The views expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect the views of all staff members of The Daily Northwestern.